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The 71st and 23d British regiments, supported by Tarleton's cavalry, commenced a pursuit; but Cornwallis, unwilling to risk such a movement, soon recalled them. * Thus ended the battle at Guilford Court House; a battle, in its effects highly beneficial to the cause of the patriots, though resulting in a nominal victory for the British army. Both of the belligerents displayed consummate courage and skill, and the flight of the North Carolinians from a very strong position is the only reproach which either army deserved. It doubtless caused the loss of victory to the Americans. Marshall justly observes, that "no battle in the course of the war reflects more honor on the courage of the British troops than that of Guilford." Greene had a much superior force, and was very advantageously posted. The number of the Americans engaged in the action was quite double that of the British. The battle lasted almost two hours, and many brave men fell upon that field of carnage. *** The British claimed the victory; it was victory at fearful cost and small
* Ramsay, Gordon, Marshall, Lee, &c.
** This view is from the eminence southwest of the site of old Guilford Court House, near the junction of the roads running one north to Bruce's Cross-roads, the other west to Salem. The log-house, partially clap-boarded, seen on the right, was uninhabited. It stands near the woods which intervene between Martinsville and the plantation of Mr. Hotchkiss. In the distance, near the center, is seen Martinsville, and between it and the foreground is the rolling vale, its undulations furrowed by many gulleys. In an open field, on the left of the road, seen in the hollow toward the left of the picture, was the fiercest part of the battle, where Washington charged upon the guards. Upon the ridge extending to the right, through the center of the picture, the seeond line (Virginians) was posted. The fence running to the right from Martinsville, down into the valley on the right, denotes the Salisbury road. The snow was falling very fast when I made this sketch, and distant objects were seen with great difficulty. Our point of view, at the old log-house, is the extreme westerly boundary of the field of controversy.
*** The British lost in killed and wounded over six hundred men, besides officers. Colonel Stuart, of the guards, and Lieutenant O'Hara (the general's brother), of the royal artillery, were killed. Lieutenant-colonel Webster was severely wounded; so also were Captains Schultz and Maynard, of the guards, and Captain Wilmouski and Ensign De Trott, of the Hessian regiment. They all died of the wounds received in the battle, during the march of the army to Wilmington. The whole army deeply lamented the loss of Webster, for he was one of the most efficient officers in the British serviee. He was the son of an eminent physician in Edinburgh, and came to America with Cornwallis. During the operations in New Jersey, in 1777, he was very active. In 1779, he had charge of Fort La Fayette at Verplanck's Point, and sustained the attack of General Robert Howe upon that post. He commanded the right wing in the battle at Camden; and, as we have seen, bore a conspicuous part in the pursuit of Greene previous to the battle in whieh he received his death wound. Webster was buried near Elizabeth, on the Cape Fear River, now Bladen county. Captains Goodrych, Maitland, Peter, Lord Douglas, and Eichenbrocht, who were wounded, recovered. Among the wounded was Adjutant Fox, a brother of the eminent statesman, Charles J. Fox.
*** The Americans lost in killed and wounded about three hundred of the Continentals, and one hundred of the Virginia militia. Among the killed was Major Anderson, of the Maryland line; and among the wounded were Generals Stevens and Huger. Of the North Carolina militia, six were killed and three wounded, and five hundred and fifty-two missing. Of the Virginia militia, two hundred and ninety-four were missing. The missing, "as is always the case with militia after a battle," according to Lee, might be found "safe at their own firesides." By these desertions, Greene's army suffered a greater diminution than that of the British, whose loss in action was so much greater. They did not, however, desert "by thousands," as the editor of the Pictorial History of England avers.
*** Events such as are generally overlooked by the historian, but which exhibit a prominent trait in the character of the people of North Carolina, occurred during this battle, and deserve great prominence in a description of the gloomy picture, for they form a few touches of radiant light in the midst of the somber coloring. While the roar of cannon boomed over the country, groups of women, in the Buffalo and Allamanee congregations, who were under the pastoral charge of Dr. Caldwell, might have been seen engaged in common prayer to the God of Hosts for his protection and aid; and in many places, the solitary voice of a pious woman went up to the Divine Ear, with the earnest pleadings of faith, for the success of the Americans. The battling hosts were surrounded by a cordon of praying women during those dreadful hours of contest!
Effect of The Battle.—Withdrawal of Cornwallis.—Pursued by Greene.—American Women at Prayer.
advantage. * In some degree, the line of the Scotch ballad might be applied to the combatants,
"They baith did fight, they baith did beat, and baith did rin awa'."
The Americans retreated in good order to the Reedy Fork, and crossed that stream about three miles from the field of action. Tarrying a short time to collect the stragglers, they retired to Speedwell's iron-works, on Troublesome Creek, ten miles distant from Guilford Cornwallis remained upon the battle-ground that night, burying the dead. The next morning he proceeded as far as New Garden meeting-house. On the eighteenth,March 1781he issued a proclamation boasting of his complete victory, calling upon the Loyalists to join him in restoring good government, and offering pardon to the rebels. Had he remained, this proclamation might have given confidence to the Tories, but the very next dayMarch 19he decamped, leaving behind him between seventy and eighty wounded British officers and soldiers in the New Garden meeting-house, which he used for a hospital. He also left behind him all the American prisoners who were wounded, and retreated as speedily as possible southward, toward Cross Creek (Fayetteville), evidently afraid that Greene would rally his forces and attack him. Greene, supposing the earl would advance, had made preparations to confront him; as soon as he was informed of his retreat, he eagerly commenced a pursuit,March 20after writing a letter to the Quakers at New Garden, desiring them to take care of the sick and wounded of both parties. Notwithstanding heavy rains and wretched roads, Greene pressed after his lordship with great alacrity, as far as Ramsay's Mills, on the Deep River, in Chatham county. On the way, frequent skirmishes occurred between the light troops of the two armies, and Greene arrived at the earl's encampment, on the Deep River, only a few hours after Cornwallis had left it.
* This victory of Cornwallis was considered by many British statesmen equivalent to a defeat. In the Parliament, the intelligence of the battle produced a great sensation. Ministers were dissatisfied, and the opposition had a theme for just denunciation against the policy of government. Fox moved in committee, "That his Majesty's ministers ought immediately to take every possible measure for concluding peace "with our American colonies and in the course of an animated debate, he declared, "Another sueh victory will ruin the British army." William Pitt, the successor of his father, the Earl of Chatham, inveighed eloquently against a further prosecution of the war. He averred that it was "wicked, barbarous, unjust, and diabolical—conceived in injustice, nurtured in folly—a monstrous thing that contained every characteristic of moral depravity and human turpitude—as mischievous to the unhappy people of England as to the Americans." Fox's motion was rejected by one hundred and seventy-two against ninety-nine.
