^.IIBRARY
^ PAPER FOR THINKING PEOPLE
-*'*? V' ’ " ?VV v ? -* ' ■«• f ' ■'1'^ "
DU«N, n; c.
AUGUST js; 1933
I have had brntsion to tease Edited Gifcy of the
Raeigb Times two or three times in recent weeks,
but this time I must seriously protest against mi»
infurmatiori “heralded abroad in big columns. It was
* only a short while ago that the Times carried a pro
* test of the same kind against a western professor ofi,
history who told a. group Jpfhis students .that John-,
ston surrendered to Sherman at Italeigh. I conceive
the blunders. in the fotjowingi clipping; from the
Times far more, setfoias; they are matters of fundat^
meutal Importance. in'.tbe history of the State.
' ' •: *;• • *■!
The Times articler. -‘V>
Thousands arfe.reported to have been ak-^he
celebration of the Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge, nM
the early and sanguinary eruption, of North Car
olina which, led on to the:Reyolution, and ultl- -
mate Statehood. , . >' iA'
Without-ag much celebration as the. Battle of . ..
Lexington which ushered jn jinned resistence to. .
the British,-Moore’s Greek Bridge had* •really' 'V1;
much more far-teaching results,. It developed.in-, ,
to a colony insurection -that carried so far %s to,
cause the ouster cf a,Crown Governor. It brought -
ion the Alamance disturbances.. It brought the _ .
State in advance of a formal rebellion of the ,t
American- colonies- into open revolt. ■
A$ a battle,. Moore’s Creek waas hi«itprii<2 but
without significanee in itself- The Cape J!c*ar *.•
section was loyal to Great Britain. It was, in ^
fact, Tory in-sentiment. At Moore’s Creek. the.
loyalists marched stupidly into a trap and were y-;v
all but massacred.
. ..bapfr^i^^trail^ 7 ■.
since1'forgotten" the cause Bi which their ffnces
eesfcow gave up their lives. ... i.
It would l>e difficult to write the same number
of words embracing more historical errors... In the
first place, the “early" sanguinary event of the Rev
olutionary period in North Carolina was the battle
tof Alamance, or the war of the Regulation. The
revolution in North Carolina was well advanced when
the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge was fought.
Governor Martin had, in 1775, sent his family by
sea from New Bern toNew York, had himself re
tired-to Fort Johnston, at the mouth of the Cape
Fear, and as early as July, 1775, had found his posi
tion unsafe inthe fort and had retired to .the war
sleep Cruiser. The very day of that retreat. Colonel
Ashe, with 500 men burned Fort Johnston to the
ground.
Furthermore, the Hillsboro Congress, which met
August 20th, 1775, afteir! burning a proclamation is
sued by Governor Martin, proceeded to establish a
provisional government for North Carolina, with Cor
nelius Harnett at its head. The state was divided
into six military dstricts and as far a# possible put
upon g war footing. That was six months before the
battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge.
The War of the Regulation
The Times article make# the Battle of Moore’s
Creek Bridge precede the Battle of Alamance1, when,
in fact, the latter preceded the former by five years.
One of the questions of North Carolina history is
whether to classify the War of the Regulators as
a Revolutionary incident. The leaders of the later
movement cooperated with Governor Tryon in sup
pressing the Alamance rebellion. A great majority of
the Regulators who remained in the affected section
were Tories when the real revolution developed. But
the leaders who co-operated with Tryon possibly did
so with little zeal. Yet their leadership in the later
devolution doubtless had its effect upon the sur
viving Regulators, who feared, or distrusted any
movement headed by their former oppressors under
Tryon. Thus were the attitude# of the parties of the
Battle of Alamance simply reversed in the Revolu
tionary struggle,
It may be concluded that the Regulation move
ment vvas a revolutionary one, but was too early;
while the former Regulators had the very incentive
that the Scotch Highlanders had to abide by the
Crown when the real revolution arose foifr .yeast
i 1- V' — 'S-v—' --^'S
later. The Scotch had been beaten at CuUodien in
- . •. - .. . ..v „„ ... . f ^ . - ■■
• J745 and had been forced to swear eternal alteglahcV
to the British Crown. Their coming,to America had
jhot broken the force'of that oath. Moreover,^ speak
ing 'fraeMc.&g they did, and nmroOned on the Western:
slide Of fiid Cape IV, r, , they had -probably nof- dome
into apy real intimacy w|th the leaders ip. th^CoJ
ony. On “the other hand, =the .Regulators had been,
beaten at Alamance -by eastern North Carolina torc
hes .led by the later revolutionary leaders arid bad
ben forced either tq flee, as dM-thousands of them,
to the .western part, of the-state and to Tennessee,
or to 'submit unqualifiedly to the terms of Clover nor
Tryon, whom .they see- rwithih a few, weeks:. leaving
the Province with the Expressed irearet of* such inen.
