Chapter XXII: ```Carolina! Carolina! Heaven's blessings attend her; (2)

At dawn the following morning[[May 16]] he crossed the Allamance, a little above the present site of Holt and Carrigan's cotton factory, and marched silently and undiscovered along the Salisbury Road, until within half a mile of the camp of the Regulators, where he formed his line in battle order. Dr. Caldwell, who was there, with many of his parishioners, now visited the governor a second time, and obtained a renewal of a promise made the night before to abstain from bloodshed; but Tryon demanded unconditional submission. Both parties advanced to within three hundred yards of each other, when Tryon sent a magistrate, with a proclamation, ordering the Regulators to disperse within an hour. Robert Thompson, an amiable, but bold, outspoken man, who had gone to Tryon's camp to negotiate, was detained as a prisoner. Indignant because of such perfidy, he told the governor some plain truths, and was about to leave for the ranks of the Regulators, when the irritated governor snatched a gun from the hands of a militia-man and shot Thompson dead. Tryon perceived his folly in a moment, and sent out a flag of truce. The Regulators had seen Thompson fall, and, deeply exasperated, they paid no respect due to a flag, and immediately fired upon it. *** At this moment Dr. Caldwell rode along the lines and urged his people and their friends to disperse; and had an equal desire to avoid bloodshed guided the will of Tryon, valuable lives might have been spared. But he took counsel of his passions, and gave the word "_Fire!_" The militia hesitated, and the Regulators dared them to fire. Maddened with rage, the governor rose in his stirrups and shouted "_Fire!_ fire on them, or on me!" A volley ensued, and the cannons were discharged with deadly effect. The fire was returned, and the governor's hat was pierced by a musket-ball. He sent out a flag of truce, but the bearer immediately fell. Some young men among the Regulators rushed forward and took possession of the cannons. They did not know how to manage them, and soon abandoned them. The military now fired with vigor, and the Regulators fell back to a ledge of rocks on the verge of a ravine, not, however, until their scanty supply of ammunition was exhausted. They had no acknowledged leader;**** for as soon as it was evident

* Colonel Ashe and Captain John Walker, who were out reconnoitering, were caught by the Regulators, tied to a tree, severely whipped, and detained as prisoners. The great body of the Regulators in camp censured this cruelty and disclaimed approval.

** The Reverend David Caldwell, D.D., of Orange, many of whose congregation were with the Regulators, was the messenger on this occasion, and received from Tryon the most positive assurances that no blood should be shed unless the insurgents should be the first aggressors. Dr. Caldwell was a pure patriot, and during the war which ensued a few years later, himself and family were great sufferers for "conscience' sake."

*** Tradition currently reported that Donald Malcolm, one of Governor Tryon's aids, and who was afterward a very obnoxious under-officer of the customs at Boston, was the bearer of the flag. When the firing commenced, he retreated with safety to his person, but had the misfortune to have the buttons of his small clothes leave their fastenings. Trumbull, in his M'Fingall, with rather more wit than modesty, notices the circumstance in four lines.

* Captain Montgomery, who commanded a company of Mountain Boys, was considered the principal leader, if any might be called by that name. He was killed by the second fire of the cannon, when most of the Regulators fled. James Pugh, a young gunsmith from Hillsborough, and three others, shielded by a ledge of rocks on the edge of a ravine, did great execution with rifles. Pugh fired while the others loaded, and he killed fifteen men. He was made prisoner, and was one of six who were hung at Hillsborough.

[[[Flight of Husband.--Defeat of the Regulators.--The Battle-ground.--Cruelty of Tryon.]]]

{577}that blood would be shed, Herman Husband, the soul of the agitation, declared that his peace principles as a Quaker would not allow him to fight, and he rode off, and was not seen again in North Carolina until the close of the Revolution.

Charity must stretch her mantle to cover this delinquency of the leader of the Regulators; for why should he have urged the people to assemble for resistance unless they were to fight? All was confusion when the conflict began, and each fought for life and liberty in his own way. Although they were defeated in that early conflict--that _first battle of our war for independence_--they were not subdued, and many of the survivors were among the most determined opposers of Cornwallis a few years later. Nine of the Regulators and twenty-seven of the militia fell in that conflict, and a great number on both sides were wounded. * Tryon, in his report, said, "The loss of our army in killed, wounded, and missing, amounted to about sixty men."

The admitted excesses of the Regulators afford no excuse for the cruelty of Tryon after the battle on the Allamance. With the implacable spirit of revenge, he spent his wrath upon his prisoners, and some of his acts were worthy only of a barbarian. *** Having rested a few days near the battle-ground, he went on as far as the Yadkin,

* Martin, Williamson, Caruthers, Foote.

