USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: The Colonial and Revolutionary Periods 1584 1783, Volume I > Part 42
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5 Clark, Walter : Prefatory Notes to State Records of North Caro- lina, Vol. XI, p. xvii.
CHAPTER XXIV
MILITARY AFFAIRS
From 1775 to the close of the Revolution military affairs were of course the most urgent concern of the government and people of North Carolina. The Indians on the frontier, ever ready to take up the hatchet; the Tories in the interior, always lying in wait for favorable opportunities for revolt; the British on the coast, constantly threatening invasion from the sea, menaced the State from three directions. Besides providing for her own defence against these dangers, North Carolina was expected to contribute her proportionate part to the common defence. The chief problems of the new State, therefore, during the first seven years of its existence were those which concerned the raising, organizing and equipping of troops, their maintenance in camps, and their operations in the field.
For home defence North Carolina depended chiefly upon her minute men and militia. Organizations of these classes . of troops were first authorized by the Congress of August, 1775, which provided that the colony should be divided into six military districts in each of which should be raised one battalion of minute men. Their field officers were to be elected by the Congress, their company officers by the companies. The minute men were placed under the orders of the Pro- vincial Council and when in active service were to be subject to the same discipline as soldiers on the continental establish- ment. They were enlisted for six months only and at the expiration of their term were disbanded by order of the Provincial Congress. In that brief time, however, they fought and won the battle of Moore's Creek Bridge. The Provincial Congress also authorized the organization of companies of independent volunteers, light horse troops, rangers, and artillery. All these organizations, however, like the minute men, were temporary, existing only during the period of the provisional government.
North Carolina's first line of defence was her militia. The right to bear arms in defence of the State is one of the
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fundamental rights secured to the people of North Carolina by their Bill of Rights, adopted in 1776. Accordingly Chap- ter I, Laws of 1777, passed by the first Assembly held under the new Constitution, is "An Act to Establish a Militia in this State." Several other acts relating to the militia were subsequently passed during the Revolution but they did not materially change the main features of the first act which was based largely upon the militia law of the colonial government. Under its terms all effective men in the State from sixteen to fifty years of age, inclusive, were embraced in the militia, and subject to draft. When called into service each man was to be "furnished with a good Gun, shot bag and powder horn, [and] a Cutlass or Tomahawk."
The basis of the organization of the militia was the county. Every county was required to enroll its militia into companies of not less than fifty men each, exclusive of commissioned offi- cers. The men of each company were divided by lot into four classes, each of which was to be called in its turn into active service. Company musters were required to be held at least once a month. All the companies of each county were organ- ized into one or more regiments, or battalions which were required to hold two general musters a year. In each of the six military districts the battalions formed a brigade under the command of a brigadier-general. All general and field officers were elected by the General Assembly. Under the Constitution the governor was the commander-in-chief of the militia with power, during the recess of the Assembly, to call them into active service. No accurate muster rolls of the militia during the Revolution were kept, and the records of their services are very meager. In 1782, Governor Alexander Martin reported the total militia of the State at 26,822, but how many of these saw active service it is impossible to say. As a rule during the Revolution the militia justified the con- tempt which professional soldiers have always felt for militia ; yet justice requires that it be said that when well led the militia often displayed fighting qualities which might well excite the envy of veteran regulars. No troops ever fought better than Dixon's North Carolina militia at Camden, while it must not be forgotten that it was the militia of Virginia and the Carolinas that struck the blow at King's Mountain that turned the tide of the Revolution and assured the ultimate triumph at Yorktown.
In 1775 the Continental Congress determined to raise a Continental Army to which it asked the several states to con- tribute in proportion to their populations. At first the men
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were to be enlisted for one year only although Washington repeatedly pointed out the folly of such a policy, warning Con- gress that "no dependence could be put in a militia," or other short-term troops and expressing his earnest conviction "that our liberties must, of necessity, be greatly hazarded, if not entirely lost, if their defence be left to any but a perma- nent army." His warnings made but little impression until reinforced by the military disasters of the summer of 1776, which culminated in his defeat on Long Island, on August 27th. Alarmed by these events, in September, Congress re- solved to raise a regular army enlisted "for the war," to be composed of eighty-eight battalions.
