Spotlight 4 Success
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Spotlight 4 Success
How a British Commander's Threat Ignited a Revolutionary Turning Point
David Doan of the Overmountain Victory Trail Association takes us back to 1780, when the Revolutionary War had reached a stalemate and the British implemented their Southern Strategy. What followed was an extraordinary grassroots military campaign as the previously neutral Overmountain Men mustered at Fort Watauga and marched to confront Ferguson's forces. The resulting Battle of Kings Mountain lasted just 65 minutes but eliminated one-third of British forces in the South—a devastating blow that altered the course of the war.
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Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book Company. I'm Devin Pintosi, your host. We are here in wonderful Gatlinburg, tennessee, at the Tennessee Council of Social Studies. We are here today with our wonderful guest, david Doan, who is part of the Overmountain Victory Trail Association.
Speaker 2:Welcome, david, thank you Very glad to be here with you.
Speaker 1:Wonderful Thank you. Tell us about your work with the Overmountain Victory.
Speaker 2:Trail. Okay, the Overmountain Victory Trail is an organization dedicated to telling the story of the Battle of Kings Mountain and that battle took place october 7, 1780. But there's a lot of history it leads up to it, to cause it to happen, and it's been said that particular battle is a turning point in the southern strategy of the revolutionary war. So there's a lot of history involved in it. Our organization, back in 1974 there were two men in Boone, north Carolina, talking about Appalachian history and they said we need to talk about this march to Kings Mountain. So they started studying it. So in 1975, they did the first march and they followed the same dates that the original march, which was they mustered in at Sycamore Shoals At that time it was Fort Watauga and mustered in there.
Speaker 2:The next day they left and started hunting Major Patrick Ferguson, who was the British officer who had sent a threat to Colonel Shelby that caused us to get so upset to go over and start fighting because we'd been staying out of the war. We were over. Here wasn't supposed to be and we had tried to stay out of it. Yes, some of us would go over and fight some, but we got the threat that they would. Ferguson said if you don't lay down your arms and pledge your allegiance back to the crown, I'll march my army across the mountain and hang your leaders Wow and lay waste to your crops and farmland with fire and sword. Well, my commander, who would have been Colonel Shelby, he didn't like that. So he goes and talks to Colonel John Sevier and they said we don't want him over here at all, we'll just go over there and find him and we'll take care of it one way or the other, him or us. So that's what started it all.
Speaker 2:Well, these two men got to thinking about all this history that they tried to teach and said this is a very, very important story. So they sat down and looked up all the information, which wasn't a lot, to put together a march to commemorate this battle. So they put it together, followed the same days that they were at certain points on that date, 1780. Well, also, when they got into it, they decided this ought to be a historic trail. So they started working with Congress in order to try to make one and they tied into at that time he was representative, but we all know him today as Senator Roy Hill out of North Carolina, who was also thinking about it at the same time, so working with him and other people as well. They pushed for about five years until Jimmy Carter signed it into a bill in 1980.
Speaker 1:Oh, and what happened with that bill? What was?
Speaker 2:the result. The bill signed it into being a National Historic Trail, wow, which also was the first historic trail this side of the Mississippi River, wow. There were trails west, but we were the first historic trail this side of the Mississippi River. There were some recreational trails.
Speaker 1:It's not historic.
Speaker 2:That's another importance and significance in it. Also, we found out a few years ago that when Congress signed this off, then they assigned our organization to be the storytellers. That's what we've done. It's since 1975 anyway, that's wonderful.
Speaker 1:That's wonderful. How big is your organization now?
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Speaker 2:Well, our active membership is somewhere around 250, almost 300. We have had more than that. Our contact list is over 1,000 people we do contacts with that sometimes tie in for certain different things. The main core, of course, is, like most organizations, about 15, 20 of us. It's really the hardcore ones always out there promoting this. Our board. Right now I think it's 21 members on the board out of 25. Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:That's wonderful. Sounds like a pretty active group working to keep that historical trail up and running.
Speaker 2:And we do have one director in California that kind of oversees this oh okay, trail up and running. And we do have one director in california to kind of overseas oh okay, he's been out in this world of of how do I promote this stuff to? Other people, oh, there we go. So that's how we ended up putting him on there with the knowledge he had yes, oh, that's great, david.
Speaker 1:That's something we're hoping to do here with the tcss community, so, um, that's wonderful. I hope that, uh, you have a lot of success uh going forward, uh, with more membership and, uh, it sounds like a crucial battle uh, in the southern, like you said, the southern strategy for the british as well as for the colonists yeah, when we went over and found ferguson, battle lasted one hour and five minutes and Ferguson lay dead and that was one-third of the British force in the South.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:That's huge, that's huge.
Speaker 2:Of course you know, the Revolutionary War started in 1775, roughly, and until 1780, it had grown to a stalemate. And the British come up with a new concept. Until 1780 and it had grown to a stalemate the British had come up with a new concept, a new idea that if we go south I mean they had military in the south, but they didn't do a lot of fighting until 1780. They said if we go down there in the south, we believe we can rally people back to the king. And so they come down and found out no, you got in the wrong group of people and you threatened the wrong group there when you threatened the over mountain man, because we have, we like to say you ain't the boss of me there you go.
Speaker 2:That's what founded this country yes, and this with the problems we had with the flooding in our mountains both sides of the mountains. We got to looking at each other and we realized our group was still the same as they were that day. Wow, we're still just about as independent.
Speaker 1:Ah, there you go.
Speaker 2:But we work together good.
Speaker 1:That's great Good group. Is there anything you'd like to say to the TCSS community or a?
Speaker 2:message. The one thing I might add that I haven't said is we do partner with the National Park Service.
Speaker 2:Okay, and we do a lot of things with them. The trail was assigned to the National Park Service to oversee the trail, but we, our organization, of course. When we do the march we tell a story all the way from. We really start in Abington, virginia, down into Tennessee Elizabethan area and then cross over the mountain and go all the way down into South Carolina to Kings Mountain, which is below Charlotte. And when we do the march we'll tell public stories, public programs, and we talk to all the school systems along the way. Oh, wow, so we tie in the school system for that. We also do the same thing during the year. So that's one reason we came down here, so we can talk to more teachers and say, hey, we're willing to come out and do a program, come out and tell you about Kings Mountain. Oh, by the way, while we're there, you'll see something about some colonial skills. We can bring you a bunch of them too. Oh, by the way, while we're there, you'll see something about some colonial skills.
Speaker 1:We can bring you a bunch of them too. Oh, that's wonderful, that's great. What's the name of your website? Ovtaorg, ovtaorg Y'all check it out, check it out, and you may see some great things there about the work that they've done and some historical resources I imagine they can use in their classrooms.
Speaker 2:We do have some videos we can share. We have other bits of information and things like that.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's great. Once again, david Doan. Overland Victory Trail Association. Thank you so much for joining us today All right thank you, thank you.