Kings Mountain, 7 October 1780

The battle, stage by stage

1. 7 October 1780, about 2:30 PM

   Riders from the mountains

   After riding all night through steady rain from the Cowpens, about 900 picked mounted riflemen under the overall command of Colonel William Campbell reach Kings Mountain, a narrow wooded ridge just inside South Carolina. They tie their horses and come on foot in two columns: Campbell's Virginians, Isaac Shelby's and John Sevier's 'Overmountain Men' from beyond the Blue Ridge, Joseph McDowell's and other North Carolinians, and South Carolinians under Williams, Lacey and Hill. On the open crest above them Major Patrick Ferguson's roughly 1,100 Loyalists hold a ridge about 600 yards long, their camp and wagons at its north-eastern end. Nearly every man on both sides is American; Ferguson, a Scot, is the only Briton on the field.

2. About 3 PM

   Surrounding the mountain

   The columns split at the south-western end and file silently along the foot of the ridge, wet leaves muffling their steps. Campbell and Sevier take the high south-western 'heel'; Shelby the north-west face; Williams, Lacey and Hill, then Cleveland, the north slope; Hambright and Chronicle the north-east end; McDowell the south slope; Winston swings round to the eastern end. Loyalist pickets spot them and open fire, and the Patriots raise war-whoops as they close the ring — it is never quite complete, but no one gets out.

3. About 3:05 PM

   Rifles in the trees

   Campbell's and Shelby's men climb first, almost together, firing and dodging from tree to rock up the wooded slopes. The defenders stand on the open, rocky crest, silhouetted against the sky, while the attackers are hidden among the trees; firing downhill, the Loyalists' volleys mostly pass over the riflemen's heads. Ferguson rides along the crest, signalling his men with blasts of a silver whistle.

4. About 3:15 PM

   Cold steel

   Ferguson answers with the bayonet. His Provincials — uniformed Loyalists from New York and Connecticut under Captain Abraham DePeyster — form and charge downhill, and Campbell's riflemen, who have no bayonets, fall back into the trees to the foot of the ridge. Campbell rallies them and they come again; a charge then sends Shelby's men down in turn. Twice the Loyalists drive the attackers off (some accounts say three times), but each time another column climbs a different face behind them, and the charging line must turn back to the crest.

5. About 3:30 PM

   The ring tightens

   With every column now climbing, the Loyalists are pressed from all sides. Campbell's, Shelby's and Sevier's men take and hold the south-western summit, and the defenders are pushed back along the crest toward their camp at the north-east end. Major William Chronicle has already been killed leading the South Fork men up the north-east slope, and Colonel Frederick Hambright wounded, but the riflemen keep firing into an ever-smaller target.

6. About 3:50 PM

   Ferguson falls

   Ferguson, conspicuous in a checked hunting shirt over his uniform, has had horses shot from under him. Refusing to surrender, he spurs out with a few officers to cut a way through the Patriot line near the north-east end of the crest. He is hit by several rifle balls (accounts give seven or eight) and falls from the saddle, one foot caught in the stirrup; men prop him against a tree, where he dies. Local tradition credits several men with the fatal shot — among them Esaias Bowman, one of the free men of color who fought here, who is said to have fired one of them.

7. About 4 PM

   White flags and 'Tarleton's quarter'

   Captain DePeyster, now in command, has the survivors crowded into the camp clearing raise a white flag. The firing goes on for several minutes: some Patriots do not see the flags, others shout 'Tarleton's quarter!' and 'Buford's play!' — remembering the Waxhaws in May, where Tarleton's men cut down Continentals trying to surrender — and men are shot as they lay down their arms. Campbell, Sevier and other officers run forward and order the firing stopped. The battle has lasted a little over an hour.

8. 7–8 October 1780

   The ground remembers

   Patriot losses are 28 killed and 62 wounded; the Loyalists lose about 157 killed and 163 wounded, and nearly 700 are taken prisoner — Ferguson's entire command. Ferguson is buried on the slope below where he fell; a stone cairn, in the Scottish custom, and a granite memorial mark the grave today. Fearing Cornwallis, the Patriots march their prisoners away the next morning; days later, at Biggerstaff's, a hasty court condemns more than 30 Loyalists and nine are hanged. Cornwallis abandons Charlotte and his first invasion of North Carolina.