In 1780 the Americans were on the ropes. The British had won several key battles and had taken Savannah and Charleston, giving them control of the South Carolina and Georgia coasts. Now Lord Cornwallis was coming south with a large army. His plan was to link up with pro-British Americans, called Whigs in those days, and to separate the whole south from the rest of the country. The country would be split, Washington would be isolated and could be defeated, and America would remain within the British Empire.
But the Americans had two secret weapons: the Scots-Irish and Nathanael Greene.
The story of how Greene, and his commanders, fighting mostly with rag-tag militias but brilliant guerrilla war tactics, were able to reverse this catastrophe is a little-known element of this war.
There were four critical battles during this campaign, but King's Mountain was the turning point.
I hope you enjoy this story (which has meaning to me personally).