The Kings Mountain campaign of 1780 became one of the turning points of the American Revolution. In the Southern Colonies, Lord Charles Cornwallis expected strong Loyalist support in the Carolinas and appointed Major Patrick Ferguson, an experienced and charismatic officer, as Inspector of Militia for the Southern Colonies. After early success, Ferguson, with several hundred Loyalist militiamen and 120 provincial regulars from the northern colonies, tried to end Patriot activity on the frontier by threatening the backwater men to stop supporting the rebellion. The threat enraged the fiercely independent Overmountain Men and backcountry militia companies, prompting a call to arms like that at Lexington and Concord in 1775 as militia and frontiersmen formed a loosely organized army to pursue Ferguson's force. They chased the Loyalists on horseback to Kings Mountain, South Carolina, where on October 7, 1780, the two sides fought for nearly an hour. Afterward, Ferguson and 206 of his men were dead, while Loyalist forces suffered 128 wounded and 648 captured. With Ferguson and his Loyalist force lost, the main British army retreated to South Carolina for the winter, giving the Americans time to organize a new southern army under General Nathaniel Greene. Thomas Jefferson later called the pursuit and defeat of Ferguson by the Overmountain Men and local militia "the turning of the tide" in the American Revolution.