God Save the King!

A battalion of loyal Americans stood battle-ready on the spine of Kings Mountain as Lord Cornwallis' powerful army pushed north from Charleston after an unbroken string of British victories. Throughout the summer of 1780, Major Patrick Ferguson, His Majesty's Inspector of Militia, persuaded thousands of Carolina men to take up arms in defense of the government under which they had been born and raised. Ferguson and 1,000 loyalists, one third of the King's army south of New York, took their stand on this ridge prepared to finish off the rebels gathering around them. Most of the Tories who fought here came from the Carolinas, and like the Whigs they had no military uniforms, wearing only a green sprig of pine in their hats for identification. Loyalist militia trained long hours to master Brown Bess muskets and, like their redcoat instructors, expected their bayonets to decide the battle. Nine-tenths of Ferguson's force here were Carolina Tories, while only about 120 provincial soldiers in redcoats were men from Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey who had joined the British army early in the war.

Smyrna, South Carolina · United States