William Campbell (1745-1781) was born in Augusta County, Virginia. In about 1767 he settled at Aspenvale, about twenty miles east of Abingdon in the Holston River region of what was then Fincastle County. Campbell served as a captain of the Virginia militia in Dunmore’s War. He signed the Fincastle Resolves in January 1775 and raised a company of riflemen, with which he marched to Williamsburg. Commissioned a captain in the First Virginia Regiment, he remained in eastern Virginia for a year (during which he married Patrick Henry’s sister Elizabeth) and then resigned to return to the Holston country. When Washington County, Virginia, was created in 1777, he was made lieutenant colonel of the militia. In April 1780 he was named colonel. In September 1780 he assumed command of several companies of Virginia riflemen in the march against Ferguson, and was the senior officer on the field at Kings Mountain. He writes here to his brother-in-law Arthur Campbell (1743-1811), also a militia colonel on the Holston frontier.
Wilkes County, Camp on Brier Creek, Oct. 20th, 1780.
Dear Sir:
Ferguson and his party are no more in circumstances to injure the citizens of America. We came up with him in Craven County, South Carolina, posted on a height, called King’s Mountain, bout twelve miles north of the Cherokee Ford of Broad river, about two o’clock in the evening of the 7th inst., we having marched the whole night before.
Col. Shelby’s regiment and mine began the attack, and sustained the whole fire of the enemy for about ten minutes, while the other troops were forming around the height upon which the enemy were posted. The firing then became general, and as heavy as you can conceive for the number of men. The advantageous situation of the enemy, being the top of a steep ridge, obliged us to expose ourselves exceedingly; and the dislodging of them was almost equal to driving men from strong breast-works; though in the end we gained the point of the ridge, where my regiment fought, and drove them along the summit of it nearly to the other end, where Col. Cleveland and his countrymen were. They were driven into a huddle, and the greatest confusion; the flag for a surrender was immediately hoisted, and as soon as our troops could be notified of it, the firing ceased, and the survivors surrendered themselves prisoners at discretion.
We fought an hour and five minutes, in which time two hundred and twenty-five of the enemy were killed, and one hundred and thirty wounded; the rest, making about seven hundred regulars and Tories, were taken prisoners. Ferguson was killed near the close of the action. The victory was complete to a wish; and I think it was won by about seven hundred men, who fought bravely. I have lost several of my brave friends, whose death I much lament. Maj. Edmondson will give you their names, though I must myself mention Capt. Edmondson, his two brothers, and Lieut. Bowen. My regiment has suffered more than any other in the action. Our loss in the field was, altogether, about thirty killed, and sixty wounded. I must proceed on with the prisoners until I can in some way dispose of them. Probably I may go on to Richmond, in Virginia[.]
Lyman Draper, King’s Mountain and Its Heroes (Cincinnati: Peter G. Thomson, 1881), 562.