Front Description
The Battle of Kings Mountain
Combined militia regiments from North Carolina, Virginia. Georgia, Overmountain riflemen from present day Tennessee and Colonel James Williams’ Little River Regiment comprised the Patriot forces at the Battle of Kings Mountain on October 7, 1780. Williams’ Regiment was the only unit from S.C. Colonel Williams’ superior knowledge of the terrian, together with timely information on the enemy’s strength and mountain top location given by Thomas Kerr, a disabled soldier of the Little River Regiment, enabled the Patriots to surround and totally defeat the enemy. Patrick Ferguson, the British Commander, was killed; Colonel Williams was mortally wounded in the battle and died the following day, October 8. Thomas Jefferson viewed Kings Mountain as “the turning point” in the War for Independence.
Back Description
James Williams at Kings Mountain
James Williams was born in Virginia in 1740. He married Mary Wallace in 1762, and the couple had eight children. The Williams family moved south to Caswell County, N.C., then to present day Laurens County, S.C. in 1773. Williams served in the First Provincial (S.C.) Congress in 1775 and in the Second Provincial Congress convened later that year. He served on the Committee on Safety, a military group that protected S. C. backcountry from Cherokee Indian raids. A Colonel in the S. C. Militia, he led his Little River Regiment to victory at Musgrove Mill and at Kings Mountain where he died on October 8, 1780. His teenage sons, Daniel and Joseph, died at Hayes Station November 17, 1781.
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