…a major encounter in the American Southern Back-country Civil War. There are numerous descriptions and histories of this battle and the men ( and a woman or two) who fought. Most accounts and battle lists warn the reader that the account is necessarily incomplete.
In 1997, John Wiley and Sons published a new account written by John Buchanan. The Road to Guilford Courthouse: The American Revolution in the Carolinas. The Battle takes up all of Chapter 16, pp.225-241. Buchanan recounts, from personal and official records, the short but grizzly elements of this Civil War–way beyond the fight between two warring armies. I recommend that you find the nearest copy of this amazing book and examine the mountain-top encounter with its aftermath of pain and intrigue.
Buchanan scrupulously covers the major players from all sides of the battle and in an Appendix provides biographical sketches of specific people. But, not all. Was your ancestor or a member of your family among these characters? There are lists, and monuments, and plaques, and directories. A total of 58,272 participants have been identified. Compilers alert us to the probable fact that not all participants are yet found and documented.
Among the new and well-documented indexes and lists are these websites–
https://bkmnp.com with many lists of names for the Southern Campaign at Kings Mountain.
http://www.revwarapps.org/ where the data are charted: 1) Southern Campaign Revolutionary War Pensions–Index and transcripts of pensions, alpha by soldier with pension numbers included. 2) Unit Rosters of Men in the Southern Campaign, alpha by name of officers with citations for the rosters of Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.
These websites have been compiled by experts who have volunteered their time and resources to provide as complete coverage as they can. These works continue and I wanted you, as my readers, to benefit from their efforts. Your favorite genealogist, Arlene Eakle. http://arleneeakle.com
PS These resources–the two websites and Buchanan’s narrative account–you will not find in standard bibliographies nor the popular genealogy internet databases. So keep this blog handy if you have ancestors who settle early on in Tennessee or Kentucky. And even Southern Ohio or Indiana.