USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: The Colonial and Revolutionary Periods 1584 1783, Volume I > Part 47
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4 David Fanning in Biographical History of North Carolina, Vol. V, p. 93.
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work was of much less historical significance. The Whig partisans directed their activities chiefly against the organized forces of the enemy with the purpose of loosening his grip on the country, always keeping in view their effects on the movements of the main armies; Fanning, on the contrary, although performing his work with equal ability, never aimed at the destruction of the enemy's organized forces, ex- ercised no influence upon the ultimate outcome of. the war, and produced no other result than to increase the undying hatred which thousands of Americans never ceased to feel for the mother country.
Craige regarded Fanning as his ablest and most trust- worthy lieutenant, and on July 5, 1781, commissioned him colonel of the loyal militia of Chatham and Randolph coun- ties. With his headquarters at Coxe's Mill on Deep River in Chatham County, he harried the country far and wide. In July with 150 men he swooped down on Pittsboro, broke up a general muster of the Whig militia, and captured fifty- three prisoners, including all the militia officers of the county present and three members of the General Assembly. A few weeks later, learning that Colonel Thomas Wade of Anson County, had collected a band of Whigs for an attack on some Tories on Drowning Creek, Fanning made a rapid and unex- pected movement, fell upon Wade's force, and routed it, killing twenty-three and capturing fifty-three of his men. He continued his hostilities for six months after the surrender of Cornwallis, breaking up Whig gatherings, dispersing militia musters, destroying his enemies individually and in bands, and terrorizing all the region from Guilford to Cape Fear.
The most famous of his exploits occurred on September 12, 1781. Gathering at Coxe's Mill a band of 1,100 Tories. he set out for an attack on a force of Whigs which General Butler had assembled on Haw River; but Governor Burke who was then at Hillsboro learned of Fanning's movement in time to warn Butler who made his escape. Thereupon Fanning determined to put into execution a project he had been turning over in his mind for some time, and turning suddenly eastward, he dashed into Hillsboro early in the morning, put to rout the Whig force guarding the town, killed 15 of their number, and captured 200 among whom was the governor himself. Lingering just long enough for his men to sack the town, Fanning put out for Wilmington. The Whigs gathering in haste under General Butler attacked him vigorously at Lindsay's Mill on Cane Creek, but were re-
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pulsed. Both sides suffered heavy losses. Fanning himself, was among the wounded and unable to continue his retreat, but his next in command conveyed the governor and other prisoners safely to Wilmington and turned them over to Craige.
This exploit was the climax but not the conclusion of Fanning's career. He continued his activities well into the year 1782 when he made overtures of peace to the state gov- . ernment. But the State rejected his advances, refusing to regard him in any other light than as an outlaw and com- pelled him to seek safety in flight. He never returned to North Carolina for when the General Assembly in 1783 came to pass "An Act of Pardon and Oblivion," offering amnesty to Loyalists generally, it excepted from its benefits three no- torious Tory leaders, and one of the three was David Fanning.
From Wilmington Governor Burke was sent to Sullivan's Island. He regarded himself as a prisoner of war, but his view was not shared by his captors, to whom he was a po- litical prisoner. They denied him the right of exchange, kept him in close confinement, and declared that they held him as a hostage for the safety of Fanning. Burke protested so vigorously against this treatment that his captors finally paroled him on James' Island. But he soon found that he had gained nothing by this change. On the island were many North Carolina Tory refugees who had been driven from their homes by the rebel government, and they regarded Burke, as the head of that government, with an intense and bitter hatred. They daily subjected him to unsparing indignities, gross insults, and threats of personal injury, and on one occasion fired into his quarters, wounding one man and kill- ing another at his side. His appeals to General Leslie, com- manding at Charleston, for protection were treated with such studied indifference, that he became convinced that he had been parolled among these venomous enemies as part of a scheme to destroy him in such a way as to relieve the British authorities of the responsibility and odium of his death while their prisoner. Brooding over his unhappy situation, he finally convinced himself that having given his parole in ex- change for protection, the refusal to grant him protection released him from his moral if not from his legal obligation to keep his part of the contract and on January 16, 1782, made his escape, returned to North Carolina, and resumed his duties as governor. Afterwards he offered through Gen- eral Greene to secure the release of any officer in the hands
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of the Americans whom the British general might designate in exchange for himself; but the British general refused to consider any proposal that did not involve the return to them of their prisoner. This Burke refused to consider, and learn- ing that many of the American officers, including General Greene, condemned his course in violating his parole, he finally withdrew all negotiations with the British. At the expiration of his term as governor he retired to private life, gave himself over to dissipation, and died within less than two years.