as Richard Caswell. Thus, oues lesson in an, abortive
.revolution and distrust outlie leaders in the Ireal
revolutionary movement threw the remaining Regu
lators into the' very same attitude toward the Revo-'
lutiori as the. Scotch bore, and neither group can be.
much blamed for that '■ * ■■ ittsr
.^he Real Significance of Moored
Thd edtiftf Of the Times says: “As’a battle Mqdre’e
‘Bridge i# what* lhakes' it of genuine historic interest.'
As i see'ft'3hbre‘ woulcKprobably have |ieeij w> Pe'
' claratioh of Independence on July 4,' it tod .
•■irqt been for the defeat of -the
ih the fiiret place two thousand armed thenT under
army, wag'vtift
assured ol focal 'Jflntf Briff$h
sdpplf<b~if they had got' poscssiOn of Wilmingtpn;
Tt seems to be established^ that their march"Jo Wlkl
mington was at the direction of General Clinton,
who before sailing southward from Halifax, where
the British army had retired from Boston, had sent
olrders to the Scotch to meet him in Wilmington.
As a matter of fact. Clinton sailed Into the Cape
Pear but learning of the defeat of the Scotch de
parted and sailed for Charleston, where only a few
days before the Declaration of Independence he was
defeated in his attack upon Fort Moultrie.
flow The Colonies Would Have Been Divided
To discover the real effects of a reversal of the
outcome of the Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge, con
sider what the occupancy of Wilmington by an army
of two thousand bold Scotch, later joined by a Brit
ish fleet and land forces, would have meant. With
supplies furnished by the British, against which
there would have been no hindrance, the ill-supplied
and short-term Patriots iof the State would have
been no match for any such force. North Carolina
would have been lost to the Colonies. That would
have meant the isolation of South Carolina and
Georgia.
Therefore, it is rather safe to say that if there
had been any Declaration of Independence at all on
July 4, 1776, North Carolina, Georgia and South
Carolina would scarcely hare participated dn the
declaration.
The Victory the Key of Revolutionary Success
It is hard to conceive of a successful issue of the
Revolution with the three southernmost colonies
cut off from the ten more northern ones in the very
outset Every phase of the revolutionary movement
thence on would have been changed. There need
have 'been no cheering victory at Fort Moultrie.
Greene’s final effective tactics in the two Carolinas
would not have followed. Something else as effective
a 5 these might have occurred in the southern colo
nies, but the whole course of events in the Carolinas
and Georgia, and probably in the other ten states,
would have been entirely different. In short, the
British would have been nearer the subjugation of
the colonies on July 4, 1776, than they ever ap
proached. In short, the victor# at Moore’s Creek
Bridge was a decisive battle, almost as much so as
was that of Quebec in the. French and Indian War.
The Attitude of the Cape Fear Section.
