News

NPS celebrates march of Overmountain men to pivotal Revolutionary War battle

By Lightning Reports, Published: September 16, 2022

The National Park Service is hosting the annual Overmountain Victory Celebration on the grounds of the Museum of North Carolina Minerals at milepost 331 on the Blue Ridge Parkway on Saturday.

The living history encampment celebrates the crossing of the Blue Ridge Mountains by the Overmountain Men on their way to a pivotal battle with British forces at Kings Mountain that turned the tide of the Revolutionary War in favor of the forces for Independence.

In the fall of 1780, during the Revolutionary War, the American fight for independence was struggling. British Major Patrick Ferguson demanded allegiance to the King of England from the people living in the Carolina backcountry and the Appalachians. Referred to as the Overmountain area, these settlements were west of — or “over” — the Appalachian Mountains. At that time, this was the boundary dividing the thirteen American colonies from the western frontier. The Overmountain area included parts of North Carolina, Virginia and what is now Tennessee.