During Burke's captivity, Alexander Martin, who, as speaker of the Senate discharged the duties of the governor, carried into execution plans which Burke had made for the relief of the Cape Fear patriots, sending to their aid a force of 1,100 men under Rutherford, who had been exchanged, and Butler. Rutherford entered upon his work with that vigor for which he was justly distinguished. He distressed the Tories in every possible way, rivalling in this respect the activities of Fanning, "with a view of drawing the troops out of Wilmington to an engagement." In numerous skir- mishes, scarcely deserving the name of battles, at Rockfish Creek, at Moore's Plantation, at North East Bridge above Wilmington, at Seven Creeks below Wilmington, he broke up Tory gatherings, destroyed Craige's foraging parties, cut off his supplies, and practically cleared the Cape Fear sec- tion, outside of Wilmington, of the enemy.
While Rutherford was thus recovering Eastern Carolina, and preparing an effort to drive the enemy out of Wilming- ton, came news that aroused the Americans to a frenzy of delight and sent Craige flying from North Carolina with all the speed his crowded sails could bear him. Cornwallis had surrendered! Swift express riders spread the glad tidings throughout the country. Everywhere the war-wearied pa- triots heard the news with unbounded joy and enthusiasm. Correspondents hastened to exchange congratulations "on this happy occasion." One good patriot rejoiced because the good folk of Hillsboro could now "enjoy peace in their beds without a dread of Mr. Fanning or his adherents." In many places business was suspended in a riot of celebrations. Tlie judges could not attend their Edenton court because "upon the confirmation of the news of the capture of Cornwallis, we were all so elated, that the time elapsed in frolicking." Rutherford paraded his men, proclaimed the glorious news to them, and ordered suitable salutes. To the Cape Fear
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patriots not the least glorious result was the evacuation of their chief town by their hated enemy. On November 18th, Craige embarked his troops and taking with him the last representative of the British Crown who ever claimed po- litical authority in North Carolina, Josiah Martin, and the last British soldier within her limits, sailed for Charleston.
CHAPTER XXVII
PEACE
Except for the activities of Fanning, who did not leave the State until May, 1782, the departure of Craige brought the war to a close in North Carolina, although a year was to elapse before peace was declared and the independence of the colonies acknowledged. Six years of war had wrought ruin and disaster in many sections of the State. Conditions in North Carolina at the close of the struggle have nowhere been better described than by Ashe.1 "The contest had been doubtful," he says. "It brought many vicissitudes and much suffering. The state as well as the continental currency had ceased to have value. Many families had been utterly im- poverished. Misery and desolation were diffused through innumerable households. Civil war and carnage had raged from Surry to Brunswick. Murder and pillage had stalked through a large section of the State, and families expelled from their homes had sought asylums in distant parts, and were too impoverished to return. Many mothers and chil- dren were bereft of their last support, their sacrifices in the cause of independence being irreparable. In the desolated region of the Cape Fear even the wealthiest of the patriots were ruined by the ravages of the war. They had cheerfully laid their all on the altar of their country. Hard had been the conflict, but in the darkest hours the brave hearts of the North Carolina patriots became still more courageous, and in their adversity they bore their sufferings with resolution and fortitude. At length the storm-clouds passed away, the sky was no longer obscured, and hope gave place to assur- ance. The ardent longing became a joyful realization."
