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Spotlight 4 Success
America's Revolutionary Turning Point
Journey back to America's fight for independence as we sit down with David Carr from the Sons of the American Revolution at the Tennessee Council of Social Studies conference in Gatlinburg. What emerges is a fascinating portrait of a revolution far more complex—and personal—than most history books suggest.
David reveals how the Revolutionary War in the South functioned essentially as a Civil War, with Patriot and Loyalist neighbors literally taking up arms against each other. One haunting account describes a Patriot who, after the Battle of Kings Mountain, discovered he had killed his own neighbor during the fighting. These aren't just historical footnotes—they're powerful reminders of how deeply divided communities became during America's birth.
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Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book Company. We are here at the Tennessee Council of Social Studies in Gatlinburg, tennessee, and we are joining David Carr, our special guest. David is with us from the Sons of the American Revolution. Welcome, dave, thank you. All right, dave, tell us a bit about what the Sons of the American Revolution are doing here at TCSS.
Speaker 2:Well, the reason I am here at the conference is we have several programs geared to the teaching of American history and particularly the Revolutionary War period, and I'm promoting our History Teacher of the Year Award in the state of Tennessee for teachers that teach during the Revolutionary period. We also have many children's programs and youth programs that we promote nationwide, but especially here in the state of Tennessee, and I'm trying to make teachers aware of these.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's wonderful, and can you tell us a bit about your history? You are in the Sons of the American Revolution and it's because you are.
Speaker 2:I am a direct descendant of actually five patriots so far that we've found Wow. You know, genealogy is the number one hobby now, and so if you are a genealogy nut or you like to delve into that the Sons of the American Revolution is a good place to go, because we have registrars that can help you dig into your past and perhaps come up with a patriot, a direct descendant. You would have to be a direct descendant, it couldn't be an uncle or a cousin.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, that is wonderful, and can you tell us a bit about perhaps an overlooked story in Tennessee that relates with the American Revolution?
Speaker 2:Well, tennessee, of course we didn't have any battles across the mountains here in Tennessee At that time. Tennessee was North Carolina, north Carolina stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River, so therefore the residents that lived on this side of the Appalachian Mountains were still in North Carolina. North Carolina had many militia units that fought on the Patriot side against the British, especially when the British invaded the South and Cornwallis came into Charleston, south Carolina, and his motive was to march through South Carolina, north Carolina, into Virginia and catch General Washington in a pincher move and that would end the Revolutionary War finally after six years.
Speaker 1:Wow, and can you tell us a bit? I understand there were some divisions even within the colonists at that time. Is that right?
Speaker 2:Well, actually, in North Carolina and South Carolina you had people that were loyalists, mostly probably on the coastal regions, but even in the interior too, that were still loyal to King George. It was the only government they had ever known. It was the only government they had ever known. And then, on the other side, you had the Patriots who were of the they called it the Whig Party, and they were the people that were looking for independence from the crown.
Speaker 2:So really, the Revolutionary War in the South was almost like a civil war. You had the patriots versus the loyalists and it was a bloody, terrible fight. It was families against families, neighbors against neighbors, and it really was. That. It's documented, even like we celebrate the Battle of Kings Mountain, because the men that fought at the Battle of Kings Mountain, the majority of them came from what is now Tennessee, on this side of the Appalachias. They marched over to engage the Tory army, led by British Major Patrick Ferguson, led by British Major Patrick Ferguson, and there were actually, after that battle, one guy identified his next-door neighbor that he had killed because they'd been shooting at each other from behind trees, and he finally shot the Tory and after the battle he went down there and it was his neighbor. Wow, so you know, it was that close.
Speaker 1:It was that close, it was personal.
Speaker 3:Wow, that is really something At American Book Company in Woodstock, georgia, we are committed to your students' success. As you can see behind me, we have our workbooks and we have online testing and e-books that go on fancy iPads over here, for instance. They're all designed to help your students succeed and have higher test scores on their high-stakes assessments. Give us a call 888-264-5877, or find us on the web, abck12.com, and you can receive a free trial or a free preview book of your choice. Hope to hear from you soon. Bye-bye.
