Prelude
Tories in the area began raiding and plundering Whig properties, and in early June 1780 established a camp at Mobley's Meeting House, about 12 miles (19 km) north of Shirer's Ferry, located on a high embankment on a branch of the Little River in Fairfield District. They were under the general command of Colonel Robert Coleman of Fairfield District, Colonel Joseph Fleuquinyan and Captain William Nichols. This group had plundered many of the possessions of Whigs in the area, in particular members of the Hampton family, and had sent John and Henry Hampton as prisoners to Lord Cornwallis at Camden. Thus laden down with booty, they awaited British assistance.
Richard Winn, a prominent Whig leader in the area, began to rally supporter to his side. By June 7 he had rallied a force of between one and two hundred men in the New Acquisition District (roughly York County, South Carolina). Its principal commanders were Colonel William Bratton, who had been leading Whig militia since the war began in 1775, as well as Colonels Edward Lacey, John McClure, Samuel Watson, Cooper, and William Hill. This group was composed in large part of the Whig forces that had just the day before routed and scattered a Tory gathering at Beckhamville, South Carolina. Colonel Bratton was elected overall field commander for the engagement, which rode for Mobley's that day, arriving in the early morning hours. They found that the camp, although it had a fortified blockhouse and the meetinghouse itself was of sturdy construction, was not particularly alert against possible attack, and planned a surprise attack.
Andrew Pickens was a militia leader in the American Revolution. A planter and slaveowner, he developed his Hopewell plantation on the east side of the Keowee River across from the Cherokee town of Isunigu (Seneca) in western South Carolina. He was elected as a member of the United States House of Representatives from western South Carolina. Several treaties with the Cherokee were negotiated and signed at his plantation of Hopewell.
The Battle of Kings Mountain was a military engagement between Patriot and Loyalist militias in South Carolina during the Southern Campaign of the American Revolutionary War, resulting in a decisive victory for the Patriots. The battle took place on October 7, 1780, 9 miles (14 km) south of the present-day town of Kings Mountain, North Carolina. In what is now rural Cherokee County, South Carolina, the Patriot militia defeated the Loyalist militia commanded by British Major Patrick Ferguson of the 71st Foot. The battle has been described as "the war's largest all-American fight".
Benjamin Cleveland was an American pioneer and officer in the North Carolina militia. He is best remembered for his service as a colonel in the Wilkes County Regiment of the North Carolina militia during the War of Independence, and in particular for his role in the American victory at the Battle of Kings Mountain.
The Battle of Waxhaws was a military engagement which took place on May 29, 1780 during the American Revolutionary War between a Patriot force led by Abraham Buford and a British force led by Banastre Tarleton near Lancaster, South Carolina. Buford's men consisted of Continental Army soldiers, while Tarleton's force was mostly made up of Loyalist troops. After the two forces sighted each other, Buford rejected an initial demand to surrender. Tarleton's cavalrymen launched a charge against the Patriot troops, which led many of Buford's men to throw their arms down in surrender. However, as Tarleton's horse had been shot from under him during the charge, pinning him underneath, his infuriated soldiers attacked their Patriot opponents, killing several.
South Carolina was outraged over British tax policies in the 1760s that violated what they saw as their constitutional right to "no taxation without representation". Merchants joined the boycott against buying British products. When the London government harshly punished Massachusetts for the Boston Tea Party, South Carolina's leaders joined eleven other colonies in forming the Continental Congress. When the British attacked Lexington and Concord in the spring of 1775 and were beaten back by the Massachusetts Patriots, South Carolina Patriots rallied to support the American Revolution. Loyalists and Patriots of the colony were split by nearly 50/50.
The Battle of Charlotte was an American Revolutionary War battle fought in Charlotte, North Carolina on September 26, 1780. The battle took place at the Mecklenburg County Court House; which is now the site of the Bank of America tower at Trade and Tryon Streets in uptown Charlotte. An advance guard of General Charles Cornwallis' army rode into town and encountered a well-prepared Patriot militia under the command of William R. Davie in front of the court house. A skirmish ensued in which George Hanger, leading the British cavalry, was wounded. The small Patriot force, which had not intended more than token resistance, withdrew north toward Salisbury upon the arrival of Cornwallis and the main army.
