Kings Mountain Battleground
Cleveland County, Cleveland County, North Carolina
Marker Inscription
Kings Mountain Battleground. Site of decisive British defeat on Oct. 7, 1780. National Military Park located 5 mi. southeast in South Carolina.
Erected by North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
The Story
On October 7, 1780, Patriot backwoodsmen crushed a Loyalist force at Kings Mountain, just over the line in South Carolina, in a decisive Revolutionary War victory. The battle broke Britain's grip on the southern backcountry and turned the tide of the war in the Carolinas; the national military park lies a few miles southeast.
Why it matters
Thomas Jefferson called Kings Mountain "the turn of the tide of success," a frontier fight that helped set the Revolution on the road to Yorktown.
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Related events
- · Battle of Kings Mountain
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Cornwallis
Grover, NC
In January 1781 General Lord Cornwallis crossed into North Carolina near this spot, launching his second invasion of the state as he chased the American forces of Daniel Morgan and Nathanael Greene. The pursuit stretched his army thin and led toward the costly clash at Guilford Courthouse.
Patrick Ferguson
Grover, NC
On October 4–5, 1780, the Loyalist force commanded by Colonel Patrick Ferguson camped near this site as it moved through the Carolina backcountry. Two days later Ferguson was killed and his command shattered at the Battle of Kings Mountain, a few miles to the southeast.
Hoover Monument
York County, SC
This monument marks the spot where, on October 7, 1930, President Herbert Hoover stood before a crowd of some 75,000 people to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Kings Mountain. That 1780 clash was a turning point of the Revolution in the South, when Patriot backwoodsmen decisively defeated a Loyalist force on the ridge nearby. A century and a half later, the sesquicentennial drew a sitting president and one of the largest gatherings the region had ever seen.
Major Willian Chronicle
York County, SC
On October 7, 1780, this ground near the North Carolina line saw the Battle of Kings Mountain, a turning point in the American Revolution's southern campaign. Frontier militia known as the Overmountain Men surrounded and crushed a Loyalist force under Major Patrick Ferguson in about an hour of fierce fighting. Major William Chronicle, a young Patriot officer leading his Lincoln County men, was killed early in the assault at the spot this stone marks.