Episode 082: Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge

The winter of 1775-76 was a tough one for the British in Boston.  After Gen. Thomas Gage returned to England, leaving Gen. William Howe in charge, the army did almost nothing.  Like Gage, Howe thought they needed to abandon the city.  The army had to take a position somewhere else that would give the army more room to maneuver.  While they decided exactly what to do, the army sat and rotted away.

Although reinforcements from England continued to arrive over the winter, hundreds of regulars died from smallpox, typhus, and other diseases.  A lack of fresh food also led to the spread of scurvy, which only made soldiers more susceptible to die from other diseases.  Aside from disease, everyone was desperate for food and firewood, third in command Gen. John Burgoyne got frustrated and returned to London where he could better criticize Howe’s command.  Second in command Gen. Henry Clinton remained in Boston, but also clearly was fed up with Howe’s leadership.  He did not want to sit in Boston for the rest of the winter, watching the army starve and die.

The British Move South

In January, Howe agreed to let Clinton take command of a contingent of soldiers to the southern colonies.  There, they thought that there was still a large loyalist contingent that could be rallied to serve the King.

Gov. Josiah Martin in North Carolina had been telling everyone that he could raise 10,000 loyalist soldiers to fight for the King, if only the army would send someone to rally them.  Governors of Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia all felt the same way. Martin and the other Royal Governors, of course, were stuck on navy ships offshore, because the patriots had forced them out of the colony.  But that did not dissuade them from the idea that the loyalists were just lying low, waiting for an opportunity to take up the fight.

Sir Henry Clinton
(from Wikimedia)

General Clinton took only a couple of companies of light infantry when he sailed from Boston.  Gen. Howe in Boston was happy to be rid of Clinton.  He did not, however, want to let any of his regiments leave Boston, despite the fact that they were just sitting around dying of hunger and disease.  Howe still feared the Continentals might attempt to take the city.  He needed to have sufficient forces to defend against such an attack.

Clinton’s plan was to meet up with seven regiments of Irish infantry, as well as an artillery unit, which London had deployed as reinforcements in America.  Leading this new force was a newly promoted Major General named Charles Cornwallis, who will play a big role in future events.  But for now, he was bringing a contingent of reinforcements and would serve as second in command to the more senior Major General Clinton in this expedition to the southern colonies.

Clinton left Boston on January 20, 1776, but only sailed as far are New York City.  There, he met with Gov. Martin of North Carolina, and Gov. Campbell of South Carolina in order to assess his chances in those colonies.  He also met with NY Gov. Tryon who had been Governor of North Carolina a few years prior.

The plan was to use Cornwallis’ regular regiments to rally loyalist regiments in the southern colonies.  They would restore power to the local governors, then rejoin Gen. Howe in the summer to recapture the northern colonies.

Recruiting an Army

Ahead of Clinton’s arrival in North Carolina, the British sent recruiters to enlist the loyalists who would fight with the small force of regulars due to arrive soon.  As they did in Canada, the British in North Carolina hoped to recruit from among the many Scottish Highlanders who had settled in the colony.  The Highlanders had shown fierce loyalty to the King and had a well respected reputation as warriors.

To recruit this new force, Clinton sent two officers ahead into North Carolina to recruit men.  Lt. Col. Donald MacDonald, who had a long battle record, from Culloden in 1745 to Bunker Hill the prior year, and Captain Donald McLeod, also a veteran of Bunker Hill.  Both men were Scots who spoke fluent Gaelic, like the Scottish settlers in western North Carolina.  MacDonald had a cousin who was a leader in the Highlander community of North Carolina.  Both men received brevet promotion, MacDonald to General, and McLeod to Lt. Col. to raise and command the new southern loyalist army.

Donald MacDonald
(from COADB)

Almost as soon as they arrived in North Carolina, patriot forces took them into custody.  However, they convinced their captors that they were simply retired officers looking to settle with friends and family in the colony.  Apparently, convinced, the patriots allowed them to proceed into the Highlander communities further inland.

The British officers worked with a local loyalist named Alexander McLean, who had authority from the Royal Governor Martin to commission officers to lead the new militia.  They moved to the area around Cross Creek (modern day Fayetteville) and began recruiting.  The officers had more to offer than simple appeals to loyalty.  They offered 200 acres of land to volunteers as well as 20 years of tax exemption.

They spread the word that all loyal men willing to fight for the King should meet at Cross Creek on February 5.  At the meeting, loyalists could not agree what to do.  Several hundred were ready to form up immediately.  Others were more cautious.  They did not want to make themselves targets for the patriots until there were British regulars to support them.  No one expected any regulars to arrive until at least early March.

