DAR Colonel Frederick Hambright Chapter

06/17/2026

The wreath laying at Ramsour’s Mill was a wonderful event! Catawba Valley Chapter - NCSAR did an excellent job and we were happy to see so many of our DAR, SAR, and CAR friends to commemorate an event where American Patriots and American Loyalists clashed in a bittersweet Patriot victory. Rhett Edwards brought greetings for the first time from the newly formed Major General Benjamin Lincoln Society of CAR! His mother Audrey is our Vice-Regent and we are all very proud of him!

06/08/2026

The Patriot Ancestor of some of our Daughters.

1776-2026 250 years of freedom! we are digging up brave patriots who fought for that freedom! today we dug up Preston Goforth who was killed at the Battle of Kings Mountain!

05/29/2026

Frederick Hambright got a shout out when Major William Chronicle - NSDAR chapter member Lynne Smith talked about The Battle of Kings Mountain and the South Fork Boys! They are unveiling a mural in Belmont for the Southfork Boys on June 4th so this is a perfect way to get caught up on the events of the day!

Lynne Smith, a descendant of 1780 Battle of King's Mountain veteran Frederick Hambright, tells the story of North Carolina's South Fork Boys in this pivotal ...

05/25/2026

“May we never forget those who gave everything for our nation.”

As America prepares to mark our 250th anniversary of independence, we reflect on the generations of men and women who gave their lives in service to our nation. Their sacrifice helped preserve the freedoms and opportunities that have shaped our country's story for 250 years.

This Memorial Day, we honor their courage, remember their service, and express our deepest gratitude. May we never forget those who gave everything for our nation.

02/11/2026

Revolutionary Veteran Esaias Bowman 🇺🇸

Like many other Revolutionary War veterans, there’s a scarcity of information about Essius (Esaias) Bowman, a free man of color. Being a man of color makes it even more difficult. Between historical sources and genealogy, we might get a reasonable but incomplete picture of his life. Genealogy sources point to Bowman being born free in Augusta County, Virginia on or about 26 August 1763. He was likely of mixed ancestry with perhaps a mix of African, Native American, or European blood.
Adding to confusion, Bowman may have resided for some time in western part of North Carolina, the region that later became part of Tennessee. Descendents have also indicated that he had connections with the Cherokee Nation, and he owned land in Virginia. Genealogy sources and DNA evidence point to Essius Bowman as being married to Mary Ann Cawood, who was born in and passed away in Washington County, Virginia. They had nine children. Bowman also passed away in Washington County on or about 25 September 1837.
The Battle of Kings Mountain appears to be the primary event of Bowman’s Revolutionary War military service with no known pension application left to help us. Bowman marched and fought in the epic Battle of Kings Mountain on 7 October 1780 under the command of Captain Joel Lewis. During the one-hour engagement, the loyalists’ will to fight vanished after their commander was shot down, and it appears that Bowman was one of the soldiers who managed to get off a shot at him. Major Patrick Ferguson’s death signaled the end of the battle and put major British operations in North Carolina on hiatus for the duration of 1780. Following the battle, Lord Cornwallis withdrew his army from Charlottetown, NC to Winnsboro, SC for the winter.
Bowman’s wartime service is memorialized at Kings Mountain National Military Park on a monument recognizing the contributions of black patriots in that struggle. Dedicated on 7 October 2016, the battlefield’s most recent marker commemorates the 3 known African American patriots, listing them specifically by name. It also recognizes others who participated in the victory at Kings Mountain but lack enough primary source documentation to allow listing them by name. The marker was erected and dedicated by the Frederick Hambright Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, located in the town of Kings Mountain, North Carolina.


Image courtesy Kings Mountain National Military Park
Image description: A bronze plaque attached to stone with the text: In honor of the three known African American patriots and others who participated in the Battle of Kings Mountain
Esaias Bowman
John Broddy
Andrew Ferguson

02/08/2026

Born about 1750, John Broddy was the slave or manservant of Col William Campbell of Virginia. He did not fight in the 1780 Battle of Kings Mountain but observed it closely. He was said to have been fired upon by Loyalists who mistook him for Colonel Campbell. While his presence at Kings Mountain is documented, John Broddy’s origins are a bit more obscure. The noted 19th century researcher Lyman Draper indicated that Broddy was likely the illegitimate child of one of the Campbells. A more contemporary Western Virginia researcher provided an alternative story or origin that’s compelling.

Gordon Aronhime concluded that John Broddy was likely from India, due in part to name similarities. Broddy himself may have indicated to a member of the Campbell family that he came from a far-off land where men rode animals bigger than horses and on the trees were nuts and large balls full of milk and white meat. His memory was that of a small child, being taken away from his home, and put on a ship bound for the English colonies in America. After arriving in Annapolis, Maryland, the youngster was briefly held by a magistrate before becoming Charles Campbell's property and moving to southwest Virginia Colony.

John Broddy participated in the September 1780 militia muster in Abingdon, Virginia for the pursuit of Patrick Ferguson. During the ensuing Battle of Kings Mountain, Broddy remained behind with the horses, personally caring for William Campbell’s horse, which had been exchanged due to its skittish nature.
John Broddy was emancipated in 1793, fulfilling a promise made by the Campbells. Additionally, he was provided with land to live out the rest of his life. He passed away in 1859, making him perhaps the oldest and one of the longest living of all the Kings Mountain men. He’s buried near Saltville, Virginia.


Image courtesy of Kings Mountain National Military Park
Image description: A bronze plaque attached to stone with the text: In honor of the three known African American patriots and others who participated in the Battle of Kings Mountain
Esaias Bowman
John Broddy
Andrew Ferguson

01/18/2026

On the afternoon of January 18, 1781, Lt. Colonel Banastre Tarleton and the remnants of his command rode into Lord Cornwallis’s camp at Hillhouse Plantation in Turkey Creek, South Carolina. By then scouts had informed Cornwallis of the defeat at Cowpens, but he was not yet aware of its magnitude.

Patriot prisoners in the camp later described Cornwallis’s reaction as Tarleton described how he had lost ninety percent of the troops under his command. “(While) he listened to Tarleton’s narrative, he was leaning on his sword. He pressed it so hard in his fury that it broke, and he swore he would recover the prisoners at all hazards.”

Cornwallis’s determination to chase down the rebels and recover their prisoners led him to plunge deep into the sparsely inhabited wilderness of North Carolina in pursuit. As Brigadier General Charles O’Hara would later put it, “It was resolved to follow Greene’s army to the end of the world.” Eventually, to speed up his army, Cornwallis would order the burning of all his baggage wagons, requiring his men and horses to subsist off the land, which provided little sustenance in the best of times, and almost none in the winter after the Patriot army had already passed over it.

The next two months were among the most dramatic and consequential months of the war. They would witness dogged and relentless pursuit by the British, and brilliant and daring maneuvering by Greene and Daniel Morgan to evade them—all coming to a climax at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse on March 15.