Browse Items (36 total)

Greenlee Ford was the shallow crossing of the Catawba River used by travelers. The party of some 1400 backcountry militiamen crossed the river on the morning October 1, 1780 and marched up the valley of Silver Creek as they proceeded south toward…

Pilot Mountain was a prominent landmark adjacent to the South Mountains. A broad gap to its southeast provided passage between the Catawba River basin and the Broad River basin. The backcountry militiamen marched toward this area on October 1 when…

Bedford Hill was the campsite of the backcountry militiamen on the nights of October 1 and 2. A heavy and persistent rain forced the men to stop their march toward Gilbert Town. These volunteers did not have a military discipline and they soon became…

On September 12, 1780, Burke County militiamen under Colonel Charles McDowell and Rutherford County militiamen under Colonel Andrew Hampton were encamped near Pilot Mountain at White Oak Springs when they received word that Major Patrick Ferguson and…

On September 30, 1780, about one thousand militiamen from the Overmountain region (today's East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia) marched into Quaker Meadows to gather with 350 militiamen from Surry and Wilkes counties, North Carolina. Quaker Meadows…

Quaker Meadows Cemetery is a gated cemetery and a certified site on the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail. It includes the graves of brothers Charles McDowell and Joseph McDowell as well as many other persons of the 18th century.

Gilbert Town was a small frontier settlement occupied at different times by patriot and British forces. British Lt. Anthony Allaire wrote in his diary: "This town contains one dwelling house, one barn, a blacksmith's shop, and some out-houses…

On the evening of October 5, 1780, the patriot militiamen reached the Green River but had lost the trail for Patrick Ferguson's retreating army. Nevertheless, good fortune intervened. A large band of South Carolina militia had withdrawn into North…

On October 6, 1780, the mounted backcountry patriot militia rode hard from the ford at Green River for 22 miles, arriving at The Cowpens, a place for fattening cattle before taking them to market. It was owned by one Saunders, a loyalist. There, the…

During the morning of October 7, 1780, the 900 mounted patriot militiamen who had left The Cowpens late at night, arrived at the Broad River. Believing that Ferguson might well have set an ambush for them across the river, they rode downstream to the…