By some accounts MacDonald recruited as many as 3500 men by mid-February.  It seems, however, that many of the men did not stick around after they found out that there were no British regulars, only the two recruiting officers.  Of further concern, they would have to fight their way to the coast, doing battle with their fellow colonists, before they could join the regulars, who might or might not be there by the time they reached the coast.  Remember, many of these men have been defeated and scattered for patriot forces only a few months earlier in the snow campaign that I discussed back in Episode 77.

In the end, well under 2000 loyalists stuck around and agreed to march to the coast under Gen. MacDonald. The loyalist army set off to march to the coast at Cape Fear.  There, they would meet up with the regulars arriving by ship and crush the Patriot forces in the colony.  That was the plan anyway.

The Patriot Forces

The problem was that none of this remained a secret.  Patriot leaders in North Carolina received word of Gen. Clinton sailing for North Carolina, and also of the recruitment of Scottish colonists around Cross Creek.

The North Carolina Provincial Congress called on its Continental regiment and supporting militia to confront the new loyalist militia.  They wanted to disrupt the recruiting before the force became too large.  They also wanted to prevent them from reaching the coast and joining up with the fleet of regulars that they expected would soon arrive.

The Continental Congress had just commissioned James Moore as colonel of the newly raised 1st North Carolina Regiment.  Moore was an experienced officer who had seen action in the French and Indian War and the Cherokee Wars.  He served in the colonial militia under Royal Governor Tryon and helped to put down the North Carolina Regulators at the Battle of Alamance a few years earlier.

But Moore was also a dedicated patriot.  He had led the mobs during the Stamp Act Riots.  He was a longstanding member of the Sons of Liberty and had helped to raise support for the people of Boston after Parliament closed their port in 1774.  He had served in the colonial legislature, but helped organize the North Carolina Provincial Congress when the Royal Governor shut down the colonial House of Representatives.  He was a member of the Committee of Safety, and helped to organize the new Continental regiment that he now commanded.  By mid-February, Moore had taken his 650 man regiment into the region and looked for an opportunity to attack.

Moore called on two militia regiments, one led by Col. Richard Caswell and another by Col. Alexander Lillington to cooperate in an attack on the loyalist brigade.  Caswell was primarily a politician, then serving as President of the Provincial Congress, and would go on to become the State’s first Governor.  But he was also a longtime militia officer.  He had fought alongside Moore at the Battle of Alamance.  Lillington was also a long time militia officer and colonial politician, having served along with the other two Colonels in the colonial army that crushed that Regulators at Alamance.  He had also been a leader in the Stamp Act riots, served in the Provincial Congress and with Moore on the Committee of Safety.  In short, all three Colonels were dedicated patriots, with military experience and knew each other well.

The Battle

Col. Moore had established his regiment within a few miles of the loyalist camp at Cross Creek.  He set up a defensive line along Rockfish Creek and awaited an attack. When Gen. MacDonald learned of the patriots force, he sent a messenger under a flag of truce, calling on them to to lay down their arms or “suffer the fate of an enemy of the Crown.”  Moore was not impressed by this bluster and sent back a message of his own that the loyalists needed to take an oath to support Continental Congress, or “be treated as enemies of the Constitutional Liberties of America.”  Clearly neither side was backing down.

Gen. MacDonald, however, had no intention of sending his inexperienced loyalist militia against an entrenched enemy.  They had almost no time to drill and many did not even have muskets.  MacDonald’s plan was to march his men to Cape Fear before engaging with the rebels.  So, he marched his men down back roads toward the coast, hoping to avoid a confrontation with the patriots.

Moore's Creek Bridge, 1904 (from The NC Booklet)

This route required MacDonald’s troops to cross Moore’s Creek. There, Lillington with about 150 patriot militia had dug in on the far side of the bridge, preparing to block the Loyalists.  After it became clear that MacDonald’s loyalists were headed for the bridge, Caswell brought another 850 or so patriot militia to the bridge to assist with its defense.  Caswell also had a small cannon and an even smaller swivel gun to supplement his infantry.

Even so, the 1600 loyalist forces outnumbered the combined 1000 patriots defending the bridge.  Before Moore’s regiment caught up with them, MacDonald had a chance to destroy or capture the militia, and then force Moore to attack the loyalists from an entrenched position where they would again outnumber the Patriots.

