Kings Mountain National Military Park!

What Is Kings Mountain National Military Park?

This park interprets a significant battlefield in Britain’s 1780 campaign to retake the South!

What Makes It Historical?

In 1780, the British army gave up its efforts to take the northern colonies and focused on retaking the South. Part of that mission was to recruit and train loyal Southerners to fight for the crown, and the person in charge of that effort was Major Patrick Ferguson. After the capture of Charleston in May 1780, he recruited over a thousand Carolinians and trained them in the techniques of British warfare, then set off to “lay [the rebels’] country to waste with fire and sword!”

Well that didn’t sit too well with those rebels, especially since the loyalists had slaughtered soldiers who had already surrendered back in May. Ready for revenge, they chased Major Ferguson through Gilbert Town, then Sycamore Shoals, and finally to Kings Mountain on October 7, 1780. Here erupted a battle of two American forces (Major Ferguson was the only Brit in the battle)! He’d trained these soldiers for open warfare with muskets and bayonets, but their high ground turned out to be their undoing when the Patriots, under Colonels William Campbell and Isaac Shelby, brought hunting rifles, which were slower but much more accurate! Sheltered by the forest under Kings Mountain, these “untrained hillbillies” picked off the Loyalists on top of the hill and toppled Major Ferguson for good! This crippled Lord Cornwallis’ left flank and spelled the end of the British Southern campaign!

How Can I #HelpTheHelpers?

Volunteer at Kings Mountain National Military Park!
Donate to Kings Mountain National Military Park!
Be a responsible visitor! Remember the old adages: Pack out what you pack in! Take nothing but pictures and leave nothing but footprints!