The Battle of Kings Mountain on October 7, 1780, was an overwhelming blow struck by American patriots against British forces engaged in the relentless Southern Campaign of the American Revolution. The military importance of this sharp engagement was described in strong and realistic terms by Sir Henry Clinton, then commander in chief of the British forces in North America. He spoke of the battle as “an Event which was immediately productive of 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.”

Kings Mountain was a surprising action that halted the triumphant northward movement of Lord Cornwallis, British commander in the South, who had undertaken to subdue that section in a final effort to end the Revolution. Though far removed from the main course of the Revolution, the hardy southern Appalachian frontiersmen rose quickly to their own defense at Kings Mountain and brought unexpected defeat to Cornwallis’ Tory invaders under Maj. Patrick Ferguson. With this great patriot victory came an immediate turn of events in the war in the South. Cornwallis abandoned his foothold in North Carolina and withdrew to a defensive position in upper South Carolina to await reinforcement. His northward march was thus delayed until January 1781, giving patriot forces an opportunity to organize a new offensive in the South. After Kings Mountain there also came a sharp upturn of patriot spirit in the Southern Piedmont which completely unnerved the Tory organization in the region. This renewed patriot resistance led eventually to the American victory at Yorktown in 1781. The engagement at Kings Mountain was not only a memorable example of the individual valor of the American frontier fighter, but also of the deadly effectiveness of his hunting rifle.