Monmouth Loyalists Captured at King's Mountain

In November 1778, a British fleet and army left Sandy Hook and landed in Georgia, beginning the invasion of the southern states. Savannah fell on December 29 with the loss of only a few men. New Jersey Loyalists participated in the Savannah campaign, but it does not appear that Monmouth County Loyalists participated in that action.

A year later, in New York, Major Patrick Ferguson called for volunteers from existing Loyalist regiments to go south with him. He raised 123 men from New Jersey and New York regiments (other New Jersey Loyalists drifted into other new Loyalist units). Ferguson was among the most energetic officers in the British Army; he had previously led two significant actions around Monmouth County (against Little Egg Harbor and Osborn Island in October 1778 and against a Continental Army unit stationed at Tinton Falls in April 1779). Commonly called the “American Volunteers” or “Ferguson’s Regiment,” Ferguson left with his men for Georgia on December 26, 1779.

The American Volunteers had four company commanders from the New Jersey Volunteers; one of them, Captain John Taylor was from Monmouth County as was Lt. William Stevenson, serving under Captain Samuel Ryerson. They had enlisted in the 1st and 2nd battalions of the New Jersey Volunteers early in the war. Despite the many difficulties experienced by both battalions and the fall from grace of the regimental commanders who recruited them (Elisha Lawrence and John Morris). Taylor and Stevenson  served continuously through the war.

Taylor brought 23 men with him into Ferguson’s regiment, including seven with Monmouth County surnames (Sergeant John Campbell, Corporal John Evans, and Privates Levi Hall, Peter Hawn, John Evans, Malachiah Bonham, Jesse Tabor); Stevenson brought 13 men, including eleven with Monmouth County surnames (Corporal Randal Insley, and privates Samuel Babcock, John Crane, John Hurley, Lawrence Kerr, John Hays, Mordecai Starkey, Robert Thomson, Wiliam Thomson, Wiliam Vaughn, Samuel Young).

On March 5, 1780, Ferguson’s American Volunteers marched from Savannah for Charleston, South Carolina, as a part of a larger British Army. The American Volunteers participated in the attack on Charleston which surrendered on May 12. It was a devastating loss for the Continental Army—not only did it lose the most important city in the South, but the entire Continental Army defending the city surrendered and was taken prisoner.

The American Volunteers did not stay long in Charleston. Two weeks later, with other Loyalist units, they headed inland to pacify rebels and rally local Loyalists. On June 22, they established their inland headquarters at the village of Ninety-Six. The ranks of the American Volunteers swelled with new recruits and they now marched with newly-organized Loyalist militia from the Carolinas.

In September, Ferguson’s command, now numbering near one thousand men, separated from the rest of the army and headed northwest. An unnamed officer wrote of their march:

We were separated from all the army, acting with the militia; we never lay two nights in one place, frequently making forced marches of twenty and thirty miles in one night; skirmishing very often; the greatest part of our time without rum or wheat flour-rum, a very essential article, for in marching ten miles we would often be obliged to ford two or three rivers, which wet the men up to their waists.

The Battle of King’s Mountain

On October 5, the American Volunteers camped at King's Mountain, a flat rock eminence surrounded by forest on all sides. While Ferguson was a capable leader, this was a terrible mistake. The Loyalists were surrounded by an unexpectedly large collection of rebel militia and frontiersmen. The attackers had the cover of trees and brush, while the Loyalists were mostly in the open. The Battle of King’s Mountain on October 7 was a route. Ferguson and nearly three hundred of his men were killed. The rest were taken prisoner. An unnamed officer with Ferguson described the battle:

We remained till the seventh of October, when we were attacked by two thousand five hundred Rebels, under the command of Gen. Williams. Col. Ferguson had under his command eight hundred militia, and our detachment, which at that time was reduced to a hundred men. The action commenced about two o'clock in the afternoon, and was very severe for upwards of an hour, during which the Rebels were charged and drove back several times, with considerable slaughter.

Rebel lines bent but never broke. The Loyalists were surrounded and forced to surrender.

