Display Patriot - P-317778 - John Nicholas WHISENANT Sr
John Nicholas WHISENANT Sr
SAR Patriot #:
P-317778
The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.
State of Service: SC
Qualifying Service: Patriotic Service
John Nicholas Whisenant was born in 1743 at Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, a son of John Adam Whisenant and Anna Barbara Eaker. John Nicholas was the fourth of eight children. The family moved to Lincoln County, North Carolina, in the early 1750s. He married Mary Carpenter about 1762.
Around 1770, John Nicholas and Mary moved to York County, South Carolina. John Nicholas and Mary had nine children. By 1780, the family owned and ran a grist mill.
In October 1780, Loyalist Militia under British Major Patrick Ferguson were serving as part of Lord Cornwallis’s forces attempting an invasion of North Carolina. Ferguson’s force was guarding the British Army’s left flank.
The Patriot militia pursued the Tory militia. The Loyalists moved through South Carolina into North Carolina. Major Ferguson took a position on top of a ridge known as King’s Mountain. He believed the position offered the best protection. It was also a short distance from John Whisenant’s grist mill. The Patriot Militia’s final stop before finding the Tories was at the grist mill, where Whisenant provided much-needed supplies to the Patriots in preparation for an expected battle. The next day, the Patriots engaged the Tories at King’s Mountain and won a resounding victory. Ferguson did not take into account the Patriot militia was made up of frontiersmen experienced in marksmanship and Indian tactics that better fit the terrain.
The Tories lost 157 killed, 163 wounded, and 698 captured. Major Ferguson, the British officer commanding the Loyalist militia, was killed in the battle. The battle ended Cornwallis’s invasion of North Carolina, and prevented the invading Virginia. The Tory forces were forced to retreat south. The Battle of King’s Mountain is identified as the turning point in the Revolutionary War, and the beginning of the end of British dominance in the Colonies.
Conflicting reports indicate Whisenant may have joined the militia and fought at King’s Mountain. After the war, John Nicholas Whisenant remained at South Carolina. He sold the land the grist mill was on in 1805. He died April 19, 1831, at York County, South Carolina. He was buried at the Antioch Baptist Church at Blacksburg, South Carolina.
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