On February 26, the loyalists marched within a few miles of Moore’s Creek Bridge.  Gen. MacDonald became deeply ill and had to turn over command to Col. McLeod.  As they did when they confronted Col. Moore’s Continentals, the loyalists sent a party under a flag of truce to demand the surrender of the patriot militia, offering full pardon if they surrendered and declared loyalty to the King.  Caswell said thanks but no thanks and told the young officer to return to his lines.

The loyalist officer returned, but not before the patriots had allowed him to get a good look at their defenses.  The officer reported back to McLeod that Caswell’s patriot militia had set their lines on the nearside of the creek.  This meant they could not use the creek as a natural defense, and could not quickly retreat if attacked.  With this bad position and with the loyalists outnumbering the patriots, McLeod decided to engage the enemy.

Meanwhile, back on the patriot lines, Caswell had also apparently decided that his deployment on the nearside of the creek was, in fact, a really stupid way to deploy his lines.  That evening, he moved his entire force over the bridge to the far side.  They also took up the planks of the bridge so that no attacking force could rush across it.  While the soldiers moved over to the far bank, they left their tents up and kept campfire burning on the near bank to confuse the attacking loyalists.

Movements to Moore's Creek Bridge (from Wikipedia)

McLeod marched his loyalists toward the patriot militia that night, planning to attack the camp around daybreak on February 27.  When they arrived, the loyalist advance force was not sure what was going on.  They saw the empty patriot camp on the near side and the defensive lines on the other side of the creek.  Since both sides were militia, without flags and uniforms, they were not entirely sure who they were facing.  A patriot called out and asked if they were a friend.  The loyalists replied they were friends to the King and both sides quickly realized they were facing the enemy across the creek.

Now. Gen. MacDonald, who was lying in a sickbed miles away had been trying to avoid any confrontation with the enemy.  Although his force was larger, they were raw untrained militia.  About half of them did not even have guns.  Many only had swords.  They expected to get muskets when they met up with the regulars.  Later, MacDonald said he never would have engaged in the battle, but that’s easy to say in hindsight.  But whatever the case. Lt. Col. McLeod opted to charge.

His forces tried to cross over the bridge in the face of enemy fire.  With the planks removed, they had to climb over the framing, allowing the patriots to shoot dozens of them as they slowly made their way over the bridge frame.  Col. McLeod bravely led the charge and made it over the bridge with a few men.  But not enough made it.  The patriots killed at least 30 loyalists, including McLeod.

The remaining loyalists decided that slowly climbing over the bridge in the face of enemy fire was not for them, and fled.  Caswell then had the patriot militia put back the bridge planks and crossed back over the creek to pursue the fleeing militia.

The patriots captured about half of the attacking force, with the other half scattering and presumably making their way home.  Caswell’s patriot militia also captured the main camp with all its supplies, including guns, ammunition and a large amount of gold that the British had been using to recruit volunteers.  The patriots also took the ailing Gen. MacDonald prisoner.  Only two patriots had been wounded in the battle, one of them dying a few days later.

The entire battle had only lasted a few minutes, although they spent most of the rest of the day tracking down loyalists who had fled the battle and were hiding all over the area.  Col. Moore arrived later that day, frustrated that he had missed the battle, but took command of the aftermath.

Aftermath

Moore agreed to allow most of the loyalist soldiers to return home, after taking an oath not to take up arms again against the patriot cause.  Those who refused the oath had to put up a bond and agree to leave the colony within 60 days.  Even those who escaped capture were subject to these conditions.  The patriots had captured Gen. MacDonald’s muster roles and knew the name of every man who had volunteered for the loyalists.

The officers became prisoners of war.  They sent British Gen. MacDonald north, where he would be exchanged a few months later for Continental General captured during the Battle of Long Island.

Col. Moore, did not fight in the battle, but received credit for the winning strategy.  Congress promoted him to brigadier general.

Battle of Brunswick

Gen. Clinton finally arrived at Cape Fear on March 12, along with Governors Martin and Campbell from North and South Carolina.  They heard about the loyalist defeat at Moore’s Creek Bridge, but had little to do until Gen. Cornwallis’ fleet arrived from Ireland.  The fleet would not begin to arrive until the end of April due to bad weather.  Cornwallis himself would not arrive until the beginning of May.

So Clinton had to spend about six weeks sitting off the coast, occasionally sending landing parties on shore to collect food for his troops.  Moore brought Continentals from the First and Second North Carolina Regiments to the coast, attacking Clinton’s raiding parties and firing cannon at the ships if they got too close to shore.  Similarly, Clinton’s ships would fire at any patriots that came to the shore line.

