Organization of Civil Government. Proclamation of Sir Henry Clinton. Desolation of Howe's Plantation. refuge on board the Bristol, the flag-ship of Sir Peter Parker. Royal government in North Carolina now ceased forever, and a brighter era in the history of the state was opened. The provincial council now labored vigorously in the elaboration of measures for the defense of the colony, and the maintenance of liberty. A strong military establishment was organized, and in each district a brigadier general was appointed, with an efficient corps of field-officers.' On the eighteenth of Decembera a state a 1776. government was formed under a Constitution,' and, a few days afterward, a device for a great seal of the commonwealth was presented by a committee appointed for the purpose, and adopted. In all their actions, the Carolinians exhibited the aspect of men determined to be free, and conscious that hope for reconciliation with the mother country was vain. A blow had been struck which marked out the bright line of future operations. There could no longer be hesitation, and the line between Whigs and Tories was as distinctly drawn as that of the twilight between the day and the night. OF NORTH CAROLINA The siege of Charleston, and other events of the war which speedily followed the battle on Moore's Creek, will be detailed hereafter. From this time until the close of the Revo lution, the military history of North Carolina is identified with that of the whole confederacy From the time of the battle on Moore's Creek until Cornwallis and his army overran the Carolinas, there were no regularly organized bands of Loyalists in the "Old North State." Here let us close the chronicle for a day, and ride on toward the fertile region of the Allamance, after glancing at noteworthy objects in Hillsborough. b Jan. 1, 1849. I employed the first morning of the new year,b in visiting places of interest at Hillsborough, in company with the Reverend Dr. Wilson. The first object to which my attention was called was a small wooden building, represented in the engraving on the next page, situated opposite the hotel where I was lodged. Cornwallis used it for New York with Sir Henry Clinton, when driven from the colony, he joined the army, under Cornwallis, and was in the battle near Camden, where Gates was defeated. He was with Cornwallis in Carolina as late as April, 1781, when impaired health caused him to leave. He went to New York, spent a part of the summer at Rockaway, on Long Island, and then sailed for England. He died in London, in July, 1786. Samuel Martin, who fought a duel with the celebrated John Wilkes in 1763, was the governor's brother. His father was Colonel Samuel Martin, of Virginia, who lost a large estate by confiscation. Judge Martin, the historian of North Carolina, computes the population of that state, when Governor Martin fled and the royal power ended, at one hundred and fifty thousand, more than one fifth of whom were slaves. Gordon, ii., 36, 37; Foote, 143-145; Martin, ii., 380-384. On the fifth of May, 1776, Sir Henry Clinton issued a proclamation from the Pallas sloop of war, which declared North Carolina in a state of rebellion, ordered all Congresses to be dissolved, and offered pardon to all penitents, except the arch-rebels Cornelius Harnett and Robert Howe. The people laughed at him. Fired with indignation, he vented his spite upon the property of Colonel Howe. On the twelfth, he sent Cornwallis and a marauding party of nine hundred men on shore, who ravaged Howe's plantation in Brunswick, treated some women at his house with brutality, burned some mills in the neighborhood, and then returned to the ships. Despairing of success in that quarter, Clinton sailed with the British fleet of thirty vessels for New York. The following gentlemen were appointed brigadiers: Richard Caswell, of Newbern; John Ashe, of Wilmington; Thomas Person,* of Hillsborough; Griffith Ruth Person erford, of Salisbury; Edward Vail, of Edenton; and Allen Jones, of Halifax. 3 The following gentlemen were appointed state officers under the Republican Constitution: RICHARD CASWELL, governor; JAMES GLASGOW, secretary of state; CORNELIUS HARNETT, THOMAS PERSON, WILLIAM DAY, WILLIAM HAYWOOD, EDWARD STARKEY, JOSEPH LEECH, and THOMAS EATON, Counselors of state. The committee consisted of William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, and Thomas Burke. The seal then adopted continues to be that of the state. The two figures represent respectively LIBERTY and PLENTY. Liberty holds the Constitution in one hand, and in the other a staff, with the cap of freedom, indicating the security of liberty by the Constitution. Clasped by one arm, Plenty holds a small bundle of wheat ears, and with the other supports an overflowing cornucopia, indicating the generous fertility of the soil of North Carolina. Thomas Person had been one of the leading Regulators, and exceedingly active against the royal government. He was for many years a member of the State Senate. Person Hall, of the university at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was