Americans Vanquished

In these woods, dazed Tories hurriedly buried their fallen comrades with only logs and rocks, while Dr. Uzal Johnson of the New Jersey provincials spent the night tending the several hundred wounded, friend and foe alike. At dawn, a long line of prisoners stumbled away under guard. In a few weeks, some would be paroled, many would escape and return to the King's ranks, and a few judged notorious plunderers would be hanged. None would see themselves or the King's cause as they had before Kings Mountain, and neither would their leaders in London. As the war ended in 1783, loyalist Americans had to decide their future: many, like Abraham DePeyster, left to resettle in New Brunswick, Canada, losing properties in New York, while others, like the 23-year-old Dr. Johnson, returned home to resume their lives among their neighbors under a new government.

South Carolina · United States