Not much came of these raids.  On April 6, a British raiding party caught a continental officer and five soldiers off guard at Brunswick Town North Carolina.  The captured all six Continentals and brought them back to the British fleet as prisoners.

Once Cornwallis arrived in May, the generals decided on a new course of action.  Both forces were tired and hungry from months aboard ship.  Clinton issued a general pardon for any rebels who would affirm their allegiance to the King.  But, like Gage’s similar offer in Boston, even those who might have been inclined to remain loyal feared the wrath of the patriots controlling the colony far more than the regulars who could not even gain a toehold on land.

On May 12, Cornwallis raided the coastal plantation of Col. Robert Howe, burning his home and stealing about 20 cattle.  They hit a few other coastal raids, including a return to Brunswick Town, where they burned most of the town.

But without the promised thousands of loyalist militia to support them, Clinton and Cornwallis could not hope to establish British control of the colony.  Knowing that they would soon have to return to Howe in a few months, they gave up on retaking North Carolina that year and moved on to South Carolina.  That will be the subject of a future episode.

Conclusion

The Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge is sometimes called the Lexington of the South.  I think that is a bit of an overstatement, but the battle did have some importance.  Although patriots had already taken control of the Southern colonies, the battle prevented any sort of loyalist counter-uprising that many strategists in London had hoped would turn the tide of the war.

Coming in February 1776, the patriots got a big morale boost following the failure to take Quebec in January and with the continuing standoff around Boston.  For North Carolinians, it sealed their fidelity to the patriot cause.  Less than two months later, North Carolina became the first colony to instruct its delegates to the Continental Congress to vote for independence.

In London, the loss was seen as a disappointment, but given that it was only loyalist militia, not regulars involved, it was not seen as that big of a deal.  Strategists saw it as a setback, but still hoped to rally loyalists to the cause under new leadership at some future date.  However, the British realized that retaking the South would not be easy.  They would not make another serious attempt to retake the Carolinas for four years.

- - -

Next Episode 83: Continental Congress Winter 1776

Previous Episode 81: Common Sense

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Further Reading

Resources to learn more about today’s topic.

Websites: 

Rankin, Hugh F. "The Moore's Creek Bridge Campaign, 1776" The North Carolina Historical Review
Vol. 30, No. 1 (Jan., 1953), pp. 23-60 https://www.jstor.org/stable/23516672 (free to read with registration).

Moore's Creek National Battlefield: https://www.nps.gov/mocr/index.htm

Barefoot, Daniel W. Battle of Moores Creek Bridge, 2006: http://www.ncpedia.org/moores-creek-bridge-battle

Noble, M.C.S. "The Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge" The North Carolina Booklet, Vol. 3 No. 11 (1904). http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/North_Carolina/_Texts/journals/The_North_Carolina_Booklet/3/11*.html

Smith, John L. Jr. "The Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge" Journal of the Am. Rev. 2014: 
https://allthingsliberty.com/2014/01/battle-moores-creek-bridge

Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge, Stats:
http://www.carolana.com/NC/Revolution/revolution_battle_of_moores_creek.html

Charleston Expedition Of Clinton In 1776, 2006:
http://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/charleston-expedition-clinton-1776

Character Sketch: Important People from the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge:
https://www.nps.gov/mocr/learn/education/upload/Character-Sketch.pdf

Free eBooks
(from archive.org unless noted)

Powell, William Chronolog of the American Revolution in North Carolina, Raleigh: North Carolina Dept. of Cultural Resources, Div. of Archives and History, 1975.

Wright, Joshua G. Address delivered at the celebration of the battle of Moore's Creek Bridge, February 27th, 1857. Wilmington, NC, Fulton & Price, 1857.

Books Worth Buying
(links to Amazon.com unless otherwise noted)

Fleming, Thomas 1776: Year of Illusions, New York W.W. Norton & Co. 1975.

Rankin, Hugh F. The North Carolina Continentals, NC Society of Cincinnati, 1971 (book recommendation of the week).

Russell, David Lee The American Revolution in the Southern Colonies, Jefferson, NC: McFarland Publishing, 2000.

Episode 035: Carolina Regulators and Battle of Alamance

Last week we discussed the decision to pull the British troops out of Boston following the Boston Massacre, as well as the repeal of most of the Townshend Duties.  These pullbacks ushered in several years of relative calm, from the end of 1770 until the end of 1773 when the Tea Party broke the peace once again.  Of course, those years were not entirely trouble free.  Today I want to cover the Regulator movement in the Carolinas.

