which was calculated to remove the powers of the judiciary further from
the control of the people.
[[[Approval of a General Congress, and Appointment of
Deputies.--Provincial Congress.--Maneuvers of Governor Martin.]]]
{580}agreement, and expressed their hearty approval of the proposition
for a general Congress. This approval was further manifested by the
choice of deputies to represent the province in the Continental
council. *
Pursuant to the recommendations of the general Congress when it convened
in September, contributions were raised in all parts of the province
for the relief of the people of Boston; and committees of safety were
appointed in every county and chief town, to see that the articles of
association adopted by the Congress were signed and faithfully observed.
Activity every where prevailed among the Whigs during the winter;
and when Governor Martin fixed the day for the assembling of the
Legislature,[[April 5, 1775]] John Harvey, who presided over the
convention at Newbern several months before, now summoned those
delegates to meet as a Provincial Congress on the same day. Governor
Martin attempted, by proclamation, to prevent the meeting of the
deputies, but in vain. The two bodies, composed chiefly of the same men,
met at the same time, and Harvey was called upon to preside over both.
The governor attempted to keep the two Assemblies distinct. He besought
the legal Assembly to discountenance the irregular convention of the
other deputies, chosen by the people, and expressed his determination
to use all the means in his power to counteract their treasonable
influence. He denounced the Continental Congress as "seditious and
wicked," "highly offensive to his majesty," and in firm but respectful
language urged the people to remember their allegiance and to faithfully
maintain it. His appeals were of no avail, for both Assemblies were too
intimately allied in sentiment to act in opposition to each other. Both
bodies concurred in approving of the proceedings of the Congress of
1774, and in appointing delegates to a new one, to meet in Philadelphia
in May following.[[May 10, 1775]] The governor, perceiving the Assembly
to be intractable, consulted his council, and by their recommendation
dissolved it, by proclamation, on the eighth of April.
Governor Martin and the representatives of the people were now fairly
at issue. The latter organized a Provincial Congress, and, assuming
the functions of government, sent forth an address to the people,
recommending the adoption of measures for resistance, similar to those
pursued in other colonies. After transacting some other business for
the public good, they quietly separated. As soon as the deputies had
departed, the governor, perceiving the tide of public opinion setting
strongly against him, became alarmed, and sought to intimidate the
people, and at the same time to protect his person, by placing
some cannon in front of the palace. He dispatched messengers to the
Highlanders at Cross Creek, upon whose loyalty he relied, and others
were sent into the more westerly districts to promise the Regulators
exemption from the punishments to which they were still liable for
past misdeeds, if they would assist the king's government against its
opposers. These promises had great effect, and, strange as it may seem,
many of the Regulators were active Loyalists. About this time, a letter
which the governor had sent to General Gage at Boston, soliciting a
supply of arms and ammunition, was intercepted. The people were greatly
exasperated, and the Committee of Safety of Newbern seized and carried
off six of the cannons which had been placed in front of the palace.
From every quarter the governor heard of hostile preparations, and
becoming alarmed for his personal safety, he fled to Fort Johnson, on
the Cape Fear River, near Wilmington,[[June 14, 1775]] whence he sent
forth a menacing proclamation. ** [[June 16]]
At the beginning of July, preparations for a servile insurrection on the
Tar River were
* William Hooper, of the county of Orange, Joseph Hewes, of the town
of Edenton, and Richard Caswell, of the county of Dobbs were chosen
deputies. They were instructed to carry out the principles embodied in
the preamble and resolutions adopted by the convention, the substance of
which is given in the text.
** To this proclamation the General Committee of Safety of the District
of Wilmington, as appears by their proceedings, issued an answer,
denying many of its allegations, and proclaiming the governor to be
an instrument in the hands of administration to rivet those chains so
wickedly forged for America." This answer was drawn up and adopted in
the session of the committee, at the court-house in Wilmington, on the
twentieth of June, 1775.
[[[Symptoms of a Servile Insurrection.--Destruction of Fort
Johnson.--Provincial Congress at Hillsborough]]]
{581}discovered. This plot was disclosed to Thomas Rispess, a former
member of the Assembly from Beaufort, by one of his slaves. It was
generally supposed that Governor Martin was an accessory in inducing the
slaves to rise and murder their masters. *
[Illustration: 8591]
Fired with indignation by this opinion, the exasperated people
determined to demolish Fort Johnson, lest the governor should strengthen
it, and make it a place of reception for a hostile force and insurgent
negroes. Under Colonel John Ashe, a body of about five hundred men
marched to the fort, when it was ascertained that the governor had fled
to the sloop of war _Cruiser_, lying in the river, and that Collett, the
commander of the fortress, had removed all the small arms, ammunition,
and part of the artillery, to a transport hired for the purpose. The
militia immediately set fire to the buildings, and demolished a
large portion of the walls of the fort. ** The Committee of Safety
of Wilmington, at the same time, publicly charged the governor with
fomenting a civil war, and endeavoring to excite an insurrection among
the negroes. They declared him an enemy to his country and the province,
and forbade all persons holding any communication with him. While these
events were transpiring on the coast, the people of Mecklenburg
county, over the Yadkin, met by representatives, and, by a series of
resolutions, virtually declared themselves independent of the British
crown, and established republican government in that county. This
important movement will be considered in the next chapter.
Pursuant to a resolve of the late convention, delegates from the several
towns in the state were summoned to meet in Provincial Congress at
Hillsborough, on the twentieth of August. * When this summons appeared,
Governor Martin, yet on board the _Cruiser,_ issued a long proclamation,
in which he stigmatized the incendiaries of Fort Johnson as traitors to
the king; pronounced the proceedings of the Wilmington committee as base
and scandalous; denounced the movement in Mecklenburg in May; *** warned
the people not to send delegates to Hillsborough; denounced Colonels
Ashe **** and Howe as rebels; and offered the king's pardon for all
past outrages to those who should return to their allegiance. The people
defied the governor's threats, and mocked his proffers of forgiveness;
and on Sunday, the twentieth of August, every county and chief town in
the province had a delegate in Hillsborough. They organized on Monday,
(v) when one hundred and eighty-four deputies were present. One of
their first acts was to declare their determination to hold the ægis of
popular power over the Regulators, who were liable to punishment, and
had not been cajoled into submission by the governor's promises. They
also declared the governor's proclamation to be a "false, scurrilous,
malicious, and seditious libel," and tending to stir up
[Illustration: 6591]
* In a letter to Lewis Henry de Rosset, the governor endeavored to
vindicate himself, and denied all knowledge of the matter. He said in
his letter, "that nothing could justify such a measure but the actual
and designed rebellion of the king's subjects, and the failure of all
other means to maintain his government." From these expressions and the
language held in a pamphlet, entitled Taxation no Tyranny, written by
the celebrated Dr. Johnson, together with the conduct of Lord Dunmore,
of Virginia, it was evident that the inciting of the slaves to massacre
their masters was a part of the programme of ministers for crushing the
rebellion. *
** Fort Johnson was on the west side of the Cape Fear River, two miles
above its mouth, where the present town of Smithville, the capital
of Brunswick county, is situated. There is now a fortress and small
garrison there.
***An account of the proceedings in Mecklenburg were published in the
Cape Fear Mercury.
**** This was the same officer who accompanied Tryon to the Allamance,
and was flogged by the Regulators. He resigned his commission as colonel
of the militia of Hanover, under the king, and espoused the patriot
cause. We shall meet him in the field hereafter.
* (v) The members of the Provincial Congress assembled in the
Presbyterian Church, which stood where the present place of worship of
that denomination, in Hillsborough, is located.
* "The slave should be set free," said Johnson; "an act which the lovers
of liberty must surely commend. If they are furnished with arms for
defense and utensils of husbandry, and settled in some simple form of
government, within the country, they may be more honest and grateful
than their masters."
