Imagine the Scene

King’s Mountain

Stop in the Visitor’s Center if open, and then go behind it. Take the Battlefield Trail to the right. Stop at the sign marking the “Colonial Road.” Look at the mountain, to the left.

Much of what is known about this battle comes from historian C. Lyman Draper, who gathered information from participants and witnesses for an 1881 book. All quotations on this page are from Draper unless otherwise footnoted. Letters, newspapers, and veteran applications for pensions add details. However, many stories come from single sources, sometimes secondhand, often written decades later. These even disagree on basic facts, as discussed in the footnotes. Believe details with caution!

Little King’s Mountain is a rocky ridge rising 60 feet at most above the surrounding valleys.⁵ It was named after a local farmer, not the British king! Though high ground, considered an advantage in battle, it had problems as an army campsite.⁶ It was small enough to be surrounded, and narrow except for a bulge near this end.⁷ Sharp slopes often made men on top aim too high. Capt. Alexander Chesney, Ferguson’s third in command, said the trees on the sides gave attackers cover “‘and enabled them to fight in their favorite manner’”⁸—moving tree to tree like Native Americans. Older and thicker than today’s trees, their dense shade prevented underbrush, so it was easy to shift between them.⁹ The top was treeless, its defenders easily seen against the sky.¹⁰

Despite all that, a Tory writes of Ferguson later, “‘The situation of King’s Mountain was so pleasing that he concluded to take post (here), stoutly affirming that he would be able to destroy or capture any force the Whigs could bring against him.’” Ferguson once said, “‘A volley and a dash of cold steel was just the dose to cause rebels to break… ’”¹¹ He chose not to have defenses built, merely putting his 17 wagons into a small circle on the other end.¹²

He has around 900 men on top, including 100 Provincials.¹³ Another 200 are off finding supplies (“foraging”).

The Patriots Arrive

Look up the road.

This is part of the road both forces arrived on from the far end of the mountain; a portion of Battleground Ave. from I-85 covers it. The Whigs had to protect their guns from rain showers with overcoats and blankets.¹⁴ Along the way they agreed on a password to identify each other, since militia on both sides wore regular clothes, not uniforms. They chose “Buford,” a reference to the Battle of the Waxhaws (S.C.), in which British Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton’s men killed some Patriots under Col. Abraham Buford after they were captured.¹⁵

About 700 yards away, the Patriots descended into a ravine, and most left their horses under guard.¹⁶ Part aimed for the far side of the mountain, the other for this side, the colonels having assigned a section for each to attack. The Patriots hoped to silently encircle the camp.

The trail does not lend itself to following the battle from start to finish. Our tour thus starts with stories of some units after it began.

Arrival Battle Map

Patriot Arrival, The Battle of King’s Mountain: Locations and routes are approximate. 1) With Loyalists camped on top, Patriots take positions around the ridge. 2) Loyalists form a defensive rectangle. 3) Winston’s men block retreat. 4) A light-cavalry charge drives in Loyalists on one end.

Command Casualties

Follow the trail to the narrow one leading up the mountain toward a small monument, and walk up to that. Face downhill.

The men who will fight up this slope have gone through two command changes in a day. Col. William Graham left just before the battle, having learned his wife is ill or in labor (sources differ). His second in command, Lt. Col. Frederick Hambright, deferred to Maj. William Chronicle because Chronicle knew the ground.¹⁷

Some 60–80 men from the nearest parts of N.C. come in along the road from the left and form a line ten steps downhill.¹⁸ Chronicle, standing about here, lifts his hat and yells to his men, “‘Face to the hill!’” A bullet drops him dead. The men charge up the hill as Hambright resumes command.

At the top they are met by a line of Tory militia, who fire a volley and scramble downhill with “bayonets,” of a sort. The Provincials have proper bayonets, which fit around their musket barrels. Militia usually don’t, but Ferguson had his blacksmiths create knives with wood handles fitting in the barrels of their guns.¹⁹ Some Tories also have “halberds,” pole weapons topped by blades and spikes.

Young teen Robert Henry is nearby when Chronicle falls.²⁰ As the Loyalists approach, he takes cover behind a log “across a hollow”—if not the depression uphill to the right of the monument, something like it. As he cocks his gun, a Tory shoves a bayonet through his hand and “into my thigh.” His gun fires, and his attacker falls on him. Henry’s colleagues have withdrawn down the hill, but they fire a volley from 20 feet away, dropping more Tories. The Whigs then retreat to the bottom. Henry says he “‘tumbled over a log and lay still.’”²¹ His colleagues reload and charge back up. A man he told the story to said, “They charged over him two or three times… but he kept dark… not able to free himself from the bayonet.’”²² Finally a friend uses his foot to pull the blade out. (Draper believed Henry was the last battle veteran to die, at 98, during the Civil War.)