Cornwallis's March to Wilmington.—Pursued by Green.—Greene's Approach to Camden.—New Garden Meeting-house.
Before leaving Winnsborough, Cornwallis sent an order to Lieutenant-colonel Balfour, who commanded at Charleston, to dispatch a competent force by water to Wilmington, to hold that post as a depot for supplies for the royal army in North Carolina. Balfour detached Major Craig upon that service, who drove the American militia from Wilmington, and took possession of it on the same day when General Davidson was killed at Cowan's Ford.
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After the battle at Guilford Court House, Cornwallis, observing the backwardness of the Loyalists in that vicinity, and the scarcity of provisions, determined to fall back to Cross Creek, where, he knew, had been a population of loyal Scotchmen, and there make his head-quarters, not doubting that his army could be easily supplied with stores, by water, from Major Craig at Wilmington. In these expectations the earl was bitterly disappointed. The Loyalists were comparatively few, a large portion having been changed to either active or passive Whigs; provisions were very scarce, and no communication could be had with Major Craig. Greene was in eager pursuit, and the earl had no alternative but to continue his march to Wilmington. This he performed along the southwestern side of the Cape Fear, and arrived at Wilmington on the seventh of April.1781He had got so much the start of Greene, that the latter relinquished pursuit at Ramsay's Mills,March 28where he resolved to allow his troops to repose and recruit, as far as circumstances would allow. Greene dismissed all of the militia except a few North Carolinians, yet he could not afford his army such comforts as he desired. *
At the suggestion of Lieutenant-colonel Lee, Greene resolved to march back into South Carolina and take post at Camden with the main army, while the light troops should join Marion on the Pedee, and beat up all the British posts between Camden and Ninety-Six, and Charleston. Pursuant to this plan, he left Ramsay's and marched toward Camden, to confront Lord Rawdon, then in command there. Cornwallis, as we have already noticed in chapter xxi., soon afterward marched into Virginia, while Greene and his brave partisan allies of the South regained all that had been lost in previous conflicts.
Let us here leave the two commanders and their armies for a time, and resume our journey toward King's Mountain and the Cowpens. We shall meet them both frequently, in our future journeys in the Carolinas and Georgia.
I left the Guilford battle-ground and the hospitable cottage of Mr. Hotchkiss, at noon, the snow falling fast. At four miles distant, on the Salisbury road, I reached the venerable New Garden meeting-house, yet standing within the stately oak forest where Lee and Tarleton met. It is a frame building with a brick foundation. It was meeting-day, and the congregation were yet in session. Tying Charley to a drooping branch, I entered softly. A larger number than is usually present at "week-day meetings" had congregated, for a young man of the sect from Randolph county, thirty miles distant, and a young woman of Guilford, had signified their intentions to declare themselves publicly, on that day, man and wife. They had just risen before the elders and people when I glided into a seat near the door, and with a trembling voice the bridegroom had begun the expression of the marriage vow. His weather-bronzed features betokened the man of toil in the fields, and strongly contrasted with the blonde and delicate face, and slender form of her who, with the downcast eyes of modesty, heard his pledge of love and protection, and was summoning
* "No magazines were opened for our accommodation." says Lee in his Memoirs; "rest to our wearied limbs was the only boon within his gift. Our tattered garments could not be exchanged; nor could our worn out shoes be replaced. The exhilarating cordial was not within his reach, nor wholesome provision in abundance within his grasp. The meager beef of the pine barrens, with corn ash-cakes, was our food, and water our drink; yet we were content; we were more than content—we were happy."—Page 189.
Quaker Marriage.—A Centenarian Preacher.—His Blessing.—Jamestown.—Ridge Roads.
all her energy to make her kindred response. I had often observed the simple marriage ceremony of the Quakers, but never before did the beauty of that ritual appear so marked with the sublimity of pure simplicity. *
At the close of the meeting, I learned from one of the elders that a Friend's boarding-school was near, and, led by curiosity, I visited it. The building is of brick, spacious, and well arranged. It was under the superintendence of Thomas Hunt, a son of Nathan Hunt, an eminent Quaker preacher. An incidental remark concerning my relationship with Quakers, made while conversing with the wife of the superintendent, caused her to inquire whether I had ever heard of her father-in-law. I replied in the affirmative, having heard him preach when I was a boy, and expressed the supposition that he had long ago gone to his rest. "Oh no," she replied, "he is in the adjoining room," and leading the way, I was introduced to the patriarch of ninety-one years, whose voice, still vigorous, I had listened to when I was a lad of twelve years. He remembered well when the New Garden meeting-house was built, and resided in the neighborhood when the wounded and dying, from the field of Guilford, were brought there. Although physical infirmities were weighing heavily upon him, his mind appeared clear and elastic. When I was about departing, and pressed his hand with an adieu, he placed the other upon my head and said, "Farewell! God's peace go with thee!" I felt as if I had received the blessing of a patriarch indeed; and for days afterward, when fording dangerous streams and traversing rough mountain roads, that uttered blessing was in my mind, and seemed like a guardian angel about my path. Gloomy unbelief may deride, and thoughtless levity may laugh in ridicule at such an intimation, but all the philosophy of the schools could not give me such exquisite feelings of security in the hands of a kind Providence as that old man's blessing imparted.
The storm yet continued, and the kind matron of the school gave me a cordial invitation to remain there until it should cease; but, anxious to complete my journey, I rode on to Jamestown, an old village situated upon the high southwestern bank of the Deep River, nine miles from New Garden meeting-house, and thirteen miles above Bell's Mills, where Cornwallis had his encampment before the Guilford battle. The country through which I had passed from Guilford was very broken, and I did not reach Jamestown until sunset. It is chiefly inhabited by Quakers, the most of them originally from Nantucket and vicinity; and as they do not own slaves, nor employ slave labor, except when a servant is working to purchase his freedom, the land and the dwellings presented an aspect of thrift not visible in most of the agricultural districts in the upper country of the Carolinas.
