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Today is the 243rd anniversary of the Battle of Cowpens, an hour-long engagement near Chesnee, SC. With Cornwallis having lost his left-flank protection at Kings Mountain three months earlier, this action in which he lost his right flank has been credited with being the "two" of the one-two punch that forced his retreat to Virginia, and eventual surrender at Yorktown. Historians and several early Presidents stated that these two battles turned the tide of the war, and won us our independence.
While the roster lists of Kings Mountain are incomplete, it does look like one 5xgreat-uncle was recorded as being there. At Cowpens, however, at least two lines of the McNutt family, with at least six individuals, made up a significant contingent of the Overmountain and irregular militia that served as snipers in the hidden advanced line that reduced the British Officers' Cadre and Dragoons at the outset of the battle. Our family took heavy casualties during the fallback to the militia line... My g'g'g'g'grandfather, Robert McNutt, and his brother Alexander both fell wounded, but survived. Alexander's descendants still have the powder horn he carried.
Their cousins, also named, ironically, Robert and Alexander, were both shot, with Robert mortally wounded, as was their father "Scotch Johnny" McNutt, and their brother-in-law, John McCorkle. This Robert's grave became the first one in the Old Providence Presbyterian Cemetary in Spottswood, VA.
Our ancestors, once recovered, evidently returned to the Overmountain settlements of what is now Tennessee, settling in the French Lick (Nashville) area, possibly while the War continued. Robert's son George, a sniper under Jackson at New Orleans, married Margaret Peery, the daughter of a Virginia sharpshooter (James "Jesse" Peery) who had served with. my family in the advance guard, and who moved west with them to settle on a veteran's grant adjacent to my family after Cornwallis' surrender. He witnessed.this, and then continued to re-enlist to defend the settlements from the Chickamagua Cherokee.
It is truly amazing to be able to gather this kind of info after all these years. Great gratitude for the Internet, Family Search, Find-a-Grave, and all the other resources out there. My brothers and I grew up without 99% of this knowledge, and I am so thankful it is now available to be learned and passed down.
While the roster lists of Kings Mountain are incomplete, it does look like one 5xgreat-uncle was recorded as being there. At Cowpens, however, at least two lines of the McNutt family, with at least six individuals, made up a significant contingent of the Overmountain and irregular militia that served as snipers in the hidden advanced line that reduced the British Officers' Cadre and Dragoons at the outset of the battle. Our family took heavy casualties during the fallback to the militia line... My g'g'g'g'grandfather, Robert McNutt, and his brother Alexander both fell wounded, but survived. Alexander's descendants still have the powder horn he carried.
Their cousins, also named, ironically, Robert and Alexander, were both shot, with Robert mortally wounded, as was their father "Scotch Johnny" McNutt, and their brother-in-law, John McCorkle. This Robert's grave became the first one in the Old Providence Presbyterian Cemetary in Spottswood, VA.
Our ancestors, once recovered, evidently returned to the Overmountain settlements of what is now Tennessee, settling in the French Lick (Nashville) area, possibly while the War continued. Robert's son George, a sniper under Jackson at New Orleans, married Margaret Peery, the daughter of a Virginia sharpshooter (James "Jesse" Peery) who had served with. my family in the advance guard, and who moved west with them to settle on a veteran's grant adjacent to my family after Cornwallis' surrender. He witnessed.this, and then continued to re-enlist to defend the settlements from the Chickamagua Cherokee.
It is truly amazing to be able to gather this kind of info after all these years. Great gratitude for the Internet, Family Search, Find-a-Grave, and all the other resources out there. My brothers and I grew up without 99% of this knowledge, and I am so thankful it is now available to be learned and passed down.
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