In 1909, the Daughters of the American Revolution erected a stone obelisk on the hill to the south in memory of the patriots who assembled here on September 26, 1780, on their way to King's Mountain under Sevier, Shelby, and Campbell. These frontiersmen, later called the Overmountain Men, gathered at Watauga Old Fields along nearby Sycamore Shoals to counter a threatened invasion by British Major Patrick Ferguson, who led about 1100 Loyalist soldiers. William Campbell of Virginia, along with John Sevier and Isaac Shelby from this area, were chosen to lead them. Local settlers, including gunpowder maker Mary Patton, helped provision the Patriot force before it crossed the mountains and was joined by additional contingents from Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. On October 7, 1780, the Patriot force of around 900 men won a remarkable victory over Ferguson and his army at King's Mountain, about 40 miles west of Charlotte. Thomas Jefferson called King's Mountain the "turn of the tide of success" in the American Revolution.