CHAPTER 46
The Tracy Family History
Kings Mountain
"...they fight one another."
Nine months after Waxhaws, a 400-man Tory unit
was looking to join up with Tarleton. None had seen the famous leader before.
Tarleton's Legion always wore green jackets. They found the green jacketed
troops; only they were not Tarleton's, but an American force that just happened
to be wearing the same color.
The American commander decided on a bit of deception. He sent
word to line up the Tory soldiers, so, he, pretending to be Tarleton, could
review them. With his troops, he rode down the enemy line asking questions, making
observations and making compliments. All the while the Tories cheered the famous
leader and the king.
The Americans massacred the Tories "…while in the act of
begging for mercy." 90 were killed and most of the rest wounded.
Now you know what General Nathanael Greene was talking about.
This is the way the war was fought in the South.
After Waxhaws, Tarleton would be called by the Americans:
"Bloody Ban;”“Barbarous Ban;”“Ban the Butcher;”or simply "old Ben or Benny." In the battles
to come, when the enemy begged for quarter, the Americans would respond, "Tarleton's
Quarter!" or "Buford's Quarter!"
To be honest, both sides were about the same.
Tarleton did not care what the rebels thought about him or
what epithets they hurled his way, as long as they feared him. Tarleton always
had a low opinion of the rebels anyway. (To be honest, Tarleton took quite a few
prisoners.)
After Waxhaws, it took the American commanders some
time to organize a resistance. What was left in the South were the partisan guerrillas. The Carolinas are cut through and through with an
incredible number of rivers coming out of the mountains. These create and even
more incredible number of swamps-- natural bases for the guerrillas. From these
swamps, the guerrillas would launch surprise attacks upon the British posts,
small units, and couriers. The British were forced to send large number of
troops just to protect their couriers. The British constantly complained that
these guerrillas "…did not fight like gentlemen."
Tarleton chased a partisan known as Marion 26 miles into a swamp;
but never did catch
him. So he gave up and bestowed upon Marion the name "Swamp Fox."
Tories did join the British army. They fought well, but in
the blink of an eye, could change sides. The Southern Tories zeal to fight for a
king they had never seen was not as intense as the Patriots zeal to fight for
their own freedom. The Patriots had the same problem with desertions. One
American commander complained that in battle most of the enemy soldiers he
captured were his own men.
It was crazy!
There were small encounters everywhere. These usually
involved small bodies of men. There were some small battles, again with not very
many men, maybe100-200. There were larger battles too. I will concern myself with just
those larger battles, which involved our people. I assume that many of the
smaller battles also included our numerous cousins, but which of our people were
involved we know little.
In the backcountry were the hard core Patriots. These people
were so far removed from civilization that they never had much contact with
British authority.
Opposing our people was Cornwallis with his army. Colonel
Banastre Tarleton commanded his right wing of Tories. Major Patrick Ferguson
held his left wing of Tories. (Ferguson was the officer who refused to shoot
George Washington in the back, with his own invention, the repeating rifle. He
would not have missed, for Ferguson was the best shot in the entire British
army.)
The British system of purchasing officers commissions
provided a surprisingly large number of brave and competent officers. Ferguson
was not one of them. Brave? Yes, to a fault. Competent? His fellow officers
believed Ferguson's theories on how to conduct the war and fight battles to be
absolutely bizarre. Cornwallis never trusted the guy.
(Officers commissions sold for100 times the daily rank pay.
Tarleton's mother paid 800 pounds for the lowest rank, which was coronet.)
Ferguson wanted to attack the backcountry. Cornwallis was
reluctant but let his left wing commander have his way.
In September of 1780, just four months after Waxhaws, Patrick
Ferguson issued an order to the "Over Mountain Men." "If they do not desist from
their opposition to the British arms, he would march over the mountains, hang
their leaders, and lay their country waste with fire and sword."
Ferguson was threatening the wrong people.
Maj. Ferguson
gathered his army of Tories. The Americans would gather their army of Patriots
and they would meet at Kings Mountain. Like Tarleton, Ferguson was a commander
of Northern Tory soldiers, which he brought with him for the Southern campaigns.