I passed the night at Jamestown, and early in the morning departed for the Yadkin. Snow was yet falling gently, and it laid three inches deep upon the ground; a greater quantity than had fallen at one time, in that section, for five years. Fortunately, my route from thence to Lexington, in Davidson county, a distance of twenty miles, was upon a fine ridge road ** a greater portion of the way, and the snow produced but little inconvenience. Toward noon, the clouds broke, and before I reached Lexington (a small village on the west
* The marriage ceremony of the Quakers is very simple. The parties give notice at a monthly meeting of the society that on a certain day they intend to enter into the holy estate of matrimony. On the day appointed, they, with their friends, repair to the meeting-house, where they arise before the whole congregation and say, the bridegroom first, "I, A B, do take thee, C D, to be my wedded wife, and promise, through Divine assistance, to be unto thee a loving husband, until separated by death." The bride then repeats the same, only changing the person. A certificate of the marriage is then read by a person appointed for the purpose, and is signed by as many present as may choose to do so. These simple proceedings compose the whole marriage ceremony, which is as binding in the sight of God and man as the most elaborate formalities of priest or magistrate. The groomsman and bridesmaid are called waiters among the Quakers of New Garden.
** These ridge roads, or rather ridges upon which they are constructed, are curious features in the upper country of the Carolinas. Although the whole country is hilly upon every side, these roads may be traveled a score of miles, sometimes, with hardly ten feet of variation from a continuous level. The ridges are of sand, and continue, unbroken by the ravines which cleave the hills in all directions for miles, upon almost a uniform level. The roads following their summits are exceedingly sinuous, but being level and hard, the greater distance is more easily accomplished than if they were constructed in straight lines over the hills. The country has the appearance of vast waves of the sea suddenly turned into sand.
Journey to the Yadkin.—Salisbury.—A Night with a Cotton-planter near Concord
side of Abbott's Creek, a tributary of the Yadkin), at half past two in the afternoon, not a flake of snow remained. Charley and I had already lunched by the margin of a little stream, so I drove through the village without halting, hoping to reach Salisbury, sixteen miles distant, by twilight. I was disappointed; for the red clay roads prevailed, and I only reached the house of a small planter, within a mile of the east bank of the Yadkin, just as the twilight gave place to the splendors of a full moon and myriads of stars in a cloudless sky. From the proprietor I learned that the Trading Ford, where Greene and Morgan crossed when pursued by Cornwallis, was only a mile distant. As I could not pass it on my way to Salisbury in the morning, I arose at four o'clock, gave Charley his breakfast, and at earliest dawn stood upon the eastern shore of the Yadkin, and made the sketch printed upon page 601. The air was frosty, the pools were bridged with ice, and before the sketch was finished, my benumbed fingers were disposed to drop the pencil. I remained at the ford until the east was all aglow with the radiance of the rising sun, when I walked back, partook of some corn-bread, muddy coffee, and spare-ribs, and at eight o'clock crossed the Yadkin at the great bridge, on the Salisbury road. * The river is there about three hundred yards wide, and was considerably swollen from the melting of the recent snows. Its volume of turbid waters came rolling down in a swift current, and gave me a full appreciation of the barrier which Providence had there placed between the republicans and the royal armies, when engaged in the great race described in this chapter.
From the Yadkin the roads passed through a red clay region, which was made so miry by the melting snows that it was almost eleven o'clock when I arrived at Salisbury. This village, of over a thousand inhabitants, is situated a few miles from the Yadkin, and is the capital of Rowan county, a portion of the "Hornet's Nest" of the Revolution. It is a place of considerable historic note. On account of its geographical position, it was often the place of rendezvous of the militia preparing for the battle-fields; of various regular corps, American and British, during the last three years of the war; and especially as the brief resting-place of both armies during Greene's memorable retreat. Here, too, it will be remembered, General Waddell had his head-quarters for a few days, during the "Regulator war." I made diligent inquiry, during my tarry in Salisbury, for remains of Revolutionary movements and localities, but could hear of none. ** The Americans, when fleeing before Cornwallis, encamped for a night about half a mile from the village, on the road to the Yadkin; the British occupied a position on the northern border of the town, about an eighth of a mile from the court-house. I was informed that two buildings, occupied by officers, had remained until two or three years ago, when they were demolished. Finding nothing to invite a protracted stay at Salisbury, I resumed the reins, and rode on toward Concord. The roads were very bad, and the sun went down, while a rough way, eight miles in extent, lay between me and Concord. Night approached, brilliant and frosty; the deep mud of the road soon became half frozen, and almost impassable, and I was beginning to speculate upon the chances of obtaining comfortable lodgings short of the village, when a large sign-board by the way-side indicated a place of entertainment, and relieved my anxiety. Such an apparition is so rare in the upper country of the Carolinas, where the traveler must depend upon the hospitality of the planters, that it is noteworthy. Passing through a lane, I came to the spacious mansion of Mr. Martin Phifer, one of the largest planters in Cabarras county. It is in the midst of one of the finest districts of North Carolina for the production of upland cotton. Practical observations upon that great staple of the South was the chief topic of our evening's conversation, which was protracted to the "small hours of the morning;"
* The Yadkin rises in North Carolina, on the east of the Alleghany range, and flows east and southeast into South Carolina. A few miles below the Narrows, in Montgomery county, it receives the Rocky River, and from thence to its mouth at Winyaw Bay, near Georgetown, it bears the name of the Great Pedee.
** An ancient stone wall exists at Salisbury, but tradition has no knowledge of its origin. It is laid in cement, and plastered on both sides. It is from twelve to fourteen feet high, and twenty-two inches thick. The top of the wall is a foot below the surface of the earth at present. It has been traced for three hundred feet. Six miles from Salisbury there is a similar wall, and may connect wilh the other. Conjecture alone can read its history. May it not be a part of the circumvallation of a city of the mound builders?
A Patriot's Grave at the Red Hills.—Picturesque Scenery.—Arrival at Charlotte.—Ancient Chureh and Congregation.
and I left his hospitable abode a wiser man than when I entered it. Mr. Phifer is a grandnephew of John Phifer, one of the leading patriots of Mecklenburg, whose remains lie buried at the Red Hills, three miles west of Concord. A rough, mutilated slab covers the grave of the patriot. Tradition avers that when the British army was on its march from Charlotte to Salisbury, a fire was built upon the stone by the soldiers, in contempt for the patriot's memory.
