USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: The Colonial and Revolutionary Periods 1584 1783, Volume I > Part 26
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The disorganization was bad, the equipment worse. Gov- ernor Dobbs stated that the militia were "not half armed" and that such arms as they had were "very bad." Great was his alarm upon finding "that there is not one pound of [pub- lic] gunpowder or shot in store in the Province, nor any arms;" nor were there "twelve barrels of gunpowder in the Province in Traders hands." He felt compelled to appeal to the king for ammunition because "at present we have no credit and must pay double price if any is imported by merchants." He afterwards learned that Beaufort County had on hand fifty pounds of public gunpowder. Beaufort also reported 150 pounds of large shot, but "no arms in the publick store." Chowan had 400 pounds of bullets and swan shot, but no pow- der and no arms. The militia of Johnston County were "in-
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differently armed," and without ammunition. Bladen, Car- teret, Duplin, Edgecombe, Granville, New Hanover, North- ampton, Onslow, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Tyrrell, all re- ported "no arms," or "no arms or ammunition." Six coun- ties made no report on arms and ammunition, probably be- cause they had none. In Granville County the men were drilled with wooden clubs! The situation was somewhat relieved by a gift from the king, in 1754, of 1,000 stand of arms which were distributed to the exposed counties on the western fron- tier, to the counties on the coast, and to the companies raised for service in Virginia. But even this relief was largely nul-
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lified by the conduct of the troops in Virginia, who, after Brad- dock's defeat, "deserted in great numbers," taking their arms and equipment away with them.
Anticipating hostilities with the French, the king in Au- gust, 1753, instructed the governors of all the English colo- nies "in case of Invasion" to co-operate with each other to the fullest extent. Immediately after the attack on Washing- ton, therefore, Governor Dinwiddie hastened to call upon the governors of Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, New Jer- sey, Massachusetts, South Carolina, and North Carolina for assistance in driving the French from Fort Duquesne. Presi- dent Rowan, then acting-governor of North Carolina, met his Assembly February 19, 1754, and laid the situation before it. He felt sure, he said, that the people of North Carolina would not "sitt still and tamely see a formidable forreign Power"
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dispossess the English of their western territory, and he asked the Assembly to exert itself "to the utmost in the common cause" by voting at once "a good and seasonable supply" for the support of a military force to assist in the expulsion of the French and their allies. His appeal found a ready re- sponse. The Assembly declared that the action of the Frenchi "must fire the Breast of every true Lover of his Country with the warmest Resentments" and "certainly Calls for a speedy Remedy." It promised "to furnish as many forces as we can conveniently spare towards this so necessary an Expedition" and "to consider of such ways and means Immediately to supply the Treasury as the Circumstances of our Constituants will admitt" for their maintenance.
The Assembly acted promptly and liberally. Without a dissenting vote it appropriated £12,000 "for raising and pro- viding for a regiment of 750 effective Men to be sent to the Assistance of Virginia." President Rowan did not expect the maintenance of these men to fall upon North Carolina after their arrival in Virginia, so when he ascertained later that each province must maintain its own soldiers, he realized that the £12,000 would be mnsufficient to support 750 men. Ac- cordingly he was compelled to reduce the force to 450 men. But even this number was 150 more than Virginia raised for the same expedition although it was for the defence of her own soil. The regiment was placed under command of Colonel James Innes who lrad commanded the Cape Fear company in the Cartagena expedition. Governor Dinwiddie hailed his appointment with great satisfaction, saying to President Rowan, "I am glad Your Regiment comes under the Command of Colo. Innes, whose Capacity, Judgment and cool Conduct, I have great Regard for." He testified to the sincerity of his sentiments by appointing Innes commander-in-chief of the expedition. Colonel Innes hastened at once to the front, leaving his regiment to follow. He arrived at Winchester, Virginia, July 5th, two days after the defeat of Washington's Virginians at Great Meadows; thence he hurried on to Wills Creek, where he afterwards built Fort Cumberland, 140 miles from Fort Duquesne, and there took formal command of the colonial forces.
