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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02397 6696
History of Rorth Carolina
BY
SAMUEL A COURT ASHE
1
In two Volumes
V. I, pt. 2 VOLUME I FROM 1584 TO 1783
.
GREENSBORO, N. C .: CHARLES L. VAN NOPPEN, Publisher 1908
.
1-865,05
36,3
THE REGULATORS DECLARE THEIR PURPOSE
release and safety. William Butler having received this communication from Husband, hastened to the Regulator camp and, the object being accomplished, the insurgents re- tired. The danger being passed. on February 17th Colonel Hinton discharged the Wake militia, and the other regiments were likewise disbanded. There was a temporary lull ; but, nevertheless, the governor and council thought it prudent to perfect the defences at New Bern, where another term of court was to be held early in March.
Notwithstanding the remedial acts so lately passed, the Regulators were not at all content. They were inflamed by the passage of the riot act. The power of government bad ceased to be fearel, and the tyrannical and bloody features of that act. instead of constraining obedience and restoring quiet, only served to arouse their indignation and excite their ire. Rednap Howell, a maker of popular ballads, had moved much among the people, and his rhymes doubtless contributed largely to give them good heart and prepare them for action. There were at least some forty of these popular pieces, although only a few have been preserved. They were indeed well calculated to stir the dis- affected and warin them up to patriotic ardor. On the re- ( R., VIII, turn of the Regulators from their intended expedition to 519-521, 504. 535 release Husband, their purpose was announced to attend the Salisbury court, then about to be hell. and on March 6th some five hundred of them encamped in the woods on the banks of the Yadkin River, where were the Hamiltons, Hunter, James Graham. Teagne, Gillespie and other leaders in command. Having arrested Waightstill Avery, a young lawyer of that region, they carried him to their camp, and declared their purpose of flogging Judge Moore, and of killing all the clerks and lawyers. But such vaporings were probably only vain boastings. On the same day Colonel Alexander Martin and John Frohock, who had been officers of Rowan, and who with others were charged with having taken illegal fees, went to their camp and desired to know their designs and purposes. To them they answered that they had no intention to disturb the court or to injure any person : and that they were armed only to defend themselves if assaulted. On being informed that their late behavior to
:771 ---
Regulators retire
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36;
TRYON'S .IDAHNISTR. ITION, 1765-71
Adjustment agreed on
-- the judges had been such that no court would be held, they seemed greatly concerned. A plan was then proposed for accommodating matters between the people and the officers of Rowan against whom they complained. The matters in dispute were to be left to arbitrators, the Regulators ap- pointing Husband. Graham. Hunter and Thomas Person to act for them: Martin and Frohock chose Matthew Locke, John Kerr. Samuel Young and James Smith on their part. The meeting of the arbitrators was fixed for the third Tues- day in May, and the settlement was to extend not only to the officers of Rowan County but to all those who would vol- untarily join in the arbitration. The Regulators, evidently pleased at this proposed adjustment, gave three cheers and returned to their homes. Well had it been had this path to peace been pursued. and by this settlement out of court the tranquillity of the province been restored. But circumstances were no longer favorable to such negotiations.
Alamance
March, 1771 C. R., VIII, 528-531 Indictments
C. R., VIII, 536-539
On March HIth another special court convened at New Bern attended by the chief justice and Judges Moore and Henderson. The grand jury on the 15th presented the in- surgents as being enemies to government. and to the liberty. happiness and tranquillity of the inhabitants of the province. True bills were found against Husband, Hunter, Butler, the Hamiltons. James Few, Rednap Howell and many other leaders of the Regulators, there being thirty-one persons in- dicted. and the witnesses were recognized to attend on May IIth, when the cases were to be tried. On March 18th, two days after the court adjourned, the governor came into pos- session of a letter written by Rednap Howell a month earlier, from which it appeared that he had been sent to Halifax to "raise the country," and that he had "animated the people to join the Regulation," and he declared "if it once takes a start here it will run into the neighboring counties of Edgecombe, Bute and Northampton." At the same time the governor received a letter from the judges expressing their opinion that they could not attend the superior court at Hillsboro on March 22d with any hope of transacting the business of the court. or indeed with any prospect of personal safety to
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365
TRYON R.IISES TROOPS
themselves. The governor submitted these matters to the council, and it was agreed with their advice to raise a suf- ficient force to maintain order and reduce the insurgents to obedience to the laws. The courts were to be held and the administration of justice was not to cease.