[[[Action of the Congress.--Military Organization.--Minute-men.--Sketch
of Cornelius Harnett.]]]
{582}tumult and insurrections, dangerous to the peace of the king's
government." It was then directed to be burned by the common hangman.
They also provided for raising and equipping a military force of one
thousand men for the defense of the liberties of the province. This
force was divided into two regiments. The command of the first regiment
was given to Colonel James Moore (one of Tryon's officers when he
marched against the Regulators), of New Hanover; the second to Colonel
Robert Howe, of Brunswick. In addition to this regular force, a
battalion of ten companies, of fifty men each, was directed to be raised
in each district, to be called _minute-men_, their uniform to be a
hunting-shirt, leggings or spatterdashes, and black gaiters. To pay
these troops and other expenses of the government, the Provincial
Congress directed the emission of bills of credit to the amount of
$150,000, for the redemption of which a poll tax was levied for nine
years, commencing in 1777. The deputies closed their labors by agreeing
to an address to the inhabitants of the British empire (which was drawn
up by William Hooper), and in organizing a provisional government. * The
Congress adjourned on the nineteenth of September.[[1775]]
The provincial council met for the first time on the eighteenth of
October following, and appointed Cornelius Harnett, of Wilmington,
president. ** Already the Continental Congress
* A provincial council was established, composed of two persons duly
chosen by the delegates of each district, and one by the whole Congress.
* A Committee of Safety, composed of a president and twelve members,
were chosen for each district; the freeholders were also directed to
choose a committee. The provincial council and the committees of safety
exercised the functions of government in the management of civil
and military affairs. Secret committees of correspondence were also
organized. Premiums were voted for the manufacture of saltpetre,
gunpowder, cotton and woolen cards, pins, needles, linen and woolen
cloth, and for the erection of rolling and slitting mills, furnaces
for the manufacture of steel and iron, paper-mills, salt-works, and for
refining sulphur.
[Illustration: 9592]
** In the Wilmington Chronicle, August 21, 1844, there appeared a very
interesting memoir of Cornelius Harnett, which I have condensed. Mr.
Harnett was a native of England, and was born on the twentieth of April,
1723. The precise time when he came to America is not known. He was a
man of wealth and consideration, before circumstances brought him into
public life. He was among the earliest in North Carolina in denouncing
the Stamp Act and kindred measures, and from that period until his
death he was extremely active in public affairs. He resided upon Hilton
plantation, about one mile from the center of Wilmington, where he owned
a large estate, and was a gentleman of leisure.
[Illustration: 8592]
** He represented the borough of Wilmington in the Provincial Assembly,
in 1770-71, and was chairman of the most important committees of that
body. From one of the reports of a committee of which Harnett was
chairman, I copied till accompanying signature of the patriot. In 1772,
Mr. Harnett, with Robert (afterward General) Howe, and Judge Maurice
Moore, constituted a committee of the Assembly to prepare a remonstrance
against the appointment, by Governor Martin, of commissioners to run
the southern boundary line of the province. In 1773, Josiah Quincy, the
young and ardent patriot of Boston, while traveling in the South for his
health, passed a night at Wilmington, at the residence of Mr. Harnett,
whom he denominated "the Samuel Adams of North Carolina" (except in
point of fortune). "Robert Howe, Esq., Harnett, and myself," he wrote,
"made the social triumvirate of the evening." The plan of "Continental
Correspondence" was a subject for discussion that evening, and Quincy
returned to Boston, feeling that with such men as Pinckney, Rutledge,
Gadsden, and Harnett, as leaders, the South would co-operate with
Massachusetts in resistance.
* Samuel Johnson, Cornelius Harnett, Samuel Ashe, Abner Nash, James
Coor, Thomas Jones of Edenton, Whitmill Hill, William Jones, Thomas
Jones of Halifax, Thomas Person, John Kinchen, Samuel Spencer, and
Waightstill wery, composed this first provincial council. They were to
meet quarterly.
** This sketch is from a pencil drawing made in 1851 by Mr. Charles
Burr. It is situated about a mile and a half from the center of
Wilmington, on the northeast branch of the river. I am informed by
Edward Kidder, Esq., of Wilmington, through whose kindness this and
several other drawings in his vicinity have been procured for my work,
that it has never been altered since Mr. Harnett occupied it. This is a
view of the south point.
** In December, 1773, Mr. Harnett was placed on the Committee of
Correspondence for Wilmington district. In that sphere he was the
master-spirit of the Revolution upon the Cape Fear and its vicinity. In
the Provincial Congress of 1775, he represented his old constituents;
and when a provincial council was appointed to fill the vacancy
in government caused by the abdication of Martin, he was made its
president, and became, in that capacity, actual governor of North
Carolina. He was a member of the Provincial Congress which assembled
at Halifax in the spring of 1776, and was chairman of the committee
appointed to consider the usurpations, &c., of the imperial government.
He submitted a report on the twelfth of April, which contained a
resolution empowering the delegates of North Carolina in the Continental
Congress, to use their influence in favor of a Declaration of
Independence. When, in the spring of 1776, Sir Henry Clinton, with a
British fleet, appeared in the Cape Fear River, that commander honored
Harnett and Robert Howe, by excepting them in his offer of a general
pardon to those who should return to their allegiance, as published in
his proclamation issued to the people of North Carolina from the Pallas
transport. They were considered arch-rebels. When, on the twenty-second
of July, 1776, the Declaration of Independence arrived at Halifax,
Harnett read it to a great concourse of citizens and soldiers. When he
concluded, the latter crowded around him, took him upon their shoulders,
and bore him in triumph through the town. In the autumn, he was on a
committee for drafting a State Constitution, and a Bill of Rights; and
to his liberal spirit the people were indebted for the claim in the
first document, guaranteeing the privilege of enjoying the public
offices and emoluments to Dissenters and Churchmen, equally. Under the
new Constitution, Richard Caswell was made the first governor of the
state, and Harnett was one of his council. He was afterward elected to
fill his place in the Continental Congress, and Cornelius Harnett's name
is attached to the "articles of confederation and perpetual union." When
the British afterward held possession of the country around the Cape
Fear, Harnett was made prisoner, and died while a captive. His remains
lie buried in the northeast corner of the grave-yard attached to St.
James's Church, in Wilmington, and at the head and foot of his grave are
two upright slabs of brown stone. On the one at the head is inscribed,
"Cornelius Harnett, Died, 1781, aged 58 years."
[[[Friendship of lhe Highlanders courted.--Called to take up Arms by
Donald M'Donald.--Flora M'Donald.]]]
{583}had adopted measures for the defense of the province. The two
battalions of five hundred men each were attached to the Continental
army, and the committees of safety were requested to employ all the
gunsmiths in the colony, that might be procured in making muskets. Two
Gospel ministers were sent by the provincial council to explain to
the Highlanders and others the nature of the quarrel with the mother
country, and endeavor to win them to the patriot cause. In the mean
while, Governor Martin had busy emissaries among the Highlanders and
Regulators, endeavoring to unite them in favor of the king. This was
an object of great importance; for if he could embody a strong force
of Loyalists in the heart of the province, he could easily keep the
sea-board quiet, especially after the arrival of Sir Henry Clinton
with troops from the North, then daily expected. He had also received
intelligence that Sir Peter Parker, with a strong squadron, bearing
Lord Cornwallis with a considerable force, would sail for America at the
beginning of 1776. These anticipations gave the governor pleasing hopes
for the future.