Departing from the post-road, a little distance from Mr. Phifer's, I traversed a nearer, though a rougher route to Charlotte than through Concord, passing that village about three miles to the westward, close by the Red Hills. The scenery through this whole region is extremely picturesque. Wooded hills, deep ravines, broad cultivated slopes and uplands, and numerous water-courses, present diversified and pleasing pictures at every turn of the sinuous road. In summer, when the forests and fields are clad, the roads hard, and the deep shades of the ravines and water-courses desirable, I can not imagine a move agreeable tour for a traveler of leisure than that portion of my journey from the Roanoke to the Cowpens, across the Broad River, back to the eastern side of the Catawba, and so down to the verge of the low country, near Camden. In the vicinity of Concord are the head-waters of several tributaries of the Yadkin and Catawba, and between that village and Charlotte I crossed the Coddle, Stony, and Mallard Creeks, and one of the main branches of Rocky River. The latter, which is a considerable tributary of the Yadkin, is here a small stream, but very turbulent, and broken into numerous cascades. I reached Charlotte at half past three o'clock, having traveled only twenty-one miles since morning. * It was SaturdayJan 6, 1840and I eagerly coveted the Sabbath's rest, after a week of excessive toil. Charley, too, was jaded, and needed repose; for a large portion of the circuitous journey from Hillsborough hither had been through a region abounding in red clay, saturated with rains and melting snows.
Charlotte has historical notoriety, chiefly on account of its being the place where a convention of patriots assembled in 1775, and by a series of resolutions virtually declared themselves and those they represented free and independent of the British crown. To this event I particularly directed my inquiries, but was singularly unsuccessful. Two gentlemen, to whom I had letters of introduction from President Polk, were absent. I called upon another, whom he named, but could not obtain information of much value. Being an entire stranger, I knew not unto whom to apply, and I left Charlotte on Monday, with feelings of disappointment not to be expressed. Since my visit, I have received varied and important information from James W. Osborne, Esq., superintendent of the Branch Mint, and others in that vicinity, which compensates me, in a measure, for my failure..
By the merest accident, I ascertained that the mill upon Sugar Creek, two or three miles
* Charlotte is the capital of Mecklenburg county, and contains about fourteen hundred inhabitants. It is pleasantly situated upon a rolling plain, on the east side of the Sugar or Sugaw Creek, a small tributary of the Catawba. It is in the midst of the gold region of North Carolina, and here a branch of the United States Mint is established. Eastward of Charlotte are several productive gold mines, which are now but little worked, partly on account of the more inviting field for miners in California. The first settlers in Mecklenburg county were principally the descendants of the Puritans, Scotch-Irish, and Roundheads; and, near Charlotte, the "Sugar Creek Congregation," the first on the Catawba, was established. I passed the brick meeting-house" about three miles from the village, where worshiped the tarent of the seven congregations from which came delegates to meet in political convention in 1775 * This meeting-house is the third erected by the Sugar Creek Congregation. The first stood about half a mile west from this, and the second a few feet south of the present edifice. In the second, the mother of Andrew Jackson, late president of the United States, worshiped for a-while, when she took refuge in the Sugar Creek Congregation after the massacre of Burford's regiment, near her residence on the Waxhaw, in May, 1780. Near the site of the first church is the ancient burying-ground. Therein is the grave of Alexander Craighead, the first minister of the congregation. His only monument are two sassafras-trees, one at the head, the other at the foot of his grave, which are the living poles used as a bier for his coffin, and stuck in the ground to mark, temporarily, his resting-place. **
* These were Sugar Creek, Steel Creek, Providence, Hopewell, Center, Rocky River, and Poplar Tent.—Foote, p. 190.
** Ibid., p.192
Colonel Polk's Mill. The People of Mecklenburg.—Scheme for a Republican Assembly.—A Convention called
south of Charlotte, and known as Bissell's, was formerly the property of Colonel Thomas Polk, one of the active patriots in that section. Early on Monday morning, I rode down to the mill. Informed that it had been materially altered since the Revolution, I did not stop to sketch the locality. It is an interesting spot, for there a portion of Cornwallis's army was encamped, and the mill was used during the cantonment there, to supply his troops with flour.
Let us glance at the historical events which render Charlotte famous in our annals. While public sentiment in North Carolina and its sister colonies was making rapid strides toward a bold resistance to augmenting oppressions, the people of Mecklenburg and vicinity, between the Yadkin and the Catawba, were neither indifferent nor inactive, notwithstanding their distance from the sea-board. There was no printing-press in the upper country; and as no regular post traversed that region, a newspaper was seldom seen there among the people. They were in the habit of assembling at stated places to hear printed hand-bills from abroad read, or to obtain verbal information of passing events. Charlotte was a central point for these assemblages, and there the leading men in that section often met at Queen's Museum or College, the Faneuil Hall of North Carolina, to discuss the exciting topics of the day. These meetings were at first irregular, and without system. It was finally agreed that Thomas Polk, a large property-holder in the vicinity of Charlotte, colonel of the militia of Mecklenburg, a man of great excellence of character, extensive knowledge of the people around him, and deservedly popular, should be authorized to call a convention of the representatives of the people whenever circumstances should appear to require it. * It was also agreed that such representatives should consist of two from each captain's company, to be chosen by the people of the several militia districts, and that their decisions, when thus legally convened, should be binding upon the people of Mecklenburg. This step was in accordance with the recommendation of the eleventh article of theAmerican Association, adopted by the first Continental Congress (see page 268), and now generally acted upon throughout the colonies.
When Governor Martin made an attempt to prevent the assembling of a Provincial Congress at Newbern,April 1777the people were much exasperated, for they remembered his arbitrary proceedings in dissolving the last Provincial Legislature, after a session of four days, and before any important business had been transacted. The excitement throughout the province was intense. While the public mind was thus inflamed, Colonel Polk issued a notice to the elected committee-men of the county, to assemble in the courthouse ** at Charlotte toward the close of May. On what precise day they first met, can not now be positively determined. They appointed Abraham Alexander, *** an esteemed citizen,
* Colonel Polk was great uncle to the late President Polk. His brother, Ezekiel Polk, whose name appears quite conspicuous in the annals of Mecklenburg county, was the president's grandfather. "The house in which President Polk is supposed to have been born," says Honorable David L. Swain, in a letter to me of recent date, "is about two hundred yards south of Sugar Creek, and eleven miles south of Charlotte, on the lands of Nathan Orr. The house shown to me is of logs, was never weather-boarded, and is covered with a decaying shingle roof. It is formed by joining two houses together."
