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Before They Were Heroes at King's Mountain
Before They Were Heroes at King's Mountain Author:Randell Jones Before they were heroes at King's Mountain, the Overmountain men of the Carolina and Virginia frontiers were challenging the Shawnees and the Cherokees, developing the fighting skills that garnered them the fearsome appellation, the yelling boys. Lord Dunmore s War in 1774 and the campaigns against the Cherokees in 1776 and against the Chickamau... more »gas in 1779 developed their capacity of traversing mountainous terrain and fighting tree-to-tree in fierce, hand-to-hand battles. The Battle of Great Bridge in 1775 helped build the reputation of the shirtmen for their expert marksmanship. The Loyalist support in the Southern colonies was tested at Moores Creek Bridge and later at Ramsours Mill. British Indian agents on the frontier conspired to incite the Cherokees to attack the rebel colonists as part of a pan-Indian attack reaching south from Fort Detroit to force the trespassers back across the Alleghenies, where the Father, King George III wanted his subjects to stay. Five years into the American Revolution, the partisan, upcountry militiaman of South Carolina harassed the advancing British Legion and set the stage for the conflict in the Carolina Piedmont that would destroy one-third of Cornwallis s army and turn the tide of the War for Independence. All these skirmishes, battles, and campaigns during the six years before the fall of 1780 prepared these backcountry frontiersmen for the challenges they would face in their relentless pursuit of Major Patrick Ferguson and before they were heroes at Kings Mountain.« less