North Carolina's response to Virginia's appeal for aid was liberal, but her liberality was nullified by extravagance and bad management. President Rowan fixed the pay of privates at three shillings a day and that of officers in proportion, an
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extravagance of which Dinwiddie very justly complained be- cause of its effect on the Virginia troops who received only eight pence a day. Rowan also invested large sums in pork and beef to be sent to Virginia and sold for Virginia currency with which to pay the troops after their arrival in that col- ony, and on most of these transactions lie lost heavily. The organization of the regiment proceeded slowly and this delay too added to the expense. Consequently the £12,000 appro- priated by the Assembly was entirely expended before the troops ever reached the front, and when they arrived at Win- chester, the place of rendezvous, they found that no provisions and no ammunition had been collected there for them. Their pay, too, was in arrears. Colonel Innes appealed to Governor Dinwiddie for advances, but Dinwiddie had no funds which he could use for this purpose. "I can give no orders for en- tertaining your regiment," he replied, "as this Dominion will maintain none but their own forces." Consequently the North Carolina regiment had scarcely reached Winchester before it was disbanded and sent home without having struck a blow at the enemy.
That the struggle had opened so unfavorably for the Eng- lish was due primarily to their lack of preparation and co- operation. In October, 1754, therefore, Governor Dinwiddie, Governor Horatio Sharpe of Maryland, and Governor Dobbs held a conference at Williamsburg to formulate plans for a joint attack on Fort Duquesne. Dobbs laid these plans before his Assembly in December and asked for men and money to carry them into execution. The Assembly responded by au- thorizing a company of 100 men for service in Virginia and another of fifty men for service on the North Carolina fron- tier, and by voting £8,000 for their subsistence. The company destined for Virginia was placed under the command of the governor's son, Captain Edward Brice Dobbs, formerly a lieutenant in the English army. But before the plans of the Williamsburg conference could be carried out, they were su- perseded by others on a much larger scale, arranged in April, 1755, at a conference held at Alexandria, Virginia, between several of the colonial governors and General Edward Brad- dock, who had been sent from England to take command of the forces in Virginia for the reduction of Fort Duquesne. These new plans called for simultaneous campaigns against the French on the Ohio, on the Niagara, and on Lake Champlain. Although North Carolina was not represented at this meet-
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ing, both governor and Assembly entered heartily into the arrangements. Captain Dobbs was ordered to move his com- pany at once to Alexandria where Braddock was assembling a force for the expedition against Fort Duquesne. Three months later all British America was thrown into consterna- tion by the disastrous ending of this expedition. Dobbs' North Carolinians, being absent at the time from the main army on a scouting expedition, escaped destruction, but many of them, sharing the general demoralization of the British forces, de- serted and made their way back home. With what remained Captain Dobbs joined Colonel Innes at Fort Cumberland, where he continued for nearly a year helping to guard the Vir- ginia frontier.
Immediately after Braddock's defeat, Governor Dobbs con- vened the Assembly in special session and in a sensible, well- written address pointed out tlie seriousness of the situation and suggested that "a proper sum cheerfully granted at once will accomplish what a very great sum may not do hereafter." The Assembly promptly voted a supply of £10,000 and author- ized the governor to raise three new companies "to protect the Frontier of this Province and to assist the other Colonies in Defence of his Majesty's Territories." To command these companies, the governor commissioned Caleb Grainger, Thom- as Arbuthnot, and Thomas McManus captains and sent them to New York to aid in the operations against the French at Niagara and Crown Point. At the same time he ordered Captain Dobbs to withdraw his company from Fort Cumber- land and join the other North Carolina companies in New York. Captain Dobbs, promoted to the rank of major, was appointed to command the battalion. The governor declared that he took this action because he found that if Captain Dobbs' company remained in Virginia it would only do guard duty on the frontier, without making any attempt against Fort Duquesne, since the English there had no officers com- petent to make a plan of operations, nor any artillery; nor was there any likelihood of any assistance from either Mary- land or Pennsylvania, "as they don't seem Zealous for the Common Cause of the Colonies." The North Carolina troops arrived at New York May 31st, and shared in the disasters which resulted in the loss of Oswego and the failure to wrest Crown Point from the French. Since the capture of Oswego threw open to the enemy the entire English frontier from New York to Georgia, problems of home defence so strained
Vol. I-18
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the resources of the colony that North Carolina was unable to continue to support her troops in New York; the governor ac- cordingly directed their officers to try to induce the men to enlist either in the Loyal American Regiment, or in the regu- lars. Those who took neither course were allowed to return to North Carolina.