*** The court-house was a frame building, about fifty feet square, placed upon brick pillars, ten or twelve feet in height, with a stair-way on the outside. It stood in the center of the town, at the intersection of the two principal streets, now the village green. The lower part was a market-house; the upper part was used for public purposes. Stedman says it was a "large brick building," and Lee says it was of stone. Tradition of undoubted character pronounces it such as I have described. The village at that time contained about twenty houses.
*** Abraham Alexander was a leading magistrate in Meeklenburg county, and represented it in the Colonial Legislature. At the time of the convention, of which he was appointed chairman, he was almost threescore years of age. He died on the twenty-third of April, 1786, at the age of sixty-eight years. He was buried in the old church-yard, near Charlotte, where a plain slab, with an inscription, marks his grave. Elijah Alexander, a relative of the chairman, and who was present when the Mecklenburg Resolutions were read to the people at Charlotte, died at the residence of his son-in-law, James Osborne, Esq., in Cornersville, Tennessee, on the eleventh of November, 1850, at the age of ninety years. He voted for every president of the United States, from Washington to Taylor. His widow, to whom he was married in 1784, was yet living in 1851.
Officers of the Convention.—Speakers on the Occasion.—Preamble and Resolutions
who had served them in the Colonial Legislature, chairman, and Dr. Ephraim Brevard, * a scholar and unwavering patriot, clerk or secretary. According to tradition, intelligence of the affairs at Lexington and Concord, in Massachusetts, was received during the session of the delegates, and added greatly to the excitement among the people, who had assembled in great numbers around the court-house, eager to know the resolves of their representatives within. The principal speakers on the occasion were Dr. Brevard, Reverend Hezekiah J. Balch, William Kennon (a lawyer of Salisbury), and Colonel Polk. The first three gentlemen were appointed a committee to prepare suitable resolutions, and on the thirty-first of May, 1775, the following preamble and resolves were unanimously adopted: ** "Whereas, By an address presented to his majesty by both Houses of Parliament in February last, the American colonies are declared to be in a state of actual rebellion, we conceive that all laws and commissions confirmed by or derived from the authority of the king and Parliament are annulled and vacated, and the former civil Constitution of these colonies for the present wholly suspended. To provide in some degree for the exigencies of this county in the present alarming period, we deem it proper and necessary to pass the following resolves, viz.:
I. That all commissions, civil and military, heretofore granted by the crown to be exer-
* Ephraim Brevard was one of the "seven sons" of his widowed mother who where "in the rebel army."* He graduated at Princeton, and, after pursuing medical studies a proper time, settled as a physieian in Charlotte. His talents commanded universal respect, and he was a leader in the movements in Meeklenburg toward independence, in 1775. When the British army invaded the Southern States, Dr. Brevard entered the Continental army as a surgeon, and was taken prisoner at Charleston, in May, 1780. Broken by disease, when set at liberty, Dr. Brevard returned to Charlotte, sought the repose of privacy in the family of his friend, John M'Knitt Alexander, who had succeeded him as clerk of the Mecklenburg Committee, and there soon expired. His remains were buffed in Hopewell grave-yard. No stone marks his resting-place, and "no man living," says Mr. Foote, "can lead the inquirer to the spot." He was a remarkable man, and, as the undoubted author of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence and Constitution of Government, deserves the reverence of all patriots. His pen was often employed in the cause of freedom, and he was probably the most accomplished writer, of his day, in Western Carolina.
* Minute biographical sketches of these leading patriots of Meeklenburg, if they could be obtained, would make an exceedingly useful and entertaining volume. Of the general character of the people in that vicinity at the period of the Revolution, J. G. M. Ramsey, M.D., the historian of Tennessee, who has studied the character of the Mecklenburg patriots with great care, writes thus appreciatingly to me, under date of January 19, 1852: "In regard to the people, then residing between the Yadkin and the Catawba, it is almost impossible to conceive, at this day, the incalculable benefits the country received from their immigration and settlement in it; nor the happy influences, secular, civil, religious, and literary, they uniformly diffused in their respective neighborhoods. To these are we indebted, in a great measure, for the enterprise, industry, thrift, skill, frugality, love of order, sobriety, regard for wholesome laws, family and social government, establishment of schools, churches, and a high standard of education and training for youth, attachment to well-regulated liberty, and the representative principle in government."
** The following are the names of the leading patriots in Mecklenburg, and reported to have been members of the Mecklenburg Committee, who met in the Convention at Charlotte: Abraham Alexander, Ephraim Brevard, John M'Knitt Alexander, Adam Alexander, Hezekiah Alexander, Ezra Alexander, Charles Alexander, Waightstill wery, Hezekiah J. Balch, Thomas Polk, John Flenekin, James Harris, Neil Morrisson, David Reese, Robert Harris, senior, Richard Barry, Duncan Ochiltree, John Ford, William Kennon, Samuel Martin, Zacheus Wilson, senior,t Benjamin Patton, Robert Irwin, John Davidson, John Pfifer, Henry Downes, William Graham, Matthew M'Clure, John Queary, William Wilson.
* When Cornwallis was in pursuit of Greene, he passed near the plantation of the Widow Brevard, and ordered it to be desolated. When asked why he was so cruel toward a poor widow, he replied, "She has seven sons in the rebel army!" What higher compliment could that noble mother have received.
** The Wilsons were all stanch Scotch-Irish, and sturdy Republicans. The wife of Robert Wilson, a brother of Zaclieus like the Widow Brevard, had "seven sons in the rebel army," and also her husband. When Cornwallis retired from Charlotte, he halted upon Wilson's plantation, and himself and staff quartered at the house of the patriot. Mrs. Wilson was very courteous, and Cornwallis endeavored to win her to the royal cause by flattering words. Her reply deserves to be inscribed upon brass and marble: "I have seven sons who are now, or have been bearing arms; indeed, my seventh son, Zacheus, who is only fifteen years old, I yesterday assisted to get ready to go and join his brothers in Sumter's army. Now, sooner than see one of my family turn back from the glorious enterprise, 1 would take these boys (pointing to three or four small sons), and with them would myself enlist under Sumter's standard and show my husband and sons how to fight, and, if necessary, to die for their country!" "Ah, general," said the cruel Tarleton, "I think you've got into a hornet's nest! Never mind; when we get to Camden, I'll take good care that old Robin Wilson never gets back again!"—See Mrs. Ellet Women of the Revolution, iii. 317.