I find the political evolution of South Carolina and North Caroline particularly fascinating.  In both cases settlers of the western part of the colony tended to be German, Scotch, or Irish, as compared to the English who settled along the east coast.  However, when the Revolution broke out, the western North Carolina settlers tended to support the patriot cause while easterners tended to maintain stronger support for the king. In South Carolina the opposite happened. Easterners joined the patriot cause, while westerners tended to remain loyal to the king.

South Carolina Regulators

I have not paid much attention to South Carolina since Episode 15, when the British crushed the Cherokee Uprising of 1761.  After the Cherokee gave up a large amount of territory to settle that dispute, colonial settlers moved in and set up farms.  Although parts of what is known as the Piedmont region of the colony had white colonists who had already lived there for a generation or two, the 1760’s saw a period of substantial growth.

Land settlement came quickly, but government in the new settlements did not keep up with the population boom.  This led to what we call the Regulator movement.  South Carolina Regulators were generally farmers and men of property who lived in the western part of the State.  These new settlers primarily, were not South Carolinians moving west. Rather they were immigrants moving into the colony.

South Carolina had a Governor and Council appointed by the King.  The colonists elected a House of Commons, although property requirements greatly limited voting to a relatively small minority of planters.  Elected officials had even more stringent requirements.  Members had to own 500 acres of land or more, at least 10 slaves or equivalent property, and belong to the Anglican Church.

Most of the western settlers were not Anglicans.  They were recent immigrants from Western Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina.  Their families tended to be German, Scotch-Irish, or Welsh.  As in England, the colonial legislature did not see any need to redistrict on a regular basis.  So even the few men who might qualify to vote, did not have any representation in Charleston.

The Piedmont region also had no sheriffs, courts, or jails to maintain law and order.  The local property owners formed themselves into vigilante groups, known as Regulators, which enforced their view of law.  Mostly, they targeted what they called hunters.  These were essentially homeless people with guns.  They roamed the back country, killing animals, often farm animals.  They left half eaten carcasses, which attracted wolves and other undesirable wildlife.  They would sometimes start fires to chase game at night. They often wandered into Indian reserves, potentially stirring up another war.  Sometimes they would steal directly from farmers or even raid isolated farms.  There are stories of some brutal home invasions during this time.

War of Regulation (from Wikipedia, artist's conception)

The Regulators first organized to drive these undesirables out of the area.  Regulators would go after anyone believed to be guilty of a crime or other undesirable behavior.  If a suspect was captured, the Regulators would most commonly dispensed punishment with a whipping, sometimes with a demand that the accused leave the area.  Property owners who did something to displease the Regulators might find their barn or home burned to the ground.  Even suspected prostitutes were subjected to whippings as the regulators attempted to make their territory more respectable.

Regulators also had to deal with escaped slaves.  The Regulators tended to be wealthy property owners, many of whom owned slaves.  The communities of ruffians living in the back country often provided asylum to escaped slaves which not only made it easier for slaves to escape, but created a core that might eventually organize into a slave rebellion.

The Regulators operated for most of the 1760s, providing the only source of law, frontier justice for the region.  But even the Regulators wanted a more official and permanent form of law enforcement.  They lobbied the Governor and assembly for influence in the government.  They wanted representation to put in place a more legitimate and stable government in the west.  In 1768, the government obliged by creating new Judicial Districts for the western regions.  It also organized new electoral districts.  Finally, after elections, the western districts sent representatives to the legislature in Charleston in 1770.

By then it was pointless.  I mentioned a few episodes back, after the legislature sent money to John Wilkes in 1769, the Governor prevented the legislature from appropriating any more funds, and in 1771, the Governor stopped all legislation.  So, the 1770 victory got the westerners representation in a legislature that could not pass any legislation, yay!

Even so, the creation of judicial districts, along with sheriffs and courts, largely put an end to the Regulator movement in South Carolina.  Landowners could still serve as posses when the sheriff needed them, but law enforcement system was at least administered by government officials.

Despite bringing the westerners into colonial politics, the east coast elites and the back country Regulators remained divided in many ways, religious, social, and cultural.  When the eastern colonists largely joined in the rebellion against Britain a few years later, the inland groups tended to join the Loyalist side and fought with the British when the war came to South Carolina.