Speaker 1:And so I understand. So that battle of Kings Mountain, that was a turning point.
Speaker 2:Thomas Jefferson said it was the turning point of the Revolutionary War. America needed some good news. The patriots needed some good news. The British had been humiliating them. The British had taken Charleston, one of the major cities. They were already in New York, the major city, and if Cornwallis had been successful in his venture to march up through South Carolina and North Carolina, there was no denying that they were going to win the war. So when the Battle of Kings Mountain occurred, it was a total victory. There were no British soldiers or no Tories that got away. It was a complete victory, one-sided victory. They were either killed or taken prisoner. So that turned the mood of the entire country and especially the South, saying well, we can win this war.
Speaker 1:That's wonderful. Can you tell us a bit about the rifle you have there?
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is a French Charleville. It's very similar to the British Brown Bess. It's a smoothbore. This is 69 caliber. The British Brown Bess was 75 caliber.
Speaker 2:They were built for European style fighting where the armies stood in a line, straight line, and the other armies stood in a straight line over there, about 100 yards away. And these things are very inaccurate because they were a smooth bar and so that's why the british fought in the european style of fighting. They would stand shoulder to shoulder in a long straight line. They would fire, and then I have a bayonet to go on the end of this thing which is 18 inches long, and then they would run to the other side with their bayonets and stab them. More people died from bayonet wounds than from bullets because these things were so inaccurate.
Speaker 2:But America was not an industrialized country at that time, during the Revolution. All you had here were the American gun makers, individual gun makers that made guns for people to hunt and defend themselves against the Native Americans. So therefore, when we started in a war for independence and our armies, the only arms we had were private arms. Militia men had no uniforms, they had no training, but they were survivalists, had no uniforms, they had no training, but they were survivalists. They knew how to fight because they'd been fighting their entire lives against the Native Americans, and they were hunting with their rifles that were accurate up to about 200 yards. So therefore, most of the American militia, that's all they had. They had their own gun, they wore their own clothing, but when George Washington formed an army, he had no uniforms, they had no weapons. Pretty much the states didn't have a lot of money, or the colonies excuse me, the colonies didn't have a lot of money, so therefore they could not buy arms.
Speaker 2:But why do we celebrate the Marquis de Lafayette? The Marquis de Lafayette probably saved America. When he came to America. He brought shiploads of supplies for the American Army. He joined the American Army, and the French Charleville, which was the French equivalent of the British Brown Bess, are the weapons that he brought. It was the weapons he brought. So therefore I am wearing what they called a lottery uniform, the uniforms that they brought many of the colonies. What they did was they drew. Okay, north Carolina, you can have this block of uniforms that they brought to us and they were the blue with the red piping and you can arm your men with the French Charleville. We were a real army at that point Wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's really, really amazing, and can you tell the audience how they can get? I understand there's a lot of resources, like, if people want to see things that happened from those historical periods that the Sons of the American Revolution have, how can they find out more?
Speaker 2:The Sons of the American Revolution. Actually, we have a website, SARorg. It's really good. We have a lot of videos out there. Some of my good friends in Alabama that are in the SAR. You'll find a link to their podcast on the SARorg website. Or you can go to YouTube and just search for Revolutionary War Rarities, and I forget how many episodes they have out there now, but they've been doing it for over a year now.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's wonderful, and it's really great, and the thing about it is you learn things that are not in the history books. You know there's a million stories, Just like in any war. Every book you read has different sets of facts. It's still happening, Things are still being discovered that are really interesting and it kind of brings the picture all together. So these guys are doing a tremendous job. That is wonderful.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you so much. This is David Carr with the Sons of the American Revolution. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 2:Thank you, great to be here.