Colonel Frederick Hambright...The Battle of Kings Mountain
Born Freiderick Hambrecht in Neunstetten, Germany May 17, 1727, at eleven years old Frederick Hambright and family members arrived in Philadelphia October 27, 1738. Frederick was raised in Lancaster, PA and in 1755 he moved to Virgina, where he married Sarah Hardin. A few years after his marriage he moved to Tryon County in North Carolina, being accompanied by his brothers-in-law Col. Joseph Hardin, John Hardin, Benjamin Hardin and others. These pioneers erected log cabins and joined with neighbors in building a Fort for protection against the Catawba Indians. In 1769 he purchased land in the fork of Long Creek and Still House Branch where he lived until after the Battle of King's Mountain.
Frederick was an early advocate of American Independence. He was a signer of the Tryon Resolves in 1775 where the citizens pledged their love of country and their willingness to take up arms in defense of their freedom. He was appointed as one of the representatives for Tryon County at the Third Provincial Congress held at Hillsboro, NC, August 1775. Frederick helped to organize and drill the militia. He served as a Captain in the 1776 campaign against the Cherokee Indians and was made a Lt. Colonel in 1779. He was present at the siege of Charleston and when it was obvious Charleston would fall to the British, Hambright rode up to the Broad River and began recruiting in what later would be Chester and York counties.
The great British offensive against the Southern colonies, which were regarded as the vulnerable point in the American rebellion, was launched upon the fall of Charleston in 1780. British Mahor Ferguson soon rallied thousands of Loyalists in South Carolina to the British standard. This was a key part of Lord Cornwallis's campaign for cutting Washington off from the Southern colonies. His goal was to build a fighting force out of the Loyalists. The Patriots knew this would be a critical battle and came from far and wide to join the fight. Major Ferguson chose to make a stand and dispose of all the barbarian horde who he denounced as mongrels and the dregs of mankind. Ferguson took up his camp on Kings Mountain with over 150 Provincial Rangers and 900 drilled Loyalists. The Patriots numbered 900 frontiersmen including Colonel Frederick Hambright, the other commanders, and John Crockett, the father of Davy Crockett.
The Patriots approached the steep base of Kin's Mountain at dawn. They formed eight groups of 100 to 200 men. They crept up the hill and fired on the Loyalists from behind trees and rocks. The goal was to give the British "Indian Play", namely to take cover everywhere and to fire from Natural shelter. The battle which lasted an hour was waged with terrific ferocity. The Provincial Corps, with fixed bayonets, steadily charged the frontiersmen who fired at close range and then rapidly withdrew.
The ranking American officer, Brigadier General James Williams, was mortally wounded while on the very top of the mountain, in the thickest of the fight. At age 53 Colonel Hambright took command. He was sorely wounded with his boot overflowing with blood from a shot in the thigh which cut some arteries. His hat was riddled with three bullet holes. Hambright declined to dismount and pressed gallantly forward, exclaiming in his "Pennsylvania Dutch" accent "Huzza my prave poys, fight on for a few minutes more, and the pattle will be over!" Major Ferguson, the British Commander was so near that he responded with, "Huzza , brave boys, the day is our own." These were to be among his last words before being shot to death. Seeing their leader fall, the Loyalists began to surrender. Eager to avenge defeats at the Waxhaw Massacre and elsewhere, the Patriots did not initially want to take prisoners. They continued firing and shouted, "Give them Tarleton's Quarter!" After a few more minutes of bloodletting, they gave quarter to the remaining Loyalists.
The Loyalists suffered 244 killed, 163 wounded, and 668 taken prisoner. The Patriot Militia suffered 29 killed and 58 wounded. Of the captured, the Patriots hanged as many as nine Loyalists who had changed sides. the battle evincing fiercer than anticipated colonial resistance, made Lord Cornwallis abandon his plan to take North Carolina. News of the American Patriot Victory at Kings Mountain "re-energized a downtrodden Continental Congress." In President Theodore Roosevelt's history of the American Revolution he said that the victory at King's Mountain was the turning point in the war that led to American victory. Lord Cornwallis surrendered 13 months later at Yorktown.
After the battle Frederick was taken to his previously built cabin nearby. As he recuperated from his severe wound, he was nursed by a young neighbor, Mary Dover. The following year Frederick and Mary Dover were married. Later a two story log house was built near the site of the log cabin and the historic battlefield. This is where he lived until his death on March 9, 1817 at the age of 90. Frederick and his first wife Sarah Hardin, who died during the early part of the Revolutionary War, had 6 children that lived to maturity. Frederick and his second wife Mary Dover had 8 children that lived to maturity. Colonel Frederick's sword and a portrait are on display at Kings Mountain National Military Park.