While Lord Dunmore, as we have seen, was making a demonstration against
the lower counties of Virginia, * Governor Martin prepared to strike a
blow against the patriots in North Carolina. He gave Donald M'Donald,
an influential Highlander at Cross Creek, a commission of brigadier
general, and with it a large number of copies of a proclamation, with a
blank left for the date, which commanded all the king's loyal subjects
in North Carolina to join his standard. M'Donald had discretionary
powers concerning the distribution of these proclamations. While Colonel
Robert Howe, with North Carolina troops, was absent at Norfolk, in
Virginia, whither he had gone to assist Colonels Woodford and Stevens
against Dunmore, M'Donald set up the royal ensign at Cross Creek[[Feb
1, 1776]] (now Fayetteville), and issued some of the proclamations.
The loyal-hearted Scotchmen, not fully comprehending the nature of the
difficulties, obeyed blindly; and in a few days more than one thousand
of them, with many timid Regulators, in all fifteen hundred strong,
gathered around the standard of the Highland chief. M'Donald was a brave
veteran, and had fought valiantly for the Pretender on the field of
Culloden, and his influence over his countrymen was very great.
At Cross Creek lived Flora M'Donald, the noble and beautiful girl who
saved the life of Charles Edward, after the defeat of the troops at
Culloden. ** She was now the wife of
* See page 534.
** The Pretender, while a fugitive among the Highlands of Scotland, was
discovered by his enemies, and fled in an open boat to South Uist, an
island on the west coast, where he found refuge with Laird M'Donald.
His pursuers discovered his retreat, and three thousand English soldiers
were sent to search every nook and dell, crag and cottage upon the
island. A cordon of armed vessels surrounded South Uist, so that escape
appeared impossible. But escape from the island was neeessary for the
safety of the prinee. Lady M'Donald proposed that he should put on the
garb of a servant-woman, and, in company with a lady as waiting-maid,
leave the island. Who had the courage? Flora M'Donald, from Millburg, a
beautiful girl just from school at Edinburgh, was there on a visit. Her
step-father was then on the island, in command of a corps of soldiers
searching for the prinee. Regardless of the certain displeasure of her
father and the extreme peril of the undertaking, Flora acceded to the
proposal of Lady M'Donald to save the prince; and that very night, in
company with a trusty officer, she went among the crags of Carradale,
to the cave where the royal fugitive was concealed. Great was the
astonishment and delight of the prince when he was informed of the plan
for his eseape. Within a day or two, Flora procured a passport from her
unsuspecting step-father for herself, a young companion, a boat's crew,
and Betsey Bourke, an Irish woman, whom Flora pretended she had procured
as a spinster for her mother. The prince, attired as Betsey Bourke,
embarked with Flora and her companions, on the twenty-eighth of June,
1746, for the Isle of Skye. A furious tempest tossed them about all
night, and a band of soldiers prevented their landing in the morning.
They finally landed near the residence of Sir Alexander M'Donald, where
the prince was concealed in the cavity of a rock, for the laird was his
enemy, and his hall was filled with soldiers seeking the fugitive. Flora
touched the heart of Lady M'Donald, and by her aid the prince and the
maiden made a safe journey of twelve miles on foot, to Potaree. There
they parted forever, the prince to escape to Franee, Flora to be soon
afterward carried a prisoner to London and east into the Tower. The
story of her adventure excited the admiration of all classes, and as
she was not a partisan of the Pretender, nor of his religious faith,
the nobility interfered in her behalf. The father of George the Third
visited her in prison, and so much was he interested in her that he
procured her release. While she remained in London, her residence was
surrounded by the carriages of the nobility; and Lady Primrose, a friend
of the Pretender, introduced her to court society. When presented to
the old King George the Second, he said to her, "How could you dare
to succor the enemy of my crown and kingdom." Flora replied with great
simplicity-, "It was no more than I would have done for your majesty,
had you been in like situation." A chaise and four were fitted up for
her return to Scotland, and her escort was Malcolm M'Leod, who often
said afterward, "I went to London to be hanged, but rode back in a
chaise and four with Flora M'Donald." Four years afterward she married
Allan, the son of the Laird M'Donald, and became mistress of the mansion
where the prince passed his first night in the Isle of Skye. In 1775,
Flora and her husband, with several children, arrived among their
countrymen in North Carolina. Full of loyalty, she encouraged her
countrymen to rally in defense of the royal cause. After suffering much,
they embarked in a sloop-of-war for Scotland. On the voyage, the vessel
was attacked by a French cruiser, and the brave Flora, who was on deck
during the action, was severely wounded in the hand. They reached their
country, where Flora lived until the fifth of March, 1790. She was
buried in the cemetery of Killmuir, in the Isle of Skye; her shroud was
the sheet in which the prince slept while under her guidance; and three
thousand persons stood and wept as her coffin was let down into the
grave.
[[[Influence of Flora M'Donald.--The Pretender saved by her.--Patriot
Expedition against the Highlanders.]]]
{584}Allan M'Donald, and it is said used all her influence in bringing
her countrymen to the standard of the Scotch general. Her husband took a
captain's commission under him, and was one of the most active officers
in the engagement which speedily ensued.
As soon as Colonel James Moore, of Hanover, was apprised of the
gathering of the Loyalists to the banner of M'Donald, he marched with
his regulars and a detachment of New Hanover militia (in all about
eleven hundred men), toward Cross Creek,
[Illustration: 9594]
and encamped about twelve miles south of the Highlander's
head-quarters.[[Feb 15. 1776]] He fortified his camp, and by scouts and
spies cut off all communication between M'Donald and Governor Martin.
The Loyalist general, feeling the necessity of dislodging the patriots,
marched toward their camp. When within four miles, he halted, and sent
the governor's proclamation, and a friendly but firm letter to Moore,
urging him to prevent bloodshed by joining the royal standard; at the
same time threatening him, in case of refusal, with the treatment due
to rebels against the king. After some delay, during which he sent an
express to Colonel Caswell, Moore replied, that he was engaged in a
holy cause, from which he could not be seduced. He besought M'Donald
to prevent bloodshed by signing the Test proposed by the Provincial
Congress, and menaced him with the same treatment which the general
proposed to award to the patriot colonel and his followers. M'Donald was
not prepared to put his threats into execution, for he was advised of
the rapid gathering of the _minute-men_ around him. Informed, in the
mean while, of the expected arrival of Sir Henry Clinton and Lord
William Campbell in the Cape Fear River, M'Donald resolved to avoid an
engagement that might
[[[The Highlanders pursued by Colonel Moore.--Colonels Caswell and
Lillington.--Biographical Sketch of Caswell]]]
{585}prove disastrous, and attempt to join the governor and his friends
at Wilmington. At midnight he decamped, with his followers, crossed the
Cape Fear, and pushed on at a rapid pace, over swollen streams, rough
hills, and deep morasses, hotly pursued by Colonel Moore. On the third
day of his march, he crossed the South River (one of the principal
tributaries of the Cape Fear), from Bladen into New Hanover, and as
he approached Moore's Creek, a small tributary of that stream, * he
discovered the gleaming of fire-arms.[[Feb 26, 1776]] He had come upon
the camp of Colonels Caswell ** and Lillington, *** near the mouth of
* Moore's Creek runs from north to south, and empties into the South
River, about twenty miles above Wilmington.
** I am indebted to the Honorable David L. Swain, late governor of North
Carolina, and now president of the University at Chapel Hill, for the
following sketeh of the publie life of Richard Caswell. Governor Swain
married a grand-daughter of Governor Caswell; and from among the family
papers in his possession, he sent me the subjoined interesting autograph
letter, written by Caswell, to his son, from Philadelphia. *
* Richard Caswell was born in Maryland, August 3, 1729. In 1746, he was
induced, by unsuccessful mercantile speculations of his father, to leave
his home, and seek his fortune in the then colony of North Carolina.