William Twitty sees a friend killed and spots the smoke of the gun by a tree. He aims at the spot, waits for the shooter’s head to appear, and fires when it does. After the battle, he comes back and sees the Tory was a neighbor.

Hambright, on horseback uphill to the right near the battle’s end, takes a bullet in his thigh bone, “filling his boot with blood.” He refuses to dismount, yelling in his thick German accent, “‘Huzza, my brave boys, fight on a few minutes more, and the battle will be over!’”

Supposedly Ferguson overhears this and cries to his men, “‘Huzza, brave boys, the day is our own!’”

Hambright also suffers three bullet holes to his hat. Capt. Samuel Espey takes a bullet to his right elbow, breaking his arm.

Hambright recovered from his wound, but limped the rest of his life. Espey’s arm never fully healed. The next year he was forced to give up military service, because “the soldiers under his command complained of the offensiveness of the smell…”²³

Atop the hill is Provincial Lt. Anthony Allaire. During the first charge, “‘it fell to my lot to put a Rebel Captain to death, which I did… with one blow of my sword; the fellow was at least six feet tall, but… I was mounted on an elegant horse, and he was on foot.’”²⁴ This was probably Capt. John Mattocks.²⁵

The fighting here is fierce, maybe because the rebels are blocking the Tories’ escape route. Eleven of the Whigs are killed or wounded.

Col. Graham turns back when he hears the gunfire and is spotted toward the end coming from the road. But his men had done their jobs without him.

Continue on the main trail. If you wish, visit the monuments to Chronicle and Mattocks. The original, placed in 1815 with battle veterans present, is one of the oldest anywhere related to the Revolution. Contrary to some sources, there are no graves there.²⁶

“Yonder is Your Enemy”

Walk along the main trail a short distance to the panel titled, “Tighten the Noose.” Look to the right and behind you up the Long Branch of Clark’s Fork, the small stream.

After days of rain, the ground below you is swampy. This slows by 10 minutes the arrival of Col. Benjamin Cleveland’s 110 or so troops from the region around today’s Wilkesboro,²⁷ probably after coming around the low ridge behind you.²⁸ You already hear gunfire around the slope. The men spread out behind Cleveland on his horse. He points at the top and declares, “‘Yonder is your enemy, and the enemy of mankind!’” The men slowly move up, Cleveland urging, “‘a little nearer to them, my brave men!’”

Hand-to-hand fighting erupts near the top. Charles Gordon grabs a Tory’s ponytail and starts dragging him down the mountainside. The Tory pulls a pistol and shoots Gordon in the left arm, breaking it. Gordon draws his sword with the other arm and runs the man through.

Another Whig shoots and wounds a Tory who is firing from the ground. The man throws his gun toward him and raises his hands. When the Whig approaches, he finds the Loyalist was chewing musket balls, making the soft lead “jagged (to) render the wounds they inflicted more deadly.”

The reason may not have been so dark, however. One Whig said peers threw handfuls of bullets into their mouths “to prevent thirst,” by drawing saliva, and “to reload quick.”²⁹

Cleveland’s horse is shot twice, and he takes to foot.³⁰ This creates a threat for one of his men. After a half-hour of combat, Charles Bowen hears his brother Reese has been killed, and begins frantically searching for him. He gets within 20 steps of the Tories when one of them raises a surrender flag. Bowen shoots him, and then hides behind a tree to reload. Cleveland approaches and demands the password mentioned earlier, which Bowen cannot recall. “Cleveland instantly leveled his rifle (at my) breast and attempted to fire, but the Gun snapped,” meaning it misfired, Bowen states later. Bowen “jumped at Cleveland, seized him by the collar, drew his tomahawk, and would have sunk it in Cleveland’s head if his arm had not been arrested by a soldier… who knew the parties.”³¹ The password “Buford” then occurs to him, he says it, and Cleveland pulls him into a hug.

Legs Confound Their Man

Continue on the trail to the “Shoot Tree to Tree” panel.

Perhaps 100 South Carolina troops charge the widest part of the ridge from here, and are met by a Tory volley near the top. Col. Edward Lacey’s horse is “shot from under him.”

