Ferguson, inventor of the Ferguson rifle, commanded a group of Cornwallis' Loyalists he had recruited. Ferguson threatened to invade the mountains beyond the legal limit of settlement westward. The locals organized a militia and fought against the loyalist forces on October 7, 1780 in the Battle of King’s Mountain.

Catawba leader General New River, born around 1740, allied with the Patriots during the Revolutionary War, leading Catawba warriors in key southern battles. Despite their service, the Catawba lost much of their ancestral land, and New River continued advocating for his people's rights until his death in 1804.

While serving as a drummer in the Revolutionary War, young Stephen Tainter witnessed Burgoyne’s surrender and the failed Newport siege.

Peter Harris, a Catawba Indian who survived a devastating smallpox epidemic as a child, served bravely in the Continental Army during the American Revolution, fighting in key battles like Stono Ferry and Rocky Mount; despite his contributions, he later petitioned South Carolina for a pension, poignantly describing himself as "one of the lingering embers of an almost extinguished race," and was granted $60 a year just before his death in 1823.