** This view is from the south side of the Salisbury Road, which is marked by the fence on the left. The belligerents confronted in the open field seen on the north of the road, beyond the fence. Between the blasted pine, to which a muscadine is clinging, and the road, on the edge of a small morass, several of those who were slain in that engagement were buried. I saw the mounds of four graves by the fence, where the sheep, seen in the picture, are standing. The tree by the road side is a venerable oak, in which are a few scars produced by the bullets.

*** Among his victims was a young carpenter of Hillsborough, named James Few. He was the sole support of his widowed mother, and had suffered greatly, it is said, at the hands of Fanning. Young Few alleged that he had not only made him feel the curse of his exactions, but had actually seduced a young girl who was his betrothed. Driven to madness, he joined the Regulators, was taken prisoner, and was hung on the night after the battle, without trial, and without witnessing friends. * Justice to the dead, and a regard for the truth of history, demand the acknowledgment that this story, like the apocryphal one that the Regulators cut off Fanning's ears, ** needs confirmation, and rests solely upon uncertain tradition. It is further related that Tryon destroyed the property of Few's mother when he reached Hillsborough! Captain Messer, who was made prisoner, was sentenced to be hanged the day after the battle. His wife, informed of his intended fate, hastened to him with her little son, a lad ten years old. She pleaded for her husband's life in vain. Messer was led to execution, while his wife lay weeping upon the ground, her boy by her side. Just as Messer was to be drawn up, the boy went to Tryon and said, "Sir, hang me, and let my father live." "Who told you to say that?" said the governor. "Nobody," replied the lad. "And why," said the governor, "do you ask that?" "Because," the boy replied, "if you hang my father, my mother will die, and the children will perish." The heart of the governor was touched, and he said, "Your father shall not be hanged to-day." Messer was offered his liberty if he would bring Husband back. He consented, and his wife and children were kept as hostages. He returned in the course of a few days, and reported that he overtook Husband in Virginia, but could not bring him. Messer was immediately bound, and, after being exhibited with the other prisoners, was hung at Hillsborough.

* Foote's Sketches of North Carolina, pages 61, 62.

** See Johnson's Traditions and Reminiscences of the Revolution, page 573.

[[[Tryon's Prisoners exhibited in Chains.--Execution of Six of them.--Effect of the Regulator Movement--Career of Husband.]]]

and, after issuing a proclamation[[May 17, 1771]] of pardon to all who should lay down their arms and take the oath of allegiance before the tenth of July, except a few whom he named, he made a circuitous route through Stokes, Rockingham, and Guilford counties, back to Hillsborough, exhibiting his prisoners in chains in the villages through which he passed. He exacted an oath of allegiance from the people; levied contributions of provisions; chastised those who dared to offend him; and at Hillsborough he offered a large reward for the bodies of Husband and other Regulators, "dead or alive." * On his march he held courts-martial for trying civil cases, burned houses, and destroyed the crops of inoffensive people. At Hillsborough he held a court-martial for the trial of his prisoners. Twelve were condemned to suffer death; six were reprieved, and the others were hung,[[June 19, 1771] among whom was Captain Messer, whose life had been spared a few days before by the intercession of his little child. His thirst for revenge satiated, Tryon returned to his palace at Newbern, where he remained but a short time, having been called to the administration of affairs in the province of New York. Joseph Martin succeeded him as governor, and acted with judgment. He so conciliated the Regulators that many of them were firm Loyalists when the governor was finally driven away by the Whigs.

The movements of the Regulators and the result of the battle on the Allamance, form an important episode in the history of our Revolution. Their resistance arose from oppressions more personal and real than those which aroused the people of New England. It was not wholly the abstract idea of freedom for which they contended; their strife consisted of efforts to relieve themselves of actual burdens. While the tea-duty was but a "pepper-corn tribute," imposing no real burden upon the industry of the people in New England, extortion in every form, and not to be evaded, was eating out the substance of the working-men in North Carolina. Implied despotism armed the New Englanders; actual despotism panoplied the Carolinians. Each were equally patriotic, and deserve our reverent gratitude. The defeat on the Allamance did not break the spirit of the patriots; and many, determined no longer to suffer the oppressions of extortioners, abandoned their homes, with their wives and children, went beyond the mountains, and began settlements in the fertile valleys of Tennessee. As Mr. Bancroft, in a letter to the Honorable David L. Swain, happily expressed it, "Like the mammoth, they shook the bolt from their brow, and crossed the mountains."