After the loss of Oswego, the Earl of Loudoun, comman- der-in-chief of the British forces in America, notified the southern governors to prepare for the defence of their fron- tiers since the French then had free access by the Great Lakes to send troops to the Ohio, and also to attack them through their Indian allies. The situation was so serious that he called a conference at Philadelphia, March 15, 1757, of Dobbs, Din- widdie, Sharpe, and Denny of Pennsylvania, that he might "concert in Conjunction with them a Plan for the Defence of the Southern Provinces." He informed the governors that since the greater part of the British troops in America would be needed in the northern campaign, he could give the southern colonies only 1,200 regulars, for the rest they would have to shift for themselves. It was agreed, therefore, that they should raise 3,800 men, distributed as follows : Pennsylvania 1,400, Maryland 500, Virginia 1,000, North Carolina 400, and South Carolina 500, making with the regulars, 5,000 men. Of these, 2,000 were to be used in defence of South Carolina and Georgia which were threatened with attack by sea as well as by land. Returning from this conference, Dobbs imme- diately convened the Assembly, and in a brief and pointed mes- sage explained the agreement he had made for the province and asked for the means to carry it out. The Assembly prom- ised, in spite of the large debt already contracted in the com- mon cause, to vote the necessary supplies. An act was accordingly passed appropriating £5,300 and providing for 200 men "to be imployed for the service of South Carolina or at home in case not demanded or wanted there." These troops were speedily raised and ordered to South Carolina under command of Colonel Henry Bouquet, the British officer as- signed to command in the southern colonies. At the same time, Governor Dobbs ordered the militia in the counties along the South Carolina border to be ready to join Colonel Bouquet at his command without waiting for further orders from him. However, they were never called upon for active service.
The summer of 1757 was one of the gloomiest in the annals
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of the British Empire. Success everywhere crowned the arms of France. In Europe disasters followed each other so rap- idly, and some of them were so disgraceful, that Lord Ches- terfield exclaimed in despair, "We are no longer a nation!" In America, Braddock's army had been destroyed; Oswego had fallen; the Crown Point expedition had failed; Fort William Henry had been captured. New France "stretched without a break over the vast territory from Louisiana to the St. Lawrence," 1 and not an English fort or an English hamlet remained in the basin of the St. Lawrence, or in all the valley of the Ohio. In the wigwams of the red men the prestige of the British arms had been so utterly destroyed that the Indians called Montcalm, "the famous man who tramples the English under his feet." 2 But a change was at hand. In July, a new force came into the contest which was destined in a few brief months to wrest from France every foot of her American em- pire and assure to men of the English-speaking race complete supremacy on the continent of North America. This force was the genius of William Pitt, "the greatest war minister and organizer of victory that the world has seen." 3 Under his leadership the year 1758 was as glorious as that of 1757 had been gloomy. In every quarter of the globe the arms of Eng- land were victorious. In Europe and in Asia victory followed victory with dazzling rapidity. In America Louisburg fell, Fort Frontenac surrendered, and Fort Duquesne was cap- tured. "We are forced to ask every morning," wrote Horace Walpole, "what new victory there is, for fear of missing one."
The Assembly of North Carolina had quarreled with Dobbs, but the words and spirit of Pitt inspired it, "notwithstanding the indigency of the country," to renewed efforts in support of the war. On December 30, 1757, Pitt called upon the province, together with other southern colonies, for a force to reduce Fort Duquesne. He appealed to their pride and patriotism by declaring that he would not "limit the Zeal and Ardor of any of His Majesty's Provinces" by suggesting the number of troops for it to raise, but asked each for "as large a Body of Men * as the Number of its Inhabitants may