One man known to run in battle is told by his buddies to stay behind. “‘No, I am determined to stand my ground today, live or die,’” he responds. But he fails, and runs. In apologizing later, he says, “‘From the first fire, I knew nothing whatever till I got about a hundred and fifty yards… I tried to stop; but my confounded legs would carry me off.’”

Surprises on the Slope

Walk up the trail until it hits a high point and takes a left curve.

Attacking from below you is around 60 S.C. troops and 30 Georgians, under Col. James Williams. William Giles falls somewhere within your view, shot in the back of the neck. His friend William Sharp, brushing away a tear, says, “‘Poor fellow, he is dead; but if I am spared a little longer, I will avenge his fall.’” Moments later he is shocked to see Giles get up and resume the fight, merely stunned.

Thomas Young gets a surprise visit from his cousin: “Just after we had reached the top of the hill, Matthew discovered me, and ran from the British line, and threw his arms around me for joy. I told him to get a gun and fight; he said he could not; (then) I bade him let me go, that I might fight.”³² Young’s shoes had worn out. “‘I had no shoes, and of course fought in the battle barefoot, and, when it was over, my feet were much lacerated and bleeding.’”

Near the summit, Young sees Williams’ horse get hit below the jaw, “‘when he commenced stamping as if he were in a nest of yellow jackets.’” Williams jumps off and continues fighting upward.

Go up the trail to a sharp right turn. Marked by stones behind the curve is one of the springs that provided water to both sides.

The Overmountain Men

Walk farther along the trail, beyond the “Be Your Own Officer” marker to the next bench. Look downhill.

The battle plan called for Chronicle’s men, expected to take the longest to get in place, to signal the attack with a Native-style “war-whoop.” However, Loyalist pickets somewhere along the distant ravine to the left spot Col. Isaac Shelby’s 120 men from what today is northeastern Tennessee, and open fire as they come within range.³³

Provincial Capt. Chesney has just returned atop the hill after checking on the pickets. He writes later, “‘I was in the act of dismounting to report that all was quiet and the pickets on the alert when we heard their firing about a half mile off.’”³⁴ The Tory drums beat, and officers begin shouting orders. Ferguson forms the Loyalist militia into a long, narrow rectangle. His silver whistles would be heard throughout the battle, giving orders.³⁵ Hurrying here, some of Shelby’s men gripe about maybe getting shot before they can get in the fight. He tells them to “‘press on to your places, and your fire will not be lost.’” They probably pass you going uphill to the final part of the rise in the distance.

Around 3 p.m., the Patriots begin shouting, and soon the sound spreads around the slope. Loyalist Capt. Abraham de Peyster has heard similar cries and tells Ferguson, “‘These things are ominous—these are the damned yelling boys!’”³⁶

Shelby’s men begin their upward climb, firing. Bullets fly in both directions, and smoke begins to obscure the trees. Participants describe a mountain engulfed in gunfire. One writes, “‘When that conflict began, the mountain appeared volcanic; there flashed along its summit, and around its base, and up its sides, one long sulphurous blaze.’”

Near the top, the Overmountain Men are met by a bayonet charge from the Provincials in their red coats, in a single line.³⁷ They have already driven Virginians down the far side of the mountain, and turned around to advance on Shelby’s men. Ensign Robert Campbell says of his fellow Patriots, “They obstinately stood until some of them were thrust through the body, and having nothing but their rifles by which to defend themselves, they were forced to retreat.”³⁸ Unlike most men on both sides, who carry heavier muskets, Shelby’s have rifles. These shoot straighter and farther but are too light to serve as good clubs. The Loyalists descend in formation, fire a volley when halted, and hold their line as they re-climb, reloading as they go.

Somewhere ahead of you, Shelby yells, “‘Now, boys, quickly re-load your rifles, and let’s advance upon them, and give them another hell of a fire!’” After another charge, counter-charge, and charge, the Provincials respond again, with Loyalist militia following.

During one of the Whig charges, sharpshooter Josiah Culbertson and a few others are ordered to take one area of the hillside held by a group of Tories. They drive them back to a set of boulders, where Culbertson shoots “their captain in the head” and the rest run. The locations of rocks mentioned on this page are unknown.³⁹

Three local brothers, the Pattersons, were detained yesterday by Tory foragers and are scheduled to be tried for treason today. Their guards join the fight, so the brothers bolt, one with a noose around his neck! They run through the Tory lines. One arrives in this area, picks up a discarded rifle, and joins Shelby’s men. Their father has come looking for them, also joins the fight, and is wounded.⁴⁰

Turn around and look toward the bottom of the hill.

