The Overmountain Men were American frontiersmen from west of the Blue Ridge Mountains which are the leading edge of the Appalachian Mountains, who took part in the American Revolutionary War. While they were present at multiple engagements in the war's southern campaign, they are best known for their role in the American victory at the Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780. The term "overmountain" arose because their settlements were west of, or "over", the Blue Ridge, which was the primary geographical boundary dividing several of the 13 American states from the Native American lands to the west. The Overmountain Men hailed from parts of Virginia, North Carolina, and what is now Tennessee and Kentucky.
The Overmountain Man statue, by Jon-Mark Estep, at Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park, in Elizabethton, Tennessee
Artist Lloyd Branson's depiction of the gathering of the Overmountain Men at Sycamore Shoals
Abingdon Muster Grounds - The northern trailhead of the 330-mile long Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail.
Isaac Shelby
Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War
The southern theater of the American Revolutionary War was the central theater of military operations in the second half of the American Revolutionary War, 1778–1781. It encompassed engagements primarily in Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Tactics consisted of both strategic battles and guerrilla warfare.
The Battle of Cowpens by William Ranney
Sir Henry Clinton led the British land forces in the failed attack on Charleston.
Portrait of General Benjamin Lincoln; by Charles Willson Peale
Lord Cornwallis took command when Sir Henry Clinton sailed for New York.