Fearing the extension of the Regulation movement among the inhabitants of the eastern section, an association paper was printed and circulated through the counties for signa- ture, in which those who signed it bound themselves to stand with the government against the Regulators until the tran- quillity of the province should be restored ; and the governor at once issued orders for the militia to assemble, and called for volunteers and drafts to form a force that would sup- press the insurgents. From each county a number was required, aggregating in all 2250 men. The governor hastened to Wilmington and appointed General Waddell general of the forces to be raised, with directions to march through the western counties by way of Salisbury to Orange, while he himself with the eastern militia would march direct to Hillsboro. The governor's authority for this movement was founded on a clause of the riot act ; and he was upheld by all of the gentlemen of the east.
Many of them at once volunteered to accompany him on his intended expedition and none held back. Caswell was a colonel, Ashe a general, Harnett was particularly active, while John Harvey was detained by his continued illness. His son, a member of the Assembly, was, like him, esteemed by the governor. On March 19th, the day Governor Tryon issued his orders to the colonels to collect their men, he en- closed a copy to Harvey, saying: "If you . . can pro- C. R., VIII, 698
cure from the counties of Pasquotank and Perquimans, with the assistance of Colonel Taylor, a company of fifty men, and contrive so as they might be at Hillsboro the sixth day of May. I should be glad to take them under my command. I take this opportunity to thank you for your kind present to me last winter. I wish your son could command the company." But the Albemarle sec- tion was so remote from the scene of disturbance and had so little intercourse with that part of the State that the people took but little interest in the Regulation, and in a general
1771 -
The governor acts C. R., VIII. 540-549
C. R., VIII, 548
Waddell in command
1
356
TRION'S ADMINISTR.ITION, 1765-71
1771 -- way many of the inhabitants sympathized with the Regula- tors in their distresses. Joseph Montfort. the northern treasurer, had no money of the contingent fund in hand, which under the riot act alone could be used to pay bounties and the expenses of the troops, and so he did not honor the CR.VIII, drafts made by Governor Tryon for bounties, and but few 650 volunteers from the Albemarle section participated in the expedition.
C. R., VIII. 65 1
The sonthern treasurer, John Ashe, on the other hand, not only paid out what public moneys he had, but issued notes to the amount of six thousand pounds to meet the expenses of the expedition : and so the same difficulty did not arise in embodying and moving troops from the lower counties.
Frohock and Martin having communicated to the gover- nor their agreement for settlement with the insurgents. the arrangement was denounced by him as "unconstitutional. dis- honorable to government, and introductive of a practice most C. R., VI !. dangerous to the peace and happiness of society." Yet he 545.731 asserted his abhorrence of the conduct of any man who was guilty of extortion, and declared it to be their duty to give satisfaction and make restitution if they had abused their trust.
Earlier the governor might have rejoiced at this proposed settlement of differences. but to his mind the situation no longer admitted such an adjustment. The leaders of the Regulators had gone too far. The power of the insurgents to overturn government was too apparent. The day for temporizing had passed. The authority of the law was now to be asserted. While the responses of the eastern militia were far from general, yet a considerable force collected at the call of the governor. Perhaps his greatest disappoint- ment was the action of the Bute militia, some eight hundred of whom assembled, but when invited to volunteer they de- clined to a man, saying that they favored the Regulators. Almost equal was the attitude of the Wake militia, although after some delay. with considerable efforts, Colonel Hinton secured by draft fifty recruits from that county. Indeed throughout the territory west of Smithfield the great bulk of the inhabitants sympathized with the disaffected element. A considerable proportion of those farther west had but recently
Tryon courts the struggle
.
367
MOVEMENTS OF WADDELL
come into the province, were unacquainted with the laws and the system of government. had no association with the eastern people, and knew but little of the leading men who had habitually controlled public affairs. In a word, many of them had so recently become inhabitants and were so un- settled in their new homes, and were so cut off and secluded in the frontier settlements that they were virtually strangers within the commonwealth.
