The First Link:
The Overmountain Victory,
Battle of King's Mountain, South Carolina, October 7, 1780,

The Years from 1776 to 1781
The Controversies
Part 3 of 4 Parts

• Whether Campbell was actually at the battle: This is dealt with in several parts of the narrative. Basically, long after the Revolution and Campbell's death, Sevier and Shelby discussed whether Campbel was in the battle. They didn't remember seeing him. Draper resolved this, years after the controversy, finding men under Sevier remarking on seeing Campbel in the midst of the fighting. One possible cause was their jeaousy that North Carolins gave Campbell a sword, but they - North Carolina commanders - did not. It's unclear if there is any confirmation.
• Two women were with Ferguson: Virginia Sal (killed in the battle) and Virginia Paul. The History Channel's program shown at the park has Dr. Bobbie Moss remarking that "whichever way Ferguson turned in the night," Virginia was there. While we have no evidence supporting this, we have none denying this, either. The records show that Virginia Sal was hired as a cook. Virginia Paul was paid as a washer woman. Both are often described as "attractive, young women." Virginia Sal was, in the only autopsy performed, was described as in her mid-30's and having had children. Attractive? We don't know.
• The role of Charles McDowell. This is also discussed in the narrative.

There are other, lesser, controversies discussed below.

There was no Ferguson rifle at King's Mountain. That would have been the best trophy! Since no such trophy is reported, none was there.

In 1765, Ferguson developed a military version of the breech-loading rifle used in Scotland for hunting. He added a bayonet mount. The breech was opened by rotating the trigger guard one turn. Ferguson demonstrated his rifle at the Royal Armory at Woolwich. Even though it was a rainy day, he was quite successful, firing and loading while walking, sitting, and lying on the ground. He was accurate and with a rate of up to eight shots per minute. See The American Rifleman, December, 1941, John Schofield, "Patrick Ferguson's Rifle."

Ferguson was sent to American to form a rifle corps. He equipped and trained 100 men who were with Howe's attack at Brandywine. It's unclear how much action they saw, but Ferguson famously spared the life of a French or Continental officer. Ferguson believed he spared George Washington, although Major DeLauncey, a Loyalist who'd seen Washington before the war and was Ferguson's second in command, thought not.

Ferguson was wounded at Brandywine. His corps was disbanded, and the rifles collected. The records are unclear, but those Fergusons disappeared from the record. Those were not reissued when the American Volunteers was formed as part of the British army that went South in 1779.

There is a display in the Museum at the park showing how the Ferguson works.

At the time of the Bicentennial, 1975 to 1983, a British company produced a copy of the Ferguson. The first piece went to the National Rifle Association. They test fired it, but thought it an unusable weapon, in their tests fouling too frequently. They considered the black powder too dirty for use with the screw breech plug (American Rifleman).

Recently, a reenactor at the Park built a Ferguson. His testing was quite different. He found the mechanism reliable. He provided a test at the park where he used the Ferguson and a buddy used a long rifle. They did not load balls or shoot at a target. The objective was to compare rate of fire. The Ferguson was subjected to the Woolwich test: Water was poured in the open breech, the rifleman then dried the breech, and continued firing. Despite the delay drying the breech, the rate of fire of the Ferguson exceeded that of the long rifle. The Ferguson proved quite practical.

We know from Chesney that the camp was at the top of the road accessing the ridge. If you stand facing up toward the Centennial Monument from the U.S. Monument, the camp site is to your left and below you. According to an account by a British officer in a Packet Magazine, the camp would be placed parallel to the road. Each tent would sleep four men. The commander would be in the back. A Provost Guard would be located behind that.

Since the Provincials were the best-trained of Ferguson's men, I speculate that they formed the Provost Guard. Since the ridge rises from the camp toward the highest point at the Centennial Monument, I speculate that the Provost Guard would have camped up toward that high ground.

The horses and wagons would have been down near where the two streams rise.