1 Green : Short History of the English People. Revised edition, p. 748.
2 Parkman: Montcalm and Wolfe, Vol. I, p. 489.
3 Fiske: New France and New England, p. 315.
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allow." The North Carolina Assembly, pleading as its excuse for not doing more that the colony's debts incurred in defence not of itself alone, but also of Virginia, New York, and South Carolina, amounted "to above forty Shillings each Taxable," which was "more than the Currency at present circulating among us," voted an aid of £7,000 and 300 men. It requested that these troops be sent to General John Forbes, whom Pitt had sent to Virginia to command the expedition, "without loss of time." Governor Dobbs placed this battalion under the command of Major Hugh Waddell, a young officer whose serv- ices on the North Carolina frontier had already attracted wide attention. Waddell raised, organized, and equipped his battal-' ion with dispatch, and marched them to join the forces of General Forbes.
Very different was Forbes' course from that of Braddock. No foolish boastings of the superior prowess of British reg- ulars, no equally foolish contempt for the prowess of his foe, no scorn of his provincial troops and their officers, no neglect of the principles of frontier warfare, betrayed him to his ruin. Among his colonial troops Hugh Waddell and his Carolinians stood high in his esteem. Waddell, wrote Governor Dobbs, "had great honour done him being employed in all recon- noitering parties ; and dressed and acted as an Indian ; and his Sergeant Rogers took the only Indian prisoner who gave Mr. Forbes certain intelligence of the Forces in Fort Duquesne upon which they resolved to proceed." The reference to Sergeant Rogers is to the following incident. Winter had. set in and the British general, with his army in a mountainous region, ill prepared to pass the winter in such a wilderness, or to lay a winter seige to a strongly fortified fort, and without accurate information of his enemy's force, was in a dilemma whether to retire to a more favorable position for the winter, or to push on. He therefore offered a reward of £50 to any one who would capture an Indian from whom information as to the enemy's situation could be obtained. Sergeant John Rogers, of Waddell's command, won this reward by bringing in an Indian who told Forbes that if he would push resolutely on, the French would evacuate Fort Duquesne. The British commander followed the red man's advice. Upon his ap- proach, the French garrison fled, and Fort Duquesne, dis- mantled and partially destroyed, fell without a blow into the
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hands of the English general who immediately renamed it Fort Pitt, because as he said in a letter to Pitt, "it was in some measure the being actuated by your spirit that now makes me master of the place."
The victories of 1758, together with the fall of Quebee in 1759, removed the French as a serious factor in the war and brought peace with them in sight. But the war was not at an end for the colonies still had to reckon with the Indians. In the North the confederated tribes under Pontiac continued to make war on the English, while in the South the Cherokee warriors who had acted as allies of the British against Fort Duquesne returned from that expedition to arouse their tribe to hostilities. In 1755 they could call to arms more than 2,500 warriors. Besides the Cherokee, the two Carolinas had also to reckon with the Catawba who had, in 1755, about 250 warriors. Both Cherokee and Catawba were nominally friends of the English, but for several years the French had been undermining the English influence with such success that at the outbreak of the French and Indian War the preference of the Indians for the French was but thinly veiled and nothing but policy prevented their joining forces with their new friends. The English were fully aware of this situation and took immediate steps to hold both nations to their allegiance.
The outbreak of war on the Ohio was accompanied by manifestations of hostility by the Carolina Indians. In De- cember, 1754, therefore, the Assembly provided for a company of rangers for the protection of the frontier. Governor Dobbs entrusted this work to Hugh Waddell, a young Irishman, not yet twenty-one years of age, and but recently arrived in the province, who was, wrote Dobbs, "in his person and character every way qualified for such a command, as he was young, active, and resolute." The governor's choice was fully justi- fied by the results. The young officer acted with energy in raising and organizing his company, and was soon scouting on the frontier where his presence tended to keep the Indians quiet. It soon became evident, however, that a larger force and some permanent forts would be necessary. In the summer of 1755, therefore, Governor Dobbs visited the western settle- ments to study the situation. He was on this tour when he re- ceived information of Braddock's defeat. Hastening to New Bern, he convened the Assembly, September 25, and in a force- ful address set forth the defenceless condition of the province,
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the growing influence of the French over the Cherokee Indians, and the necessity for prompt action to defeat their schemes. Besides sending aid to New York this Assembly ordered that a fort be erected on the North Carolina frontier. The execu- tion of this work was entrusted to Captain Waddell who, selecting a site "beautifully situated in the fork of Fourth Creek, a Branch of the Yadkin River about twenty miles west of Salisbury," erected there a fort which he named in honor of the governor. In 1756 a committee of the Assembly, of which Richard Caswell was a member, after an inspection re- ported that the fort was "a good and substantial Building" and that its garrison of forty-six men appeared to be well and in good spirits.
