Don't Mess With The Patriots...!

Some lessons in life are only learned the hard way!

That should have been a warning to the Tories under Major Ferguson. Guess they just had to learn it the hard way! One lesson that surely was passed down...when you play with fire, you're gonna get burned! BIG TIME!

Oct 7, 1780:

Battle of King's Mountain

During the American Revolution, Patriot irregulars under Colonel William Campbell defeat Tories under Major Patrick Ferguson at the Battle of King's Mountain in South Carolina.

Major Ferguson's Tory force, made up mostly of American Loyalists from South Carolina and elsewhere, was the western wing of General Lord Cornwallis' North Carolina invasion force. One thousand American frontiersmen under Colonel Campbell of Virginia gathered in the backcountry to resist Ferguson's advance. Pursued by the Patriots, Ferguson positioned his Tory force in defense of a rocky, treeless ridge named King's Mountain. The Patriots charged the hillside multiple times, demonstrating lethal marksmanship against the surrounded Loyalists.

Unwilling to surrender to a "band of banditti," Ferguson led a suicidal charge down the mountain and was cut down in a hail of bullets. After his death, some of his men tried to surrender, but they were slaughtered in cold blood by the frontiersmen, who were bitter over British excesses in the Carolinas. The Tories suffered 157 killed, 163 wounded, and 698 captured. Colonel Campbell's force suffered just 28 killed and 60 wounded.

There are a few things you should be taught very early as a solder, with the main lesson being that it's hard to beat a foe on their home ground! In simpler terms, it's hard to beat a Patriot at home!

We all already knew that...right? Right!

Coffee on the patio this morning. It might rain later, but we won't hold our breath!