 |  |
[ NKN Home What's New Our Trees Our Purpose Our Name Documents Camp/Kemp Family Photos Cemeteries ]
Based on Dr. Lyman Draper's "King's Mountain and its Heroes: The Battle of King's Mountain."
| |
|
Everytime I make the trek homeward down I-85 - from Charlotte to Spartanburg to Greenvile to Atlanta - just before I cross over from North into South Carolina, I see the King's Mountain exit. Finally in Summer 2003, I took my camper and set up in the King's Mountain State Park across from the Battlefield. This gave me a great opportunity not only to visit the park (again), but to go into the city and research the Revolutionary War battle from a local perspective. The RV park was great and reasonably priced, as are most state parks, and in King's Mountain was a post-antebellum mansion that serves as the city bibliotheque - the Mauney Memorial Library. There I found materials seminal to my visit's purpose. The key document to a profitable search was located, Dr. Lyman Draper's "King's Mountain and its Heroes: The Battle of King's Mountain." In that record, I found surprising material concerning our family's participation in the conflict. |
Musgrove's Mill Expedition and Battle Returning from the Fair Forest expedition, Clarke and Shelby's men needed a little repose....By his scouts, Colonel McDowell was kept well informed of [British Commander] Ferguson's movements. Learning that a body of some Loyalist were stationed at Musgrove's Mill, some forty miles distant..., it was regarded as a vulnerable point. Colonel Shelby and Clarke were appointed to lead a party of mounted men to surprise or attack the Loyalists at Musgrove's....Shelby and his two hundred adventurous followers left camp an hour before sun-down, on the seventeenth of August.... Arriving near the dawn of day....Shelby and Clarke had taken position on a timbered ridge....On approaching the American lines, [the British] were unexpectedly met with a deadly fire....But their superior numbers enabled them to continue their attack....It was a desperate struggle--Shelby's men contending against large odds.... At this critical moment,...the British leader was bady disabled--shot, it was reported, by one of the Watauga volunteers. [The British] were gradually forced back before the exasperated riflemen. It was unfortunate....Captain Campbell, together with Lieutenants Camp and William Chew, were also among the wounded.* ....heavy losses had a very disheartening effect upon the British troops...Clarke and his brave men, following Shelby's example, pushed forth....It was in the melee, when the British defeat was too apparent....The British and Tories were now in full retreat, closely followed by the intrepid mountaineers....Great credit is justly due to Captain Inman for the successful manner in which he brought on the action, and the aid he rendered in conducting it to a triumphant issue. ...an express arrived from Col. Innes...informing us that he had been attacked...at Musgrove's Mill; that himself and Major Fraser of his regiment were wounded, as were Capt. Peter Campbell, Liets. Chew and Camp, of Col. Allen's regiment. __________ * [footnote] Of Lieutenant Camp's career, before or after the affair at Musgrove's Mill, we have no information." |
) |
) |
) | ) | |
| Included above is the title page of Draper's "Heroes of King's Mountain," a reference to Lt. John Camp being wounded in the Musgrove Mill engagement, Draper's Index which includes our Camp family participants, and a diagram of the Musgrove area. | ||||
|
"The King's Mountain range is about sixteen miles in length, extending generally from the north-east, in North Carolina....Ferguson's observing eye was attracted to this commanding eminence; and regarding it as a fit camping place, he concluded to tarry there.... It was suggested to him by some of his officers, that it was useless to prolong the contest, and throw away their lives....But Ferguson's proud heart could not think of surrenduring.... At length, satisfied that all was lost,...The intrepid British leader made a bold dash for life and freedom, with sword in his left hand, cutting and slashing till he had broken it. Colonel Shelby mentions the sword incident and Benjamin Sharp corroborates it.... One of Sevier's men, named Gilleland,...seeing the advance of Ferguson...called out... Ferguson fell from his horse, and his associates were either killed or driven back. Several rifle bullets had taken effect on Ferguson, apparently about the same time, and a number claimed the honor of having shot the fallen chief....Certain is it, that Ferguson received six or eight wounds, one of them through the head. In falling from his horse, or while being conveyed to the rear, a silver whistle dropped from his vest pocket, which was picked up by one of his soldiers, Elias Powell, who preserved it for many years...." |
) |
) |
) | ) | |
| A battlefield plaque commemorates the patroits' forced march to confront and defeat Ferguson, another plaque tells the story of British commander's fall, Draper's illustration of Ferguson's 'Death Charge,' and the original marker at the site reads simply: 'Col. Ferguson fell - Oct. 7, 1780.' | ||||
) |
) |
) | ) | |
| A portrait of Col. Patrick Ferguson (1744-1780) from the lobby of the King's Mountain Visitor Center, a period drawing of Col. Ferguson from Hank Messick's "King's Mountain" text, and on the battlefield, Ferguson's memorial marker flanks a traditional Scottish burial mound behind. | ||||
'The Camp Bulletin,' Vol. I, No. 7, August 1927, page 2.
History of Gwinnett County, Georiga, Vol. II, page 32-33, by James C. Flanigan, has the following regarding Nathaniel Camp:
The story of the conch shell is also told in the following letter [from]...Mr. Robert William Everett...to the editor of the Atlanta Constitution:
Mrs. Mabel McEachern Stewart...in 'A Brief History of the Camp-Arnold Ancestory,' October 1, 1940:
According to records at the DAR Headquarters, Washington, D.C., the Conch Shell Horn or Bugle is No. 1819, and was given on April 20, 1925 by Mrs. R.W. Everett of the Baron Dekalb Chapter of Decatur, Georgia, to the DAR National Museum in Washington, D.C. In October 1959 the Conch Shell Horn was on display in the Oklahoma Colonial Kitchen Room of the DAR Museum." |
) |
) |
) | ) | |
| The Mauney Memorial Library in King's Mountain where I found a number of pertinent books, the King's Mountain National Military Park sign, the newer enormous monument (obelisk) commemorating the King's Mountain battle and combatants, and details from one of the monument's four brass plaques. | ||||
) |
) |
) | ) | |
| Two battlefield diagrams from Messick's text showing both the Mountaineer Corps and the British troop positions, and the original smaller King's Mountain battlefield monument, in real life and from an early drawing in Draper's text. | ||||