Autographs of the Mecklenburg Committee.
cised in these colonies are null and void, and the Constitution of each particular colony wholly suspended.
0629m
II. That the Provincial Congress of each province, under the direction of the great Continental Congress, is invested with all legislative and executive powers within their respective provinces, and that no other legislative or executive power does or can exist at this time in any of these colonies.
III. As all former laws are now suspended in this province, and the Congress has not
* I am indebted to the kindness of the Honorable David L. Swain, of Chapel Hall, John H. Wheeler, Esq., author of Historical Sketches of North Carolina, and James W. Osborne, Esq., superintendent of the Branch Mint at Charlotte, for the originals from which these fac similes are made.
Resolutions adopted by the Mecklenburg Convention.
yet provided others, we judge it necessary for the better preservation of good order, to form certain rules and regulations for the internal government of this county, until laws shall be provided for us by the Congress.
IV. That the inhabitants of this county do meet on a certain day appointed by the committee, and, having formed themselves into nine companies (to wit: eight for the county, and one for the town), do choose a colonel and other military officers, who shall hold and exercise their several powers by virtue of the choice, and independent of the crown of Great Britain, and former Constitution of this province.
V. That for the better preservation of the peace and administration of justice, each of those companies do choose from their own body two discreet freeholders, who shall be empowered each by himself, and singly, to decide and determine all matters of controversy arising within said company, under the sum of twenty shillings, and jointly and together all controversies under the sum of forty shillings, yet so as their decisions may admit of appeal to the convention of the selectmen of the county, and also that any one of these men shall have power to examine and commit to confinement persons accused of petit larceny.
VI. That those two selectmen thus chosen do jointly and together choose from the body of their particular company two persons to act as constables, who may assist them in the execution of their office.
VII. That upon the complaint of any persons to either of these selectmen, he do issue his warrant directed to the constable, commanding him to bring the aggressor before him to answer said complaint.
VIII. That these select eighteen selectmen thus appointed do meet every third Thursday in January, April, July, and October, at the court-house in Charlotte, to hear and determine all matters of controversy for sums exceeding forty shillings, also appeals; and in case of felony to commit the persons convicted thereof to close confinement until the Provincial Congress shall provide and establish laws and modes of proceeding in all such cases.
IX. That these eighteen selectmen thus convened do choose a clerk, to record the transactions of said convention, and that said clerk, upon the application of any person or persons aggrieved, do issue his warrant to any of the constables of the company to which the offender belongs, directing said constable to summon and warn said offender to appear before said convention at their next sitting, to answer the aforesaid complaint.
X. That any person making complaint, upon oath, to the clerk, or any member of the convention, that he has reason to suspect that any person or persons indebted to him in a sum above forty shillings intend clandestinely to withdraw from the county without paying the debt, the clerk or such member shall issue his warrant to the constable, commanding him to take said person or persons into safe custody until the next sitting of the convention.
XI. That when a debtor for a sum above forty shillings shall abscond and leave the county, the warrant granted as aforesaid shall extend to any goods or chattels of said debtor as may be found, and such goods or chattels be seized and held in custody by the constable for the space of thirty days, in which time, if the debtor fail to return and discharge the debt, the constable shall return the warrant to one of the selectmen of the company, where the goods are found, who shall issue orders to the constable to sell such a part of said goods as shall amount to the sum due.
That when the debt exceeds forty shillings, the return shall be made to the convention, who shall issue orders for sale.
XII. That all receivers and collectors of quit-rents, public and county taxes, do pay the same into the hands of the chairman of this committee, to be by them disbursed as the public exigencies may require, and that such receivers and collectors proceed no further in their office until they be approved of by, and have given to this committee good and sufficient security for a faithful return of such moneys when collected.
XIII. That the committee be accountable to the county for the application of all moneys received from such public officers.
Mecklenburg Resolutions dispatched to Philadelphia and Hillsborough.—Action concerning them.
XIV. That all these officers hold their commissions during the pleasure of their several constituents.
XV. That this committee will sustain all damages to all or any of their officers thus appointed, and thus acting, on account of their obedience and conformity to these rules.
XVI.That whatever person shall hereafter receive a commission from the crown, or attempt to exercise any such commission heretofore received, shall be deemed an enemy to his country; and upon confirmation being made to the captain of the company in which he resides, the said company shall cause him to be apprehended and conveyed before two selectmen, who, upon proof of the fact, shall commit said offender to safe custody, until the next sitting of the committee, who shall deal with him as prudence may direct.
XVII. That any person refusing to yield obedience to the above rules shall be considered equally criminal, and liable to the same punishment as the offenders above last mentioned.
XVIII. That these resolves be in full force and virtue until instructions from the Provincial Congress regulating the jurisprudence of the province shall provide otherwise, or the legislative body of Great Britain resign its unjust and arbitrary pretensions with respect to America.
XIX. That the eight militia companies in this county provide themselves with proper arms and accouterments, and hold themselves in readiness to execute the commands and directions of the General Congress of this province and this committee.
XX. That the committee appoint Colonel Thomas Polk and Dr. Joseph Kennedy to purchase three hundred pounds of powder, six hundred pounds of lead, and one thousand flints, for the use of the militia of this county, and deposit the same in such place as the committee may hereafter direct.
Signed by order of the Committee. Ephraim Brevard,Clerk of the Committee."
These resolutions, which not only substantially declared the people of Mecklenburg, represented by the convention, free and independent of the British crown, but organized a civil government upon a republican basis, were read to the assembled multitude from the courthouse door, and were received with loud acclaims of approbation. It is said that they were read to fresh gatherings of the people several times during the day, and were always greeted with cheers.
