Long Description:Kings Mountain, SC., United States Monument erected in 1909
The following comes from the application to place the Kings
Mountain Battlefield on the National Register or Historic Places
dated March 17, 1976.
"The United States Monument at Kings Mountain National Military
Park was authorized by Congressional Act (34 Statutes at Large 286)
on June 16, 1906, to honor the men who fought at the Battle of
Kings Mountain. The project was directed by Brig. Gen. A.N.
MacKenzie, Cehif of Engineers, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
Washington, D.C., and managed in the field by Capt. E.R. Stuart,
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Charleston, South Carolina.
The New York firm of McKim, Mead & White was selected to
design the monument. Founded in 1874 by Charles Follen McKim and
William Rutherford Mead, who were later joined by Stanford White,
this highly respected and influential firm was among America’s most
prolific, receiving nearly 1,000 commissions before 1910. For many
years, their office was the largest in the world. It employed as
many as 100 people and functioned as an atelier where many leading
twentieth-century architects began their careers.
In September 1907, it was decided that the design of the Kings
Mountain monument should be of the “obelisk type.” Richardson,
representing MCkim, Mead & White, traveled to Kings Mountain
for a consultation in November. The firm submitted preliminary
plans on January 14, 1908. They were approved under the authority
of the Secretary of War the following day.
The War Department accepted sealed proposals for furnishing the
materials and constructing the “Monument to Commemorate the Battle
of Kings Mountain” from March 23 to April 23, 1908. The monument
was to be completed by October 7, 1908, the 128th anniversary of
the battle. The Southern Marble and Granite Company constructed the
monument at a cost of $25,000, with the architects receiving as
their fee six percent of its total cost. The obelisk was completed
on June 12, 1909; however the bronze tablets were not installed
until January 19, 1910.
The United States Monument is located at the northeastern end of
Battleground Ridge where American Loyalists, led by Maj. Patrick
Ferguson, surrendered to a victorious American Patriot force. The
monument is an eighty-three-foot tall, hollow-brick obelisk faced
with Mt. Airy white granite. The granite is laid in alternating
narrow and wide courses and set off with dark mortar. The base is
composed of two marble steps and measures sixteen feet on each
side. A bronze tablet adorns each side of the monument, four
courses above the base. These tablets dedicate the monument to the
Patriot victory at Kings Mountain and to the patriotism of those
who participated in the battle; explain the tactics and
significance of the battle; list the American and British
commanders; and list Americans killed at the battle. The dedication
and explanatory tablets on the south and north sides are flanked by
a low relief frieze that depicts two sitting female figures. The
figure on the left grasps a palm frond, and the other holds a sword
and laurel wreath, the traditional symbols of martyrdom and
victory. The tablets on the east and west sides are flanked by a
low relief frieze that depicts sprigs of pine. At the time of its
completion, the monument was surrounded by a high iron fence that
was specified in a McKim, Mead & White drawing. This fence was
removed between 1936 and 1941.
The United States Monument is important for its association with
a nationally renowned architectural firm, McKim, Mead & White,
and the careful attention to the proportions, traditional form,
materials, and the restrained use of ornament that give the
monument strength and grandeur, characteristics mot found in the
typical over-decorated monuments of the period. The design is based
on McKim’s Saint Marys Falls Canal Memorial Obelisk and may have
been completed as early as 1907. Because of McKim’s failing health
and the constraints placed on his time, it is likely that William
Symmes Richardson had a significant role in the design or was
simply handed the project altogether. Following McKim’s death in
1909, Richardson probably saw the monument through to
completion."