On the march to this battle he tried to recruit along the way. The Southern
Tories did not flock to his army. Some, many, did come, but never in the hoped
for numbers that could win the war. (The Southern Tories that fought for the
British were mainly Highland Scots. Why, is a long complicated story that has to
do with kings and kings and more kings, into which I will not go.)
Both armies were evenly divided. According to Ferguson's
morning report, he had 1,125 men. The Americans had between 900 and 1,000. The
battles in the South did not involve big armies.
It was a battle with both sides
having almost all Scottish, or Scotch-Irish bloodlines. Again, in some regions of the Carolinas
only Gaelic was spoken. In battle after battle, the American Patriots would call
out in Gaelic to their enemies to come over to the America side. The only man on
either side who was not an American was the British Major Patrick Ferguson. He
was not English. He was a Scot.
In addition to the “Over Mountain Men,” there were militias
coming to the battle site: Major Joseph McDowell (cousin to Magdelene by
marriage.) brought 90 men from the Valley of the Virginia. These were our
people. Also, from Virginia came Colonel William Campbell with 200 men, also our
people. There were other militias from the Carolinas.
It was the pattern of the Patriot commanders when marching towards battle to
stop at each Presbyterian settlement and gather their soldiers for the army of
God.
The fighting men, our people, the Presbyterians Scots, would
take a chance marching to battle at Kings Mountain as well as the coming
battles. Whenever they marched to battle they left their homes and families
undefended against the Indians. These were perfect opportunities for the Indians
to attack the settlements. The Indians made the Tories at Waxhaws look like
Quakers.
Who was to lead them? Our Captain Andrew Wallace, who escaped
from Charleston and was one of the six brothers.
With eight colonels, the Americans were divided into two quarreling camps. They
asked the American commander in the South to send an experienced officer to lead
them. General Horatio Gates sent Captain Andrew Wallace, and another officer.
The Patriots had a lot of Colonels. However, this was an exaggerated rank,
nowhere equal to a Continental Line officer in military ability.
"When the county Lieutenants of the eight county (four in
Western Virginia and four in Eastern Tennessee, that overlapped) decided to call
up their militia in their counties and avenge the wrongs being done to their kin
in the Carolinas, it took them no time at all to realize that an expedition of
the size they were contemplating could not be led by eight colonels (the
military ranks of a County Lieutenant) and they wrote general Gates a letter
asking him to send them a General officer to take command and to instill a
little military discipline in the troops, "but not to much" they were careful to
state. For reason I do not know, General Gates did not assign one of the
detached Generals hanging around headquarters looking for commands but instead
sent two detached Captains, one of them being Captain Andrew Wallace, whose
command had been surrendered at Charlestown though he escaped. If there were any
formal uniforms to be seen at Kings Mountain, they were the two detached
Captains. It is doubtful that even they wore uniforms, but the more standard and
convenient hunting jackets, everyday wear of the pioneers of the Watagua area
(and the rest of the frontier)…I have been told that the reason Andrew Wallace
was chosen as one of the two emissaries was that he was related to several of
the County Lieutenants by blood."
--Cousin Scott F. Hosier, Jr.
Professionally trained soldiers were highly respected. The
Americas respected the British and Hessian soldiers they faced. Even more
respected were professional officers. Captain Andrew Wallace had served three
years in the Continental Line. I suspect he had considerable combat experience
in the major battles of the North.
Historians do not understand why General Gates sent a
detached officer, rather than an active duty officer with his army. I have a
suspicion it was because Andrew Wallace was related to many of the men who took
part in the battle: Good diplomacy.
That is all we hear of Andrew Wallace at this battle.
Historians, with their pens, say nothing more of the man. The eminent historian,
Lyman C. Draper, did massive research on this battle. He even interviewed and
corresponded with a large number of men who took part in this battle. Yet,
nothing more is heard of Andrew Wallace who General Gates sent to take command
at Kings Mountain. All history tells us is that the
8 militia colonels agreed to give William Campbell command. Campbell has gone
down as the victorious leader at Kings Mountain. That is all right, as he is one
of our cousins also.