The Battle of Colson's Mill was a battle of the American Revolutionary War that took place in North Carolina on July 21, 1780. A Patriot militia under William Lee Davidson scattered a gathering of Loyalists at Colson's Mill, near the junction of the Rocky and Pee Dee Rivers in present-day Stanly County, North Carolina.
Griffith Rutherford was an American military officer in the Revolutionary War and the Cherokee-American Wars, a political leader in North Carolina, and an important figure in the early history of the Southwest Territory and the state of Tennessee.
The Battle of Ramsour's Mill took place on June 20, 1780 in present-day Lincolnton, North Carolina, during the British campaign to gain control of the southern colonies in the American Revolutionary War. The number of fighters on each side of the battle is still an issue of contention, but Loyalist militiamen outnumbered Patriot militia and had captured a group of Patriots who they were planning to hang on the morning of June 20.
John Bratton was a U.S. Representative from South Carolina, as well as a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He rose from private to brigadier general and led a regiment and brigade in the Army of Northern Virginia in several important battles in both the Eastern Theater and Western Theater during the war.
The Battle of Rocky Mount took place on August 1, 1780 as part of the American Revolutionary War. 600 Loyalists commanded by Lieutenant Colonel George Turnbull occupying an outpost in northern South Carolina withstood an attack by 300 American Patriots led by Colonel Thomas Sumter.
The Battle of Hanging Rock took place during the American Revolutionary War between the American Patriots and the British. It was part of a campaign by militia General Thomas Sumter to harass or destroy British outposts in the South Carolina back-country that had been established after the fall of Charleston in May 1780.
Major Joseph Caldwell McJunkin was an American Revolutionary War patriot serving in the battle of Kings Mountain, North Carolina.
Huck's Defeat or the Battle of Williamson's Plantation was an engagement of the American Revolutionary War that occurred in present York County, South Carolina on July 12, 1780, and was one of the first battles of the southern campaign to be won by Patriot militia.
Events from the year 1780 in the United States.
William "Bloody Bill" Cunningham (1756–1787) was an American loyalist infamous for perpetrating a series of bloody massacres in South Carolina's backcountry in the fall of 1781 as commander of a Tory militia regiment in the Revolutionary War. Though his family were loyal to the British crown, Cunningham initially enlisted in the Continental Army as part of the State of South Carolina's 3rd regiment in 1775. His tenure in the rebel army was an unhappy one and Cunningham changed sides to fight for the British in 1778. He earned the nickname "Bloody Bill" for the violent, ruthless nature of his raids on rebels and patriot civilians.
Martha Bratton was an American woman who supported the Patriot cause during the American Revolutionary War. In 1780, she blew up a cache of gunpowder to prevent it from falling into British hands. Troops of the British Legion questioned her as to her husband William's whereabouts in June of that year, and a battle ensued after she used a slave to inform him of their movements. Their house, a girls' school after Bratton's death, is one of the properties of the Brattonsville Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Buford's Massacre Site, also known as Buford's Battleground, is a historic site and national historic district located near Lancaster, South Carolina. Two monuments at the site mark the battleground where the Battle of Waxhaws took place. A white monument ten feet tall, erected on June 2, 1860, marked the gravesite of American soldiers who died during the battle. This marker was gradually damaged over time by souvenir hunters who chipped off pieces, which led local authorities to erect a new monument on May 1, 1955, bearing the same inscription. The Battle of Waxhaws was a minor engagement during the American Revolutionary War between the Continental Army and Loyalist forces led by British colonel Banastre Tarleton.
Christian Huck, a Loyalist soldier from Philadelphia during the American Revolutionary War, was known for Huck's Defeat.
Colonel William Bratton was an American military officer who served during the Revolutionary War. He led Patriot forces in a successful 1780 ambush against Loyalist troops led by Captain Christian Huck. Bratton's men killed Huck during the battle, which was one of the first battles of the war's Southern campaign to be won by a force of Patriot militiamen. The Bratton family house, which was transformed into a girls' school after Bratton's death, is one of the properties of the Brattonsville Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Patriot militia
Loyalist militia