Centennial Monument - Kings Mountain, South Carolina
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N 35° 08.445 W 081° 23.009
17S E 465066 N 3888719
Kings Mountain, SC., Centennial Monument erected in 1880.
Waymark Code: WM4N38
Location: South Carolina, United States
Date Posted: 09/09/2008
Views: 26
Kings Mountain, SC., Centennial Monument erected in 1880.
Inscriptions:
Panel #1: “In Memory of the patriotic Americans who participated in the Battle of Kings Mountain. This Monument is erected by their grateful Descendants.”
Panel #2: “Fell on this battle ground in defense of Civil Liberty: Col. James Williams. Maj. William Chronicle. Captains. John Mattocks, David Beatie, William Edmonson. First Lieutenants. Reece Bowne, Thomas McCullogh, William Blackburn, Robert Edmonson. Second Lieutenants. John Beatie, Andrew Edmonson, Humberson Lyon, James Corry, James Laird, Nathaniel Guist, Nathaniel Dryden, James Phillips. Privates. William Rabb, John Boyd, David Duff, Henry Henigar, William Watson, Arthur Patterson, Preston Gofothr.”
Panel #3: “Here on the 7th day of October A.D. 1780 the British forces commanded by Col. Patrick Ferguson were met and totally defeated by Campbell Shelby, William S. Cleveland, Sevier, and their heroic followers from Virginia, the Carolinas, and Tennessee.
Panel #4: “Here the tide of the battle turned in favor of the American Colonies.”
The following is from the application to place the Kings Mountain battlefield on the National Register of Historic Places, March 7, 1976: “Historic Structure #5: Centennial Monument. This monument is 28 feet high, rising from a square base of 18 feet. It tapers up by five steps to another base 10 feet square. The pylon rises from there, its base being 5’7” square feet, just above which are marble plaques bearing inscriptions.
Structurally the monument is sound, its surface has been defaced slightly by vandals. The monument was erected in 1880 by the Kings Mountain Battleground Association to mark the location of the start of the battle.”
In 1880, the King’s Mountain Centennial Association, supported by private and state subscriptions, purchased a thirty-nine-and-one-half-acre portion of the Battleground Ridge and unveiled the Centennial Monument. … After years of lobbying efforts, an act of Congress established the Kings Mountain National Military Park on March 3, 1931.
In November 1855, the Charleston Mercury spearheaded an attempt to erect a new monument to replace the McLean marker at Kings Mountain. This campaign lay fallow until 1879, when the citizens of Yorkville, South Carolina, and Kings Mountain, North Carolina, met to begin preparations for the battle’s centennial celebration. Delegates from North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee gathered July 25, 1879, and formed the Kings Mountain Centennial Association (KMCA), which resolved to celebrate the battle’s centennial and “to purchase a suitable monument.” Committees for the collection of historic relics, ways and means, preparation of grounds, troops, and transportation forms and followed the lead of Col. Asbury Coward, president of the Association.
The KMCA sought public and private subscriptions to purchase the battlefield core and erect an appropriate monument. The State of North Carolina passed a resolution March 25, 1880, to contribute not more than $1,500 “to aid in the erection of a suitable monument on the battleground of Kings Mountain and defray other expenses in commemoration that event.” South Carolina also contributed $1,000 to the KMCA on February 20, 1880. Five months before the centennial celebration, the KMCA purchased thirty-nine and one-half acres from W.L. Goforth, Preston Goforth, F.A. Goforth, and J.W. Wrens for $197.50. On June 23, 1880, the Grand Lodge of the Masonic Order performed the elaborate cornerstone-laying ceremony on the battlefield site purchased by the KMCA. As inscribed, the monument marks the area of the most intense fighting and also celebrates the reversal of American Patriot losses throughout the southern campaign. The grand Masters deposited a copper box containing various documentation on past and present commemoration activities in the cornerstone.
The celebration commenced October 5, 1880, declared Reunion Day, and lasted three days, including Military Day and Centennial Day. The KMCA erected a grandstand, flew the flags of the original thirteen colonies, and arranged to clear the wooded ridge for military maneuvers. Four young women representing South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia unveiled the granite monument. “The Kings Mountain Lyric” and the “Kings Mountain ode” were written especially for the ceremony. Fireworks accompanied the unveiling.”
Type of Memorial: Monument
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