After the Battle of King’s Mountain

The prisoners, including Captain Taylor and Lieutenant Stevenson, were marched 40 miles into North Carolina. The guards were abusive and not numerous enough to effectively guard or supply the prisoners. During the march, many prisoners ran off. On November 5, Taylor and Stevenson escaped with an unnamed third officer. They walked 200 miles back to Ninety-Six where they arrived on November 23. A week later, they composed an account of their trek:

We were close confined with the rest of the prisoners till morning, on the 8th inst., marched under guard till night without any provision to Bragenstaff Plantation, where we were marched up to the foot of the gallows, where they made us stand till they executed nine of the prisoners... The next day we were marched off, our men getting no provision and marched 30 miles, the road being very bad after rain, many of the prisoners were so weared out that they were obliged to give out on the road, they [rebels] then rolled them down in the mud and many of them left there to death and many of them cut to pieces. They still kept marching us till they got us to Moravian Town where they promised to parole us.

Taylor and Stevenson recalled, however, that they were not paroled. Fearing for his safety, Stevenson stole a spur to defend himself. He was found out and confined again. Mistreatment from the guards worsened:

They knocked down our surgeon for dressing our wounded men and threw a large knife at another. We then thought ourselves not safe among them and they seemed determined to murder some of us, and to prevent that from happening we thought we might as soon trust in making our escapes upon which we concluded to leave.

Taylor and Stevenson conclude their memorial by noting that they gave their captors no oath of Loyalty or pledge of future inaction, “That they never did promise or give their word to them [rebels] nor laid themselves on under any obligation of confinement." This was an important detail because it cleared them for continuing to serve in the army.

The unnamed third officer with Taylor and Stevenson wrote his own account of being a captive after the Battle of King’s Mountain. It was published in New York’s Royal Gazette in February 1781.

The morning after the action, we were marched sixteen miles, previous to which orders were given by the Rebel Col. Campbell (whom the command devolved on) that should they be attacked on their march, they were to fire on, and destroy their prisoners. The party was kept marching two days without any kind of provisions. The officers' baggage, on the third day's march, was all divided among the Rebel officers.

The officer described being charged an excessive amount of money for essential food and deprived of water: “the men were obliged to give thirty-five Continental dollars for a single ear of Indian corn, and forty for a drink of water, they not being allowed to drink when fording a river.” And he described cruelty from the guards: “The Rebel officers would often go in amongst the prisoners, draw their swords, cut down and wound those whom their wicked and savage minds prompted.”

The officer recalled being told that the prisoners would be marched all the way to Virginia with no opportunity for parole:

In consequence of this, Capt. John Taylor, Lieut. William Stevenson and myself, chose rather to trust the hand of fate, and agreeable to our inclinations, set out from Moravian Town the fifth of November and arrived at the British lines on the twentieth. From this town to Ninety Six, which was the first post we arrived at, is three hundred miles; and from Ninety Six to Charlestown, two hundred [miles to Charleston], so that my route was five hundred miles.

The officer concluded, “I suffered exceedingly; but thank God am now in Charlestown in good quarters."

After reaching Charleston, Taylor and Stevenson were permitted to return to New York. Taylor continued to serve. He is recorded as commanding an undersized company of New Jersey Volunteers (only seventeen men) in April 1782. Stevenson died in New York in 1782. The fate of the Monmouth Countians who served under them is unknown.

Caption: October 7, 1781, one thousand Loyalists, including a dozen from Monmouth County, were surrounded and defeated at King’s Mountain, SC, by a rowdy collection of local militia and frontiersmen.

Related Historical Site: King’s Mountain National Military Park (South Carolina)

Sources: Andrew Dauphinee, “Strangely Contaminated: The Loyalists of NJ” (New Jersey State Library, 2022) https://www.njstatelib.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Strangely-Contaminated-Presentatin-Slides.pdf; Jonas Howe, Major Ferguson's Riflemen — The American Volunteers. The Story of a Loyalist Corps, Acadiensis Vol. 6, No. 4, October 1906, Vol. 7, No. 1, January 1907, and Vol. 8, No. 2, April 1907 (https://archives.gnb.ca/exhibits/forthavoc/html/Ferguson-riflemen.aspx?culture=en-CA); Memorial of William Stevenson and John Taylor, Great Britain Public Record Office, Cornwallis Papers, Papers Relating to the American Colonies, 30/11/4, p254-5; Troop Return, Library of Congress, MMC - Courtland Skinner, box 8; The Royal Gazette (New York), February 24, 1781; Bobby Gilmer Moss, The Loyalists at King's Mountain (Scotia-Hibernia, 1998); Adelberg, Michael, Biographical File in the collection of the Monmouth County Historical Association.