Shelby’s brother Moses is wounded twice. Unable to stand, he is helped to the Long Branch. He notices one man coming back for frequent drinks—and threatens to shoot him if he comes back again!

Look the length of two American football fields toward the gap diagonally to the left.

Col. William Campbell of Virginia, elected overall commander of the Patriot force by the other officers during the march, has brought with him one of the African-Americans he holds in slavery. Light-skinned and large, John Broddy resembles his enslaver at a distance.

Early in the fighting, Campbell’s horse, Bald Face, acts up as the battle begins, so Campbell borrows another and sends Bald Face back to Broddy. Broddy hops aboard and rides within 200 yards “‘to see what his master and the rest (are) doing.’” At least three officers think it is Campbell calmly watching, which causes controversy years later.

A marker farther along the trail says troops under Col. John Sevier of modern Tennessee attacked from this direction. The evidence is unclear, but the strongest seems to be Draper’s account of them being on the far side of the mountain (see Footnote 55).

A Charge is Mounted

Continue uphill. If you wish, take the side trail on the right to learn about Pres. Herbert Hoover’s 1930 visit on the battle’s 150^th anniversary. A newspaper picture from the day shows this end of the mountain literally covered with spectators!

Keep going up the trail. Atop the ridge, stop and take note of the low monument to the left for African-American Patriots who fought here. Then look back down this end of the mountain.

Most militia use their horses for transportation but dismount for combat, neither trained nor equipped to fight from horseback. However, some men are asked to make a mounted attack on the near, narrow end of the Loyalist rectangle, somewhere within sight of you uphill. They charge up this end of the ridge. The Tories fire a defensive volley, and the cavalry returns fire. Chesney, dismounted, receives a slight wound. When he goes back to get his horse, he finds it shot dead.

A Whig ahead of the others draws the fire of one Loyalist, who then high-tails it for their camp. The Patriot dismounts, lowers his rifle, and drops the Tory with a bullet to the head.

The rest of the Loyalist line retreats, leaving wounded behind. Some of the attackers are killed or wounded as well, but the others pull back and rejoin their units.

“Fight Like Devils!”

Face uphill and notice the angle of the slope on the right side of the ridge. Then go up to the monument ahead on the right, from the 100^th anniversary of the battle. Step behind it and look down that slope.

As Campbell’s 200 Virginians take up their positions in the valley below, he throws off his coat and yells, “‘Here they are, my brave boys; shout like hell and fight like devils!’” Draper says the men creep up, tree by tree, almost to the top.

Awaiting them here are the Provincial Redcoats. These launch their first bayonet charge past you and continue down the hill, joined by some of the militia from the rectangle. A few Whigs are stabbed, and the rest break, running all the way across the valley and up the distant ridge. The Provincials, maintaining discipline under Chesney, halt near the bottom of the slope, climb back here, and cross the top to charge Shelby’s men as described before.

Campbell and his officers wrangle the Virginians back into line, and they charge toward you again. Lt. Robert Edmondson is wounded in an arm and drops behind a tree. As one of the men bandages him, he yells to the others, “‘Let us at it again!’”

Leonard Hise’s left arm is broken by two musket balls. He “kept fighting; with the assistance of my comrades who would push my bullets down, I shot three rounds.” Then he takes a bullet through his left leg, one hits his breast, and another shatters his right thigh bone, finally ending his battle. He survives.⁴¹

Campbell’s men are driven off a second time by the bayonets, but re-form and charge again. Capt. William Edmondson drives ahead, one of seven kin here.⁴² Tories charge him. He fires a shot, clubs the musket out of one man’s hands, grabs him, and hauls him by the neck down the mountainside. After securing him, Edmondson pushes up again, only to be wounded in the head, body, or both (sources differ). Laid under a tree, holding his wound to stanch the blood, he is visited by Campbell. With his free hand, he takes Campbell’s and kisses it. Edmondson does not survive.

During one climb, Lt. Reese Bowen refuses to take cover. One of his men yells, “‘why, Bowen, do you not take a tree?’”⁴³

Bowen responds, “‘never shall it be said, that I sought safety by hiding my person…” As soon as he finishes, a bullet strikes his chest and kills him, leading to his brother’s close call with Col. Cleveland.

During the last bayonet charge, Loyalist Drury Mathis is wounded downslope. He plays dead as the Virginians fight their way past him. Left behind the next day, he avoids capture.⁴⁴

Tory Defenders Break

Cross the hill to the other edge and look down.

