A North Carolina Highway Historical Marker will soon be in place to recognize the patriot militiamen who were encamped in Polk County and who helped change the course of the Revolutionary War with their actions.
The marker recognizing the Overmountain Men will be dedicated at NC 108 at County Line Road, east of Mill Spring, on Oct. 5 at 3:30 p.m. It is near Alexander’s Ford on the Green River, a well-known crossing point. Attendees will be bussed back to the trailhead and invited to join William Caldwell, a ranger representing the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail, on an optional hike to the Green River and back.
Speakers at the dedication will include Polk County Board of Commissioners chair Tommy Melton, County Manager Marche Pittman, and Caldwell. The ceremony also will feature local reenactors and community members who sought the marker. Additional information about the marker can be found here.
The Overmountain Men were American frontiersmen from west of the Appalachian Mountains. The term “overmountain” arose because their settlements were west of, or “over,” the Appalachians, which was the primary geographical boundary dividing the 13 American colonies from the western frontier. The Overmountain Men hailed from parts of Virginia, North Carolina, and what is now Tennessee and Kentucky.
Two days before the Oct. 7, 1780, Battle of King’s Mountain, about 1,400 of the Overmountain Men, camped at Alexander’s Ford. These soldiers were preparing to meet the British and Tory forces in Ninety-Six, South Carolina. But with the arrival of new intelligence describing the whereabouts of another British force led by Major Patrick Ferguson, they changed their course and headed toward the Charlotte area. The decision provided Patriot forces with some of the best riflemen during the Battle of King’s Mountain, which was a turning point of the campaign. From then on, revolutionary forces controlled the Southern theater of war.
This surprising victory of the American Patriot militia over the Loyalists followed a string of Patriot defeats at the hands of Lord Cornwallis, and greatly raised the Patriots’ morale. With Ferguson’s death in the battle and his Loyalist militia destroyed, Cornwallis canceled his plan to invade North Carolina and retreated into South Carolina.
The National Park Service highlighted Alexander’s Ford as one of the key points along the Overmountain Victory Trail.
For more information, please visit this site or contact Ansley Wegner at ansley.wegner@ncdcr.gov.
To learn about the hiking trails near Alexander’s Ford, click here.