01/01/2026
🚨 Move over, Paul Revere - it’s time to talk about the REAL marathon ride of theRevolution.
Everyone knows Revere’s 16-mile dash (thanks, Longfellow). But in 1780, Martin Gambill, a pioneer settler in what’s now Ashe County, reportedly rode 100+ miles in just over 24 hours, through rugged mountain terrain, with little sleep or food, to help rally the Patriot forces that would win the pivotal Battle of Kings Mountain.
And now, at long last, his story is getting the spotlight it deserves.
🎬 Martin Gambill’s Ride to Kings Mountain (35-minute docu-drama)
đź“Ť https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f_gOC4LQjQ
Born in Culpepper, Virginia in 1750, Gambill was a Regulator who clashed with forces of North Carolina’s royal governor before the Revolution. After their defeat at Alamance, he headed into the Blue Ridge and later settled on the South Fork of the New River with his new bride.
He joined the local militia and, according to his widow’s later pension application, fought in several skirmishes against Tory forces before the Kings Mountain campaign.
⚔️ A Region Under Threat ⚔️
In 1780, British Major Patrick Ferguson, acting under General Cornwallis, threatened to burn homes and hang Patriot leaders unless the mountain region submitted and provided 200 Loyalist recruits.
Patriot leaders (Gambill among them) met to coordinate a response. When news came that Ferguson’s army was on the move, the Patriots agreed to gather at Sycamore Shoals (present-day Elizabethton, TN) on Sept. 25 and strike before he reached the mountains.
Gambill volunteered to ride north to warn Col. William Campbell in modern-day Smyth County, VA. Leaving between Deep Gap and today’s Boone on Sept. 18, he followed old Indian trails (near today’s US-221), passed through Piney Creek, and reached the home of Capt. Enoch Osborne on Potato Creek for a fresh horse.
He then pushed on through present-day Troutdale, VA, up the north side of the New River, and finally reached Campbell at Seven Mile Ford.
đź“Ś In just 24 hours, Gambill rode 100+ miles, delivering warnings and coordinating militia units along the way.
Campbell’s several hundred men reached Sycamore Shoals on Sept. 24 and joined forces with Wilkes and Surry County militias - forming the force that defeated Ferguson at Kings Mountain on Oct. 7, 1780.
Gambill, reportedly serving under Col. Ben Cleveland, was wounded in the arm during the battle.
After the war, Gambill returned home to the South Fork of the New. He and his wife raised a family whose descendants still live throughout Ashe, Alleghany, and Wilkes counties. He died in 1812 and rests in the Chestnut Hill area of Ashe County.