Bearing letters to Governor Johnston from the governor of Maryland, he
soon received employment in one of the publie offices. Subsequently, he
was appointed deputy surveyor of the colony, and was clerk of the
County Court of Orange in 1753. He finally settled himself in Dobbs (now
Lenoir) county, where he married Mary Mackilwean, who bore him a son,
William. He afterward married Sarah, the daughter of William Heritage,
an eminent attorney, under whom he had studied law. He had obtained a
license, and practiced the profession with great success. In 1754 he was
chosen a member of the Colonial Assembly from Johnston eounty, which he
continued to represent till 1771. In this and the preceding year, he
was made the speaker of the House of Commons. He was also colonel of
the militia of his eounty, and, as such, commanded the right wing of
Governor Tryon's forees at the battle of Allamance, May 16, 1771. In
1774, he was one of the delegates to Congress, with William Hooper and
Joseph Hewes, and was continued in this offiee in 1775. In September of
this year, having been appointed treasurer of the Southern District of
North Carolina, he resigned his seat in Congress. The estimate formed by
his contemporaries of Caswell's merits in this affair, is clearly shown
in the resolve passed by the Provincial Congress, on the thirteenth of
April, "that the thanks of this Congress be given to Colonel Richard
Caswell and the brave officers and soldiers under his command, for the
very essential sendee by them rendered this country at the battle of
Moore's Creek and by the further fact that, on the twenty-second of
the same month, the same body appointed him "brigadier general of the
militia for the District of Newbern." In November of the same year,
he was chosen president of the Provincial Congress, which framed the
Constitution of the state, and, in December, was eleeted the first
governor under it. This office he held during the stormy and perilous
period of 1777, 1778, and 1779. He refused to receive any compensation
for his services beyond his expenses. In 1780 he led the troops of North
Carolina, under General Gates, and was engaged in the disastrous battle
at Camden. In 1782 he was chosen speaker of the Senate, and controller
general, and continued to discharge the duties of both offices till
1784, when he was again elected governor of the state, and re-elected in
1785 and 1786, when he ceased to be eligible under the Constitution. The
Assembly of 1787 elected him a delegate to the convention which was
to meet at Philadelphia in May of that year, to form a Federal
Constitution, and conferred on him the extraordinary power, in case of
his inability to attend, to select his successor. William Blount was
selected by him, and his name is appended to that instrument. In 1789
he was eleeted senator from Dobbs county and also a member of Lhe
convention whieh, in November, ratified the Federal Constitution. When
the General Assembly met, he was chosen speaker of the Senate. But his
course was run. His second son, Richard, had been lost on his passage by
sea from Charleston to Newbern, and the father certainly entertained
the opinion that he had been taken by pirates and carried to Algiers, or
murdered. This and other events threw a cloud over his mind, from which
he seems never to have recovered. While presiding in the Senate, on the
fifth of November, he was struck with paralysis, and after lingering
speechless till the tenth, he expired, in the sixtieth year of his
age. His body was, after the usual honors, conveyed to his family
burial-place in Lenoir, and there interred. As a statesman, his
patriotism was unquestioned, his discernment was quick, and his judgment
sound; as a soldier, his courage was undaunted, his vigilance untiring,
and his success triumphant. Mrs. Anne White, Governor Caswell's last
remaining child, died at Raleigh, on the twentieth of September, 1851,
in the eighty-fourth year of her age.
*** I am indebted to Miss Margaret H. Lillington, a great grand-daughter
of General Lillington, for the materials of the following brief sketeh
of the publie career of that officer: John Alexander Lillington, was
the son of Colonel George Lillington, an officer in the British service,
who, after being engaged in an expedition against the French in the West
Indies, settled upon the island of Barbadoes, and became a member of the
Royal Council in 1698. In that capacity he remained during the latter
part of the reign of William and Mary, and the beginning of that of
Queen Anne. His son, the subject of this memoir, captivated by the
glowing accounts given of the Carolina country, emigrated thither,
and settled within the present limits of New Hanover county. The fine
mansion delineated in the engraving, and known as Lillington Hall, is
yet standing. It was built in 1734. Its location is near the great road
leading from Wilmington to Newbern, on the northeast branch of the Cape
Fear River, about thirty miles above Wilmington. When the "Hall" was
erected, that part of Carolina was a wilderness, and the savannah or
grassy opening where it stands, in the midst of vast pine forests, made
it an oasis in the desert.
John Alexander inherited the military tastes of his father, and when the
notes of preparation for the Revolutionary contest was heard all over
the land, his skill was brought into requisition.
[Illustration: 9597]
His patriotic principles were early made known; and when the war broke
out, we find him a member of the Wilmington Committee of Safely, and a
colonel of militia. In the first battle fought at. the South
(Moore's Creek Bridge), described in the text, Colonel Lillington was
conspicuous, with his neighbor and friend, Colonel Richard Caswell.
[Illustration: 8597]
Soon after this decisive battle, Colonel Lillington was promoted to
brigadier. He served under General Gates in the Carolinas, in 1780.
His son, Colonel John Lillington, also served with honor during this
campaign. The silver crescents which each wore on his hat during the war
are preserved by the family, and I am indebted to Miss Lillington for
the opportunity of making a drawing of the one worn by the general.
[Illustration: 7597]
These crescents hear the initials of the names of the respective owners,
and each has the motto, "Liberty or Death," engraved upon it. The sketch
is about half the size of the original.
General Lillington remained in service until the close of the war, when
he retired to his estate at Lillinglon Hall. Near his mansion repose the
remains of the general and his son. Over the grave of the former is a
marble slab, hearing the following inscription: Sacred to the memory
of General John Alexander Lillington, a soldier of the Revolution.
He commanded the Americans in the battle of Moore's Creek, fought the
twenty-seventh day of February, 1776, and by his military skill and cool
courage in the field, at the head of his troops, secured a complete and
decisive victory. To intellectual powers of a high order he united an
incorruptible integrity, devoted and self-sacrificing patriotism. A
genuine lover of liberty, he periled his all to secure the independence
of his country, and died in a good old age, bequeathing to his posterity
the remembrance of his virtues." Near his grave is that of his son,
with a stone bearing the following inscription: "Sacred to the memory
of Colonel John Lillington, son of General John Alexander Lillington; a
patriot and soldier of the Revolution, he served his country faithfully
during the entire war."
"General Lillington," writes Miss L., "is represented as a man of
Herculean frame and strength. There are no portraits of him extant. Some
few of his old slaves still remain [1852], who were children, of course,
at the time, who can remember some of the events of the Revolution. It
would be interesting to one unacquainted with the patriarchal relations
of master and slave, to see how their aged laces kindle with enthusiasm
when they speak of the kindness of 'Old Master,' and of 'Massa Jackie
comin' hum from college in Philadelphia to help his father fight the
British.'" On account of his uniform kindness to all, the fine mansion
of General Lillington was saved from the torch by the interposition of
many ot his Tory neighbors.
* This was Mrs. Smith, the grandmother also of Governor William Pann,
of Maryland, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. She
lived to the remarkable age of ninety-one years.
** I am informed by Governor Swain, that this boy entered the service
in less than four months afterward, and before he had attained his
majority, as an ensign. He was a lieutenant in 1776, and in 1777 was
promoted to eaptain, and commanded a company at the battle on the
Brandywine. In 1781 he was a brigadier, his father, at the same time,
being a major general, and his younger son a colonel in active service
struggling to counteract the operations of Major Craig at Wilmington.
* Letter of Governor Caswell. I print lhe subjoined letter of Governor
Caswell entire, because it gives an interesting view of the excitement
which prevailed at the time, and the manner in which the delegates
to the Continental Congress were carefully escorted on their way to
Philadelphia.
* "Philadelphia, 11 May 1775.