These resolutions formed the closing proceedings of the convention, and having provided for the transmission of the resolutions to the Provincial Congress of North Carolina, to meet in Hillsborough in August, and to the Continental Congress, then in session at Philadelphia, it adjourned. Captain James Jack, of Charlotte, was the appointed messenger, and a few days after the adjournment of the convention, he proceeded to Philadelphia, and placed the papers in his charge, in the hands of Caswell, Hooper, and Hewes, the delegates in Congress from North Carolina. * These gentlemen, perhaps considering the movement premature or too radical, did not make the proceedings public. They still hoped for reconciliation with the mother country, and were willing to avoid any act that might widen the breach. They addressed a joint letter to the people of Mecklenburg, complimenting them for their patriotism, recommending the strict observance of order, and expressing their belief that the whole continent would soon follow their example, if the grievances complained of were not speedily redressed. For the same prudential reasons, the Provincial Congress at Hillsborough declined taking any immediate action upon their bold proceedings. ** But for
* It was the regular court day when Captain Jack passed through Salisbury. Mr. Kennon, a member of the convention, was in attendance there, and persuaded Jack to permit the resolutions to be publicly read. They were generally approved; but two men (John Dunn and Benjamin Boole) pronounced them treasonable, and proposed the forcible detention of Captain Jack. For this act, Dunn and Boote were arrested by some armed men sent by the committee at Charlotte for the purpose. They were first sent to Camden, in South Carolina, to be kept in confinement as "persons inimical to the country." They were afterward sent to Charleston for better security.
** The papers were referred to a committee, who reported on the first of September. After some discussion, the Congress resolved that "the present Association ought to be further relied on for bringing about a reconciliation with the parent state." No further notice was taken of the matter, and this brilliant spark was lost in the blaze of the Federal Declaration of Independence published the following year.
History of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.
this hesitation, growing out of a sincere desire to preserve the integrity of the British realm, the world would long ago have conceded to the people of Mecklenburg, in North Carolina, the distinguished honor of making aDeclaration of Independenceof the British crown, thirteen months previous to the Federal declaration by the Continental Congress. That honor has not only been withheld, but the fact denied by men presumed to have positive information upon all subjects connected with Revolutionary events. Documentary evidence has settled the question beyond cavil. *
* Almost fifty years this brilliant event in Mecklenburg county remained in obscurity, and when its radiance appeared, it was believed to be only reflected light. There appeared in the Raleigh Register, April 30, 1819, a statement over the signature of J. M'Knitt, that a convention of representatives of the people of Mecklenburg county met at Charlotte, on the nineteenth and twentieth of May, 1775, and by a series of resolutions substantially declared themselves free and independent. * He alleged that Captain Jack bore those resolutions to the Continental Congress, and placed them in the hands of the delegates from North Carolina in that body, who thought them premature. Mr. M'Knitt also stated that John M'Knitt Alexander was the secretary of the convention, and that all of the original papers were destroyed when the house of that gentleman was burned in April, 1800, but that copies of the proceedings were made, one of which was sent to Dr. Hugh Williamson, of New York, who was writing a history of North Carolina, and one to General William R. David. * This statement was copied from the Raleigh Register by the Essex Register, of Massachusetts, and was brought to the notice of the venerable John Adams. Mr. Adams sent the paper to Mr. Jefferson, accompanied with the remark that he thought it genuine. On the ninth of July, 1819, Mr. Jefferson replied to Mr. Adams's letter at some length, disclaiming all knowledge of such proceedings, and giving his decided opinion that the article in the Register was a "very unjustifiable quiz."! Among his reasons for not believing the thing genuine, he mentioned the fact that no historian, not even Williamson (whose History of North Carolina was published in 1812), alluded to any such proceedings. Such was the fact, and public opinion was divided. It was singular, indeed, that such an important event should not have been mentioned by Williamson, if he believed the resolutions sent to him by Mr. Alexander to be true copies of those adopted in convention at Charlotte. Because of a similarity of expressions and sentiments in these resolutions and the Federal Declaration of Independence, Mr. Jefferson was charged with gross plagiarism, *** while the North Carolinians were charged with attempting to arrogate to themselves a glory which did not belong to them.
In 1829, Judge Martin's History of North Carolina appeared, and in vol. ii., pages 272—274, inclusive, he publishes an account of the Mecklenburg proceedings, with the resolutions. These resolutions differ materially from those which were possessed by General Davie, and published as authentic in a state pamphlet, prepared by order of the North Carolina Legislature, in 1831. Whence Judge Martin procured his copy, is not known. In 1830, a publication appeared denying the statements of the Raleigh Register in 1819, and also denying that a convention, with such results, was ever held at Charlotte. The friends of those patriots whose names appeared as members of the convention in question, very properly tender of their reputation and the honor of the state, sought for proof that sueh a convention, with such glorious results, was held in Charlotte. The testimonies of several living witnesses of the fact were procured, some of them as early as 1819-20, and some as late as 1830. Their certificates all agree as to the main fact that such a convention was held, but all are not explicit as to date, and some evidently point to other resolves than those referred to. These discrepancies caused doubts, and the public mind was still unsatisfied. To set the matter at rest, the Legislature of North Carolina appointed a committee to investigate the subject. The result was published in pamphlet form in 1831, and the statement made in the Raleigh Register in 1819 was endorsed as true. The certificates alluded to (which also appear in Force's American Archives, ii., 855) are published therein together with the names of the Mecklenburg Committee appended thereto. Yet one stubborn fact remained in the way—a fact favorable to a belief in the undoubted truth and sincerity of Mr. Jefferson in his denial—namely, that in no public records or files of newspapers of the day had the resolutions of the twentieth or an account of the convention, been discovered. Some of the most important of those of the thirty-first were published in the Massachusetts Spy in 1775. Doubt still hung over the genuineness of the published resolutions, and eminent men in North Carolina made earnest searches for «her testimony, but in vain.
* In 1847, the Reverend Thomas Smyth, D.D., of Charleston, published an inquiry into "The true Origin and Source of the Mecklenburg and National Declaration of Independence," in which, assuming the published resolutions, purporting to have been adopted at Charlotte, on the twentieth of May, 1775, to be genuine copies of the originals prepared by Dr. Brevard, he advances an ingenious theory, by which Mr. Jefferson is impliedly defended against the charge of plagiarism and subsequent misrepresentation. Assuming that both Jefferson and Dr. Brevard were, as students of history, familiar with the confessions, covenants, and bands (declarations and pledges) of the Presbyterian Reformers of Scotland and Ireland in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, he draws the conclusion that them ideas, and even their expressions, were copied from those instruments of a people struggling for religious freedom. As a proof that such forms were appealed to, he quotes Jefferson's acknowledgment (Memoirs, &c., i., 2), that to a Scotch Presbyterian tutor he was indebted for his republican bias; and his statement (p. 6) that, in preparing a resolution at Williamsburg, recommending a fast on the first of June, 1774, they "rummaged over" Rushworth "for the revolutionary precedents and forms of the Puritans of that day." Upon these premises, Dr. Smyth argues that Mr. Jefferson and Dr. Brevard doubtless drew water from the same well, without a knowledge of each other's act—a well from which copious draughts were made by the Father of our Republic.