so named to commemorate a munificent donation which he made to that institution. Localities at Hillsborough. Departure for the Allamance. Place of Pyle's Defeat an office, during his tarryings in Hillsborough, after driving General Greene out of the state After sketching this, we visited the office of the Clerk of the Superion Court, and made the fac similes and extracts from its records, printed or pages 367-8. We next visited the head-quarters of Cornwallis, a large frame building situated in the rear of Morris's Hillsborough House, on King Street. Generals Gates and Greene also occupied it when they were in Hillsborough, and there a large number of the members of the Provincial Congress were generally lodged. The old court-house, where the Regulators performed their lawless acts, is no longer in existence. I was informed by Major Taylor, an octogenarian on whom we called, that it was a brick edifice, and stood almost upon the exact site of the present court-house, which is a spacious brick building, with steeple and clock. The successor of the first was a wooden structure, and being removed to make room for the present building, was converted into a place of meeting for a society of Baptists, who yet wor CORNWALLIS'S OF ship there. Upon the hill near the Episa 1849. copal church, and fronting King Street, is the spot where the Regulators were hung. The residence of Governor Tryon, while in Hillsborough, was on Church Street, a little west of Masonic Hall. These compose the chief objects of historic interest at Hillsborough. The town has other associations connected with the Southern campaigns, but we will not anticipate the revealments of history by considering them now. At one o'clock I exchanged adieus with the kind Dr. Wilson, crossed the Eno, and, pursuing the route traversed by Tryon on his march to the Allamance, crossed the rapid and now turbid Haw,' just below the falls, at sunset. I think I never traveled a worse road than the one stretching between the Eno and the Haw. It passes over a continued series of red clay hills, which are heavily wooded with oaks, gums, black locusts, and chestnuts. Small streams course among these elevations; and in summer this region must be exceedingly picturesque. Now every tree and shrub was leafless, except the holly and the laurel, and nothing green appeared among the wide-reaching branches but the beautiful tufts of mistletoe which every where decked the great oaks with their delicate leaves and transparent berries. Two and a half miles beyond the Haw, and eighteen from Hillsborough, I passed the night at Foust's house of entertainment, and after an early breakfast, rode to the place where Colonel Pyle, a Tory officer, with a considerable body of Loyalists, was deceived and defeated by Lieutenant-colonel Henry Lee and his dragoons, with Colonel Pickens, in the spring of 1781. Dr. Holt, who lives a short distance from that locality, kindly accompanied me to the spot and pointed out the place where the battle occurred; where Colonel Pyle lay concealed in a pond, and where many of the slain were buried. The place of conflict is about half a mile north of the old Salisbury highway, upon a "plantation road," two miles east of the Allamance, in Orange county. Let us listen to the voices of history and tradition. In February, 1781, General Greene, then in command of the American army at the South, accomplished a wonderful and successful retreat across North Carolina into Virginia, closely pursued by Lord Cornwallis. This memorable retreat we shall consider presently. This view is from the piazza of the Union Hotel. The building is of logs, covered with clap-boards. When James Monroe (afterward President of the United States) visited the Southern army in 1780, as military commissioner for Virginia, he used this building for his office while in Hillsborough. The Haw River (which derives its name from the abundance of hawthorns in that region) rises in Rockingham and Guilford counties, and in Chatham county unites with the Deep River, and forms the northwest branch of the Cape Fear. Cornwallis at Hillsborough. Greene's Plans. Expedition under Lieutenant Colonel Lee. His Public Life When Cornwallis was certified that Greene had escaped across the Dan with all his force, baggage, and stores, he ordered a halt,a and, after refreshing his wearied troops, a Feb. 14, moved slowly back to Hillsborough, and there established his head-quarters.' His 1781. object was partially accomplished; he had not captured the "rebel army," but he had driven it from the Carolinas, and he now anticipated a general rising of the Tories, to assist him in crushing effectually the remaining Republicanism at the South. Although driven across the Dan, Greene had no idea of abandoning North Carolina to the quiet possession of the enemy. In the fertile and friendly county of Halifax, in Virginia, his troops reposed for a few days, and then they were called again to the field of active exertion. He resolved to recruit his thinned battalions, and as soon as possible recross the Dan and confront Cornwallis. Among the most active and efficient officers engaged in the Southern campaigns was Henry Lee,' at this time lieutenant col- Lieutenant-colonel Lee crossed the Cornwallis remained in Hillsborough about ten days. While a detachment of his army lay at the Red House, a short distance from the town, they occupied the Church of Hugh M'Aden, the first located missionary in North Carolina. Supposing M'Aden (then a short time in his grave) to have been a rebel, because he was a Presbyterian, the British burned his library and papers. His early journal escaped the flames.