North Carolina's quota was nine battalions. Six of these had already been organized by authority of the Provincial Congress. As we have already seen the Congress of August, 1775, raised two battalions of 500 men each on the conti- nental establishment, and placed them under command of Colonel James Moore and Colonel Robert Howe. They be- came the first and second North Carolina Continentals. Four additional battalions were provided for by the Congress of April, 1776. The third was placed under command of Colonel Jethro Sumner, the fourth under Colonel Thomas Polk, the fifth under Colonel Edward Buncombe, and the sixth under Colonel Alexander Lillington. To complete the State's quota, the Congress of November, 1776, authorized the raising of three more battalions to be commanded by Colonel James Hogun, Colonel James Armstrong, and Colonel John Wil- liams. These three completed the quota on paper. Neverthe- less, in April, 1777, the General Assembly directed the rais- ing of a tenth battalion to be commanded by Colonel Abraham Sheppard and requested the Continental Congress to place it on the continental establishment. The request was granted and Sheppard's became the tenth battalion of the North Car- olina Continental Line.
North Carolina Continentals saw their first service outside their own province in the defence of Charleston in the sum- mer of 1776. As soon as Sir Henry Clinton's purpose to strike a blow at the South became known the Continental Congress created the Southern Department consisting of Vir- ginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, and assigned the command to General Charles Lee. Lee, who was at New York when notified of his assignment, set out imme- diately, March 7, 1776, for his department, arriving at Charleston almost simultaneously with Clinton. He was accom- panied by Howe who, together with Moore, had been promoted
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to the rank of brigadier-general and ordered to report to Lee. Moore himself remained at Wilmington to keep watch over a small British fleet which still lingered in the Cape Fear, but he dispatched four of his continental battalions to the de- fence of Charleston. An account of the brilliant defence of that city, and the disastrous repulse sustained by the British fleet and army on June 28th, forms no appropriate part of this narrative. Of the 6,522 troops which Lee gathered there under his command, 1,400 were North Carolina Continentals. These troops bore a conspicuous part in the battle winning high praise from their commanding officer. "I know not which corps I have the greatest reason to be pleased with," wrote Lee to the president of the Virginia Council, "Muhlenberg's Virginians, or the North Carolina troops; they are both equally alert, zealous, and spirited." To Washington he re- ported that Thompson's South Carolina rangers, "in con- junction with a body of North Carolina Regulars," twice repulsed determined attempts by the enemy to land on Sulli- van's Island, adding: "Upon the whole, the South and North Carolina troops, and the Virginia Rifle Battalion we have here, are admirable soldiers."
Upon their promotion, Moore and Howe were succeeded in command of their battalions by Francis Nash and Alexander Martin. Lee having been recalled, Howe succeeded him in command of the Southern Department. He retained under his command the third and some companies of the first and second North Carolina continental battalions; the others re- joined Moore at Wilmington. The troops under Moore were organized into a brigade and in January, 1777, ordered to join Washington's army in Pennsylvania. While preparing for this movement, Moore died and Nash, who had recently been promoted to the rank of brigadier-general, was assigned to the command of the brigade. Nash immediately marched northward and joined Washington on July 1st. His brigade took part in the maneuvres which led up to the battle of Brandywine, September 11, 1777. Only a small part of the brigade took part in that battle. The first battle in which the brigade participated as a unit was the battle at Germantown, October 4, 1777. Its heavy losses bear witness to its gallantry on that field. Nash himself while leading his men into action fell mortally wounded. He died three days later universally lamented as an officer of ability and a sincere patriot. The brigade passed the winter at Valley Forge and in the summer of 1778 formed part of the army with which Washington pur-
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sued Clinton across New Jersey into New York. On June 29 it participated with credit in the battle of Monmouth.