At some point during the battle, Tories take cover behind a “table” of rocks along the top, probably around here. Shelby sends a party against them, which gets within “40 steps” before the rest of Shelby’s unit retreats in confusion for some reason, and Shelby fears a rout. Their leader goes to help rally the troops, ordering the others to keep up their fire, which they do so well that Ferguson sends reinforcements. After the battle, “upwards of twenty… (Tory) bodies were found, completely jammed in between the rocks, who had been shot directly through the head”—a testament to the skill of Shelby’s sharpshooters.⁴⁵

Turn around and look across the ridge top.

Meanwhile, luck steps in. As de Peyster reports, “‘Unfortunately Major Ferguson made a signal (by whistle) for us to retreat, being afraid that the enemy would get possession of the height from the other side.’”⁴⁶ The Tory militia with them, unsure why the Redcoats are pulling back, begin to panic and flee. Their officers “‘cut down’” some of their own men to regain control, which doesn’t work.

The attackers on both sides gain the top and come together. Ensign Campbell writes, “It was about this time that Col. Campbell advanced in front of his men, and climbed over a steep rock close by the enemy’s lines, to get a view of their situation, and saw that they were retreating from behind the rocks that were near to him.”⁴⁷

A Story Comes Full Circle

Go up the trail to the monument on the right, to Col. “Ashbury” Coward.⁴⁸ Look to the left toward the peak.

The Patriots and Loyalists stand 30 to 40 yards from each other exchanging random fire, the Whigs slowly pushing the Tories up the narrow part of the hilltop. Ensign Campbell says they “had their wagons drawn up on their flank across the end of the mountain, by which they made a strong breast work.”⁴⁹ Loyalists briefly take a stand behind those, but then are pushed back.⁵⁰

Ferguson sends de Peyster’s unit this way to reinforce the line, but the massed riflemen drop so many, he arrives with few men standing. Ferguson then orders his dismounted cavalry escort to reinforce de Peyster, but those men are picked off as quickly as they mount.

The Patriots begin to drive the Loyalists up and over the peak, many of the latter taking to their heels.

Samuel Lusk notices one of the Tories isn’t running and fires at him. He misses, barely, knocking off a handkerchief tied to the man’s head. Elizabeth Lusk learned this years later when her husband told the story to a visitor—who turned out to be that Tory! He said he “had sworn in the morning that he would not run that day but that when the ball cut the knot of his handkerchief that was around his head he walked very fast.” Her husband kicked the man out.⁵¹

Hatred Blocks Help

Walk to the “Loyal Carolina Men” panel. Go to the edge where the slope drops off and look down again.

Men from Burke and Rutherford counties (much larger in those days) attacked here, under Maj. Joseph McDowell.⁵² Thomas Robertson, firing behind a tree, is recognized by a Loyalist named Lafferty, who calls Robertson’s name. When Robertson peeks out, a bullet cuts through the bark by his head. Robertson fires back and mortally wounds Lafferty, who cries, “‘Robertson, you have ruined me!”

“‘The devil help you,’” Robertson responds, and he returns to the fight.

Somewhere on these slopes, a similar response comes when a wounded Tory calls out to his brother-in-law for help. The Whig replies, “‘Look to your friends for help.’”

Charges Battle Map

Charges, The Battle of King’s Mountain: Locations are approximate. 1) Provincial bayonet charge drives off Campbell. 2) Provincials cross ridge to attack Shelby; they and Virginians on both sides make series of charges, counter-charges. 3) Chronicle and Loyalists also charge and counter-charge. 4) Ferguson guards, cavalry are picked off. 5) As Patriots press Loyalists on all sides, southwest lines collapse, are driven through wagons and over peak.

Ferguson Pays for His Threat

Go to the large monument, and find a spot on the far side where you can see up to the peak and down to the end of the ridge.

Look back the way you came.

You are standing in the Tory camp, amid lines of tents⁵³. Soon the Tories are compressed into a circle 60 yards by 40 around you, in clumps of a half-dozen or so, with the Whigs surrounding them at close range.

Somewhere nearby, Ferguson’s officers counsel him to surrender, but he says he will “‘never yield to such a damned banditti.’” He adds the only choice is “‘to make a break through the enemy.’”⁵⁴ This suggests he is trying to create an escape route toward the road when he spurs his horse past his soldiers, probably down the ridgeline. At least two officers follow. On contacting the Patriot line, he begins hacking at men with his sword until it breaks.