General Waddell in his progress to the west was joined by C. R., VIII, 601. 701 a detachment of the Anson militia and parts of the regiments of Mecklenburg and Tryon under their respective colonels, General Waddell and some companies from Rowan. Colonel Frohock, who should have commanded the Rowan militia, was rather sar- castically excused from attending by Governor Tryon be- cause of his negotiations with the Regulators. Accompany- ing Waddell's force also was a detachment of artillery under Colonel Robert Schaw of Cumberland. On May 5th General Waddell with nearly three hundred men crossed the Yadkin near Salisbury, and went into camp on Pott's Creek. There. finding himself confronted by a considerable number of in- surgents, he halted and threw up entrenchments. On May roth, at a council of war, under the advice of Colonel Ruth- erford and his other officers, it was resolved that it was too hazardous to engage the enemy, who were reported by Cap- tain Alexander of Mecklenburg, to extend a quarter of a mile, seven or eight deep, with a large body of horsemen, extending one hundred and twenty vards, twelve or fourteen deep. Nor was this formidable force the only peril that threatened General Waddell, for it was apprehended that many of his own troops would not fight the Regulators, but rather, in case of a conflict, would join them. Under these C. R., VIII, adverse circumstances General Waddell prudently retreated bIO across the Yadkin and took post near Salisbury, where he strongly fortified himself and remained until May 28th. In the meantime he had suffered a severe loss in the destruction of a supply of powder and other munitions of war that were being transported from Charleston for the use of the army. A small band of Regulators under the direction of Major C. R., VIII, James White and his brothers. William and John White, hav- 623 The Black Boys ing blackened their faces, from which they became known as
-
C. R., VIII,
368
TRYON'S ADMINISTR. ITION, 1765-71
1771
the "Black Rovs." came up with the wagons midway be- tween Charlotte and Salisbury ( near the site of the present town of Concord ), and. having taken possession of them, destroyed the blankets and fired the ammunition, making a tremendous explosion of the powder. Such animosity to- ward government was now the general feeling that per- vaded all that region, and General Waddell found himself hemmed in by forces too powerful to contend with.
C. R., VIII, 574
Governor Tryon was more fortunate. Leaving New Bern on April 23d, accompanied by the militia of Carteret, Craven and adjoining counties, and two swivel guns mounted on carriages, he moved toward Smithfield, where he was joined by detachments from New Hanover. Dobbs and John- ston. On May 4th he marched to Hunter's Lodge in Wake, where he remained four days awaiting other detachments and organizing his forces.
Supporters of Tryon
On the oth he encamped on the Enoe. Accompanying him were volunteer detachments of horse from Bute and other counties, and many of the leading gentlemen of the east. among them Robert Howe, Alexander Lillington, John Ashe. James Moore. Richard Caswell. Abner Nash, Willie Jones, John Harvey, Jr., and others distinguished in the military and civil annals of North Carolina: while in like manner with General Waddell were Moses Alexander. Thomas Polk. Samuel Spencer. Griffith Rutherford, William Lindsay, Adlai Osborn and many in later times honored for their devoted patriotism.