Nash had been succeeded by Gen. Lachlan McIntosh of Georgia under whose command the brigade passed the winter at Valley Forge. By the spring of 1778 losses in battle, from disease, and by desertion had so decreased the enrol- ment in the brigade that Congress resolved to reduce the six battalions to three by consolidating the sixth, fourth, and fifth with the first, second, and third. A little later Colonel Sheppard arrived with the tenth thus adding a fourth battalion to the brigade. The appointment of General Mc- Intosh had wounded the state pride of the troops and hurt their morale, because they felt that the appointment of any one other than a North Carolinian was a reflection on the State. "They imagine," declared Harnett, "that they ap- pear contemptible in the eyes of the Army, not having one General Officer from our State." "Our troops are uneasy," he wrote at another time, "at not having a General Officer of our State to command them. Our Officers are exceedingly anxious about it. Colonel Sumner writes to me that it is absolutely necessary." Nevertheless more than a year passed before the Assembly acted. Finally on January 9, 1779, upon the nomination of the Assembly, Congress pro- moted Colonel Sumner to the rank of brigadier-general, as- signed him to the command of the North Carolina brigade, and ordered him south to the defence of Georgia and South Carolina.
In the meantime some of the officers who had lost their commands by the consolidation of the battalions in May, had been at work in North Carolina raising and organizing four new battalions of nine months' Continentals which the As- sembly, in April, 1778, had directed to be enlisted. The first of these new battalions, numbering 600 men, was placed under command of Colonel Hogun who in the fall of 1778 marched it to join Washington at White Plains. The others were sent south to reinforce Sumner. On January 9, 1779, Congress promoted Hogun to the rank of brigadier-general and placed him in command of a new brigade composed of all the North Carolina Continentals then in Washington's army. On July 19th 200 volunteers from the brigade, under com- mand of Major Hardy Murfree, took part in the storming of Stony Point. In this assault, one of the most brilliant epi- sodes of the war, they won high praise from their commanding general, "Mad Anthony" Wayne, for their "good conduct and intrepidity" in action. As the summer of 1779 advanced the
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situation in the South became so critical that on September 20th the Continental Congress requested Washington to send Hogun's brigade, numbering about 700 effectives, to the aid of General Benjamin Lincoln at Charleston. Hogun reached Charleston on March 3, 1780, and shared the fate of that un- happy city. Its surrender carried with it North Carolina's entire Continental Line except a few officers, including Gen- eral Sumner, who happened to be absent at the time on other duties.
North Carolina was never able to recruit her Conti- mental Line up to its full strength. Some of the reasons for this failure-viz., the weakness of the executive authority, the divided counsels of the Whigs, the presence of the Tories, and the financial breakdown of both State and United States -have already been pointed out. Another cause was the gen- erosity with which the State permitted South Carolina and Georgia to recruit their battalions in North Carolina. As early as December, 1776, the North Carolina Council declared that the State was greatly handicapped "in making up her quota of men in the continental service" because so many of the militia she had sent to the defence of Charleston were enlisting, with the consent of their officers, in the service of South Carolina and Georgia; and the Council found it nec- essary to forbid such enlistments from the organized militia of the State except by express consent either of the executive or the legislative authority. A fifth cause was the influence of politics in determining military appointments. Governor Caswell, writing in April, 1777, says: "The recruiting serv- ice goes slowly, owing in a great measure to the negligence, want of abilities, or want of influence in the officers." But the chief cause of the thin ranks of North Carolina's conti- nental battalions was the failure of the General Assembly to pass an effective draft law. In 1775, Moore and Howe had no difficulty in raising their battalions because they had the full advantage of the wave of enthusiasm which swept the colony into rebellion; but by 1777 that wave had spent its force. Recruiting officers, therefore, found it difficult to in- duce men to volunteer "for the war" when they could satisfy both the law and their consciences by an occasional brief serv- ice in the militia. Nor were men eager to enlist in units that would take them away from their homes to service in distant states. The North Carolina continental battalions, there- fore, never went into battle with anything like their full com- plement of men. This fact occasioned great mortification to both the political and military representatives of the State.