When the paved trail and its signs were installed at the park, one display was placed by a spring at the base of the ridge at its narrowest point. This display stated that both sides drank from the spring. But it did not answer the question of how Ferguson got water for his camp up on the other side of the ridge. Not only did he have 1,000 men, he had horses for his officers and his 17 wagons.

One year, the author was at the park in a wet spring. He noticed there were many wet weather springs on the ridge. I asked a local farmer how much the water table had dropped in the 20th century. He guessed about ninety feet, roughly the height of the ridge. That means these springs could have been regularly flowing in 1780.

Two creeks flowed from an area above Ferguson's grave. Another flowed from the sag where the Campbell marker is and Sevier's people attacked. Another spring was in the area of Shelby's attack, just below the ridge. Best of all, one spring was just below and north of the U.S. Monument, right above the likely camp site.

Mary Patton is often mentioned, but she and her husband ran the powder works on what became Powder branch near Sycamore Shoals. Yes, the Pattons provided 500 pounds of their powder for $12,000 or $13,000. That works out to about $2.60 per pound. We don't know how it was carried to the battle: in bulk or by the individual soldiers. What we do know is curious: Uzzal Johnson says that Ferguson's forces ran out of powder. Ferguson had a wagon train to carry his supplies. The Patriots had only their individual horses!

There are only two grave sites at the battle ridge: at the Ferguson grave and at the Chronicle marker.

We know Ferguson and Virginia Sal are buried under today's stone cairn, for the grave was opened in 1815 by a local doctor. Dr. William McLean affirmed that a man and a woman are buried there. In addition, in the latest inspection by the National Park Service, ground-penetrating radar showed two skeletons in the grave, one larger than the other.

The Chronicle marker was placed in 1815, also, by the doctor and local people. They gathered all the bones they could find and placed them in a common grave next to that of Major William Chronicle, Captain John Mattocks, William Rabb, and John Boyd.

It should be explained that the very rocky ground of the ridge and the surrounding area does not provide many easy grave sites. Only some stream valleys have much dirt. One account says three pits were dug uphill from Ferguson's grave. One was for Patriots, one for the Provincials, and a larger for the more numerous Loyalist militia. Other accounts say the survivors tried to cover the bodies, but most efforts were described as "pushing sticks and leaves over them."

So what happened? Some stories said all that winter, people stayed away for fear of the wolves. That the wolves and vultures were so numerous that even the vultures would attack the living. Although, clearly there were bones still in 1815.

A recent report from Europe likely gives anther fate. A story of the battle ground of Waterloo shows no graves. There were tens of thousands of dead left after the French defeat. But soon after the battle, people would gather bones at night that were sold to be ground into bone meal for farming. The same was known to happen on American battle sites up through the Civil War, so this likely is the fate of both Patriot and Loyalist dead at King's Mountain.

While Ferguson did not mean this as a compliment, it's just a geographic term. The people who lived on rivers that flowed to the "back" of the colonies, into the Ohio and Mississippi were in the backwater: Virginia settlements in the New, Holston, and Clinch rivers, all of what became Kentucky, and the Tennessee settlements. In many cases, even the Piedmont settlers were considered in the "back" of the colony and "Backcountry," even though their rivers flowed to the Atlantic. In South Carolins today, it's called the Up Country.

One of the issues that often troubles reenactors and visitors to the sites along the trail: What were in their hats? The idea that the Patriots came from a primitive place always made the answer seem implausible: white paper. But, the Overmountain settlements weren't primitive or the homes of illiterate militia. The Loyalist militia, the elites, had pine sprigs in their hats!

Oh, these made the men who were dressed in their everyday clothes distinguishable and recognizable in battle.

Why the choices? Likely, the Patriots chose paper to represent the Declaration of Independence. The choice of the pine sprig is less certain. A Canadian author of mystery stories named a modern story Three Pines, explaining that Loyalist refugees planted three pines outside their Canadian town to signal to other Loyalists that they were safe in that town.