* "My Dear Son,--By a Gentleman Bound to Tar River, I now write to
inform you, that after I parted with you at Halifax, Mr. Hewes & myself
proceeded on our Journey as follows; Sunday evening we arrived at
Petersburg in Virginia where we met the express with an account of a
Battle between the King's Troops & the Bostonians. The next day we
crossed James River & Lodged at Hanover Court House, where we had an
Account of 1500 Men being under Arms to proceed to Williamsburg in Or
der to Oblige Lord Dunmore to return some powder he had taken out of
the Magazine & Lodged on Board of a Man of-AVar in James River. What
was done in that matter we have not since Heard. The next day we were
constantly meeting Armed men who had been to Escort the Delegates for
Virginia, on their way towards this place. AVe Lodged that night at Port
Royal and were only 2 or 3 Hours after the Virginia Gent". The next
day we got down to Potomack side before the Boats returned that had
carried the Virginians over. Here were part of the Militia of three
Counties under Arms, & in the Uniforms of Hunting Shirts. They received
us, and Conducted us on the return of the Boats, to the water's edge
with all the Military Honors due to General Officers. We then crossed
the River, and learned at the Ferry on Maryland side that a Company of
Independents in Charles County had attended the Virginia Delegates
from thence under Arms. We proceeded and overtook them at Port Tobacco,
where, indeed, the Independents made a Most Glorious Appearance. Their
Company consisted of 68 Men beside officers, all Genteelly drest in
Scarlet & well equiped with Arms, & Warlike Implements, with drum &
Fife. Sentinels were placed at the doors &. Occasionally relieved during
the Time we stayed there. The next Morning we all set out together, &
were Attended by the Independents to the Verge of their County, where
they delivered us to another Company of Independents in Prince George's;
they in like Manner to a Second, and that to a Third, which brot us
thro' their County. We Lodged that night lit Marlborough the next day
tho' we met with a Most Terrible Gust of Lightning, thunder, wind. Hail
& rain, Arrived at Baltimore, at the entrance of which Town we were
received by four Independent Companies who Conducted us with their
Colours Flying, drums Beating and Fife's playing, to our lodgings at the
Fountain Tavern (Grants). The next day we were prevailed on to stay
at Baltimore, where Coll Washington, Accompanied by the rest of the
Delegates, reviewed the Troops. They have four Companies of 08 men
each, Comptent, who go throh their Exercises extremely Clever. They are
raising, in that Town, three other Companies which they say will soon be
full. We were very Genteelly entertained here in the Court House.
The next day we Breakfasted at my old Master Cheynes & dined at
Susquehannah; crossed the River and Lodged at the Ferry House. As I had
in some Measure been the cause of the Virginia Gent" going round the
Bay by recommending that road, and being the only person in Company
acquainted with the road, I was Obliged to keep with them so that I did
not call on any of my relations. I sent George to Jos. Dallants where
he left the Letters I brot for our Friends, and was informed my Grand
Mother* & all Friends were well except Mrs Dallam who had been poorly
some Time--the next day we got to Wilmington where we fell in with
Several of the Maryland Delegates, & came all into the City to
Dinner, on the 9th Instant. Yesterday the Congress met Agreeable
to Appointment, & this day it was Resolved that they enter upon the
Consideration of American Grievances on Monday next. Here a Greater
Martial Spirit prevails, if possible, than I have been describing in
Virginia and Maryland. They have 28 Companies Compleat, which make near
2000 Men, who March out to the Common &. go thro' their Exercises twice
a day regularly. Scarce any thing but Warlike Musick is to be heard
in the Streets. There are several Companies of Quakers only, and many
of them beside enrolled in other Companies promiscuously. 'Tis said
they will, in a few days, have 3000 Men under Arms ready to defend
their Liberties. They are raising Men in New York & all the Northern
Governments. The Yorkers, I am told by their Delegates, are determined
to Defend their Liberties, & since the action between the Kings Troops
and the Provincials, scarcely a Tory is to be found amongst them.
I herewith Inclose you a paper in which is a List of the Killed and
Wounded of the Kings Troops. But 'tis said this is not Genuine, a much
greater number being Actually Killed. On the side of the Bostonians 3
were Killed outright 4 are missing & I forget the number of Wounded; I
think thirty odd. Thus you have the fullest Account I am able to give of
these matters, and as the Acct is so long, 'twill not be in my power
to Communicate the same, to any other of my Countrymen and friends but
throh you. You may therefore remember me in the Strongest manner to
Your Uncles, Capt Bright, and others of my particular Friends. Shew them
this Letter, and tell them it will be a Reflection on their Country to
be Behind their neighbours; that it is Indispensibly necessary for them
to arm and form into a Company or Companies of Independents. When their
Companies are full, 68 private Men each, to elect Officers, Viz a Capt.
2 Lieut* an Ensign & Subalterns, And to meet as often as possible Si go
thro' the exercise. Recieve no man but such as can be depended on, at
the same Time reject none who will not discredit the Company. If I live
to return I shall most Chearfully Join any of my Countrymen even as
a rank &. file man. And as in the Common cause I am here exposed to
Danger, that or any other difficulties I shall not shun whilst I have
any Blood in my Vins, But freely offer it in Support of the Liberties
of my Country. Tell your Uncles (the Clk & Sheri ) it may not be prudent
for them so far to engage yet awhile in any Company as to risk the loss
of their offices. But you, my Dear Boy, must become a soldier & risk
your life in Support of those invaluable Blessings which once lost,
Posterity will never be able to regain it. Some men, I fear, will start
objections to the enrolling of Companies & exercising the Men, &. will
say it will be acting against Government. That may be answered "that
it is not so." That we are only Qualifying ourselves and preparing
to defend our Country & Support our Liberties. I can say no more at
present. But that May God Almighty protect you all & his Blessing
Attend your good endeavour, is the Ardent prayer of My Dear Child Your
Affectionate Father.
* .. P.S.--only shew this letter to such as I have described above, &.
dont let it be Copied. Consult Capt Bright &c.
* "Mr William Caswell."
[[[Biographical Sketch of Lillington.--Caswell's Letter to his Son.]]]
{586}the Creek, who, with the minute-men of Dobbs, Craven, Johnston, and
Wake counties, and battalions from Wilmington and Newbern, in all about
one thousand strong, were out in
[[[Peril of the Highlanders.--Preparations for Battle.--Lillinglon
Hall.--Colonel John Lillington.]]]
{587}search of the Tory army. * The situation of M'Donald (who was now
very ill) was perilous ill the extreme. The strong minute-men of the
Neuse region, their officers wearing silver crescents upon their hats,
inscribed with the stirring words, "Liberty or Death," were in front;
and Colonel Moore, with his regulars, were close upon his rear. To fly
was impossible; to fight was his only alternative.
Both parties were encamped in sight of each other during the night. A
professed neutral informed Colonel Lillington of the intended
movements of the enemy in the morning, and he and Caswell took measures
accordingly. During the night, they cast up a breastwork, removed the
planks from the bridge across Moore's Creek, and disposed their forces
so as to command the passage and the roads on each side. The patriots
lay upon their arms all night, ready, at a signal, to meet the foe. At
early dawn, bagpipes were heard, and the notes of a bugle, ringing out
upon the frosty air, called the eighteen hundred Loyalists to arms. In a
few minutes they rushed forward to the attack, led on by Captain M'Leod,
* Colonel Lillington. with the Wilmington battalion of minute-men,
arrived at the bridge about four hours before Caswell, with his larger
foree, made his appearance. Caswell, who was the senior officer, took
command of the whole patriot army.
[[[Battle at Moore's Creek.--Feat of Mrs. Slocum.--Effect of the
Battle.--Humanity of the Whigs.--Governor Martin.]]]