North Carolina Regulators

The North Carolina Regulators evolved in a very different way.  If South Carolina Regulators complained about not enough government, the North Carolina Regulators complained about too much, or at least too corrupt.  Settlers in the western parts of North Carolina came from similar backgrounds as their western South Carolina neighbors.  They also encountered some of the same fundamental differences from those controlling the colony along the east coast.

Like its southern neighbor, North Carolina had a crown appointed Governor and Council, as well as an elected legislature.  Voting was limited to free men of property and districting strongly favored those living along the coast.  The eastern dominated colonial government appointed tax collectors, sheriffs, and judges to administer the inland counties.

Now I know it’s hard to believe today, but in the mid-1700’s North Carolina often had corrupt local officials who harassed and ripped off the residents.  The tax system was bad enough. The colony had a poll tax, which unlike an income or property tax, meant that every person paid the same amount.  It did not matter if you were a subsistence dirt farmer or a plantation owner with 10,000 acres.  As you might guess, such a system was particularly tough on the poor.

Government officials earned a living by going out and extracting money from tax delinquents by any means necessary.  Some had a nasty habit of collecting a tax, then “losing” the paperwork and demanding they pay a second time.

Another big problem was the lack of cash in the economy.  As I discussed in earlier episodes, the lack of gold and silver in the colonies caused serious economic problems.  Some colonies had tried to circulate paper money, but London usually did not allow that.  In North Carolina, especially in the west, most people operated on a barter system, with very little cash circulating.  Keeping money in your home was actually dangerous as it made you a target for theft.

Taxes, however, had to be paid in gold or silver.  If a taxpayer did not have enough ready cash when the tax man came around, the tax collector would put a distrain on the property, effectively seizing it.  The tax collector received fee for doing so, and therefore had every incentive not to give the taxpayer any time to come up with the cash.  Within days, the state would sell the owner’s property, usually at a cut price to a friend of the tax collector, who again collected a fee for his work on the tax sale.  Collectors also added fees if they had to visit the home of a taxpayer who did not show up to pay taxes at a designated time and place.  Tax collectors often would not give much of any notice when they would arrive.  Often, colonists would find the original tax bill to be only a small portion of the total fees added to their bill.

Some locals attempted to take the tax collectors to court.  But the tax collector was the local sheriff or deputy.  He often colluded with judges and lawyers to extract even more court fees and legal costs before finding against the taxpayer anyway.

Westerners did not have many political options either.  Local citizens held town meetings and sent petitions to the Governor for reform, but these all seemed to fall on deaf ears.  Like South Carolina, North Carolina apportioned most of its representatives in the east, meaning the westerners were very underrepresented in the legislature.  For example, two western counties contained 6000 people and had four representatives.  At the same time, five small counties along the coast had a total of less than 2000 people and had 25 representatives.  Although they had some representatives, they did not have enough to convince the legislature to initiate any sort of reform.

Gov. Tryon

In 1764 William Tryon arrived as the new Lt. Governor.  Tryon was a British military officer with close ties to the top of London’s power elite.  His wife had been maid of honor to Queen Charlotte.  She was also a family friend of Lord Hillsborough, the Secretary of State, who appointed him as Lt. Governor.  Tryon became Governor when his predecessor died the following year.

One of his first controversies came with the Stamp Act protests of 1765-66.  His strong support for the Act and its enforcement made him enemies throughout the colony.  After the Stamp tax repeal in 1766, the Governor tried to reduce tensions and rebuild relationships in a customarily North Carolina way: he held a barbecue.  He roasted three whole oxen, brought in wagon loads of beer and bread and invited just about the whole colony to attend.  Many people came, but they were not ready to make nice.  They protested by taking the food and beer and dumping it on the ground or in the river.  A massive fight ensued which included a relative of the Governor’s wife being killed in a duel.

Tryon's Palace (from Eastern Carolina Univ.)
(artist's conception from 1910)

This incident poisoned any chance of a good relationship between the Governor and the colonists.  The following year, he made things worse by demanding £20,000 to build a Governor’s Palace for himself.  For many taxpayers, especially in the west “Tryon’s Palace” was the final straw.  Rather than reforming the burdensome and corrupt tax system, the Governor was adding a huge new expense that would result in even higher taxes.

To protest the corrupt system of tax collection, the citizens of Orange County refused to pay any of their taxes in 1768.  Instead, they gave it to their representative in the legislature, Harmon Husband (sometimes Herman Husbands).  When the Assembly met, the Governor demanded to know why no one had paid taxes.  Husband threw a bag of gold and silver on the table and told the Governor that he had all the taxes.  He was prepared to pay the treasury in exchange for a receipt showing the taxes had been paid.  Husband announced that he had acted as tax collector to keep much of it from "disappearing," as always seemed to happen.

