On October 7, 1780, Patriot militiamen from across the Appalachian Mountains' Great Blue Ridge converged on King's Mountain, South Carolina, where they surrounded and savagely defeated a British Loyalist militia force under the universally despised Major Patrick Ferguson. This victory by the "Overmountain Men" proved a major turning point in the American War for Independence, as it galvanized Patriot support among the citizens of the Carolina backcountry, swelled the ranks of the Patriot militia in the region, and ultimately enabled American militia and regular Continental Army troops to confound British General Lord Cornwallis and his "Southern Strategy" to snuff out the American rebellion from the bottom up.
Historical Eye of the Tiger: Clemson vs. Appalachian State
