Posted on 05/06/2013 7:15:50 PM PDT by Pharmboy
After I (Pharmboy) returned from King's Mountain (the wife and I stopped by there on the way back from attending my son's graduation from US Army Ranger School at Ft Benning), Bert told me that he and his wife would be following the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail (OVNHT) from Eastern TN to King's Mountain, SC.
I told Bert that I would love to see his account of the trip, and that I would also like to post it to FR: well, he did a terrific job on his blog, here are some excerpts. Go to the blog for more!
Day 1 on Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail (OVNHT)
Posted by Traveling When We Can
April 25, 2013
We left Kingsport about 9 AM headed on a two day adventure going back almost 233 years to the days of the American Revolution. Strong willed and independent patriots living in the “overmountain” region (then Virginia and North Carolina) – now , East Tennessee, Western North Carolina and Southwest Virginia heard about the possibility of the British, under the leadership of Major Patrick Ferguson invading their area. They set out to stop any such advance. Their impact on the US struggle for independence is said to have turned the tide of the Revolution. We live in the “over-mountain” area and have heard and read the story of these patriots many times but neither Ben nor I had traveled this trail that is practically in our own back yard!
Redbud and dogwood trees were blooming and most other trees were leafing out in bright greens. Blue sky, sunshine and temperatures in the 70’s made for a perfect journey.
Our first stop was at the Muster Grounds in Abingdon VA. The city of Abingdon has partnered with the National Park Service and has a very informative visitor center. Staffed with a friendly and informed staffer, we experienced a little history and were soon on our way with a recently written guide book. Men as well as cattle and even a few women from across Southwest VA under the leadership of Col. William Campbell gathered here on Sept 24th to travel to Fort Watauga at Sycamore Shoals where they would meet others joining in their cause.
Abingdon Muster Grounds
snip...
Day 2 on Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail
Posted by Traveling When We Can
April 26, 2013
snip...
The Patriots were traveling from Quaker Meadows, where they had been joined by the NC and SC militias, towards Gilbert Town in the area of today’s Rutherfordton NC. They expected to find Major Ferguson and his Loyalists near Gilbert Town. This trip was through mostly level land with occasional rolling hills. Surely this was easier travel that the mountains they had previously crossed. They camped two nights in rainy weather at Bedford Hill. During this stop they discussed at length leadership for the impending battle. After much discussion it was determined that Col. Campbell should be the leader since he had traveled the furthest and brought the most men. Each commander gave a “pep talk” to their men – offering them one last chance to back out of the battle - not one man left their ranks.
The militia continued on, camping on Oct 3 at Marlin’s Knob. We identified the area along the road but did not stop.
snip...
South Carolina has wonderful signage for the OVNHT – at each and every turn. TN, VA, and NC could learn from SC ! Perhaps they will add signs as the trail becomes better known and more traveled. Guess we need to be pro-active and write letters to the other states! We followed the signs straight to Cowpens and had a nice visit with a park ranger. His passion is the Revolutionary War and he has done significant research on each and every battle location and plotted them on a map. His study was used to identify the light brown line identifying the actual trail on the NPS map of the OVNHT. Interesting fact was that of all the churches in the area – 28 of 32 were Presbyterian.
snip...
The militia rode on the cold wet night to reach Kings Mountain along much the same route we took on Interstate 85 from Cowpens to Kings Mountain. The mountain is 60 ft high – so not much of a mountain but it was high enough to give Ferguson the high ground to defend.
Arriving at Kings Mountain we hurried inside the visitor center to get passport stamps, view the exhibits and watch the film. A longer visit would have allowed hiking to the top of the mountain but alas – we wanted to be in Durham for dinner!
Kings Mountain
Col. William Campbell
The video explained the battle well – the persistence, determination, and “indian play” fighting tactics (firing from behind trees and rocks) were factors in the outcome of the battle. When Ferguson was killed on the third assault of the Patriots, the loyalist resistance evaporated. By the morning of Oct 8 when the Patriot troops departed Kings Mountain they had 800 prisoners. They marched the prisoners back towards Quaker Meadows and eventually further into NC.
The loss of Ferguson and his loyalist troops was a surprise and huge disappointment to Cornwallis. He retreated into SC for a winter camp. Other victories were required over the next 12 months to secure America’s independence, but the battle at Kings Mountain was a major turning point! In about 2 weeks these Scots-Irish patriots from the southern Appalachian Mountains had left their homes, traveled across the mountains, and searched for and defeated those who were trying to destroy their way of life and their freedom. What great patriots they were!
This is great.. The over the mountain victory trail runs within a mile or two of my house (I live in the Kings Creek community yes that King). I see mention of Quaker meadows, Lake James and multiple significant names in history including the community next door named after Major Ferguson.I drove by Kings Moutain last week on my way home from Charlotte. I didn’t realize I had so many distinguished FREEPER neighbors in “these here parts!”
Ditto. Descendant of the SC Greggs and Witherspoons.
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Great read, nicely written travel blog, thanks for sharing.
The graphic below was prepared by the Historian/Ranger at Cowpens NP. He placed a pin on the map locating every engagement of the Revolutionary War. His point was to illustrate that South Carolina and the south was where much of the war was fought.
Well then, appropriate praise for Mrs. Bert. Who took the pics?
We both took photos
Which is a story in itself.
The victors held more or less sham trials and convicted 36 of the losers, executing 9 of them.
Also, all but about 130 of the prisoners escaped during the march, and the remaining ones, as well and their captors, almost starved.
Did Ferguson also say he would never leave? Because he is still there; buried under a cairn of rocks.
The quote varies. Family lore has it more or less the way I wrote it. Some published accounts have him saying “I am on King’s Mountain, I am king of this mountain, and God Almighty cannot drive me from it.”
http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-revolution/4272
Good job, rooms
The number of Patriot men was grossly overestimated by him as were the number of Tory prisoners. Gates sought to ingratiate himself with his superiors, who hoped to exchange prisoners of war with the British. Gates told of nearly double the number of men on horseback racing toward Charlotte to cut Ferguson off and he exaggerated the number of prisoners after the fact.
He had Cleveland relieved of command for supposed mistreatment of prisoners, when the only documented instance occurred prior to his taking charge of them. Gates was very political and not at all right concerned about throwing others in the ditch to further his own ends.
This continued right up to a few months before the Battle Of Guilford Courthouse, when he himself was relieved of command in favor of Nathanael Greene. Long overdue, in the estimation of those actually doing the fighting. I've seen enough derision of Gates in the pension applications of my own people who fought, to believe that he fabricated a fair amount.
So, recheck those numbers and the assumptions derived from them. I'd give the Brethern at Bethabara the nod for accuracy, as they had no axe to grind and were well known for being sticklers for accurate record-keeping for better or worse.
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