1781 1782 1783 The Battle of Ramsour's Mill took place on June 20, 1780 in present-day Lincolnton, North Carolina, during the British campaign to gain control of the southern colonies in the American Revolutionary War.
The one to two-hour battle during the foggy morning of June 20 did not involve any regular army forces from either side and was literally fought between family, friends, and neighbors with muskets sometimes being used as clubs because of a lack of ammunition.
On June 18, 1780, Patriot General Griffith Rutherford, who was camped near Charlotte, North Carolina, learned that a large force of Loyalists was assembling at Ramsour's Mill, near present-day Lincolnton.
[6] Loyalist John Moore had served with the British at the Siege of Charleston and returned to his home a few miles from Ramsour's Mill with tales of battle.
He called together a group of about 40 Loyalists on June 10 and shared with them instructions from Cornwallis that for safety they should avoid organizing before British troops entered the area.
General Rutherford, then only a few miles from Ramsour's Mill, received word of the action and immediately dispatched his cavalry to assist and hurried the infantry along.
Only one verse is preserved in the National Archives in Washington: "Old Colonel Locke kept pretty well back, While brave Captain Dickey commenced the attack.
One affidavit in the National Archives Pension Files tells that Captain Dickey called out, “Shoot straight, my boys, and keep on fighting.
However, there are also some examples of compassion on both sides of the battle: Captain M'Kissick was wounded early in the action, being shot through the top of the shoulder; and finding himself disabled, went from the battleground about 80 poles to the west.
They were confident their side was victorious, and several of them knowing Captain M'Kissick, insulted him and would have used him ill, but for Abra[ha]m Keener Sr., one of his neighbors, who protected and took him prisoner.
Immediately a number of guns were cocked, and Captain M'Kissick, though much exhausted by loss of blood, had to exert himself to save the lives of Keener and party.
[14] However, according to one account of the battle's aftermath published in 1979 by Robert O. DeMond: "Of the Tories captured, all were paroled except a few who had committed serious depredations, and these were placed in the Salisbury jail.
"[15] Loyalist James Karr wrote to his old friend Patriot General Griffith Rutherford, who he had served with in the Cherokee War of 1776, for reconciliation and help in regaining his confiscated property and reuniting with family.
Lieutenant Colonel Turnbull wrote to Cornwallis that "had it not been for the Weak Silly man Moore who led a Parcell of those poor Innocent Devils of North Carolina into a Scrape, we should have been now in Perfect Peace on this Frontier."