Besides his military duties, Captain Waddell was charged with diplomatic duties. In February, 1756, as the representa- tive of North Carolina he was associated with Peyton Ran- dolph and William Byrd, representatives of Virginia, in nego- tiating an offensive and defensive alliance with the Cherokee and Catawba nations. The noted chief, King Haiglar, repre- sented the Catawba and Ata-kullakulla the Cherokee. Ata- kullakulla was one of the most remarkable Indians of whom we have any record. Bartram, the eminent botanist and trav- eller, described him as a man of small stature, slender build and delicate frame, but of superior abilities. Noted as an orator and a statesman, he was "esteemed to be the wisest man of the nation and the most steady friend of the English." The treaties signed by these representatives stipulated that the English should build three forts within the Indian reserva- tions to protect them against the French while the Cherokee were to furnish 400 warriors to aid the English in the North. Accordingly South Carolina built Fort Prince George at Keowee on the headwaters of the Savannah and Virginia built Fort Loudoun on the Little Tennessee at the mouth of the Tellico. It fell to North Carolina to build a fort for the pro -. tection of the Catawba, but Captain Waddell had scarcely begun work on it, on the site of the present town of Old Fort, when he was ordered to stop as the Catawba had repented of their agreement and desired that no fort be built among them. The Cherokee also became alarmed when a garrison of 200 men was sent to Fort Loudoun, which Major Andrew Lewis of Virginia was building, and their great council at Echota ordered the work stopped and the garrison withdrawn,
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HUGH WADDELL
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saying plainly that they did not want so many armed white men among them. Even Ata-kullakulla was now in opposition to the English. Despite the treaties, therefore, the situation was highly unsatisfactory and there were strong grounds for believing that several murders along the Catawba and Broad rivers in North Carolina were the joint work of "French Indians" and Cherokee.
Nevertheless, the Cherokee, in accordance with their agree- ment, sent a considerable body of warriors to aid the Englishi against Fort Duquesne. This policy of calling in the aid of Indians in military affairs was to say the least always of doubtful wisdom; in this case it was disastrous. The trouble began in the spring of 1756 with an expedition which Major Andrew Lewis undertook against the hostile Shawano on the Ohio, with 200 white troops and 100 Cherokee. The expedition ended in disaster. Some of the Cherokee returning home hav- ing lost their own horses, captured some horses which they found running loose and appropriated them to their own use. Thereupon the Virginia frontiersmen fell upon them, killing sixteen of their number. At this outrage the hot blood of the young warriors, who were none too friendly to the English at the best, flared up in a passion for immediate revenge. The chiefs, however, counseled moderation until reparation could be demanded of the colonial governments in accordance with their treaties. But Virginia, North Carolina, and Southi Caro- lina all refused to take any action in the matter. While the women in the wigwams of the slain warriors were wailing night and day for their unavenged kindred, and the Creeks, who were in alliance with the French, were taunting the Cher- okee warriors with cowardice for submitting so tamely to their wrongs, came news of the fall of Oswego and other English disasters in the North. The Cherokee thirst for revenge was now mingled with contempt for English arms, and the young men could no longer be restrained. They fell upon the back settlements and spread terror far and wide until Governor Dobbs sent sufficient reinforcements to Captain Waddell to enable him to check the ravages of the enemy.
Thus the situation remained throughout 1757 and 1758. Murders by the Indians followed by prompt reprisals by the whites kept both in a state of constant suspicion. While they were in this inflammable state of mind, 150 Cherokee warriors were sent to join the English in defence of the Virginia
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