In response, the Governor had Husband arrested and thrown in jail.  He released him several days later after learning that 2000 Regulators were advancing on the jail to free him by force.  Not wanting to have an organized political force against him, the Governor divided Orange County into three separate counties.  He also forced through legislation prohibiting the sale of gunpowder or shot to anyone in those three counties until further notice.

With the Government refusing to consider any reforms, the Regulators simply shut down the government in the western counties.  Armed militia prevented any sheriffs, tax collectors, or judges from operating.  One particular target of the Regulators was a man named Edmund Fanning, a friend of the Governor, responsible for tax collection in Orange County, and also sheriff of Hillsborough.  Fanning was the personification of the corrupt tax collector for the Regulators.  He had also built up large land holdings in the area, much of it from land sold at tax sales.

In 1770, in what became known as the Hillsborough Riot, Regulators shut down the local court, seized Fanning and another lawyer, and beat the men.  They ran Fanning out of town, paraded an effigy of him through the streets, and damaged his home and other property.

Essentially the demands of the regulators were twofold and quite reasonable.  First, they wanted to put an end to the corrupt local government that was cheating them out of their property.  Second, they wanted a reapportionment of the legislature, which currently benefitted the east.

Battle of Alamance Creek

Tryon was not ready to make peace with troublemakers.  Rather than compromise, he got the legislature to pass the Riot Act of 1771. The Act effectively redefined protest as treason.  It made it a felony for 10 or more people to assemble after being warned to disperse.  It exempted officials from prosecution for the murder or injury of any rioters.  Any accused rioters who did not submit to arrest within 60 days were declared outlaws, who could be shot on site.  It also permitted the government to seize and sell any of their property.  Although the law would expire after one year, they made it retroactive to prosecute rioters from earlier events.  Finally, the law authorized the Governor to raise a militia at public expense to execute the new policies.

In March 1771, Gov. Tryon assembled a 1000 man militia and marched them into the heart of the Regulator country.  The two sides played a game of cat and mouse for several months.

Finally, in May, the two sides formed for a showdown.  The judges in Hillsborough informed the Governor that they could not hold a court session due to the Regulators.  Gov. Tryon assembled a militia of over 1000 officers and men to move on Hillsborough and protect the court.  Another militia force of about 300 under Gen. Hugh Waddell advanced on Hillsborough from another direction.  The Regulators blocked Wadell’s advance, and captured part of his supply train, including ammunition.

Tryon moved his larger force to join with Wadell and confront the Regulators.  The two groups met near Alamance Creek on May 16, 1771.  By most estimates, the Regulators had about 2000 men under arms, well outnumbering the militia.  But Gov. Tryon was a professional officer by training, and also had several artillery pieces with him.  By contrast, the Regulators did not have any officers in overall command.  They were far too disorganized to make effective use of their numbers.

By some accounts, the militia were reluctant to fire on the Regulators who were in many cases their friends and neighbors.  Tryon, however, ordered them to fire, at one point allegedly saying “fire on them or on me!”  The militia engaged the regulators in a heated battle lasting several hours.  Some stories say that many regulators fought until they ran out of ammunition, then simply got up and went home.

The Regulator lines broke and the militia spent much of the battle chasing down Regulators through the woods.  In the end, Gov. Tryon and his militia controlled the field and completely dispersed the Regulators.

Battle of Alamance (from Wikimedia) (artist's conception circa 1910)

The militia reported nine dead and 61 wounded.  The number of Regulators killed and wounded is not reported in any official records.  Some reports indicate they also lost a similar number of killed and wounded.  Others report the Regulators took as many as 300 killed and wounded. The militia captured only 15 prisoners, one of whom they hanged that evening.

The following day, Governor offered amnesty for most of the Regulators, as long as they agreed to end their resistance and swear loyalty to the colony.  Eventually, more than 6000 people took advantage of this, taking an oath of allegiance and receiving pardon.

Tryon did not give amnesty to the leaders of the revolt though.  He tried twelve leaders under the Riot Act, and hanged six of them.  Many Regulators took their families and left the colony shortly thereafter.

Among those leaving the colony was Harmon Husband, who had led the political opposition to the governor and was with the regulators shortly before the battle of Alamance.  As a Quaker, he did not participate in the fighting.  Even so, as a leader of the resistance, he decided his time in North Carolina was over.  Husband fled to Maryland and eventually settled in what became western Pennsylvania, around Pittsburgh.  He wrote an account of the Regulator movement, which unfortunately, I cannot find in an available electronic format.  As a pacifist, Husband sat out the Revolution, but would have one more act near the end of his life as a leader in the Whiskey Rebellion in the 1790s.