-Foote, 273. 2 Henry Lee was born at the family seat, in Stratford (see page 217), on the twenty-ninth of January, 1756. He was educated at Princeton College, where he graduated in 1773. Fond of active life, and imbued with a military spirit, he sought and obtained the command of a company, in Colonel Bland's regi ment of Virginia volunteers, in 1776. He joined the Continental army in September, 1777, where he soon attracted the favorable notice of Washington. He was promoted to the rank of major, in command of a separate corps of cavalry. On the sixth of November, 1780, Congress promoted him to lieutenant colonel, and ordered him to join the Southern army under General Greene, where his career was marked by great skill and bravery. His military exploits and the honors conferred upon him by Congress, are noticed in various places in this volume. In 1786, he was appointed a delegate to Congress, which position he held until the adoption of the Constitution. In 1791, he succeeded Beverly Randolph as governor of Virginia, and remained in office three years. He commanded the forces, by appointment of Washington, which were II. В с Pursuit of Tarleton. Approach of Tories under Colonel Pyle. Conception of a Plan to Ensnare them. by Pickens and Oldham. He sent out his scouts, and early on the morning of the nineteenth he was informed by them that Tarleton and his legion were out toward the Haw reconnoitering, and offering protection to the Loyalists who were desirous of marching to Cornwallis's camp. Lee and Pickens pushed on to gain the great road leading from Hillsborough to the Haw. They ascertained that Tarleton had passed there the day before, and was probably then on the western side of the Haw. The next daya the Americans crossLoyalists between that and the Deep They also learned from a countryman a Feb. 21. ed the Haw, and were informed that the River were certainly assembling to join the earl. (a sort of passive Tory named Ephraim Cooke) that Tarleton's force consisted of most of his cavalry, four hundred infantry, and two light field pieces; and that he was encamped about four miles distant with all the carelessness of confident security. Lee determined to surprise him, and placed his little army in battle order for a quick march. They reached the designated spot too late, for Tarleton had left and proceeded a few miles further, to the plantation of Colonel William O'Neil, whose memory, if common report speaks true, deserves a greater share of the odium of his countrymen than the most bitter Tory, for by his avaricious acts while claiming to be a Whig, he drove many of his neighbors to join the ranks of the Loyalists. Two of Tarleton's officers, who were left behind, were captured. b Feb. 25, 1781. a scout. were " Lee now resolved to employ stratagem. His legion greatly resembled that of Tarleton, and he made the country people believe that his was a detachment sent by Cornwallis to re-enforce that officer. The two prisoners were commanded to favor the deception, under the penalty of instant death. The legion took the van in the march,b with Lieutenant-colonel Lee at the head, preceded, at the distance of a few hundred yards, by The officer of the van soon met two well-mounted young men, who, believing him to belong to a British re-enforcement, promptly answered an inquiry by saying that they rejoiced to fall in with him, they having been sent forward by Colonel Pyle, the commander of quite a large body of Loyalists, to find out Tarleton's camp, whither he was marching with his followers." A dragoon was immediately sent to Lee with this information, and was speedily followed by the young men, who mistook "Legion Harry" for Tarleton, and, with the greatest deference, informed him of the advance of Colonel Pyle. Lee dispatched his adjutant to General Pickens to request him to place his riflemen (among whom were those of Captain Graham, who had just joined him) on the left flank, in a place of concealment in the woods, while he himself should make an attempt to capture the deceived Loyalists. Lee also sent one of the duped young men, with the dragoon who escorted them, to proceed to Colonel Pyle with his compliments, and his request "that the colonel would be so good as to draw out his forces on the side of the road, so as to give convenient room for his (Lee's) much wearied troops to pass by without delay to their right position." The other young countryman was detained to accompany Lee himself, whom he supposed to be Tarleton. The van officer was ordered to halt as soon as