MessageToEagle.com – On October 7, 1780, the battle of King’s Mountain was fought south of the present-day town of Kings Mountain, North Carolina in rural Cherokee County, South Carolina.
It was a decisive victory in South Carolina for the Patriot militia over the Loyalist militia in the Southern campaign of the American Revolutionary War.
The battle was very important; it halted the British advance into North Carolina.
The surprising victory of the American patriot militia over the Loyalists came after a string of rebel defeats at the hands of Lord Cornwallis, and greatly raised the Patriots’ morale.
With the British Major Patrick Ferguson’s dead and his Loyalist militia destroyed, Cornwallis was forced to abandon his plan to invade North Carolina and retreated into South Carolina.
A soldier named Benjamin Sharp wrote about the battle:
“We then moved on, and as we approached the mountain, the roll of the British drum informed us that we had something to do. No doubt the British commander thought his position a strong one; but our plan of attack was such as to make it the worst for him he could have chosen. The end of the mountain to our left descended gradually to a branch; in front of us the ascent was rather abrupt, and to the right was a low gap through which the road passed. . .
Thus the British Major found himself attacked on all sides at once, and so situated as to receive a galling fire from all parts of our lines without doing any injury to ourselves. From this difficulty, he attempted to relieve himself at the point of the bayonet, but failed in three successive charges.”
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