The Scotch-Irish and the Battle of Kings Mountain

The Battle of King's Mountain, won by the "Over-Mountain Men" against Major Ferguson's Loyalist command, was one of two battles (the other being Lexington-Concord and the British retreat to Boston in 1775) won by the Patriot side in which they practised the "skulking way of war," shooting from behind rocks and trees against uniformed British troops in formation. Because of these two American victories, it has come down to us that the entire American Revolution was won by clever American troops shooting from behind rocks/trees at the idiotic mechanical redcoat British formations. In the case of Lexington-Concord, the American troops did not have the training of the British, so they reverted (many of them being French-Indian War vets) to the simplest way of doing things, i.e., rocks/trees. But they (contrary to the American myth that every Patriot was an amazing marksman) fired an estimated 80,000 shots against the British force (which was confined to a fenced roadway), which resulted in only about 300 casualties. At King's Mountain, the Over-Mountain Men were essentially rifle-armed frontiersmen, used to woods warfare against Native American opponents, who had their enemy surrounded and trapped on top of a small wooded mountain. While Ferguson had invented what was probably the most advanced breech-loading rifle of the time, the rifles had been withdrawn after he was wounded at the Battle of Germantown and he probably had very few (if any) of them at King's Mountain - his Loyalist troops were armed with smooth-bore muskets (inaccurate beyond 25-50 yards) and unused to bush fighting. IMHO, once Ferguson's troops were trapped on the mountain, the result was a foregone conclusion. I might add that George Washington recognized that sharpshooting against the British from behind rocks/trees would never win the war - his army needed to be trained to conduct warfare in the disciplined European manner - in the open, in formation with smoothbore muskets and bayonets. Following the arrival of Baron Steuben and his training methods, Washington's army (aided by the French) did just that. Another myth about the war was that British troops wearing red coats made them easy to pick off. While officers and serjeants were clothed in scarlet, the British ranker's coat was colored with cheap dye to a brick red shade, which is not very visible in the shadows of the woods. On the open field of battle, it wouldn't have mattered. Some American troops also wore captured red uniforms, while French troops wore white coats.

My 4GGF, Laban Hartley, fought at the Battle of Kings Mountain. Thomas Jefferson said the Battle of King's Mountain turned "the tide of success which terminated the Revolutionary War, with the seal of our independence."

Thank you for uploading this Chief, I’ve lived in Kings Mountain for many years and always wanted to know more about the battle