On October 7, 1780, brother met brother, neighbor met neighbor, Patriot met Loyalist on a battlefield in rural South Carolina. The battle lasted an hour: the brevity belied the import. Thomas Jefferson proclaimed the Battle of King's Mountain turned "the tide of success which terminated the Revolutionary War, with the seal of our independence."
Fewer than one thousand American Heroes, through skill, luck, and the leadership of cunning strategists, defeated Patrick Ferguson, a brilliant star of the British military might. Major Charles Gordon, his brothers, Chapman and Nathaniel Gordon, and his brother, Benjamin Herndon, were four of those Heroes. Another brother, Joseph Herndon, was on the BKM Campaign: he stayed with the foot soldiers and arrived on the battlefield after the battle had been fought and won.
Their participation in the Battle of King's Mountain was documented in the "The Patriots at Kings Mountain" by Bobby Gilmer Moss which, along with "King's Mountain And Its Heroes: History Of The Battle Of King's Mountain, October 7th, 1780, And The Events Which Led To It" by Lyman Copeland Draper, Anthony Allaire, and Isaac Shelby, has long been recognized as the definitive listing of the participants.