The Patriots knew what to look for, word having been passed around before the battle: “‘Look out for Ferguson with his sword in his left hand, wearing a light hunting-shirt!’” Ferguson’s right arm was disabled in an earlier battle. One Patriot said the shirt information came from Virginia Paul, one of two mistresses traveling with Ferguson as “cooks.”⁵⁵ She had tried to escape and been captured. A detained courier had mentioned a checked coat or shirt as well.

More men from modern Tennessee under John Sevier have been attacking the slope, apparently on this side of Campbell’s. But as the lines compress they end up in this vicinity.⁵⁶ One tries to shoot Ferguson, but his gun misfires. He calls to a comrade, “‘There’s Ferguson—shoot him!’”

Robert Young replies, “‘I’ll try and see what Sweet-Lips can do.’” He fires, and Ferguson falls, though he is hit by a number of bullets around the same time. He “received six or eight wounds, one to the head.’” No more than 50 minutes have passed since the start of the battle. The officers with him turn to retreat, but soon fall as well.

The sites of Ferguson’s attack and fall are shrouded in mystery. The location of a monument you will pass downhill, claiming he fell there, is hard to justify from Draper’s map of the battleground; sources differ on which direction he was going; and there is no evidence for the story that he was dragged there by his stirrups.⁵⁷

Confusion and Surrender

Walk over to the large monument, which honors the Patriots killed or wounded in the battle, and have a seat if you like.

You see the backs of Loyalists in all directions. They stand in clumps at the edges fighting against a solid ring of Whigs. The 100-man Provincial force is down to 22.⁵⁸

According to Ensign Campbell, “Captain DePeyster raised a flag and called for quarters (surrendered); it was soon taken out of his hand by one of his officers on horseback, and raised so high that it could be seen by our line.”⁵⁹ This happens about three minutes after Ferguson’s fall, according to one man.

Two Loyalist officers explain later, “‘No chance of escape being left, and all prospect of successful resistance being at an end, the second in command sued for quarter.’”⁶⁰

Tories across the summit have already tied handkerchiefs to ramrods, gun barrels, or halberds, but men continue firing on them. Shelby later claimed some didn’t know the meaning of the white flag, but others clearly keep shooting on purpose, someone calling, “‘Give them Buford’s play!’”

Sevier’s son Joseph is among them, firing into a huddle of Tories. A Whig tells him to stop, and he says, “‘The damned rascals have killed my father, and I’ll keep loading and shooting till I kill every son of a bitch of them.’” But his father rides up, so Joseph stops. His uncle, however, lay mortally wounded.

When Sevier sees Shelby, he cries, “By God, they have burnt off your hair!”⁶¹ The left side of Shelby’s head is singed, probably by powder burns from guns shot too close to him.

The Tories around you are yelling “quarters,” but Shelby notes a problem. He rides within 15 steps of them uphill and yells, “‘Damn you, if you want quarters, throw down your arms!’” Sensibly, given the continued shooting, the Loyalists are still holding their weapons.

Col. Campbell, perhaps delayed in arriving⁶², does his best to rein in his men. He knocks the gun out of one’s hands, crying, “‘Ervin, for God’s sake, don’t shoot! It is murder to kill them now, for they have raised the flag!’” He continues around the circled lines yelling, “‘Cease firing—for God’s sake, cease firing!’”

As the killing stops, de Peyster, spotting him from horseback, calls out twice, “‘Colonel Campbell, it was damned unfair.’” At some point, de Peyster had been “‘hit about the waist by a rifle-bullet which struck a doubloon (coin) in his vest-pocket, with force sufficient to purse up the metal.’”⁶³

Campbell ignores him, and issues orders to the Loyalists: “‘officers, rank by yourselves; prisoners, take off your hats, and sit down.’” The Patriots are ordered to encircle them, eventually standing four rings deep. Campbell calls for “three huzzas for Liberty,” and the cries echo across the valleys.

Firing Renews

The S.C. colonel whose horse was wounded in the jaw, Col. Williams, is approaching the camp from uphill. He is hit in the groin⁶⁴, turns his horse, and says to one of Campbell’s men, “‘I’m a gone man.’” The British later blamed the 200 foragers returning to the scene, saying they didn’t realize their side had surrendered. There are problems with this story⁶⁵; regardless, the men “‘carried him into a tent, and sprinkled some water in his face.’” Williams rallies and cries, “‘For God’s sakes, boys, don’t give up the hill!’”

