As we move toward our nation’s semiquincentennial, I’m focusing on the related contributions and connections of folks of the Fork, the Knox County lands between the French Broad and Holston rivers. Last week, we learned about how the Rev. Samuel Doak prayed over the Patriots (also called “Whigs”) heading to confront British Major Patrick Ferguson and his Loyalist band of backwoodsmen, also called “Tories.” Today, we’ll follow them into battle at King’s Mountain.
Among the militiamen who kissed their wives and children goodbye and determined to help put an end to the war on their doorstep was George Gillespie. According to genealogical records of the Daughters of the American Revolution, George came to America with his parents and then left the farm he had bought in Maryland and moved in about 1772 to the Watauga settlement area of North Carolina, which is now upper East Tennessee. George and his son Thomas and their regiments set out under their leader John Sevier, along with other militiamen and their leaders Col. William Campbell and Col. Isaac Shelby, to engage Ferguson in 1780. Militiamen under Arthur Campbell, Benjamin Cleveland, and Charles and Joseph McDowell also joined them.
Many don’t think of the American Revolution as a civil war, but it very much was at times neighbor against neighbor, even kin fighting together or against one another. Some continued to pledge allegiance to British King George III, while others determined to fight for independence from the crown. At times, men were conscripted or forced to participate on one side or the other, no matter their personal opinions…