Now completely surrounded, Ferguson’s disorganized and rapidly decreasing force was gradually pushed toward its campsite on the northeastern end of the ridge. In this desperate situation, with attacks and counterattacks raging on all sides, the piercing note of Ferguson’s silver whistle urging his forces on continued to be heard above the shooting and shrill whoops of the mountaineers. Suddenly, Ferguson attempted to cut through Cleveland’s lines near the northeastern crest, but was struck from his horse by at least eight balls fired by the mountain sharpshooters. He died a few minutes later. [Illustration: _Capt. Abraham de Peyster, second in command to Ferguson at Kings Mountain._ Courtesy New York Historical Society.] Captain de Peyster assumed command and attempted to rally the confused surviving Tories and Provincials, but his efforts were useless and he ordered a surrender. During the bloody 1-hour engagement that raged along the heavily wooded and rocky slopes, the mountaineers gained a complete victory. They were veterans of countless frontier clashes, even though untrained in formal warfare and, with a slight loss of 28 killed and 62 wounded, had killed, wounded or captured Ferguson’s entire force. Order and quiet were not immediately restored to the rugged battlefield. A number of patriots continued to fire into the group of defenseless Tories, because it was not known that a surrender had begun. Others fired upon the Tories to avenge the merciless slaughter of Col. Abraham Buford’s patriot force by Col. Banastre Tarleton’s British raiders at the Waxhaws in South Carolina, on May 29, 1780. While Dr. Uzal Johnson of Ferguson’s corps tended the wounds of patriots and Tories alike, others buried Ferguson’s body and those of the Tory dead on the battlefield. Of the patriots killed in the engagement, only four—Maj. William Chronicle, Capt. John Mattocks, William Rabb, and John Boyd—are buried there. They share a common grave at the site of the Chronicle markers. [Illustration: TROOP POSITIONS THE BATTLE OF KINGS MOUNTAIN KINGS MOUNTAIN NATIONAL MILITARY PARK _SOUTH CAROLINA_] [Illustration: _Gen. Nathanael Greene, American Commander in the South, 1780-81._ Courtesy Emmet Collection, New York Public Library.] [Illustration: _General Greene (left) meets General Gates at Charlotte, N. C., to assume command of the Southern Department of the Continental Army in December 1780._]