Biggerstaff Hanging Tree
Rutherford County, Rutherford County, North Carolina
Marker Inscription
Biggerstaff Hanging Tree. Returning from the battle of Kings Mountain, the victorious "Over Mountain Men" hung nine of the captured Tories from a tree near this spot October 14, 1780.
The Story
In October 1780, the tide of the Revolution in the southern backcountry had just turned at Kings Mountain, where Patriot militia known as the "Over Mountain Men" crushed a Loyalist force. Marching their prisoners back through the Carolina hills, the victors held a rough drumhead trial and, as this marker records, hanged nine captured Tories from a tree near this spot. It was a raw act of frontier justice in a war that, in the Carolinas, was as much a civil war between neighbors as a fight against the Crown.
Why it matters
The hangings capture the brutal, personal nature of the Revolution's southern campaign, where the momentum built at Kings Mountain helped set the stage for the American victory at Yorktown a year later.
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Related events
- · Battle of Kings Mountain
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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