 Cornwallis , buoyed by the victory at Camden , then prepared to advance north into North Carolina while militia activity , led by Thomas Sumter and Francis Marion , continued to harass the troops he left in South Carolina . He detached Patrick Ferguson , his inspector of militia , to raise a company of militia in the hills of North and South Carolina and cover his left flank . Ferguson was zealous in execution of this assignment , raising nearly 1 @,@ 100 men . However , he angered many colonists by issuing threats to " lay their country waste with fire and sword " if they continued their opposition , and a Patriot militia arose to oppose him . While Ferguson recruited , Cornwallis moved his army to Charlotte , North Carolina , skirmishing with Patriot forces left there to harass his advance . Ferguson 's Loyalists and the Patriot militia , led by a coalition of commanders , clashed at Kings Mountain in early October , two weeks after Cornwallis arrived in Charlotte . The battle was a disaster : Ferguson was killed , and nearly his entire force was killed or captured . Kings Mountain was only about 35 miles ( 56 km ) from Charlotte , within Cornwallis 's range to assist . The defeat , combined with other failures to raise Loyalist militia and ongoing Patriot activity in South Carolina , prompted Cornwallis to retreat to Winnsboro , South Carolina , where he set up a winter camp . Attempts to capture either Marion or Sumter were repeatedly frustrated . To reinforce his army , he ordered Major General Alexander Leslie , stationed at Portsmouth , Virginia , to abandon that outpost and join him in South Carolina . 