London generally credited Tryon with his firm and successful termination of back country resistance.  Later that year, Hillsborough promoted him to Governor of New York and he headed north, taking Fanning along with him as his personal secretary.  His successor, Governor Martin, tried a radical new approach and actually investigated the complaints of corruption in the western counties.  He instituted some reforms, and even prosecuted a few corrupt local officials.

Some historians say the Battle of Alamance Creek should be considered the first battle of the Revolutionary War.  I am not convinced that is a fair characterization.  The Regulator war did not involve the British Army.  The regulators continued to profess loyalty to the King and British rule.  Their dispute was more about local internal colonial corruption, not British taxes or trade.  Still, the Regulator movement stands as evidence that Americans throughout the continent would stand up and fight for their rights, with guns if necessary.

Next Week: Rhode Island colonists attack and sink a Navy Ship, the HMS Gaspee.

Next Episode 36: Sinking the HMS Gaspee

Previous Episode 34: Massacre Fallout & Townshend Acts Repealed

Visit the American Revolution Podcast (https://amrev.podbean.com) for free downloads of all podcast episodes.

Further Reading:

Web Sites

South Carolina 1769 districts:  http://www.carolana.com/SC/Royal_Colony/sc_royal_colony_new_districts_1769.html

Klein, Rachel “Ordering the Back Country: the South Carolina Regulation” The William and Mary Quarterly, Oct., 1981, pp. 661-680 (available to read free online with registration): https://www.jstor.org/stable/1918909

North Carolina War of Regulation: http://www.carolana.com/NC/Royal_Colony/nc_royal_colony_war_of_regulation.html

Sadlier, Sarah "Prelude to the American Revolution? The War of Regulation: A Revolutionary Reaction for Reform" from The History Teacher, Nov. 2012: http://www.societyforhistoryeducation.org/pdfs/N12_NHD_Sadlier_Senior.pdf

Kickler, Troy Hillsborough Riot (1770): http://northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/hillsborough-riot-1770

Carney, Richard Herman Husband (1724-1795): http://northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/herman-husband-1724-1795

Engstrom, Mary Clair Edmund Fanning, 1986: https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/fanning-edmund

A 1769 call to join the Regulator movement: http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=3878

VIDEO: C-SPAN visits the Alamance Battlefield: https://www.c-span.org/video/?63846-1

Free eBooks
(from archive.org unless noted)

Basset, John “The Regulators of North Carolina (1765-1771)” from Annual Report of the American Historical Association, 1894, pp. 141-212.

Haywood, Marshall De Lancey Governor William Tryon, and his administration in the province of North Carolina, 1765-1771, Raleigh: E.M. Uzzell, 1903

Fitch, William Some neglected history of North Carolina; being an account of the revolution of the regulators and of the battle of Alamance, the first battle of the American Revolution, New York, Neal Publishing, 1905.

Otis, James With the regulators. A story of North Carolina in 1768, New York: A.L. Burt Co. 1901 (story based on the NC Regulator events).

McCorkle, Lutie Andrews Was Alamance the first battle of the Revolution? Raleigh: E.M. Uzzell & Co., 1903.

Stockard, Sallie Walker The history of Alamance, Raleigh: Capital Printing, 1900.

Books Worth Buying
(links to Amazon.com unless otherwise noted)*

Brown, Richard M. The South Carolina Regulators, Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1963.

Kars, Marjoleine Breaking Loose Together: The Regulator Rebellion in Pre-Revolutionary North Carolina, Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 2002.

Klein, Rachel N. Unification of a Slave State: The Rise of the Planter Class in the South Carolina Backcountry, 1760-1808,  Chapel Hill: Univ of North Carolina Press, 1990.

Knollenberg, Bernhard Growth of the American Revolution 1766-1775,  Indianapolis: Liberty Fund 1975.

Nash, Gary The Unknown American Revolution, New York: Viking, 2005.

Smith, Page A New Age Now Begins, Vol. 1, New York: McGraw-Hill 1976.

Troxler, Carole W. Farming Dissenters: The Regulator Movement in Piedmont North Carolina, North Carolina Office of Archives and History, 2011.

* (Book links to Amazon.com are for convenience.  They are not an endorsement of Amazon, nor does this site receive any compensation for any links).