Tighten the Noose

As patriot forces moved to tighten a noose around the Tories, North Carolinians under Colonel Cleveland's Wilkes County militia and Colonel Winston's Surrey County militia crossed swampy ground after leaving their horses a half mile away and reached this slope ten minutes late, where they saw loyalist pickets ahead and the din of war-whoops and rifle shots broke out. The hard morning rain had stopped, but the wet fallen leaves soaked up the sound of even hundreds of patriots moving fast. Benjamin Cleveland urged his men to fire quickly, stand their ground as long as they could, get behind trees or retreat when they could do no better, not run quite off, and, if repulsed, make a point of returning and renewing the fight. North Carolina sent more patriots to fight here than any other state, and although the over-mountain men from Virginia and Tennessee gained greater fame for the Kings Mountain victory, the piedmont patriots outnumbered them two to one.

Smyrna, South Carolina · United States