Major TEMPLE

   User ID: P00051132.

  General Notes:

Major Temple moved to Mecklenburg County, NC (1766). In 1780, he was with North Carolina forces in the celebrated battle of King's Mountain (also Cowpens and Guilford Courthouse). The family says he carved his initials in the musket he carried in that battle. That weapon has been handed down from generation to generation and was known as "Old Kings Mountain." In 1786, he moved to Green County, Tennessee, where he selected a farm on Richland Creek. Both his farm and that of his neighbor (Rev. Hezekiah Balch, who went on to found Greenville College) were recorded at the same time. They were probably friends and came to Tennessee together. Both were active Presbyterians. Major Temple was an Elder in the Church. In 1797, Major Temple was appointed to lay out and govern the town of Greeneville, Tenn. His son John was also a commissioner. We believe Major Temple had five sons and a daughter. We list only the two sons whose names we know.

Battle of Kings Mountain
October 7, 1780, near the North and South Carolina border
The plateau of the mountain is in Cleveland County, NC
The battlefield and park are in York County, SC

Historians consider the Battle of Kings Mountain to be the "turning point in the South" in America's War for Independence. The victory of Patriots over Loyalist troops destroyed the left wing of Cornwallis' army. The battle also effectively ended, at least temporarily, the British advance into North Carolina. Lord Cornwallis was forced to retreat from Charlotte into South Carolina to wait for reinforcements. The victory of the Overmountain Men allowed General Nathaniel Greene the opportunity to reorganize the American Army.

When British General Henry Clinton learned of his men's defeat at Kings Mountain, he is reported to have called it "the first link of a chain of evils" that he feared might lead to the collapse of the British plans to quash the Patriot rebellion. He was right. American forces went on to defeat the British at Cowpens. A little more than a year after Kings Mountain, Washington accepted Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown, Virginia.

Major married Mary Jane KENNEDY.