*This is the last post for our summer road trip. Check back next week to find out about Dudeboy's trip to the beach with the Mansfield clan.
Day 7-18-09
We saw the lighthouse at Bodie Island. Because they are restoring the lighthouse, we couldn't go up in it, but we could go in the base and look up. We drove to Asheville that night.
Day 8: 7-19-09
We went to King's Mountain Battlefield. I did the activities to become a junior ranger there. A leading British commander named Patrick Ferguson was killed there by seven or nine shots fired almost at the same time from American rifles. He fell out of his saddle, but one foot caught in his stirrup so his men had to cut him free.
At Cowpens, General Morgan, the American commander, thought up an idea. First he had his untrained militia fire two rounds and retreat. Then he had cavalry and continental regulars surround the British. Then the militia reformed and closed in on the open side. After that, the British commander Banastre Tarleton barely escaped. He had been the commander of the British at Waxhaws where the Americans tried to surrender but were massacred instead. So at Cowpens the Americans shouted, "Remember Waxhaws!" Cowpens was an important victory for the Americans and helped force the British to Yorktown.
Bodie Lighthouse
Spot where British Major Patrick Ferguson met "The Over Mountain Men."
I, Dudeboy, do swear that I will well and faithfully serve in the office of Jr. Ranger.
Banastre "Bloody Ban" Tarleton gettin' his comeuppance.
Decisive victory.
2 comments:
Dudeboy, did your instructor point out that the future first governors of Kentucky and Tennessee were amongst the Overmountain men at Kings Mountain?
Yes, he learned about Shelby and Sevier. But I didn't tell him about the State of Franklin. Another time.
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