WILLIAM CAMPBELL

Augusta, Virginia
1745−August 22, 1781
A Campbell Created by a Committee

Brigadier General and political leader William Campbell’s role in the Revolutionary War was like a cameo in a movie. Few people recognize his name or his role. He and his troops defeated a Tory army at Kings Mountain, North Carolina, on October 7, 1780, in a relatively obscure battle that had a large impact on the outcome of the war and the country’s future. He was a symbol of the virtually unrecognized men and women who stepped up during the war and made contributions that did not seem important at the time, but that altered the course of history.

Tories Be Terrorized

Campbell was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses (the colony’s legislature, which was the first assembly of elected representatives of English colonists in North America), like his brother-in-law Patrick Henry, a patriot who despised British rule.

On January 20, 1775, Campbell, along with twelve other representatives of Fincastle County, Virginia, signed a resolution to be forwarded to the colony’s delegation at the First Continental Congress. It stated that they would resist the Intolerable Acts (punitive laws of the British—see Appendix A for more information). They swore they would fight to their deaths to preserve their political liberties. The document became known as the Fincastle Resolutions.

Campbell was willing to do more than sign resolutions. He was ready and willing to fight the British, wherever and whenever. He was especially eager to punish Tories for their misguided allegiance if the chance arose. It did.

REVOLUTIONARY REVELATIONS

Campbell was not fond of Tories. He earned the nickname of the “bloody tyrant of Washington County” for his harsh treatment of people who remained loyal to Britain during the war.

King of Kings Mountain

State militias in the southern part of the United States were busy between 1778 and 1781. The British invaded the region because they believed the numerous Tories in the area would flock to their side. They did not reckon on the strength and cunning of the patriots, who fought an unconventional battle at Kings Mountain, North Carolina, just west of Charlotte.

The Battle of Kings Mountain, which is omitted or glossed over in many history books, is considered by some historians as the turning point in the Revolutionary War. The patriot militia’s victory destroyed the left wing of General Charles Cornwallis’s British army and forced it to abandon its operations in North Carolina. Cornwallis moved his army to South Carolina to await reinforcements. While he waited, American General Nathanael Greene increased his own forces, which were ultimately successful in driving Cornwallis out of South Carolina as well.

The Battle of Kings Mountain did not involve regular British troops. It was fought between patriot and Tory militia units. The Tories were led by Major Patrick Ferguson, a Scottish officer in the British army—and the only regular army officer on either side at the battle.

The American forces that convened at Kings Mountain included about 900 troops led by Campbell, John Sevier, Isaac Shelby, Benjamin Cleveland, Charles McDowell, and James Williams. They combined their forces when they arrived for the battle, but they did not have a chief commander. They put the matter to a vote. Campbell became the overall commander of the patriot forces—in other words, a leader created by a committee.

Major Ferguson’s little army included about 1,125 Tories defending a mountain about one-quarter mile long at an elevation slightly above 1,003 feet. He was confident in his ability to ward off any patriot attack. Ferguson was wrong. The patriots were determined to drive the enemy off the mountain—if any of the Tories were still alive after the battle.

Quotations to Live (and Die) By!

“HE WAS ON KINGS MOUNTAIN, THAT HE WAS KING OF THAT MOUNTAIN AND THAT GOD ALMIGHTY AND ALL THE REBELS OF HELL COULD NOT DRIVE HIM FROM IT.”

—COLONEL ISAAC SHELBY, DESCRIBING MAJOR PATRICK FERGUSON

Some of the patriot leaders were veterans of Lord Dunmore’s War in 1774 against the Shawnee and Mingo Indians and they had developed unconventional battle strategies as a result. At about 3 P.M. on the day of the battle, the patriots attacked in a four-column formation. Campbell led one of the interior columns. Their years of hunting in the mountains and fighting Indians paid off. They fired from behind trees and rocks, a style of warfare that flustered Ferguson and his troops. The patriots decimated their enemies and killed Ferguson.

The Tories tried to surrender to the patriots’ leader, but they could not find him. Campbell had removed his coat and was fighting in an open-collared shirt. No one could single him out as the elected commander. Finally, the slaughter abated of its own accord.

The Battle of Kings Mountain lasted about one hour. Casualty figures show how one sided it was. There were 225 Tories killed, 163 wounded, and 716 captured. Not one of them escaped! Only twenty-eight patriots were killed and sixty-eight wounded.

The unheralded—but historically significant—battle all but ended the war in the South.

FEDERAL FACTS

Allegedly, the patriots stripped Major Ferguson’s clothes from his body and urinated on his remains before burying him near where he fell.

The Final Promotion

After General Cornwallis heard about the outcome of the Battle of Kings Mountain, he withdrew his troops from North Carolina and assembled them near Winnsboro, South Carolina. But it was too late for him.

Within a few months the Continental Army and their militia counterparts chased Cornwallis out of South Carolina, the South in general, and the United States. Campbell had earned himself a place in history, but he did not live long enough to realize what he had accomplished.

The Virginia Assembly commissioned William Campbell as a brigadier general in 1781. It was his last promotion. In June of that year, Campbell joined the French military leader Marquis de Lafayette in eastern Virginia to continue the campaign against the British. On August 22, 1781, he suffered an apparent heart attack and died.

The assembly granted 5,000 acres of land to his young son, Charles Henry Campbell, to express its appreciation for his father’s distinguished service.

The “Campbell created by a committee” had driven a lethal nail into the British army’s campaign to defeat the American enemy. More importantly, he had shown that some of the biggest heroes in the war for independence were not Founding Fathers: They were often everyday Americans, whose numbers formed the biggest committee of patriots in the country.