AMERICA 250 REVOLUTIONARY WAR ANCESTER JOSEPH WALLING/WALLEN
By Kathleen Weddle Sizer
Joseph Wallen, 5th great-grandfather served in the Revolutionary War in the militia of Montgomery County under Captain Harmon Cox 1777. Montgomery County men took Oaths of Allegiance to the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1777-1779 and Joseph, John and Thomas Wallen signed the Oath in the company of Captain John Cox. The Oaths are found in the Montgomery County courthouse in Entry Book A page 104 and 106 of Fincastle and Montgomery Counties, Virginia
Wallen’s Ridge in Southwest Virginia and Wallins Creek and town of Wallins in Harlan County, Kentucky are named for the Walling brothers. From Tennessee Cousins by W. S. Ray, page 163 “… The Indian Traders and what was called the ‘long hunters’, of course had been through the country before the Indians had consented… Men like Daniel Boone, the Wallens … had seen the country …”
General Lord Cornwallis’ Army marched northward through the Carolinas and Colonel Patrick Ferguson, … sent a threat to the “Over Mountain Men” if they did not cross the mountains and take the oath of allegiance to King George William Frederick III, that he would cross over “hang their leaders and lay their country to waste” and destroy “wityh fire and sword”. Ferguson and Cornwallis underestimated these men. Cornwallis sent Ferguson on ahead to cover his left flank while dealing in another area of battle and Ferguson set up camp on a rocky hilltop called King’s Mountain in Western South Carolina.
The militia was called into actions; 910 men answered the call as Patriots but were two days’ travel away. Ferguson delayed moving east giving the militia time to arrive. They left October 6, 1780 that night, marching all night and into the next morning October 7 through rain with 15 miles to go to arrive at King’s Mountain in early afternoon. Around 3:00 o’clock the commanders of the militia immediately launched the offensive, breaking the men into units of 200 to attack from all sides, being below the ridge where Ferguson was, a difficult task. Commanders told the men “Don’t wait for the word of commence. Let each one of you be your own officer and do the very best you can.” “Shout like Hell and fight like devils.” They were described as “a race of hardy men who were familiar with the use of the horses, rifle and stout, active, patient under privation and brave”. The battle was described later as the largest “all American Fight”; the Loyalist militia and Patriot militia being almost all Americans.
Ferguson didn’t realize that these men had endured hardship, discomfort, hard work, Indian incursions and even their woman were strong surviving in the back county for 30 years. Many men were also Scots, Irish and German and had endured decades of persecution at the hands of English and Germanic nobility
Ferguson was killed; most of his men surrendered from a force of 1,125 to the Patriots with a force of 910 men. Of Loyalist 668 were taken prisoner, 163 wounded and 244-290 killed; the Patriots suffered 28 killed and 58-60 wounded. Three to survive were grandpa Joseph Walling, brother Elisha and Daniel Boone’s father John. The battle lasted 65 minutes. President Thomas Jefferson said “The turn of the tide of success” was the battle of King’s Mountain.” Joseph returned to backwoods life, killed by Indians in 1792 in Kentucky. Because of his early death, he did not receive a pension and his wife Millicent died in 1800.