James Williams was mortally wounded at Kings Mountain on October 7, 1780, while commanding South Carolina militia in the attack on Patrick Ferguson's Loyalist force. His final campaign had followed disputes over military authority and his efforts to gather men for the Patriot cause. At Kings Mountain the attacking militia surrounded the position and fought uphill through difficult ground. Williams received the wound from which he died during or shortly after the battle. Accounts describe him being carried away with the Americans and dying that night; some chronologies consequently distinguish the date of the battle from the date of death. The evidence is stronger on the fatal injury and immediate aftermath than on the precise hour. A complete wound description or treatment history does not survive in the material consulted, and later stories about his remains belong to a separate history. They should not dominate an account of the end itself. His promotion to brigadier general was made without news of his death having reached the appointing authorities, so he never received the commission. The supported narrative is a militia commander's death from wounds sustained in a decisive battle, with only a brief interval of survival and uncertainty over the exact final moments.