{588}for General M'Donald was too ill to leave his tent. Finding a small
intrenehment next the bridge quite empty, they concluded the Americans
had abandoned the post. They had advanced to within thirty paces of
the breast-work, when the Whigs, though unused to war, arose from their
concealment, bravely confronted the foe, and for ten minutes the contest
was fierce and bloody. Captain M'Leod was killed at the beginning of the
battle. Captain John Campbell, the next in command, soon fell, mortally
wounded. At that moment, Lieutenant Slocum, of the patriot army, with a
small detachment, forded the stream, penetrated the swamp on its
western bank, and fell with vigor upon the rear of the Loyalists. *
The Scotchmen were routed and dispersed, and many of them were made
prisoners. Among the latter were General M'Donald, and also the husband
of Flora. The Loyalists lost seventy men in killed and wounded; the
Americans had only two wounded, and one of them survived. ** Colonel
Moore arrived soon after the engagement ended, and that evening the men
of the united forces of the patriots slept soundly upon the field of
their victory.
The effect of this defeat of the Loyalists was of vast importance to the
Patriot cause in North Carolina. It exhibited the courage and skill
of the defenders of liberty, and completely broke the spirit of the
Loyalists. It prevented a general organization of the Tories, and their
junction with the forces under Sir Henry Clinton, which arrived in the
Cape Fear in May, upon which the royal power in the South depended for
vitality. The opposers of that power were encouraged, and the timid and
wavering were compelled to make a decision. The kindness extended to the
prisoners and their families won the esteem of all, and many Loyalists
were converted to the Republican faith by the noble conduct of the
victors. ** The plans of the governor, and of Sir Henry Clinton and Lord
William Campbell, were, for the time, completely frustrated, and Martin
**** soon afterward abdicated government, and took
* Mrs. Ellett relates a noble instance of female heroism whieh this
battle developed. The wife of Lieutenant Slocum, whose home was sixty
miles distant from the scene of conflict, had dreamed, after her husband
and his neighbors had departed with Caswell, that she saw him lying dead
upon the ground. She awoke in great distress, arose, saddled a horse,
and rode at full gallop in the direction the troops had taken. Through
that thinly-settled and swampy country she pressed on, and at nine
o'clock in the morning she heard the firing. As she came near the
battle-ground, she saw a body lying in her husband's cloak, but it
proved to be another man, who was wounded. She alighted, washed his
face, bound up his wounds, and was administering comfort to another
wounded man, when Caswell and her astonished husband came up. With true
womanly feeling, she interceded for the life of the prisoner, attended
to the wounded Loyalists through the day, and at midnight started for
home. She did not tell her husband of her dream until his return. She
rode one hundred and twenty-five miles in less than forty hours, and
without one interval of rest! A mother's love, for she "wanted to see
her child," impelled her to return with speed. The Carolinas were full
of such heroic women as Mary Slocum when the storm of the Revolution
swept over them.--See Mrs. Ellett's Domestic History of the Revolution,
page 46; II omen of the Revolution, i., 317--321.
** The patriots captured thirteen wagons, three hundred and fifty guns
and shot-bags, about one hundred and fifty swords and dirks, and fifteen
hundred excellent rifles.--Gordon, ii., 37.
*** The Provincial Congress Issued a manifesto on the twenty-ninth of
April, respecting the Loyalists, in the wounds whieh a separation from
husbands, fathers, and the dearest relations has made. They are the
rightful pensioners upon the charity and bounty of those who have aught
to spare from their own necessities for the relief of their indigent
fellow-creatures; to such we recommend them." Had such noble sentiments
governed Cornwallis and his officers when they subdued the Carolinas, a
few years later, they might have made their victory permanent. General
M'Donald and his son, who held a colonel's commission, were granted
liberal paroles of honor; and, during the summer, the general and
twenty-five of his fellow-prisoners were exchanged at Philadelphia.
**** Governor Josiah Martin was a soldier by profession, and, in 1770,
had risen to the rank of major in the British armv. When Tryon was
transferred to New York in 1771, Martin was appointed governor of North
Carolina, and was the last royal chief magistrate of that colony. He was
a man of considerable ability, urbane in manners, and sincerely desirous
of promoting the best interests of the colony. After going to New York
with Sir Henry Clinton, when driven from the colony, he joined the army,
under Cornwallis, and was in the battle near Camden, where Gates was
defeated. He was with Cornwallis in Virginia, as late as March, 1781,
when impaired health caused him to leave. He went to New York, spent
a part of the summer at Rockaway, on Long Island, and then sailed for
England. He died in London, in July, 1786. Samuel Martin, who fought
a duel with the celebrated John Wilkes in 1763, was the governor's
brother. His father was Colonel Samuel Martin, of Virginia, who lost
a large estate by confiscation. Judge Martin, the historian of North
Carolina, computes the population of that state, when Governor Martin
fled and the royal power ended, at one hundred and fifty thousand, more
than one fifth of whom were slaves.
[[[Organization of Civil Government.--Proclamation of Sir Henry
Clinton.--Desolation of Howe's Plantation.]]]
{589}refuge on board the Bristol, the flag-ship of Sir Peter Parker. *
Royal government in North Carolina now ceased forever, and a brighter
era in the history of the state was opened.
The provincial council now labored vigorously in the elaboration of
measures for the defense of the colony, and the maintenance of liberty.
A strong military establishment was organized, and in eaeh district
a brigadier general was appointed, with an efficient corps of
field-officers. ** On the eighteenth of December[[1776]] a state
government was formed under a Constitution, *** and, a few days
afterward, a device for a great seal of the commonwealth was presented
by a committee appointed for the purpose, and adopted. ****
[Illustration: 8599]
In all their actions, the Carolinians exhibited the aspect of men
determined to be free, and conscious that hope for reconciliation with
the mother country was vain. A blow had been struck which marked out the
bright line of future operations. There could no longer be hesitation,
and the line between Whigs and Tories was as distinctly drawn as that of
the twilight between the day and the night.
The siege of Charleston, and other events of the war which speedily
followed the battle on Moore's Creek, will be detailed hereafter. From
this time until the close of the Revolution, the military history of
North Carolina is identified with that of the whole confederacy. From
the time of the battle on Moore's Creek until Cornwallis and his army
overran the Carolinas, there were no regularly organized bands of
Loyalists in the "Old North State." Here let us close the chronicle for
a day, and ride on toward the fertile region of the Allamanee, after
glancing at noteworthy objects in Hillsborough.
I employed the first morning of the new year,[[Jan 1, 1849]] in visiting
places of interest at Hillsborough, in company with the Reverend Dr.
Wilson. The first object to which my attention was ealled was a small
wooden building, represented in the engraving on the next page, situated
opposite the hotel where I was lodged. Cornwallis used it for
* Gordon, ii., 36. 37; Foote, 143-145: Marlin, ii., 380-384. On the
fifth of May, 1776, Sir Henry Clinton issued a proclamation from
the Pallas sloop of war, which declared North Carolina in a state of
rebellion, ordered all Congresses to be dissolved, and offered pardon to
all penitents, exeept the arch-rebels Cornelius Harnett and Robert Howe.
The people laughed at him. Fired with indignation, he vented his spite
upon the property of Colonel Howe. On the twelfth, he sent Cornwallis
and a marauding party of nine hundred men on shore, who ravaged Howe's
plantation in Brunswick, treated some women at his house with brutality,
burned some mills in the neighborhood, and then returned to the ships.
Despairing of success in that quarter, Clinton sailed with the British
fleet of thirty vessels for New York.
[Illustration: 9599]
***The following gentlemen were appointed brigadiers: Richard Caswell,
of Newbern; John Ashe, of Wilmington; Thomas Person,* of Hillsborough;
Griffith Rutherford, of Salisbury; Edward Vail, of Edenton; and Allen
Jones, of Halifax.
*** The following gentlemen were appointed state officers under the
Republican Constitution: Richard Caswell., governor; James Glasgow,
secretary of slate; Cornelius Harnett, Thomas Person, William Day,
William Haywood, Edward Staricey, Joseph Leech, and Thomas Eaton,
counselors of state.