Campbell thinks the shot came from a prisoner, and orders the men nearest him to resume firing. One said later, “we killed near a hundred of them after the surrender of the British & could hardly be restrained from killing the whole of them.”⁶⁶

Eventually the officers halt the killing again, roughly 15 minutes after Ferguson’s death. Shelby calls out, “‘Good God! What can we do in this confusion?’”

One of his captains suggests, “‘We can order the prisoners from their arms.’”

Shelby replies, “‘Yes, that can be done.’” He orders the prisoners moved, presumably to or past the peak. Some Tories escaped through the Whig lines by putting white pieces of paper, likely taken from dead Patriots, in their hats.⁶⁷ Whig militia often wore these to identify themselves, while Loyalists used greenery like pine sprigs. Meanwhile, Patriots captured by the Loyalists during their campaign are freed.

Whig soldiers have to convince doubting Tory officers that the coatless Campbell is the Patriot commander. He then is loaded down with surrendered swords, stuffing some under his arm. Capt. de Peyster approaches Campbell holding his sword handle out, and Campbell says, “‘I am happy to see you, sir.’” He takes the sword, turns “it round in his hand,” and returns it.⁶⁸ Ferguson’s sword is delivered to Sevier.

Surrender Battle Map

Surrender, The Battle of King’s Mountain: Locations are approximate. 1) Patriots in dense lines, and Loyalists in clumps, exchange fire at close range. 2) Ferguson tries to break through, is killed. 3) Loyalists surrender, but some Patriots keep shooting until officers stop them. 4) Williams is shot, so prisoner killing resumes. 5) Officers halt the firing again, and prisoners are moved away from their weapons.

A Horrific Night

One Patriot survivor writes, “‘Awful indeed was the scene of the wounded, the dying and the dead, on the field, after the carnage of that dreadful day.’”

The attackers have no doctor. Two Loyalist surgeons were killed, leaving Dr. Uzal Johnson to treat more than 100 wounded men. For example, Joseph Dobson “was wounded by a ball passing through his right arm near the elbow joint and also by another which struck him on the left side & ranged round his back & lodged in his right shoulder & was cut out by a British Doctor.”⁶⁹

William Moore’s leg is so mauled, it has to be removed. He is left at a nearby home. When his colleagues get back to Southwestern Virginia, his wife is told. She mounts a horse and rides across North Carolina to nurse and retrieve him.⁷⁰

A Tory has taken a bullet to the forehead and through the skull. Shockingly, he is alive and sitting upright, though unconscious. Brain matter oozes from each hole. When Patriots lay him down, he dies instantly.

Another wounded Loyalist has been keeping a diary. Dying, he writes a last entry: “‘the 7^th of Octor. The cursed rebels came upon us, Killed and took us every Soul and so

“‘My dear friends, I bid you farewell for I am started to the warm country.’”⁷¹

Among the dead are all four Goforth brothers—at least one a Tory.⁷² Shelby may have been describing two of them when he relayed “‘that two brothers, expert riflemen, were seen to (aim) at each other, to fire and fall at the same instant.’”

Bettie Goforth “hauled her dead husband home on a sled.”⁷³ One Patriot nearly loses his mind upon realizing he has killed one brother and wounded another. Enoch Berry lost his father and brother, all Whigs.⁷⁴

Darkness falls before the prisoners are tied up. Meanwhile, men plunder the British tents here. Capt. Joseph McDowell takes six of Ferguson’s plates, and a cup and saucer.⁷⁵

Everyone suffers through the terrible night. The victors have not eaten or slept in 40 hours, and there is little food on the ridge. “‘We had to encamp on the ground with the dead and wounded, and pass the night amid groans and lamentation,” one man writes.

Another describes “‘the scenes of the battle-ground the night after the contest as heart-rending in the extreme—the groans of the dying, and constant cry of ‘water! Water!’”

Lt. Samuel Newell was wounded early in the battle. By evening he has lost so much blood, he needs help from four men to dismount. They put him by a fire. Campbell and Shelby come over, and Newell has the men put out saddles for them to sit on. Campbell says, “‘Now this is the first time I have seated myself since yesterday morning, except on my horse’s back.’”⁷⁶

Micajah Frost cares for a sergeant “shot through the bowels and… carried water to him in his shoe and attended to him until he died which was just before day.”⁷⁷

The Whigs’ suffering provides solace to one Tory. He later writes, “‘It is an agreeable satisfaction to think, that although they got the better of us, damn ’em, we made them pay for it.’”⁷⁸

The Living Depart

The morning after the battle, the first sunny dawn in days, “‘which was Sunday, the scene became really distressing; the wives and children of the poor Tories came in in great numbers,’” James Collins writes. “‘Their husbands, fathers and brothers, lay dead in heaps, while others lay wounded or dying; a melancholy sight indeed!’”

