The Battle of King's Mountain
A quick and dirty Summary.

For the full meal deal: The Army College Report of 1829.

The American Revolutionary War was at an impasse. The North was held by the Americans, the South by the English. Cornwallis, in a bid to win the war, decided to take his troops North, moving up through the interior. This would prove a disastrous stratagem, in part because the proposed route cut through the new heartland of the Scots-Irish, the people descended from Scottish reivers and northern Irish. As well as coming from hardy stock, these people were thoroughly hardened by life in the New World. They had managed to survive the elements, starvation, disease, isolation, even what some have deemed an exercise in genocide by the already established English settlements, and were bloodied again and again by the Native peoples. Freshly brutalized by the French and Indian War, they were fierce, rugged people, who lived very hard lives, in appalling, even savage, conditions. In many areas, their existence was completely abject and unimaginable even to other settlers in the Colonies. Unlike the Highland Scots from further South (who joined Cornwallis on his march North and were the traditional enemies of the Scots-Irish) the descendants of the Scots-Irish immigrants were not great supporters of England. In fact, the majority of these western mountain people were interested in only two things: survival and freedom. In their position on the edges of the frontier and in the mountains of Appalachia, they had thus far assured themselves solitude, protection and knowledge of the mountains and frontiers, and most importantly, independence from the interference of other men and governments. At King's Mountain, Cornwallis's attempt to invade North Carolina would finally meet with these Scots-Irish descendants and fail miserably in what would be become known as The Battle of King's Mountain.

The story of King's Mountain is not a very long one. And perhaps it has a predictable outcome given the nature of the mountain men and the English army's refusal to listen to local advice. From the beginning, after English Col. Patrick Ferguson was ordered to march his troops North through the interior, he was warned against this plan. Many locals said the strategy was a mistake at best, claiming the interior was unknown and populated by savage mountain peoples better left alone. Still others suggested re-routing the march to avoid contact. In the end, when the plan held, many of Ferguson's Tories flatly refused to join him, fearing certain death at the hands of these mountain and frontiers people. As the stories grew and became mythic in proportion, tales of savage men and mystic lands that none but a few dared travel, it became harder and harder to induce the locals to join with Ferguson. Though Col. Patrick Ferguson would march his men north as planned, the way would not prove as easy as planned, nor the support as strong.

As Ferguson travelled into the interior, his troops met with more and more resistance. Ferguson grew frustrated and sent a message out to the mountain people: if they did not “desist from their opposition to the British army, and take protection under his standard, he would march his army over the mountains, hang their leaders, and lay their country waste with fire and sword.” The result was something other than what was anticipated. In direct retaliation, upon hearing Ferguson's message, a group of roughly nine hundred mountain yeomen, largely of Scots-Irish descent, began a march against English Col. Patrick Ferguson. These advancing men were not soldiers with formal training. Or even from one locale. They had no orders, no pay, no provisions, no uniforms. They were rebel overmountainmen of the west Blue Ridge Mountains, and from all accounts, they were pissed. (Ferguson's response to the approaching force.)

Nine hundred mountain men marched on Ferguson, through entire days and nights, without stop, through bad weather, with little sleep, converging and growing in number, joining local militias as they made their way through the mountains. Their one goal: hunt down Ferguson and any who stood by him, American or English. On October 7, 1780, at three o'clock in the afternoon, the mountain men and militias finally caught up with Ferguson and his troops where they retreated on "King's Mountain" and attacked. In just a little over an hour later, Ferguson's entire force was killed or captured and Ferguson, himself, lay rotting on the battlefield. At sometime during the battle, a flag of surrender would be raised and flatly ignored. Less than one hundred of the mountain yeomen lost their lives that day.

Many historians believe this immigrant group and their battle at King's Mountain turned the tide of the Revolutionary War in the South and broke the Tory influence in the Carolinas forever. General Cornwallis stopped his push north and retreated to Virginia where he would eventually surrender at the Battle of Yorktown.

Four Robinsons are known to have marched on Ferguson at King's Mountain, along with one Gambrel:

Robinson, John, Lieutenant
Robinson, Thomas
Robinson, William
Robinson, William, Lieutenant

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