**** The committee consisted of William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, and Thomas
Burke. The seal then adopted continues to be that of the state. The two
figures represent respectively Liberty and Plenty. Liberty holds the
Constitution in one hand, and in the other a staff, with the cap of
freedom, indicating the security of liberty by the Constitution. Clasped
by one arm, Plenty holds a small bundle of wheat ears, and with the
other supports an overflowing cornucopia, indieating the generous
fertility of the soil of North Carolina.
* Thomas Person had been one of the leading Regulators, and exceedingly
active against the royal government. He was for many years a member of
the State Senate. Person Hall, of the university at Chapel Hill, North
Carolina, was so named to commemorate a munificent donation which he
made to that institution.
[[[Localities at Hillsborough.--Departure for the Allamance.--Place of
Pyle's Defeat]]]
{590}an office, hiring his tarryings in Hillsborough, after driving
General Greene out of the state.
[Illustration: 9600]
After sketching this, we visited the office of the Clerk of the Superior
Court, and made the fac similes and extracts from its records, printed
on pages 573--4. We next visited the head-quarters of Cornwallis, a
large frame building situated in the rear of Morris's _Hillsborough
House_, on King Street. Generals Gates and Greene also occupied it when
they were in Hillsborough, and there a large number of the members of
the Provincial Congress were generally lodged.
[Illustration: 8600]
The old court-house, where the Regulators performed their lawless
acts, is no longer in existence. I was informed by Major Taylor, an
octogenarian on whom we called, that it was a brick edifice, and stood
almost upon the exact site of the present court-house, which is a
spacious brick building, with steeple and clock.
The successor of the first was a wooden structure, and being removed
to make room for the present building, was converted into a place of
meeting for a society of Baptists, who yet worship there.[[1849]] Upon
the hill near the Episcopal church, and fronting King Street, is the
spot "where the Regulators were hung.
The residence of Governor Tryon, while in Hillsborough was on Church
Street, a little west of Masonic Hall. These compose the chief objects
of historic interest at Hillsborough. The town has other associations
connected with the Southern campaigns, but we will not anticipate the
revealments of history by considering them now.
At one o'clock I exchanged adieus with the kind Dr. Wilson, crossed
the Eno, and, pursuing the route traversed by Tryon on his march to the
Allamance, crossed the rapid and now turbid Ha, ** just below the falls,
at sunset. I think I never traveled a worse road than the one stretching
between the Eno and the Haw. It passes over a continued series of red
clay hills, which are heavily wooded with oaks, gums, black locusts, and
chestnuts. Small streams course among these elevations; and in summer
this region must be exceedingly picturesque. Now every tree and shrub
was leafless, except the holly and the laurel, and nothing green
appeared among the wide-reaching branches but the beautiful tufts of
mistletoe which every where decked the great oaks with their delicate
leaves and transparent berries. Two and a half miles beyond the Haw,
and eighteen from Hillsborough, I passed the night at Foust's house of
entertainment, and after an early breakfast, rode to the place where
Colonel Pyle, a Tory officer, with a considerable body of Loyalists, was
deceived and defeated by Lieutenant-colonel Henry Lee and his dragoons,
with Colonel Pickens, in the spring of 1781. Dr. Holt, who lives a
short distance from that locality, kindly accompanied me to the spot and
pointed out the place where the battle occurred; where Colonel Pyle lay
concealed in a pond, and where many of the slain were buried. The place
of conflict is about half a mile north of the old Salisbury highway,
upon a "plantation road," two miles east of the Allamance, in Orange
county. Let us listen to the voices of history and tradition.
In February, 1781, General Greene, then in command of the American army
at the South, accomplished a wonderful and successful retreat across
North Carolina into Virginia, closely pursued by Lord Cornwallis. This
memorable retreat we shall consider presently.
* This view is from the piazza of the Union Hotel. The building is of
logs, covered with clap-boards. When James Monroe (afterward President
of the United States) visited the Southern army in 1780, as military
commissioner for Virginia, he used this building for his office while in
Hillsborough.
** The Haw River (which derives its name from the abundance of hawthorns
in that region) rises in Rockingham and Guilford counties, and in
Chatham county unites with the Deep River, and forms the northwest
branch of the Cape Fear.
[[[Cornwallis at Hillsborough.--Greene's Plans.--Expedition under
Lieutenant Colonel Lee.--His Public-Life]]]
{591}When Cornwallis was certified that Greene had escaped across the
Dan with all his force, baggage, and stores, he ordered a halt,[[Feb 14,
1781]] and, after refreshing his wearied troops, moved slowly back to
Hillsborough, and there established his head-quarters.' His object was
partially accomplished; he had not captured the "rebel army," but he had
driven it from the Carolinas, and he now anticipated a general rising
of the Tories, to assist him in crushing effectually the remaining
Republicanism at the South. Although driven across the Dan, Greene had
no idea of abandoning North Carolina to the quiet possession of the
enemy.
[Illustration: 9601]
In the fertile and friendly county of Halifax, in Virginia, his troops
reposed for a few days, and then they were called again to the field of
active exertion. He resolved to recruit his thinned battalions, and as
soon as possible recross the Dan and confront Cornwallis.
Among the most active and efficient officers engaged in the Southern
campaigns was Henry Lee, ** at this time lieutenant colonel, in command
of a corps of choice cavalry. He was in Greene's camp when that general
issued his orders to prepare for recrossing the Dan into the Carolinas.
His patriot heart leaped for joy when the order was given, and he was
much gratified when himself and General Pickens, who commanded a body
of South Carolina militia, with Captain Oldham and two companies of
Maryland veteran militia, were directed[[Feb 18, 1781]] to repass the
Dan and reconnoitre the front of Cornwallis, for he burned to measure
strength with the fiery Tarleton. They were sent by Greene to interrupt
the intercourse of Cornwallis with the country surrounding his army at
Hillsborough, and to suppress every attempt of the Loyalists to join
him in force. This proved necessary, for the British commander issued
a proclamation on the twentieth of February,[[1781]] inviting the
Loyalists to join his standard at Hillsborough.
Lieutenant-colonel Lee crossed the Dan on the eighteenth, and was
followed
* Cornwallis remained in Hillsborough about ten days. While a detachment
of his army lay at the Red House, a short distance from the town, they
occupied the Church of Hugh M'Aden, the first located missionary in
North Carolina. Supposing M'Aden (then a short time in his grave) to
have been a rebel, be-cause he was a Presbyterian, the British burned
his library and papers. His early journal escaped the flames.--Fuote,
273.
** Henry Lee. was born at the family seat, in Stratford (see page 423),
on the twenty-ninth of January, 1756. He was educated at Princeton
College, where he graduated in 1773. Fond of active life, and imbued
with a military spirit, he sought and obtained the command of a company,
in Colonel Bland's regiment of Virginia volunteers, in 1776. He joined
the Continental army in September, 1777. where he soon attracted the
favorable notice of Washington. He was promoted to the rank of major, in
command of a separate corps of cavalry. On the sixth of November, 1780,
Congress promoted him to lieutenant eolonel, and ordered him to join the
Southern army under General Greene, where his career was marked by great
skill and bravery. His military exploits and the honors conferred upon
him by Congress, are noticed in various places in this volume. In 1786,
he was appointed a delegate to Congress, which position he held until
the adoption of the Constitution. In 1791, he succeeded Beverly
Randolph as governor of Virginia, and remained in office three years. He
commanded the forces, by appointment of Washington, which were sent
to quell the whisky insurrection in Pennsylvania. He was a member of
Congress in 1799, and was chosen to pronounce a funeral oration at
Washington, on the occasion of the death of the first president. He
wrote his Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United
States, in 1808. He was active in quelling a mob in Baltimore in 1814,
and from wounds received at that time he never fairly recovered. Toward
the close of 1817, he repaired to the West Indies for the benefit of his
health, but without success. Returning, he stopped at Cumberland Island,
near St. Mary's, in Georgia, to visit Mrs. Shaw, the daughter of General
Greene, where he died on the twenty-fifth of March, 1818, at the age of
sixty-two years. The names of Lee, Marion, Morgan, Sumter, and Pickens
form a brilliant galaxy in the Southern firmament of our Revolutionary
history.
