Stormy weather

Walking up the street in Charlottesville, Virginia, I find a grand statue of George Rogers Clark on horseback with several others around. I've got to get a picture. It is the kind of statue I want of the Overmountain men.

There are heroes we know - Winston, Cleveland, Shelby, Campbell,... but I want four statues of heroes we don't know well. I want one statue from each orientation - north, south, east and west. I am in the East in Surry county. Along with Winston and Lenoir and Cleveland, we have Bowman, Lewis, Johnson, Herndon, Witherspoon, Gamble, Goforth and probably Williams who I discovered yesterday. I'm counting him because though he did not go to Kings Mountain, he was fighting Tories at home on the Shallow ford. I want all of these in some sculpture to walk around and contemplate.

They don't have to be in a fountain or anything, but you know in Rome, Italy, the fountains and statues became so famous, people throw money and make a wish. You can get a boyfriend for one coin, a husband for two or for three coins, a divorce. All of these opportunities draw crowds in catholic Rome. That might be economic development....

Okay, that was a complete segway, but people come for different reasons to contemplate the same art. Art is a draw if it is meaningful and beautiful.

If the four statues of four militias, like the four winds, were all in one site at the entry to the trail in NC, it would be an incredible contemplation site. Listen to the list of cultures merging to defend their new homes: Welsh, Irish, Scots, English, African, French, German, Dutch and even Polish if you include the rest of the southern campaign.

I know Africa is a continent but I can't tell you where the men originated. and I also know that I have not found Native Americans at Kings Mountain. I believe I read the Cawtabas were at Musgrove's Mill when the overmountain men were informed of the lost of Camden,SC. Still, what a mix!?

Ironically, if you took apart the British army, you'd have probably found the same mix. Certainly, there were all the UK men , Cherokee, some slaves fighting for their own freedom, and we know there were German mercenaries or Hessians

As I wrote our OVTA this week, the British sewed the wind and reaped a whirlwind coming at them from all directions. The whirlwind included soldiers from all parts of the globe, black and white, native and foreign. It was a storm that changed the world.