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The delegates in the Continental Congress were urgent in their appeals to the General Assembly to adopt "spirited measures" to fill up the State's battalions. In December, 1777, Harnett begged his colleague, Burke, then at home at- tending the session of the legislature, to inform him "of the temper you find our Assembly in. Are they inclined to pur- sue spirited measures? For God's sake, fill up your Battal- ions," he exclaimed, "lay taxes, put a stop to the sordid and avaricious spirit which [has] affected all ranks and condi- tions of men. *
* All our foreign intelligence indicates that Europe will soon be in a flame. Let us not depend upon this. If we have virtue, we certainly have power to work out our own salvation, I hope without fear or trembling."
But the Assembly, though aware of the necessity, lacked either the wisdom or the courage to adopt and enforce the "spirited measures" required. It never gave the State a consistent, effective military policy. When it met in April, 1778, the returns submitted to it by the governor showed the North Carolina brigade short of its quota by 2,648 men. The Assembly declaring that since it was "absolutely neces- sary" to complete the battalions and experience had demon- strated that it was "impracticable to obtain that End in the common Mode of recruiting," made its first effort at a draft law. It provided that the men were to be drafted by lot from the militia, placed on the continental establishment, and en- listed for nine months. The act failed to accomplish its pur- pose because the machinery for enforcing it was defective. Accordingly when the Assembly met a year later, the State's continental battalions were still short 2,000 men, and the Assembly could think of no better way of filling the gaps than by offering to every ten militiamen who should furnish one continental recruit for eighteen months exemption from mil- itary service for that period except in case of actual invasion or insurrection. It is difficult to imagine a more vicious piece of legislation. It not only failed to raise the men needed, but it also thoroughly disorganized the militia. In order to secure the 600 continental recruits which it produced, it was neces- sary to exempt 6,000 other men from military service for eigliteen months. Accordingly when it became necessary for the governor in the summer of 1780 to call out 2,000 militia, the organizations which had been built up with so much care and labor were found to be completely undermined by the operations of the act of 1779.
In 1780, the Assembly, again faced with the same problem, decided to try the effect of more liberal bounties. To volun-
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teers in the continental service it offered $500 at the time of enlistment; $500 at the end of each year's service; 200 acres of land and one prime slave, or his value in currency, at the end of three years, or of the war; and it solemnly set aside and dedicated to this purpose immense tracts of the State's western lands. But the promise of liberal bounties brought no better results than the promise of exemption from serv- ice, and in 1781, the Assembly finding it impossible to fill up its continental battalions, adopted the advice of the Conti- nental Congress, reduced their number to four, and again re- sorted to an ineffective draft to fill their ranks. But none of these expedients succeeded; the State's continental battalions were never full. At Germantown, Nash led to battle a brigade of less than 800 men. On December 23, 1777, the brigade, which should have numbered 6,552 officers and men, num- bered only 881, of whom but 434 were present and fit for duty. The published roster of North Carolina's ten continental bat- talions contains a total of 5,454 names, and this number in- cludes all those who had died, all who had been made prison- ers, all who had been discharged, and all who had deserted; and this last class numbered not less than 10 per cent of the whole.
Throughout the Revolution the State retained immediate control over its militia and ultimate control over its Conti- nentals. The militia were raised, organized, armed, paid and maintained solely by the State; their field officers were elected by the General Assembly; their commander-in-chief was the governor. The authority of the State over its militia was complete whether in or beyond its borders. Over its Conti- nentals it was only less complete. The State raised and organ- ized them and appointed their battalion officers, but their general officers were appointed by the Continental Congress upon the recommendation of the legislature. When actually forming a part of the Continental Army under command of Washington, or other Continental generals, the State's con- tinental troops were subject to the orders of the command- ing general, but even then the commanding general exercised only a delegated authority. The State never surrendered its ultimate authority over them. It not only raised and organ- ized them in the first instance, but recruited their ranks, cre- ated new units or consolidated old units as it saw fit, censured, suspended or removed officers and appointed new ones, pun- ished deserters, and exercised all these and other powers over them even when they were under the immediate com- mand of Washington himself. In 1777, the General Assembly
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conferred upon the governor authority "to give such orders as he may think necessary for the removal, marching or dis- position of the Continental Troops in this State or any of them."
