Local Boys & Spies

The patriots who formed battle lines at the foot of this hillside were local boys who knew Kings Mountain well, and some had used the large clearing atop the ridge as a deerhunters' camp. Local men from the South Fork settlements helped the Whig colonels scout out where the King's men had taken their stand. As 25-year-old Major William Chronicle ordered his militia to "Face the hill!," many a man knew he would have to face close relatives or neighbors among the Tories they would soon fight. Near here, Whig scouts questioned a Tory girl who had just been up to Ferguson's campsite to deliver some chickens, and from her, and from John Ponder, a 14-year-old local lad just captured with the major's last letter in hand, they learned that the British commander was wearing an unusual "checked hunting shirt" over his fine officer's redcoat.

Smyrna, South Carolina · United States