In my genealogy journey I have noticed something about the American history. My maternal ancestors immigrated to Virginia and Pennsylvania. It became clear to me that history was written by New Englanders because the early days in Virginia and the southern Appalachians are not very well documented. After a while I discovered (recognized) my Scotch-Irish ancestors and started reading about them and learned the amazing secret that without the Scotch-Irish the Revolutionary War would probably not have succeeded.
Oil painting by John Turnbull completed in 1786
This blog post is about the Scotch-Irish (or Ulster Scots or Scots-Irish) and their significant contribution to America during the Revolutionary War.
My maternal ancestors started coming to America in the 1600s. The early immigrants were mostly English with a smattering of Welsh, Dutch and French Huguenots. But from 1710 to 1775, over 200,000 people emigrated from Ulster to the original thirteen American colonies. These people, sometimes called the Scotch-Irish, have a history too long to cover in this story but suffice it to say they were mostly lowland Scots who were convinced to move to Northern Ireland (Ulster) by the English government, but then encountered problems there too. Lowland Scots have a unique history both in Scotland and after they moved to Northern Ireland. They had been involved in many battles, both in Scotland and after their move to Northern Ireland. So much so that one book about them is entitled “Born Fighting.” They were primarily Presbyterian, whereas their Irish neighbors were Catholic and the official church of England at this time was Church of England (Anglican, Episcopalian).
Many arrived first in Pennsylvania, then, seeking cheap land, they spread southwestward along the Great Wagon Road, through the Great Valley of Virginia, and into the mountainous regions of North and South Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky. They had a major impact in shaping the history, religion and culture of the Southern Appalachian Mountain region and from there, the culture of the entire nation. And many of them actively participated in the Revolution on the side of the colonies.
They are sometimes called “Irish” because that is apparently what they called themselves until the arrival of large numbers of native Irish Catholics starting around 1820. By that time the Scotch-Irish were so well assimilated that they may not have thought much about their heritage, but if they did it was probably Scotch-Irish1. Because of this confusion, I have not been able to determine how many of the “Irish” fighting in the Revolutionary War were Scotch-Irish of Scottish ancestry and how many were of Irish ancestry, but my guess is they were mostly Scotch-Irish.
“Call this war by whatever name you may, only call it not an American rebellion; it is nothing more or less than a Scotch Irish Presbyterian rebellion.”
—A HESSIAN OFFICER, writing home during the War of the American Revolution
“Of the different racial strains that mingled their blood with the earlier English—Irish, Huguenot-French, German, Scotch-Irish—the last was by far the most important. . . . They were desperately poor; the available lands near the coast were already preempted; so armed with axes, their seed potatoes, and the newly invented rifle, they plunged into the backwoods to become our great pioneering race. Scattered thinly through a long frontier, they constituted the outposts and buffer settlements of civilization. A vigorous breed, hardy, assertive, individualistic, thrifty, trained in the democracy of the Scottish kirk, they were the material out of which later Jacksonian democracy was to be fashioned, the creators of that western type which in politics and industry became ultimately the American type.”
—VERNON LOUIS PARRINGTON, Main Currents in American Thought
Is this the common viewpoint of the Revolutionary War hero? No, we had been led to believe that it was the descendants of the English who won this war for us.
In a July 18, 1775 letter, Lieutenant William Fielding wrote how “above half [of the American Army consisted of] Irish and Scotch” [Scotch-Irish from Northern Ireland] soldiers.
I can’t cover the Revolutionary War in this post, but I am going to highlight two battles where the Scotch-Irish helped turn the tide of the war. The crushing defeat at the Battle of Brandywine on Sep 11, 1777 allowed the British to occupy Philadelphia, but the bulk of the Continental army survived. South Carolina was under British control. We are focusing here on the battles involving our Scotch Irish militiamen, in particular Battle of Kings Mountain, South Carolina, October 7, 1780 and the Battle of Cowpens, South Carolina January 17, 1781. The militias were local, volunteer forces composed of citizen-soldiers from the individual colonies or states. Both the Continental Army and the militias were important in winning the war but the two battles outlined here involved the militias of North and South Carolina.
Battle of Kings Mountain, South Carolina, October 7, 1780. The British were on a roll… “Nicknamed Bull Dog by his men, Ferguson soon came up against the Overmountain men, residents of the Carolina Backcountry and the Appalachian mountain range, and from places that would later become the states of Tennessee and Kentucky. American cavalry commander “Light Horse” Harry Lee called them, “A race of hardy men who were familiar with the use of the horse and the rifle, stout, active, patient under privation, and brave.” To the British, however, they were “more savage than the Indians.” From the start Ferguson miscalculated his potential foes, brazenly issuing a proclamation for the local patriots to “desist from their opposition to British arms” or he would “march over the mountains, hang their leaders, and lay their country to waste with fire and sword.” His scare tactics backfired.”2 Kings Mountain was a major victory for the Patriots and later battles at Hobkirk’s Hill and Eutaw Springs would further weaken the British.
Sweet Lips is said to have been the name of the rifle that killed Ferguson. So listen to “Sweet Lips”, a real country tune! “We’ll lick ’em, or we’re never coming back!” See the link in References for the lyrics.
It is said that the Scotch-Irish of the backwoods of the Carolinas turned the tide of the American Revolutionary War and routed the British at the Battle of Cowpens on January 17, 1781. It was our General Daniel Morgan, a brilliant tactician, vs Banastre Tarleton (“Bloody Butcher”). This battle is depicted in the movie The Patriot (2000) starring Mel Gibson. The battle of Cowpens helped pave the way for the victory of Washington and the French allies during the decisive showdown at Yorktown, Virginia.
Two previous posts are relevant to this article:
Independence Day
Samuel Crowley and the First Battle of the Revolutionary War
References:
● Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America by Jim Webb
● Scots and Scotch Irish: Frontier Life in North Carolina, Virginia, and Kentucky by Larry Hoefling
● Conquests and Cultures by Thomas Sowell
● youtube video “How The Scot-Irish Transformed The American South” based on the book Conquests and Cultures by Thomas Sowell.
● How the heroic Irish won the American Revolution
● The Scots-Irish in the Carolina Backcountry
● Scotch Irish Americans in Wikipedia
● Irish Immigration to America, 1630-1921 by Dr. Catherine Shannon
● At Battle of Cowpens the Scots-Irish of SC Helped Save Our Republic
● Sweet Lips: The Battle of King’s Mountain
- We are told the proper term is Scots-Irish, but Scotch-Irish was the common term in America. Another term is Ulster Scots.
- Kings Mountain