What's with that Evils business?

The quotation from Sir Henry Clinton ("the first link of a chain of evils") is recently often rendered as "a chain of events." That wording is used in Chernow's biography of George Washington. He cites a biography of John Adams by John Ferling. That source cites John Miller's Triumph of Freedom, who does not indicate a source. Checking with the Clements Library at the University of Michigan, they found, in volume 281 of the Henry Clinton papers, in Clinton's notes for his 1783 book on the Revolution, the handwritten original: "...the worst consequences to the King's affairs in South Carolina, and unhappily proved the first link of a chain of evils that followed each other in regular succession until they at last ended in the total loss of America." (An email to the author from Terese M. Murphy, Head of Reader Services, William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan, 12/12/2023.)

What's with the Spelling?

Yes, the author uses both King's and Kings. The original is King's, named for a man who lived in the area and also gave his name to the creek. As the U.S. grew and added Rural Free Delivery by the Post Office Department, the issue of names came up. The POD started refusing names that were duplicated. For example, a North Carolina town, White Plains (for the white kaolin clay in the soil) was refused that name. They chose a nearby historical event and became Kings Mountain.

In the late 1800's and early 1900's the POD also noted trouble with spelling. They established a board to standardize spellings. They soon decided to disallow apostrophes. So, King's Mountain became Kings Mountain. The author makes a distinction: If it's an historic mention, it's King's; if it is modern, Kings is used. So the National Military Park is Kings, while the battle is King's.

When OVTA was developing the first brochure for the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail, a curious thing came to light: the term Loyalist was capitalized, Patriot was not. The author does not agree and does not use that convention. Of course, if not referring to people who opposed or supported the Crown, there is no reason to capitalize either term.

There are also multiple names for the combatants. Patriots are also Americans, Whigs, Continentals (officially, members of the Continental army commanded by George Washington). Loyalists are also Royalists, Tories, Friends of the King, Britons. Redcoats are, technically members of the British army, although some Provincial units wore red coats. Provincials were Americans enlisted by the British, paid and trained.

There are also two spellings for that area where Sevier moved the winter after King's Mountain: Nolichucky and Nolachucky. The Nolichucky spelling is the official name for today's river that is the outlet to the Tennessee river of the combined South and North Toe rivers. Nolachucky is more common at the time of the Revolution. There is a modern Nolachucky Baptist Association, however.

There are also modern spellings that differ from the colonial:

• Charles Town in South Carolina is now Charleston.
• Guilford Court House is now Guilford Courthouse.
• Rutherford Town in North Carolina is now Rutherfordton.
• Hillsboro is in dispute: Hillsboro or Hillsborough. This is likeluy just uncertainy on the part of the different authors. But Pittsburg has changed several times over the years!

Ferguson was a wealthy man and equipped as a British officer should be. So there was much plunder to distribute among the Patriots:

• Shelby got his big silver whistle used to signal actions.
• Elius Powell got the small silver whistle. (This whistle was reported to be in the trail area of the Carolinas at the time of the Bicentennial, but was never offered for display at the park.)
• Sevier got Ferguson's sash, as well as DePeyster's sword.
• Campbell took some of Ferguson's correspondence.
• Samuel Talbot picked up Ferguson's pistol.
• Ferguson's watch went to an unidentified South Carolinian.
• Joseph McDowell of Pleasant Gardens got six dinner plates, a coffee cup, and saucer.

Certainly, there were others, for Ferguson was well equipped. Many of the Provincials and Loyalist militia surrendered their swords to Patriots. (Lenoir remarked that many who only had an iron sword before, now had good swords!

• Part 1 covers the campaign and the battle of King's Mountain.
• Part 2: more information on the two armies and various ideas on the battle
• This is Part 3 of 4 parts and deals with controversies of the battle
• Part 4 explains the development of the National Military Part, the National Historic Trail, OVTA, popular materials on the battle, and source materials