Justice for All

Justice for All

Blackbird Designs released 2002

40 count Old Massachusetts linen by The Primitive Hare

Needlepoint Ink Silk Williamsburg Blue Range 328 and Russet Red Range 209

Christmas is in sixteen days, most people are stitching beautiful Christmas pieces.  Me, I'm stitching patriotic pieces.  Last night I was watching one of my favorite Christmas movies:  Griswold Family Christmas.  At the end of the movie, Aunt Bethany begins singing the national anthem as Santa and the reindeer are catapulted into the sky.  I had myself a double good belly laugh:  laughing at the Griswold's singing the national anthem and me watching a Christmas movie and stitching a patriotic piece.  Does this mean I am becoming Aunt Bethany?  

Those Blackbird girls have been releasing winning designs for many years.  The font of the elongated letters was very appealing to me and the sampler gave me inspiration to stitch more of my family history.  The initials JSS are for my 5th Great Grandmother, Julianna Steinz Shultz and the year 1780 is the year of the Battle of King's Mountain.  The Battle of King's Mountain was a Revolutionary War battle and a turning point in the war for the American patriots.  

The Battle of King's Mountain

October 7, 1780

By the year 1780, the American Revolutionary War was well under way.  Great Grandparents, Johan Martin Shultz and Julianne Steinz Shultz may have thought that moving west from Pennsylvania into North Carolina might be a way of escaping the war.  

A few weeks before the Battle of King's Mountain, British Major Patrick Ferguson bluntly warned the local revolutionaries who lived in the Carolinas, that if they did not cease their rebellion, he would march over the mountains, hang their leaders, and lay waste their settlements with fire and sword.  This bold statement by Major Ferguson angered the colonists living in the Carolina's and they felt forced to defend themselves, their families and their homes.  

Colonel John Sevier learning that Grandfather Johan Martin was a (self-taught) surgeon, asked him to join his troops.  Colonel John Sevier and Colonel Isaac Shelby joined their troops together and rendezvoused at Sycamore Shoals (Tennessee) on September 25, 1780.  On that day, Sevier and Shelby arrived with 240 troops and joined Colonel Charles McDowell, who was already there with 160 North Carolina riflemen.  Colonel William Campbell joined the march with 400 Virginians.  

When the American revolutionaries arrived at Quaker Meadows in Burke County, North Carolina, they  were joined by Colonel Benjamin Cleveland and 350 North Carolinians. The Americans arrived at the foot of King's Mountain in the early afternoon of October 7, 1780.  They launched a four pronged attack with two columns on each side of the mountain led by Colonels Campbell and Sevier on the right and Shelby and Cleveland on the left.  Ferguson and his men were taken by surprise by the bold aggressiveness of the Overmountain Men.  Over the sound of the battle could be heard a shrill shriek from the silver whistle Ferguson used to direct his troops.  It was soon silenced, as Ferguson was killed while leading a desperate attack by a few of his men to break out of the mountaineer's cordon.  Captain Abraham DePeyster, the second in command of the British troops, almost immediately raised a white flag.  In an hour's time, Ferguson and 119 of his men had been killed, 123 wounded, and 664 captured.  The Americans had lost 28 killed and 62 wounded.  The victory at Kings Mountain demoralized the British.  No longer could the British depend on the Loyalists in the Carolina Piedmont.  King's Mountain was a turning point in the Revolutionary War, and on October 19, 1781, General Cornwalls surrendered at Yorktown.

The British had one doctor, Dr. Uzal Johnson and the colonists had Dr. Martin Shultz.  The problem was lack of supplies:  no medicine, no bandages, no splints.  Amputations were carried out with whisky and brute force.

"A terrible night followed the terrible day of the battle.  the cold was intense, and a strong wind swept across the mountain.  The wounded lay around where they had fallen, upon the bare ground, among the unburied dead, with no shelter but the grey sky above them.  There were no splints for their shattered limbs, no bandages for their flowing wounds, and only one surgeon among the entire two hundred and fifty."  Said one who witnessed it:  The scene was heart ending in the extreme--the groans of the dying and the constant cry of the wounded for water.  Taken from the notes of The Bear Guard of the Revolutions by James R. Gilmore page 261 and 262.

While Grandfather Johan Martin was away, with Colonel Sevier tending to the wounded, Grandmother Julianna was home in Tennessee with their children:  Valentine 18, David 16, John 11, Jacob 9, Marin 7, and Julia Ann 5.  I sincerely doubt if Grandmother Julianna had the time, energy, linen and threads to stitch a sampler.  This sampler is my way of honoring and remembering my Grandparents and the sacrifice they made for me.