[citation needed] In the 16 August 1780 Battle of Camden, Kirkwood's troops won praise from General Nathanael Greene,[1] and were called "The Blue Hen's Chickens" after that.

[3] At the Battle of Cowpens on 17 January 1781, Captain Kirkwood repulsed the British cavalry, and made a famous bayonet charge ordered by Colonel John Eager Howard.

Later that year, Kirkwood purchased 260 acres in present-day Jefferson County, Ohio, and moved west, leaving his two remaining children in Delaware with relatives.

[1] Through his son Joseph, he was the grandfather of Elizabeth Kirkwood (1818–1899), who married William Kennon Jr. (1802–1867), an Irish immigrant who became a U.S. Representative from Ohio.

[1] On the morning of 4 November, a coalition of Native American tribes attacked the combined forces under General Arthur St. Clair, encamped on the banks of the Wabash River near the present-day border of Ohio and Indiana.

According to the journal of Ebenezer Denny, another wounded officer, Captain Jacob Slough, found Kirkwood leaning against a tree and offered to help him move.