Feeling of the Regulators
In the meantime, while the forces of the government were being thus collected, the disaffected inhabitants at the west were all astir. The leaders gave information of the points where they were to assemble. Every highway and byway was filled with men hurrying to the front. Great crowds passed rapidly from the extreme west through the quiet set- tlement of Wachovia, and the men of Anson met those of Surry and from the foothills of the mountains at the ren- dezvous between the Haw and the Deep. So often had these men assembled. so often had they met and boldly made declaration of their purpose to right their wrongs, defying the power of government, that now with enthusiasm they re- sponded to the call of their leaders, and hastened to assert
369
FEELING OF THE REGULATORS
I771 --
their manhood. They were manly men, animated by a pur- pose to fearlessly resist oppression, and were not to be over- awed by a show of power. Probably no one thought of sub- verting government : no one thought of wresting the prov- ince from the dominion of the British Empire; they only thought that they would stand up openly and with their own strong hand prevent the operation of laws passed by the Assembly, which, under the circumstance of their situation and lives, they deemed unjust and found oppressive. With little currency among them. lawful taxes bore hard and il- legal taxes they would not pay; and, smarting under the exactions of greedy officials, which even the governor, the courts and the Assembly had found to be illegal. they were imbued with the determination to protect themselves from the power of a government whose authority sat lightly on them. Unawed by the reported march of the militia. they themselves would assemble and once more assert their own mastery. Many came unarmed, and but few probably re- alized that there was really impending a conflict involving life and death. They gathered in force between the Haw and the Deep, and learning of the governor's approach, went forth to meet him. Tryon, hearing of their advance, on C. R., VIII, May fith marched from Hillsboro, crossed the Haw, and 582 on the night of the 13th encamped on the Great Alamance. There he prepared for battle. On the 13th the governor had received an express from General Waddell informing him that he was surrounded by about two thousand Regula- tors and had been forced to retire : and he also learned that their rendezvous was to be at Hunter's plantation on Sandy Creek with the view of obstructing the junction of the two government detachments, and later came the disquieting in- telligence that they were preparing to attack his camp. In- C. R., VIII, stead, however, of an attack, about six o'clock in the evening 640 the governor received. at the hands of James Hunter and Benjamin Merrill, a communication from them desiring to know if he would hear their petition for a redress of their grievances. He laid this letter before a council of war, and informed the Regulators that he would return an answer by twelve o'clock the next day. That night S. R., XIX, Captain John Walker and Lieutenant John Baptista Ashe, S45
370
TRYON'S . IDMINISTR. ITION, 1765-71
1771 who had been sent out to reconnoitre, were captured by the insurgents, tied to trees, severely whipped, and detained as prisoners. When the governor's messenger was conveying his answer to the camp of the Regulators they gave him such insults that he returned without delivering it. Early on the morning of the 16th, the two forces being about five miles apart, the governor moved forward, and about ten o'clock came within a half mile of the Regulator encampment, and there formed a line of battle. He then sent forward Captain Malcolm, one of his aides, and the sheriff of Orange with his letter, requiring them to lay down their arms, surrender up their outlawed leaders, and submit to the laws of the prov- C. R., VIII, ince. These terms were rejected with disdain, and gradually 6.42 the two lines approached until the government forces occu- pied the ground which the van of the Regulators had first occupied, but from which it had fallen back to their main body. Some communications now passed for the exchange of Walker and Ashe for seven of the Regulators who had been captured by the militia, and the proposition was agreed to. The insurgents delayed and sent word that they would comply within an hour. The governor, suspecting that the delay was intended to enable the enemy to outflank him, de- termined to wait no longer.
The battle begins, May 16, 1771
May 16, 1771
The governor sent word by his aide, Captain Philemon Hawkins, that he would immediately give the signal for ac- tion, and cautioned the Regulators to take care of them- selves ; that if they did not directly lay down their arms they would be fired on. "Fire and be d-d!" was the an- swer. The governor thereupon gave the order, which, not being immediately obeyed, rising in his stirrups and turning to his men, he called out: "Fire! fire on them or on me!" Accordingly, the artillery began the fire, which was followed by a discharge from the whole first line, and the action almost instantly became general.
Martin, Hist. North Carolina. 11, 232
C. R .. VIII, 647. 648
Of the militia there were about 1100. The number of the Regulators has been variously estimated at between 2000 and 4000; but a considerable portion of them were unarmed, and probably but few expected to engage in a battle. They
371
THE BATTLE OF ALAMANCE
were not marshalled in organized companies ; had no trained 1771 captains to command ; and were a concourse of resolute citi- S R., XIX, zens rather than an army in battle array. Their chief com- 546 mander was James Hunter.
At the first fire many left the field, among them being Hermon Husband. After the conflict had lasted half an hour the Regulators occupied a piece of woods and fought from behind the trees, as in In lian warfare. To dislodge them Tryon advanced his first line and drove them from cover, pursuing them half a mile beyond their camp. In one ac- count of the battle preserved in the Moravian records, it is said that "many had taken refuge in the woods, whereupon the governor ordered the woods to be set afire. and in con- sequence some of the wounded were roasted alive.'" It is to be observed. however, that in the middle of May a woods fire progresses bitt slowly, even if it burns at all.