he should perceive the Loyalists. This order was obeyed; and presently the young man who had been sent to Colonel Pyle, returned with that officer's assurance that he was "happy to comply with the request of Colonel Tarleton." It was the intention of Lee, when his force should obtain the requisite position to have the complete advantage of Colonel Pyle, to reveal his real name and character, demand the immediate surrender of the Tories, and give them their sent to quell the whisky insurrection in Pennsylvania. He was a member of Congress in 1799, and was chosen to pronounce a funeral oration at Washington, on the occasion of the death of the first president. He wrote his Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United States, in 1808. He was active in quelling a mob in Baltimore in 1814, and from wounds received at that time he never fairly recovered. Toward the close of 1817, he repaired to the West Indies for the benefit of his health, but without success. Returning, he stopped at Cumberland Island, near St. Mary's, in Georgia, to visit Mrs. Shaw, the daughter of General Greene, where he died on the twenty-fifth of March, 1818, at the age of sixtytwo years. The names of Lee, Marion, Morgan, Sumter, and Pickens form a brilliant galaxy in the Southern firmament of our Revolutionary history. 'See Caruthers's Life of Caldwell, page 213. 2 The father of the late Secretary of the Navy. Destruction of the Loyalists Escape of Colonel Pyle. The Battle-ground. Escape of Tarleton. choice, to return quietly to their homes, after being disarmed, or to join the patriot army. Thus far every thing had worked favorably to Lee's humane design. Lee's cavalry first approached the Loyalists, who, happily for the furtherance of the plan, were on the right side of the road; consequently, the horsemen following Lee were obliged to countermarch and confront the Loyalists. As Lee approached Colonel Pyle, the Loyalists raised the shout, "God save the king!" He rode along the Tory column (who were also mounted, with their rifles on their backs), and, with gracious smiles, complimented them on their fine appearance and loyal conduct. As he approached Pyle and grasped his hand (the signal for his cavalry to draw when he should summon the Tories to surrender), the Loyalists on the left discovered Pickens's militia, and perceived that they were betrayed. They immediately commenced firing upon the rear-guard of the American cavalry, commanded by Captain Eggleston.' That officer, as a matter of necessity, instantly turned upon the foe, and this movement was speedily followed by the whole column. A scene of dreadful slaughter followed, for the Loyalists, taken by surprise, could not bring their rifles to bear before Lee had struck the fatal blow. Colonel Pyle commanded four hundred Loy. alists; ninety of them were killed in that brief moment, and a large portion of the remainder were wounded. A cry for mercy arose from the discomfited Tories, but the hand of mercy was stayed until the red arm of war had Jan. 2. half a mile northwest from the Salisbury road. Its dense fringe is gone, and nothing indicates its former concealment but numerous stumps of the ancient forest. Lee and Pickens did not pursue the retreating Loyalists; but, anxious to overtake Tarleton, who was at Colonel O'Neil's, upon the Greensborough road, three miles northward, he resumed his march, notwithstanding it was almost sunset. He halted within a mile of O'Neil's, and encamped for the night, where they were joined by Colonel Preston and three hundred hardy mountaineers from Virginia, who had hastened to the support of Greene. At ten o'clock in the morning, the Americans formed for attack, when it was ascertained that Tarleton, alarmed by the exaggerated stories of some of the survivors of Pyle's corps, who made their way to his camp, had hastened to obey the orders of Cornwallis, just received, and was moving toward the Haw. The Americans pursued him as far as that river, when they halted, and Tarleton, after a narrow escape at the ford, returned in safety to Hillsborough. Fortune, the capricious goddess," says Lee, "gave us Pyle, and saved Tarleton." 1 Captain Eggleston was one of the most efficient cavalry officers in Lee's legion, during the campaigns further south the same year. We shall meet him hereafter. In this action the Americans did not lose a single man, and only one horse. The generally accurate and impartial Stedman, influenced, doubtless, by wrong information, called the event a massacre;" says that "no quarter was granted" when asked; and that "between two and three hundred of them were inhumanly butchered while in the act of begging for mercy."-History of the American War, ii., 334. 3 About a quarter of a mile northwest from this pond, is the spot where the battle occurred. It was then heavily wooded; now it is a cleared field, on the plantation of Colonel Michael Holt. Mr. Holt planted an apple-tree upon the spot where fourteen of the slain were buried in one grave. Near by, a persimmontree indicates the place of burial of several others. Memoirs, page 160 |