This assertion and exercise by the several states of the right of control over their continental troops was one of the most serious defects of the continental government. It pos- sessed not that centralization of authority and power so necessary to secure military efficiency. The Continental Con- gress could suggest, advise, and request the use of the con- tinental troops for continental purposes, but it could not com- mand them. The ultimate authority lay with thirteen differ- ent states, each claiming and exercising the powers of sov- ereignty, jealous of their rights, and quick to resent any act of the general government that suggested encroachments upon them.
Throughout the Revolution, North Carolina troops, both Continentals and militia, in common with the troops of the other states, endured cruel suffering, hunger and sickness, and loss of physical vitality which diminished their fighting capacity by reason of the failure of State and United States to equip and maintain them properly. On January 31, 1778, out of a total of 992 men and officers enrolled in the North Carolina brigade at Valley Forge, 249 were reported unfit for duty for lack of clothes and shoes, and 323 were sick. This condition continued all the winter, reaching its climax on March 30th when the returns showed 360 on the sick list and only 352 present and fit for duty. "I am very sorry to have to report to you," wrote their commanding general to Gov- ernor Caswell, in March, "that the men of my Brigade here · have suffered severely this winter for want of clothing and other necessaries. Fifty of them died in and about Camp since the beginning of January last, and near two hundred sick here now besides as many more reported sick absent in different Hospitals of this State and Jersey, a most distress- ing situation !"
Valley Forge is, of course, the synonym for suffering and heroic endurance, and its story is known to all the world; but Valley Forge was not the only place at which men suf- fered and endured every extreme of cold and hunger and disease for the cause of American independence. When Gen- eral Greene took command of the American army at Charlotte in December, 1780, he at once reported to Washington the condition of his army, "if," he adds, "it deserves the name of one. Nothing can be more wretched and distressing," he
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continued, "than the condition of the troops, starving with cold and hunger, without tents and camp equipage." The Virginia troops were "literally naked and a great part to- tally unfit for any kind of duty." "A tattered remnant of some garment," wrote Greene evidently depressed at the con- dition of his men, "clumsily stuck together with the thorns of the locust tree form the sole covering of hundreds, * *
* and more than 1,000 are so naked that they can be put on duty only in case of desperate necessity." Moreover he found 300 of them without arms or ammunition. Nor were these condi- tions confined to the enlisted men. In 1779, General Hogun wrote that his officers were "in great want," it being out of their power to purchase clothes and other necessities "at the exhorbitant prices" prevailing. On account of the deprecia- tion of the currency in which their salaries were paid, the con- dition of the officers of the Continental Line became so des- perate that they threatened to resign in a body unless the General Assembly came to their relief.
In general these distressing conditions were due less to official indifference or incapacity than to the inability of the government to mobilize the resources of the State. Before 1775 there were no manufactures in North Carolina, and when war broke out the provincial government of course found the source of supply of manufactured articles suddenly cut off. To encourage industrial enterprises in the colony, the Pro- vincial Congress in September, 1775, offered premiums rang- ing from £25 to £750 to persons who would establish factories for making saltpeter, gunpowder, cotton, woolen and linen goods, and other needed articles. But in North Carolina the Revolution was a civil war which produced such internal con- ditions as made it impossible for such enterprises to be devel- oped with any great success. As in the great Civil War of 1861-1865, therefore, the State was compelled to look abroad for most of her supplies. But during the Revolution, North Carolina had no credit, and no such universally needed prod- uct as cotton on which to base a credit. In 1780, Benjamin Hawkins, the State's agent for purchasing military stores, bought at St. Eustatia several hundred stand of arms for the State for which he was obliged to pledge his personal credit. "I could procure nothing," he reported, "on the faith of the State." When these and other difficulties, some of which have already been discussed, are duly weighed and considered the thing which impresses one is not so much the failure as the astonishing success which attended the efforts
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