[[[Pursuit of Tarleton.--Approach of Tories under Colonel
Pyle.--Conception of a Plan to Ensnare them.]]]
{592}by Pickens and Oldham. He sent out his scouts, and early on the
morning of the nineteenth he was informed by them that Tarleton and his
legion were out toward the Haw reconnoitering, and offering protection
to the Loyalists who were desirous of marching to Cornwallis's
camp. Lee and Pickens pushed on to gain the great road leading from
Hillsborough to the Haw. They ascertained that Tarleton had passed there
the day before, and was probably then on the western side of the Haw.
The next day[[Feb 21]] the Americans crossed the Haw, and were informed
that the Loyalists between that and the Deep River were certainly
assembling to join the earl. They also learned from a countryman (a sort
of passive Tory named Ephraim Cooke) that Tarleton's force consisted of
most of his cavalry, four hundred infantry, and two light field
pieces; and that he was encamped about four miles distant with all the
carelessness of confident security. Lee determined to surprise him, and
placed his little army in battle order for a quick march. They reached
the designated spot too late, for Tarleton had left and proceeded a
few miles further, to the plantation of Colonel William O'Neil, whose
memory, if common report speaks true, deserves a greater share of the
odium of his countrymen than the most bitter Tory, for by his avaricious
acts while claiming to be a Whig, he drove many of his neighbors to join
the ranks of the Loyalists. * Two of Tarleton's officers, who were left
behind, were captured.
Lee now resolved to employ stratagem. His legion greatly resembled
that of Tarleton, and he made the country people believe that his was
a detachment sent by Cornwallis to re-enforce that officer. The two
prisoners were commanded to favor the deception, under penalty instant
death. The legion took the van in the march,[[Feb. 25, 1781]] with
Lieutenant-colonel Lee at the head, preceded, at the distance of a
few hundred yards, by a scout. The officer of the van soon met two
well-mounted young men, who, believing him to belong to a British
re-enforcement, promptly answered an inquiry by saying that they were
"rejoiced to fall in with him, they having been sent forward by Colonel
Pyle, the commander of quite a large body of Loyalists, to find out
Tarleton's camp, whither he was marching with his followers." A dragoon
was immediately sent to Lee with this information, and was speedily
followed by the young men, who mistook "Legion Harry" for Tarleton,
and, with the greatest deference, informed him of the advance of Colonel
Pyle. Lee dispatched his adjutant to General Pickens to request him to
place his riflemen (among whom were those of Captain Graham, ** who had
just joined him) on the left flank, in a place of concealment in the
woods, while he himself should make an attempt to capture the deceived
Loyalists. Lee also sent one of the duped young men, with the dragoon
who escorted them, to proceed to Colonel Pyle with his compliments, and
his request "that the colonel would be so good as to draw out his forces
on the side of the road, so as to give convenient room for his (Lee's)
much wearied troops to pass by without delay to their right position."
The other young countryman was detained to accompany Lee himself, whom
he supposed to be Tarleton. The van officer was ordered to halt as
soon as he should perceive the Loyalists. This order was obeyed; and
presently the young man who had been sent to Colonel Pyle, returned with
that officer's assurance that he was "happy to comply with the request
of Colonel Tarleton." It was the intention of Lee, when his force should
obtain the requisite position to have the complete advantage of Colonel
Pyle, to reveal his real name and character, demand the immediate
surrender of the Tories, and give them their
* See Caruthers's Life of Caldwell, page 213.
** The father of the present Secretary of the Navy.
[[[Destruction of the Loyalists.--Escape of Colonel Pyle.--The
Battle-ground.--Escape of Tarleton.]]]
{593}choice, to return quietly to their homes, after being disarmed, or
to join the patriot army. Thus far every thing had worked favorably to
Lee's humane design.
Lee's cavalry first approached the Loyalists, who, happily for
the furtherance of the plan, were on the _right_ side of the road;
consequently, the horsemen following Lee were obliged to countermarch
and confront the Loyalists. As Lee approached Colonel Pyle, the
Loyalists raised the shout, "God save the king!" He rode along the Tory
column (who were also mounted, with their rifles on their backs), and,
with gracious smiles, complimented them on their fine appearance and
loyal conduct. As he approached Pyle and grasped his hand (the signal
for his cavalry to draw when he should summon the Tories to surrender),
the Loyalists on the left discovered Pickens's militia, and perceived
that they were betrayed.
[Illustration: 8603]
They immediately commenced firing upon the rear-guard of the American
cavalry, commanded by Captain Eggleston. * That officer, as a matter of
necessity, instantly turned upon the foe, and this movement was speedily
followed by the whole column. A scene of dreadful slaughter followed,
for the Loyalists, taken by surprise, could not bring their rifles to
bear before Lee had struck the fatal blow. Colonel Pyle commanded four
hundred Loyalists; ninety of them were killed in that brief moment, and
a large portion of the remainder were wounded. A cry for mercy arose
from the discomfited Tories, but the hand of mercy was stayed until the
red arm of war had placed the Americans beyond danger. ** Colonel Pyle
was badly wounded, and fled to the shelter of a small pond, which was
environed and deeply shaded by a fringe of oaks, persimmons, hawthorns,
crab-trees, and black jacks, trellised with the vines of the muscadine.
Tradition says that he laid himself under the water, with nothing but
his nose above it, until after dark, when he crawled out, made his
way home, and recovered. The place of his concealment is yet known as
"Pyle's Pond," of which the engraving is a correct view, as it appeared
when I visited the spot in 1849.[[Jan 2]] It is on the verge of a
cultivated field, of some six acres, half a mile northwest from the
Salisbury road. Its dense fringe is gone, and nothing indicates its
former concealment but numerous stumps of the ancient forest.
Lee and Pickens did not pursue the retreating Loyalists; but, anxious to
overtake Tarleton, who was at Colonel O'Neil's, upon the Greensborough
road, three miles northward, he resumed his march, notwithstanding it
was almost sunset. He halted within a mile of O'Neil's, and encamped for
the night, where they were joined by Colonel Preston and three hundred
hardy mountaineers from Virginia, who had hastened to the support of
Greene. At ten o'clock in the morning, the Americans formed for attack,
when it was ascertained that Tarleton, alarmed by the exaggerated
stories of some of the survivors of Pyle's corps, who made their way to
his camp, had hastened to obey the orders of Cornwallis, just received,
and was moving toward the Haw. The Americans pursued him as far as that
river, when they halted, and Tarleton, after a narrow escape at the
ford, returned in safety to Hillsborough. "Fortune, the capricious
goddess," says Lee, "gave us Pyle, and saved Tarleton." ****
* Captain Eggleston was one of the most efficient cavalry officers in
Lee's legion, during the campaigns further south the same year. We shall
meet him hereafter.
** In this action the Americans did not lose a single man, and only
one horse. The generally accurate and impartial Stedman, influenced,
doubtless, by wrong information, called the event a "massacre;" says
that "no quarter was granted" when asked; and that "between two and
three hundred of them were inhumanly butchered while in the act of
begging for mercy."--History of the American War, ii., 334.
*** About a quarter of a mile northwest from this pond, is the spot
where the battle occurred. It was then heavily wooded; now it is a
cleared field, on the plantation of Colonel Michael Holt. Mr. Holt
planted an apple-tree upon the spot where fourteen of the slain were
buried in one grave. Near by, a persimmon-tree indicates the place of
burial of several others.
**** Memoirs, page 160.
[[[The Allamance.--Factory Labor.--Regulator
Battle-ground.--Greensborough]]]
{594}