In the earlier stages of the battle. Robert Thompson. a Regulator, who had been taken prisoner, defying the power of his captors. undertook to make his escape, and it is said that Governor Tryon shot him down with his own hand. Thompson had been a strenuous agitator, and doubtless was a bold. determined man. For slaving him Governor Tryon was criticised. If no other means to prevent escape was at the moment available. any soldier would have been justified in taking a prisoner's life. otherwise not. While in the heat of battle one's actions are not to be too nicely weighed, life is never to be taken unnecessarily.
The loss of the militia was reported as nine killed and sixty-one wounded. A detachment from Beaufort County under Captain John Patten. being a part of the regiment commanded by Colonel William Thompson, of Carteret, suf- fered the greatest proportionate loss, fifteen killed and wounded out of thirty. Those of the insurgents who par- ticipated in the action stood up manfully. They were not dismayed by the artillery. and indeed held their ground at such short range that they silenced the artillery, requiring particular efforts to dislodge them by advancing riflemen for that purpose. Their loss was, according to one account, nine killed and thirty missing, and according to another upwards of twenty were killed. Their conduct under fire was as
I he woods fired
C. R .. VIII. 520 Thompson slain
The losses C. R., VIII, 634
C. R., VIII.
372
TRYON'S ADMINISTRATION. 1765-71
1771 -- spirited as it was bold, and for two hours they protracted the unequal conflict with the trained militia despite the severe losses they suffered. The insurgents being driven from the field. the militia advanced some little distance, but finding the enemy dispersed, withdrew to their orig- inal encampment. Thus closed that fateful and unhappy day. The wounded on both sides were humanely cared for, and the next evening the dead were interred, and there were prayers and thanksgivings for the victory. The ceremonies of the day were concluded by the hang- ing of James Few, a prisoner-a proceeding that has attached well-merited odium to the name of Governor Tryon. Of Few it has been said "That he was of a fanatical turn of mind. and believed himself raised up by the hand of God to liberate his country." "That he was sent by Heaven to relieve the world from oppression, and that he was to begin in North Carolina." An account of his execution given in the Community Diary of the Moravians a week later says : "A certain young man, a fine young fellow, had been cap- tured, and when given the alternative of taking the oath or being hanged he chose the latter. The governor wished to spare his life, and twice urged him to submit. But the young man refused. The messenger described how, with the rope around his neck, he was urged to yield but refused, and the governor turned aside with tears in his eyes as the young man was swung into eternity."
Few hanged May 17th
Caruthers, Lite of Caldwell, 158 Haywood, Life of Tryou, 133
Clewell, Hist. of Wachovia
C. R., VIII, 532
C. R., VIII, 651
Few had been indicted for felony at the special court held at New Bern on March II. 1771. He was one of those who refused to surrender themselves within the time limited by the riot act. Under that act he was deemed guilty of the offence charged as if he had been convicted thereof by due course of law, and it was made lawful for any one to take his life, but this outlawry was dependent on the required publica- tions of the proclamation. a fact not ascertained as to Few. But of this Governor Tryon seems not to have been advised. He regarded Few. Hunter, Husband as outlaws. Still. the contingency had not then arisen when Few could have been lawfully slain as an outlaw, nor was Governor Tryon justi- fied in dealing so summarily with a prisoner. He sought to extenuate his needless act by saying : "This gave great
9699 26cco
373
TRION SUBJUGATES THE INSURGENTS
1771
satisfaction to the men, and at this time it was a necessary sacrifice to appease the murmurings of the troops, who were Tryon's apclogy unportunate that public justice should be immediately exe- cuted against some of the outlaws that were taken in the ac- S. R., XIX, tion, and in opposing of whom they had braved so many dan- 245 gers and suffered such loss of lives and blood, and without which satisfaction some refused to march forward while others declared they would give no quarter for the future." Such might well have been the feelings of some of the eastern militia, but it was not the part of a command- ing officer to be swerved from his own sense of duty by the intemperate passion of his soldiers. He was there to assert the majesty of the law and to maintain the authority of established government-not to blazon the power of success- ful arms by a needless act of butchery.
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