While the Regulator movement planted deep the seeds of resistance to tyranny, the result of the battle on the Allamance was disastrous in its subsequent effects. The people, from whom Tryon wrung an oath of allegiance, were conscientious, and held a vow in deep reverence. Nothing could make them swerve from the line of duty; and when the hostilities of the Revolution fully commenced, hundreds, whose sympathies were with the patriots, felt bound by that oath to remain passive. Hundreds of men, with strong hearts and hands, would have flocked around the standards of Gates and Greene, in Guilford, Orange, and the neighboring counties, had not their oath been held too sacred to be violated, even when it was evident that the king could no longer protect them. Loyalty to conscience, not opposition to the principles of the Revolutionists, made these men passive; for their friends and neighbors on the other side of the Yadkin, where Tryon's oath was not exacted, were among those who earliest cast off their allegiance to the British crown.

The course of Governor Martin was generally so judicious, that the people of North Car-

* Husband fled to Pennsylvania, and settled near Pittsburgh. He went to North Carolina on business soon after the close of the war, but did not remain long. In 1794 he was concerned in the "Whisky Insurrection," in Western Pennsylvania, and was appointed on the Committee of Safety with Brackenridge, Bradford, and Gallatin. Husband was arrested, and taken a prisoner to Philadelphia, where he was pardoned, through the interposition of Dr. Caldwell who happened to be there, Dr. Rush, and the North Carolina senators. He met his wife on his return home, and died at an inn before he reached his own neighborhood. Husband was a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature for some years.

[[[Committees of Correspondence.--Difficulties between the Governor and People.--Conventions of the Patriots.]]]

{579}olina were not very restive, while the Northern colonies were all on fire with rebellion in 1774. Yet sympathy for the people of Boston, suffering from the effects of the Port Bill, was general and sincere, and the inhabitants of Wilmington and other towns made large contributions for their relief. When the final decision was to be made respecting allegiance to, or independence of the British crown, very many remained loyal, and the ardent Whigs required the full exercise of all their zeal to leaven the inactive population of the state. The efficient machinery of corresponding committees was put in operation early In December, 1773, the resolution of the House of Burgesses, of Virginia, recommending the appointment of committees of correspondence, was received by the Assembly of North Carolina and approved of. A committee was appointed, and instructed to be vigilant and industrious in the performance of their duties. * Governor Martin was then in New York, and the duties of his office devolved upon James Hasell, the president of the council. Hasell was rather favorably inclined toward republicanism, and opposed the patriots only so far as his official duty demanded action.

The proceedings of that short session were quite offensive to the governor and most of his council, as representatives of the imperial government, and the amity of the provincial legislation was disturbed. The governor soon returned home, and prorogued the Assembly until March following,[[1774]] that the members might "reflect upon their proceedings, learn the sentiments of their constituents, and adopt a more loyal course." When they again met, strengthened by the approval of their constituents, they were firmer than ever in their opposition to some of the measures of government; and that the sincerity and courage of those who professed patriotic proclivities might be tested, the Yeas and Nays were taken upon the adoption of an important bill. ** A committee was appointed to address the king, and on the twenty-fifth of March the Assembly was again prorogued. Four days afterward, it was dissolved by the governor's proclamation; an act considered unconstitutional, and which highly offended the people.

During the summer of 1774, a majority of the inhabitants, in primary meetings assembled, openly avowed their approval of a Continental Congress, as proposed by Massachusetts. A general meeting of delegates from the several towns was proposed to be held at Newbern on the twenty-fifth of August. On the thirteenth of that month, the governor issued his proclamation, disapproving of the district meetings, and requiring the people to forbear sending delegates to the general convention. The people did not heed his proclamation, and the delegates met on that day. John Harvey, of Perquimans, the late speaker of the Assembly, was chosen moderator. The council convened by the governor, seeing the gathering of the people's representatives, decided that "nothing could be done." The convention expressed its firm loyalty to the king; claimed only the common rights of Englishmen; asserted the doctrine that they ought not to be taxed without their own consent; reprobated the tea and other duties; expressed great sympathy for the people of Massachusetts; condemned the Boston Port Bill, as a "cruel infringement of the rights and privileges of the people," and other measures of government as unrighteous; signed a non-importation

* The committee consisted of John Harvey (speaker of the Assembly), Robert Howe (afterward a general in the Continental army), Cornelius Harnett, William Hooper (one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence), Richard Caswell, Edward Vail, John Ashe, Joseph Hewes (another signer), and Samuel Johnson.

* John Harvey was an active citizen in public life, before the war of the Revolution began. He was a member of the Colonial Legislature for a number of years, and in 1766 succeeded John Ashe as speaker of the House. He presided with dignity for three years, and at the close of each session received the unanimous thanks of the House for his impartiality. He early espoused the patriot cause; was active in the first Revolutionary movements in his state, but died before the struggle had advanced far toward a successful issue.

** A bill for the establishment of Superior Courts upon a new basis, 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. *

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

* 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.

** 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.

** 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,

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.

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.

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.

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.