* While these inquiries were in progress, the discovery of documentary evidence settled the main question beyond cavil, and established the fact that, on the thirty-first of May, 1775, the people of Mecklenburg, in a representative convention assembled, passed resolutions equivalent in spirit to a declaration of independence, and organized a civil government upon the basis of political independence. Among the most indefatigable searchers after the truth, was the Honorable David L. Swain, late governor of North Carolina. A manuscript proclamation of Governor Martin, dated August 8, 1775, which was deposited in the archives of the state by Reverend Francis L. Hawks, D.D., was found to contain the following words: "And whereas, I have also seen a most infamous publication in the Cape Fear Mercury, importing to be resolves of a set of people styling themselves a committee for the county of Mecklenburg, most traitorously declaring the entire dissolution of the laws, government, and Constitution of this country, and setting up a system of rule and regulation repugnant to the laws, and subversive of his majesty's government," &c., &c. Here was a clue. After repeated searches at the instance of Mr. Swain, a copy of the South Carolina Gazette and Country Journal, dated "Tuesday, June 13, 1775," and containing the entire set of resolutions printed on pages 620-21, bearing date of May 31, 1775, was discovered by Dr. Joseph Johnson, in the Charleston Library. * These were copied, and sent to Mr. Swain, who immediately forwarded a copy to Mr. Bancroft, the historian, then the American minister at the court of St. James. Before they reached Mr. Bancroft at London, that gentleman had discovered in the State Paper Office a copy of the same South Carolina paper, containing the resolutions. This paper was sent to Lord Dartmouth, the secretary of state for the colonies, by Sir James Wright, then governor of Georgia. In a letter which accompanied the papers, Governor Wright said, "By the inclosed paper your lordship will see the extraordinary resolves of the people of Charlottetown, in Mecklenburg county; and I should not be surprised if the same should be done every where else." These facts Mr. Bancroft communicated in a letter to Mr. Swain, written on the fourth of July, 1848.
* The only question unsettled now is, Whether the Mecklenburg Committee assembled at an earlier date than the thirty-first of May, 1775, and adopted the resolutions which were in possession of General Davie, and published in the Raleigh Register in 1819. It is a question of minor historical importance, since the great fact is established beyond cavil, that more than a year previous to the promulgation of the Federal Declaration, the people of Mecklenburg declared their entire independence of the British crown, and, in pursuance of that declaration, organized a civil government. *
* Dr. Johnson, in his Traditions and Reminiscences of the Revolution (Charleston, 1851), gives a fac simile of a hand-bill, containing the first three of the Mecklenburg Resolutions published in the state pamphlet, together with the names of the committee. Dr. Johnson says it is "the oldest publication of the Mecklenburg Declaration yet found in print." This is a significant fact. The hand-bill was printed by Heiskell and Brown, who established their printing-office at Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1816. This document is not now (1852) more than thirty five years old. It was probably printed at about the time (1819) when the resolutions appeared in the Raleigh Register.
* The following is a copy of the resolutions, which were in the possession of General William R. Davie, and are now in the archives of the state, at Raleigh:
* "Resolved, 1. That whoever directly or indirectly abetted, or in any way, form, or manner, countenanced the unchartered and dangerous invasion of our rights, as claimed by Great Britain, is an enemy to this country—to America—and to the inherent and inalienable rights of man.
* "Resolved, 2. That we, the citizens of Mecklenburg county, do hereby dissolve the political bands which have connected us to the mother country, and hereby absolve ourselves from all allegiance to the British crown, and abjure all political connection, contract, or association with that nation, who have wantonly trampled on our rights and liberties, and inhumanly shed the blood of American patriots at Lexington.
* "Resolved, 3. That we do hereby declare ourselves a free and independent people; are, and of right ought to be, a sovereign and self-governing association, under the control of no power, other than that of our God, and the general government of the Congress; to the maintenance of which independence we solemnly pledge to each other our mutual co-operation, our lives, our fortunes, and our most sacred honor.
* "Resolved, 4. That as we acknowledge the existence and control of no law or legal officer, civil or military, within this county, we do hereby ordain and adopt, as a rule of life, all, each, and every of our former laws; wherein, nevertheless, the crown of Great Britain never can be considered as holding rights, privileges, immunities, or authority therein."
* "Resolved, 5. That it is also further decreed, that all, each, and every military officer in this county is hereby retained in his former command and authority, he acting conformably to these regulations. And that every member present of this delegation shall henceforth be a civil officer, viz., a justice of the peace, in the character of a 'committee-man,' to issue process, hear and determine all matters of controversy, according to said adopted laws; and to preserve peace, and union, and harmony in said county; and to use every exertion to spread the love of country and fire of freedom throughout America, until a more general organized government be established in this province."
* To these resolutions, it is said, a number of by-laws were appended to regulate the general conduct of citizens.
** The house of Mr. Alexander was destroyed in April, 1800. The date of the earliest copy of the resolutions is September of the same year.
*** Jefferson's Memoirs and Correspondence, iv., 322.
***The chief ground upon which this charge was predicated, was the identity of expression in the last clause of the third resolution, and the closing of the Federal Declaration—" We pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our most sacred honor." This charge has no weight when it is considered that this was a common parliamentary suffix. Gibbon, writing to his friend Sheffield concerning the Boston Port Bill, in 1774, said, "We voted an address of lives and fortunes, &c." See volume i. of this work, page 515.
History of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.
Charlotte was the point to which Gates retreated, with a few followers, after the disastrous battle near Camden, in August, 1780, and soon afterward it became the scene of act-
Movements of Cornwallis and his Subordinates.—Colonel Polk suspected.—General William R. Davie.
ual hostilities. After refreshing his army at Camden, and adopting further measures for keeping down the spirit of rising rebellion in South Carolina, Cornwallis moved, with his a Sept 8 forces, toward Charlotte,Sept. 8, 1780for the purpose of giving encouragement to the timid Loyalists between the Yadkin and the Catawba; to assist Major Ferguson, who was then across the Broad River attempting to embody the militia in the service of the king; to awe the Republicans, who were in the ascendant in Mecklenburg, Rowan, and vicinity; in fact, to conquer North Carolina before Congress could organize another army at the South.