!also of the geography , of ihe section itself.' Count _
Robeson Guilty out of the Cape Fear section. {There ~
is scarcely a da op ot- Robeson water drained' into
’ the Cape Feaf Rfver. The present Cumberland, Hoke, . ~
-Moore, Lee, Chatham, Randolph, Alamance, and
part of Guilford, part of Bladen and Columbus; and . :4'.’;
'and Columbus 'are in iSe Little Pee Ii4e> or^litfmbesp f
' River,. area, pn tie east? of the .Cape: Feary^New ?■#£
. , ✓* ‘-t 'V. ♦ £**...-*- ft. - :V' ., • * VSjs*
Hanover,. Pender,, partof Bladen, Sampson, EHiplih,
fih'
Harnett and bite of Wayne1 and Johnston;.'and south'- ■ *■>
west Wake" comprise the CapeFear drainage^ hrea. *
••• t- *-• * >.<-i:m•"-} - ^ ’ Jr* * >*
, : The Tory sentiment dominated only in Cuihber
"landj Hoke, Moobe’fmd Lee,'the area of. Scotch set
»• j,V f»f, yv/i• '< *. . .'AS-w;* “ ’ •>
orir? ?n a rnAdfoftW l«-Y!VKnt»tnTV»
Ilf
; .of, the failure of the Regulators’ War.: - •r*
The very fact that 500 men would .join’ in fjjji.jgv*
burning of Eort Johnston in July 1775,. seven months
c, before the Battle of Moore’s Greek, fridge, is evl
■dench that thetfe .was a robust , revolutionary, senti- •
. meat in the lower Cape Fear area. Infact, theTory
’ sentiment* seems . largely confined to the Scotch
element of. Cumberland, Hoke; Northern Rpbesoh, v, ,
. Scptlaud^Moore, and L%«sa» the Aunties .now %&' ‘ ^
lam.
mt
ftdfeai, tpwbf ‘ sauipson. Pender, and New Han*
1 bver, earlier comers fbanthe gteafc immigratiS^a^^^#
r ter-tMlodsen-,; .^ehepunaffected^si^iij^iig^l^g^^l^ltP®1^
feffl
" was' a ■ •
court;erdhere were
One of my own Sampson county
Tory. On the other hand,, m? ^derman ancestors liv
ed right near the Mobfe’s Creek battle ground and, ’;
the Revolutionary one of them is reported by tradi
tion as participating in the’ tattle’ and- is actually
listed among the soldiera following Washington later.; ’
The other six seem to have been Whigs, ar at least
not Tories. If seven out of eight holds for the Samii
eon-Pender area it is clear that the Whigs were
largely in the ascendant in twootf the most definitely
described counties of the Cape Fear section.
And the very story that keeps alive the Tory con
nection of that Dollar ancestor indicates! the pre
dominance of the Whigs. He seems to have been a
man of a fine sense of humor, as he told the joke
on himself. So dangerous was it for a Tory to be
seen in the Clinton section that he had slipped back
■s?
-m
15C
%
me xory rorce« oy .rngnt and was sneaking along
a lane. All aquiver lest 'he should be detected, when
a yearling lying in a jamb of a fence raised up and '
bellowed-like as he passed, he threw up hi® hands •
and blurted out: “I surrender” If this ancestor was
a Scotchman or Scotsman, as the nativity of the Dol
lar ship-master indicates as to the nativity of that
family, I must somewhat modify my statement that
the non-Mac Seoteh of the eastern area of , the Gape
Fear section were not Tories. I think that true of
the lower area of Sampson and Pender, but the Macs
of the Culloden period had penetrated Sampson from
Fayetteville and the earlier Scotch arrivals in . cen
tral and upper Sampson may have 'been affected by
the prevailing Scotch sentiments of the Gross Cree^
section. . *
Senator Hoar’s Ignorance. z"1
I challenge Editor Gray to write an article, more
comprehensive of errors than that quoted. ’. . ^
However, ignorance of Moore’s Greek Bridge was
once almost universal. W)hen: Marlon Butler,: as
senator, introduced the first bill in Congress for an
appropriation for rhe improvement^, of the Battle
Grounds at Mjoore’s Creek Bridge,; Senator-Hq*?, the
scholarly Massachusetts senator .of that day., confess
ed that he had never heard- of the-battle before. Yet
there is . no compayisonin. the- signiticanoe of Lex
ington and Moore’s Creek. But It is; time the_ latter
is recognized in all its significance. i
z'Zj&fr*
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