On August 19, 1780, near a ford of the Enoree River in northwest South
Carolina, a short and savage encounter occurred between Rebel militia
and a combined force of Loyalist militia and Provincial regulars.
Despite the Rebel's being outnumbered more than two to one, it was an
overwhelming victory for the American cause. The Rebels defended from
the top of a ridge, inflicted heavy casualties on the Loyalist force as
it advanced, then charged and drove the enemy from the field of battle.
Just as Bunker Hill had done on a larger scale in Massachusetts, this
clash of hundreds of soldiers in the Carolina backwoods invigorated the
Rebel cause and led directly to the Battle of King's Mountain, the
turning point of the war in the South. This battle is also remarkable
because instead of one leader the Rebel force was directed by a joint
command of three colonels.
The Battle of Musgrove's Mill, 1780, by award-winning historian John
Buchanan, begins by describing the situation in South Carolina following
the British invasion of 1780 before introducing the three colonels:
Isaac Shelby, James Williams, and Elijah Clarke. These men led Rebel
militia from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia in an effort to
disrupt British operations and their Loyalist support. The colonels and
other leaders led mounted Rebel militia in a sweeping and bloody
guerilla war that played an essential role in opening a path to the
eventual British surrender at Yorktown and Britain's loss of America.
Small Battles: Military History as Local History
Mark Edward Lender and James Kirby Martin, Series Editors
Small Battles offers a fresh and important new perspective on the
story of America's early conflicts. It was the small battles, not the
clash of major armies, that truly defined the fighting during the
colonial wars, the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the
hostilities on the frontiers. This is dramatic military history as seen
through the prism of local history--history with a depth of detail, a
feeling for place, people, and the impact of battle and its consequences
that the story of major battles often cannot convey. The Small Battles
series focuses on America's military conflicts at their most intimate
and revealing level.
