A pivotal moment in American history, as told by our forefathers On October 7, 1780, American Patriot and Loyalist soldiers battled each other at Kings Mountain, near the border of North and South Carolina. With over one hundred eyewitness accounts, this collection of participant statements from men of both sides includes letters and statements in their original form - the soldiers' own words - unedited and unabridged. Rife with previously unpublished details of this historic turning point in the American Revolution, described as the war's "largest all-American fight," these accounts expose the dramatic happenings of the battle, including new perspectives on the debate over Patriot Colonel William Campbell's bravery during the fight. Robert M. Dunkerley's work is an invaluable resource to historians studying the flow of combat, genealogists tracing their ancestors and anyone interested in Kings Mountain and the Southern Campaign.
Through government documents, autobiographies, correspondence, this book presents a look at the Southern backcountry that engendered its role in the Revolutionary War; with attention to political, social, and military history.
This unprecedented compilation of eyewitness accounts records the thoughts and emotions of American soldiers spanning nearly 250 years of national history, from the American Revolution to the Afghanistan War. Understanding primary sources is essential to understanding warfare. This outstanding collection provides a diverse set of eyewitness accounts of Americans in combat throughout U.S. history. Offering riveting true stories, it includes accounts from participants in the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Indian Wars, the Mexican-American War, the Civil War, the Spanish American War and Philippine Insurrection, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, The Persian Gulf War, the Afghanistan War, and the Iraq War. Most eyewitness accounts of war currently available to the public are those of writers who enjoy higher military rank. Americans at War addresses this imbalance between officers' accounts and enlisted men's accounts by invoking oral history archives. Contextual essays and timelines allow the reader to place the accounts in time and place, while the entries themselves allow the reader to experience the thoughts and emotions of Americans who engaged in combat.
Learn the little-known history of the turning-point battle of Kings Mountain, one of the most decisive American victories in the Revolutionary War. The Battle of Kings Mountain was the most remarkable, unexpected, and unorthodox patriot victory of supreme importance that was fought during the course of the American Revolution. The victors of Kings Mountain were South Carolina, Virginia, and North Carolina Backcountry volunteers (including men from today’s Tennessee) of a ghost army that suddenly materialized practically out of thin air from both sides of the Appalachian Mountains on its own and without authorization from the Continental Congress or Continental officers. To defend their farms and families and the land they loved, on October 7, 1780, this ad hoc force of Backcountry volunteers from remote settlements across the frontier suddenly descended upon a well-trained and well-equipped force of more than one thousand Royal Provincial and Loyalist troops, who defiantly made their last stand on the summit of Kings Mountain, after having been caught by surprise. During one of the hardest fought and bloodiest battles of the American Revolution, this one-sided (the entire enemy force—the vital left wing of Lord Charles Cornwallis’ Army—was killed, wounded, and captured) patriot victory at Kings Mountain was a major turning point of not only the war in the South, but also of the American Revolution. Ironically, no battle of the American Revolution more forcefully demonstrated the lethal effectiveness of Southern militia and the future surreal horrors of America’s first civil war. This decisive battle in northwest South Carolina was fought between fellow Americans, including not only neighbors but also relatives, even fathers and sons, nearly three-quarters of a century before the Battles of First Manassas, Antietam, and Gettysburg, when young Americans once again slaughtered each other for what they believed was right. When it appeared at the time that the war in South Carolina had been lost to the British, the patriots of Kings Mountain rose splendidly to the challenge to win an amazing success that best personified the essence and spirit of the revolution, which the victors kept alive during one of the darkest periods of the American Revolution. Most importantly, the dramatic patriot victory at Kings Mountain on October 7, 1781 helped to set the stage and pave the way for the surrender of Cornwallis’ Army at Yorktown only a year later, which was an event that all but ended the war and ensured the independence of a new nation.
“Persuasively tells the savage partisan war in the Carolina backcountry . . . [during] the Southern Campaign of the American Revolution” (Military Review). Following their defeat at Saratoga in New York in 1777, the British decided to implement a southern strategy against the American insurgents, a plan to “roll up” the rebellious colonies from Georgia through the Carolinas to Virginia. Untrained Patriot militiamen—occasionally stiffened by contingents of the Continental Line—were pitted against Britain’s Cherokee and Creek allies, and Loyalist militia and British regulars led by Gen. Cornwallis and his two ablest subordinates, Patrick Ferguson and the ruthless Banastre “Bloody Ban” Tarleton. In October 1780, the Loyalist militia was virtually destroyed at King’s Mountain. Other defeats at Blackstock’s Farm and Cowpens, and a pyrrhic victory at Guilford Courthouse, gutted the British southern army and drove Cornwallis north to encirclement and surrender at Yorktown. This study uses battlefield terrain analysis and the words of the officers and common soldiers, from pension records and little-known interviews, to bring to life the crucial role of one militia regiment—the Second Spartans of South Carolina—that fought in virtually every action of the vicious backcountry war that decided the fate of America. Or, as one private in the Second Spartans said, expressing admiration for his colonel: “a few Brave Men stood true for the cause of liberty.” “A serious book for those with a serious interest in the southern campaigns of the Revolutionary War . . . Many thanks to the Gilberts for shedding new light on the role of the Second Spartan Regiment.” —War in History
