*When the French and Indian War and Pontiac’s Rebellion ended, King George III issued the Proclamation of 1763, outlawing all settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains.  However, hunters and traders had already been exploring the area for years.

*In December, 1760 (just months after Fort Loudoun fell to the Cherokee), Daniel Boone passed through what is now Washington County.  He supposedly killed a bear on a tree and carved his name and that fact into the bark of the tree (which stood until about 1920, when it blew down in a storm and was made into gavels by the D.A.R., who gave them to prominent local judges).  While in the area he was pursued by the Cherokee, who viewed him as a poacher, forcing him to hide under a waterfall in what is now known as Boone’s Creek.

*In 1768, Boone’s friends and hunting partner William Bean built a cabin near Boone’s Creek and in 1769 brought his wife Lydia over the mountains to settle there.  Soon she gave birth to the first child born to permanent white residents in Tennessee, Russell Bean.  Before long, other families were moving to what is now Tennessee (and then was either South-western Virginia or Western North Carolina, depending on the surveyor).  Boone later led other settlers through the Cumberland Gap into what is now Kentucky.

*Because they were outside the official jurisdiction of the colonial governments east of the proclamation line, the earliest settlers in East Tennessee needed a government of their own and formed the Watauga Association—the first independent government in America.  The Association leased the land on which they lived in 1772 and then purchased it outright in 1775.

*Although the purchase was agreed to by both the Little Carpenter and Oconostota, Attakullakulla’s son Dragging Canoe warned, “You have bought a fair land, but there is a cloud hanging over it; you will find its settlement dark and bloody.”  In 1776 he and his followers began attacking settlements throughout the Southeast, with the encouragement of British Indian agents such as John Stuart.

*The people of the Watauga settlements petitioned to join North Carolina and were allowed to do so as Washington County (the first place in America named for George Washington).  They also constructed forts while telling John Stuart that they were packing up to leave.

*Fort Caswell was besieged by Old Abram of Chilhowie.  The fort was under the command of John Carter, with John Sevier (Tennessee’s first governor) and James Robertson (founder of Nashville) as his subordinates.  John Sevier met the woman who would one day become his second wife when Catherine Sherrill was trapped outside the fort and had to outrun the Cherokee along the walls until she could jump up and Sevier could pull her over.  James Robertson’s sister Ann drove away some of the Cherokee attackers by pouring boiling water on them when they tried to set fire to the walls of the fort.  After two weeks of siege, the Cherokee gave up, but not before capturing a teenaged boy outside the fort and burning him at the stake.

*Dragging Canoe was wounded while leading a war party on the Long Island of the Holston (in the middle of modern-day Kingsport).  He survived, however, and the hostile Cherokee (and some other Indians) who followed him came to be called the Chickamauga, and they made travel near modern Chattanooga difficult for years.

*For the next few years, East Tennessee did not have a significant role in the Revolution, but when the British in the Carolinas began trying to recruit Loyalist militia and punish rebellious colonists, the people of the Holston and Watauga valleys became targets, particularly as some of them supported or even led raids on Loyalist and British forces in South Carolina.

*Just as Tarleton was given the task of hunting down the Swamp Fox and other partisans, Major Patrick Ferguson was given command of the western wing of Cornwallis’s army, made up of well over 1,000 Loyalists, and told to protect the rest of the army and hunt down the rebels.  Ferguson soon planned to lead an attack over the mountains to deal with these men who had settled beyond the Proclamation Line.

*In the summer of 1780, Ferguson sent a message to Isaac Shelby:  ‘If you do not desist your opposition to the British Arms, I shall march this army over the mountains, hang your leaders, and lay waste your country with fire and sword.’  Shelby met with John Sevier and other leaders, and they decided to fight back, attacking Ferguson first if they could.

*On 25 September, 1780, about 1,000 men mustered at Sycamore Shoals (where militia from Abingdon and from Sullivan County could easily cross the Watauga River).  They organised their supplies—locally mined lead, gunpowder made by Mary Patton on Powder Branch, cattle to be driven on the hoof for food—and on the 26th, set off for South Carolina.  That night they camped at Shelving Rock, and the next day began hiking over Roan Mountain, the first of many that the Overmountain Men would cross.  On the way, the Overmountain Men were joined by more militia from North and South Carolina, until they had around 1,400 men.

*When Ferguson learnt they were coming, he issued a proclamation to the Loyalists of the western Carolinas: 


*The Overmountain Men reached Ferguson’s camp, which he had set up on Kings Mountain (on the North/South Carolina border) on 7 October, 1780.  Ferguson had 1,100 Loyalist troops on the hill with him (along with two of his mistresses—also American Loyalists), and felt that his position was so secure that he boasted the God Himself could not get him off that mountain.

*The Overmountain Men left about a third of their force some distance from Kings Mountain to guard their horses and supplies, but at least 900 surrounded Kings Mountain and began climbing it about 3 PM on the 7th. 

*The Loyalists began to fire down on them, but they were well covered by trees.  When the Virginia militia reached the top, they were driven back by a bayonet charge, but reformed and attacked again.  More bayonet charges again delayed the Overmountain Men, but did not stop them. 

*The camp Ferguson had set up on top of the mountain, thinking it to be a defensible position, got in the way of his men as they tried to manœuver, and his elite troops were picked off by deadly riflemen.  Desperate, Ferguson tried to cut his way out, but was recognised (despite wearing a flannel hunting coat over his red uniform) and shot eight times.  His second-in-command tried to surrender, but many of the Overmountain Men ignored the white flag, slaughtering surrendering soldiers and shouting ‘Tarleton’s Quarter!’

*Eventually about 670 Loyalist troops were taken prisoner, in addition to 163 wounded and 244 killed (and several of the prisoners were later executed on flimsy charges or starved nearly to death before the majority of them escaped or were allowed to wander off). 

*Ferguson’s mistress, Virginia Sal had been shot by a stray ball (his other mistress, Virginia Pol, was fine) and Ferguson’s corpse was thrown on top of hers in a shared grave, and then urinated upon.  His grave can be visited there today—true to his word, the Overmountain Men did not get him down off that mountain.

*The Overmountain Men only lost 29 killed and 69 wounded in a battle that lasted one hour and five minutes.  After the battle, most of the Overmountain Men went home, but now Patriots in the mountains were emboldened, Loyalists in the Carolina mountains feared for their lives, Cornwallis feared for the safety of his left flank, and soon he would have to abandon North Carolina and march into Virginia.  Some historians consider Kings Mountain to be the turning point of the war.

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