The Patriot Post® · The Southern Wave of the American Revolution

We’ve talked about the American Revolution and the battles in Boston, Trenton, Ticonderoga, and Saratoga. We’ve met the generals who, under the command of General George Washington, helped strike fear in the hearts of the overly confident British military. Now, let’s look southward.

When people think about the South and war, the image most imagined is the bloody conflict between the Union and Confederacy during our nation’s most tragic and deadly conflict. But, with 165 principal engagements from 1775-1783, some of the most consequential battles of the Revolutionary War in defense of our “inalienable rights,” were fought in the South.

Did you know that after Saratoga and the British awareness that a French intervention in support of the colonists was a possibility, there was discussion in Parliament and among military leaders about simply conceding that New England had been lost and concentrating attention on the South where there were more loyalists? It’s true.

New England had long been viewed as the “center of discontent” and a “fiery hotbed of treasonous rebels,” and even New Jersey and Pennsylvania appeared to be a lost cause. For many British leaders reading the dispatches from the colonies, frustration was mounting and a realization was emerging that their forces should pivot toward the Southern colonies. After all, the Southern colonies hosted a large group of settlers who traced their lineage to the Scottish Highlands, wealthy planters and merchants and devout Anglicans who had no real conflict with the English government — plus a varied group of frontiersmen who often found themselves at odds with the colonial governments.

The crown believed that the Southern colonies were more loyal and less likely to fight a New England war. But what the absentee landlords did not know was that the South would become the site of a bloody revolutionary civil conflict.

In the South, the rising tide of patriot sentiment slapped sharply against strong loyalist leadership and, from the earliest days of the Revolution, led to regional and family conflicts that included bushwhacking, murders, and retaliatory raids. Local governments were overwhelmed and unable to maintain order. Plantations and warehouses were prime targets; fields and docks were burned and leaders on both sides were executed. Guerrilla warfare became the Southern way to gain a costly, pyrrhic victory.

Britain’s plan was to use the loyalist Georgia and South Carolina as launching points for subduing North Carolina and Virginia. British General Henry Clinton noted, in his memoirs published years later, that victory only required the army “to support the Loyalists and restore the authority of the King’s government.” Even Clinton had underestimated the patriot element in the South; the fall of Charleston in 1780 had seemed to him to be the first step toward a quick victory. That perception was reinforced by the battles in the Waxhaws and at Camden and Fishing Creek.

But the final chapter had not been written. Two decisive battles in the South would set the stage for Yorktown.

First, the Overmountain Men defeated Patrick Ferguson’s forces at Kings Mountain on October 7, 1780.

Today, in East Tennessee (part of North Carolina during the Revolutionary War), the Battle of Kings Mountain is “revisited” each year with a march from Sycamore Shoals to the battlefield, a distance of approximately 330 miles. Stories of the original march and battle are told around the campfires each night.

So why is Kings Mountain important?

After the British victory at Camden in August 1780, General Cornwallis thought the time had come to bring North Carolina into submission and he sent Major Patrick Ferguson into the mountainous regions on the South and North Carolina border. Ferguson, hoping to frighten the patriots, sent a prisoner into the mountains with a warning that, if they continued to oppose the British forces, his army would march “over the mountains, hang their leaders, and lay their country waste with fire and sword.”

Yet, once again, the British had misjudged the colonists.

Instead of surrendering to the British, patriot leaders — John Sevier, Isaac Shelby, William Campbell, Charles McDowell, and others — decided to lead an attack against Ferguson and preempt his threat.

The Overmountain Men gathered at Sycamore Shoals on the Watauga River where Minister Samuel Doak issued his “Sword of the Lord and Gideon too” charge: “My countrymen, you are about to set out on an expedition which is full of hardships and dangers, but one in which the Almighty will attend you. The Mother Country has her hands upon you, these American Colonies, and takes that for which our fathers planted their homes in the wilderness - OUR LIBERTY. Taxation without representation and the quartering of soldiers in the homes of our people without their consent are evidence that the Crown of England would take from its American Subjects the last vestige of Freedom. Your brethren across the mountains are crying like Macedonia unto your help. God forbid that you shall refuse to hear and answer their call - but the call of your brethren is not all. The enemy is marching hither to destroy your own homes. Brave men, you are not unacquainted with battle. Your hands have already been taught to war and your fingers to fight. You have wrested these beautiful valleys of the Holston, and Watauga from the savage hand. Will you tarry now until the other enemy carries fire and sword to your very doors? No, it shall not be. Go forth then in the strength of your manhood to the aid of your brethren, the defense of your liberty and the protection of your homes. And may the God of Justice be with you and give you victory.”

Doak prayed: “Almighty and gracious God! Thou hast been the refuge and strength of Thy people in all ages. In time of sorest need we have learned to come to Thee - our Rock and our Fortress. Thou knowest the dangers and snares that surround us on march and in battle. Thou knowest the dangers that constantly threaten the humble, but well beloved homes which Thy servants have left behind them. O, in Thine infinite mercy, save us from the cruel hand of the savage, and of Tyrant. Save the unprotected homes while fathers and husbands and sons are far away fighting for freedom and helping the oppressed. Thou, who promised to protect the Sparrow in its flight, keep ceaseless watch, by day and by night, over our loved ones. The helpless woman and little children, we commit to Thy care. Thou wilt not leave them or forsake them in times of loneliness and anxiety and terror. O, God of Battle, arise in Thy might. Avenge the slaughter of Thy people. Confound those who plot for our destruction. Crown this mighty effort with victory, and smite those who exalt themselves against liberty and justice and truth. "Help us as good soldiers to wield the SWORD OF THE LORD AND GIDEON. Amen”

And go forth the Patriot militia did, across the Blue Ridge Mountains on a trail that led them through four current states — Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. After gaining troops along the journey, the Overmountain Men faced Ferguson at Kings Mountain with between 900-1000 men.

The militia identified themselves by putting scraps of white paper in the brim of their hats while the British used pine springs to distinguish themselves. Using frontier tactics of silence and stealth, the Overmountain Men ascended the ridges and surprised their enemy. In a decisive battle that lasted only an hour, the colonists were relentless. Over 200 Tories lay dead — including Ferguson — and another 160 were seriously wounded while 700 surrendered as prisoners.

(Notably, The Patriot Post publisher, Mark Alexander, is a direct descendant of Patriot militia Colonel George Gillespie, a leader of the Overmountain Men.)

But one more battle would occur before Yorktown.