Locals bring rumors of British cavalry on the way. The Patriots hasten to leave. They and some of the prisoners quickly dig two shallow pits, locations unknown. Some of the Tory dead are wrapped in blankets and laid within, militia in one and Provincials in the other. A few sources indicate another was dug for Patriots. Collins says they are “‘thrown into convenient piles, and covered with old logs, the bark of old trees, and rocks…’” Rather than drag the Tory wagons with them, the soldiers pull them over campfires and watch them burn. The disabled are placed on litters, blankets stretched between two horses.

At least 1,200 British weapons have been seized. The Patriots remove the flints to disable the guns. Shelby writes, “‘When ready to start on the day’s journey, the prisoners were marched, in single file, by the spot where the rifles and muskets were stacked, and each was directed to shoulder and carry the arms allotted to him.’” Shelby observes with his sword drawn. When an older man resists, Shelby says he should be able to carry one, given that he carried one here, and gives “him a sharp slap across the shoulders with the flat side of his sword-blade.” The man takes a gun.

Finally they march out in the direction from which they came. The wounded Col. Williams only makes it a few miles before he is taken to a home by the road and dies. The spy Kerr said, “He knew he must die, and did so, cheerfully resigned to his fate.”⁷⁹

Ferguson Stays Behind

Continue down the trail. The Ferguson marker is on the right just before the trail leaves the mountaintop. If you wish, take the short but steep trail on the opposite side to a monument claiming to mark where Col. Hambright was wounded, as described at our second stop.

On the main trail, go to the gravestone and pile of rocks at the base of the hill.

After surrendering, four of Ferguson’s men put him on a blanket and bring him here, near the spring on the far side of the trail from the gravestone. Elias Powell picks up one of Ferguson’s silver whistles. They prop up Ferguson using blankets and rocks. Another Tory comes over and begins rifling his clothes; one of the carriers shoves him away, saying, “‘Are you going to rob the dead?’”

Shelby rides within sight and calls, “‘Colonel, the fatal blow is struck—we’ve Burgoyned you.’” British Gen. John Burgoyne was mortally wounded after leading an army into an ambush during the French & Indian War.

Ferguson dies soon after. Many Whigs come by to view the body. There is no evidence from battle survivors that the Patriots do anything to it, as some sources claim.⁸⁰ One of Cleveland’s wounded men asks to be carried here to see it, and Cleveland helps do so. Another writes of Ferguson, “‘it appeared that almost fifty rifles must have been leveled at him… Both of his arms were broken, and his hat and clothing were literally shot to pieces.’”⁸¹

Ferguson is buried here, wrapped in a cow skin. A second mistress/cook, red-haired Virginia Sal, was killed early in the battle and is buried with him.⁸² Virginia Paul is taken with the prisoners as far as Quaker Meadows at modern Morganton, and then disappears into history. Ferguson’s horse, who survived his owner’s death and ran down the hill, was probably given to Cleveland.⁸³

A Ponytail Takes a Hit

Return to the back patio of the Visitor Center, and pause for a few final stories.

Col. Joseph Winston’s 60 men from the larger Surry County of the day, around the town now half-named for him (Winston-Salem), were detached from the main body and sent wide around this side of the mountain to block Ferguson’s retreat. They started to rush up another hill a mile away, were called back, and hurried to catch up. His men then attack the mountain from here.

Most of Capt. William Lenoir’s men were left behind at Green River, so Lenoir and his horse fell in with Winston. Well into the battle, he hears a Whig fall behind him and turns to look. Another runs up and says, “‘Give me your shot-bag, old fellow.’” The man hands it off, and dies.

Lenoir is wounded in two places, and “‘a bullet went through my hair about where it was tied.’”⁸⁴

The shallow pits do not protect the dead from scavengers, and other bodies remain where they fell. For the next few weeks, wolves and vultures rule this mountain, the latter even attacking living visitors. Peoples’ free-running dogs and hogs partake as well, Collins says. He adds that people choose “to live on little meat rather than eat their hogs, though they were very fat…’” Passing by a week later, he sees body parts all over. Supposedly in 1815 scattered bones are gathered from across the site and reburied somewhere, but if so, that site has not been found.⁸⁵