Ferguson thought he had camped his men in an impenetrable
spot, atop Kings Mountain. (A man named King lived at the base.) The Americans
moved fast, before Cornwallis could join forces with Ferguson. Having no respect
for the Rebels, Ferguson delayed for several days notifying Cornwallis as to the
impending battle. Military logic would dictate that Ferguson should have
retreated with his army to join with Cornwallis. Or, he should have notified
Cornwallis earlier, so Cornwallis could come to him.
The Americans had been in the saddle for 34 hours when they
reached the mountain on the afternoon of 7 October 1780. Ferguson did not even
know the Americans were there. They immediately surrounded the mountain and
attacked Indian style. (This was one of the few battles of the war that was
fought Indian style.) It had a steep hill, with rocks, and trees. The men fought
from behind the trees and rocks. It was up and down the mountain, time and time
again. The Tories kept charging down hill with bayonets, then the Americans
pushed them back.
In the end, the Americans totally annihilated the British
(Tory) army. All were killed, wounded, or captured. Ferguson was killed. His
grave is now a tourist spot. Not all of the men who tried to surrender were
given quarter. Some were given “Buford's Quarter.” The battle lasted just one
hour, but would have a resounding effect in the capitals of the world. The
British commander of all forces in American predicted the beginning of a domino
effect by losing battle after battle. He knew the war was lost.
Earl Cornwallis had lost his entire left wing! This meant
that the left flank of his entire army was open to American attack. The soldiers
who served in the flank regiments and flank companies were hand-picked. They
were the best soldiers in the army. Their job was to protect the army.
Casualties:
The British lost 157 killed, 163 wounded, and 698 captured.
The American losses were light at 28 killed and 64 wounded.
Cornwallis retreated, giving up his plans to invade North
Carolina. The Tories enthusiasm for the war would never be the same.
The British diplomats and top military officers had a lot of
experience in these matters. They could see the writing on the wall.
The Americans, lacking this same experience, never saw the
outcome of the war the same way. For the Americans it was a desperate, day-by-day, attempt just
to hang on.
Even after Yorktown, the Americans did not fully realize the
war was over. Sure, the Americans had captured a full British army at Yorktown.
But they had captured a full British army before, at Saratoga. In addition,
the British had captured a full American army at Charleston. As far as the
Americans were concerned, the British still had armies in the field.
The story of the battle of Kings Mountain is the story of how
our people won the Revolutionary War.
Comments
There were two officers both named Joseph McDowell at the battle.
To this day, there is controversy as to which was the leader of their militia.
Major Joseph McDowell's brother was General Charles McDowell. (All the McDowells
were related to Magdelene.)
The two Joseph McDowells at Kings Mountain: Joseph of
Pleasant Gardens and Joseph of Quaker Meadows, both cousins to Magdelene, by
marriage.
Quite a few soldiers carried the last name of Campbell. They
were all related.
After the battle, the Virginians went back home.
(Two weeks after the battle of Kings Mountain, England declared war on the
Dutch. You never knew who was fighting whom in this war.)
I have chosen to give very little space for the story of the
Battle of Kings Mountain, in comparison to the many pages on Waxhaws. This is
because Kings Mountain was one of the turning points of the war. Thus, much is
known and written about the events leading up to the battle itself, and after
the battle. I wished only to show our families participation.
There are several books written on just the Battle of Kings
Mountain itself; and there are many more books on the Revolutionary War that devote space to
this battle. You should have no trouble finding a book at your library.
Kings Mountain National Military Park
Off I-85
2625 Park Road
Blacksburg, SC 29702
864-936-7921
Open daily: Closed Thanksgiving Day, Christmas, and New Years Day
Free 18-minute film
1 1/2 miles self-guided tour
My family history web site has 79 chapters. If you would like to know more about the other chapters then go to my Home Page www.thetracyfamilyhistory.net
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