The people of North Carolina, however, lost no time in mourning over their losses or rejoicing over their victories. The tasks of repairing the wastes of war, of providing for the wants of the soldiers, and of solving the problems of
1 History of North Carolina. Vol. I, p. 722.
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independence were too immediate and pressing to be post- poned. The General Assembly met at Hillsboro, April 15, 1782. In an able address Governor Burke reviewed condi- tions in the State and pointed out some of the problems which called for immediate solution. He reminded the Assembly that the war was not over, that British garrisons still held Charleston and Savannah, and that "the Enemy have still larger forces in our Country" than the Americans them- selves, and urged therefore the importance of keeping up the military establishment. "Though we have gained great advantages," he said, "that is not enough, those advantages are to be secured and ought to be improved into compleat and indisputable success. Victory gives strength and energy. Defeat imposes weakness and dismay. While our Arms are prevailing is therefore the precise season for such actions as remain to put us in possession of peace and prosperity." He strongly emphasized the State's "indispensable duty to support her Quota of force, of expense and of Council" in continental affairs. Her military laws needed strengthening. Penalties should be imposed upon officers for failure to make proper returns of drafts for recruiting the Continental Line, the number of causes for exemption from militia service ought to be reduced, and provisions made for better dis- cipline of both militia officers and soldiers. Point was given to this last recommendation by the conduct of Rutherford's men upon their entering Wilmington after Craige's retire- ment, which was still fresh in everybody's recollection; "they seemed to regard the place as one carried by storm, a fair theatre for plunder and the display of the worst passions of our nature." 2
Among the important matters which Burke urged upon the attention of the Assembly was that it should support not only the State's quota of force and expense, but also "of Council" in continental affairs. It was a timely recommendation. Fol- lowing the Declaration of Independence Congress had taken up the problem of a closer and more permanent union of the thirteen states. Its discussion resulted in the Articles of Con- federation. When the final vote was taken on this plan of union North Carolina was represented in Congress by Thomas Burke, John Penn, and Cornelius Harnett. Burke who was absent in North Carolina at the time was opposed to the plan
2 MeRee, G. J. : Life and Correspondence of James Tredell, Vol. I, p. 562.
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which he laughed at "as a Chimerical Project." Penn and Harnett favored it. "I think," wrote the latter, "that unless the States confederate a door will be left open for Continental Contention and Bloodshed, and that very soon after we are at peace with Europe." The Articles were adopted by Con- gress on November 15, 1777, and sent to the states for ratifi- cation. "The child Congress has been big with these two years past," wrote Harnett to Burke, "is at last brought forth-(Confederation). I fear it will by several Legislatures be thought a little deformed ;- you will think it a Monster." He thought it "the most difficult piece of Business that ever was undertaken by any public Body," and regarded it as "the best Confederacy that could be formed especially when we consider the number of states, their different Interests, [and] Customs." Harnett of course was solicitous as to the fate of the Articles in North Carolina, but apparently without cause. They were laid before the Assembly April 24, 1778, and promptly ratified.
The Articles of Confederation required each State to be represented in the Continental Congress by not more than seven nor less than two delegates. But this obligation the states failed to meet. After 1776 the Continental Congress rapidly lost its early prestige. Most of the eminent leaders who had given it distinction and influence had retired from its halls to the councils of their own states, to foreign courts, and to the battlefields. These now offered greater opportu- nities for fame and service than Congress. Still there was important work for Congress to do. The army was to be maintained. The navy was to be created, organized and manned. Congress alone represented the United States in foreign affairs. In its name American ministers were re- ceived at foreign courts. By its authority they negotiated treaties. Upon its credit they borrowed money .. It alone could ratify the treaty which acknowledged the independence of the thirteen states. Yet at home its authority had become merely nominal. The states no longer treated its decrees with respect, or its requisitions with obedience; and they became increasingly more and more indifferent to maintaining their delegations in it.
North Carolina had been among the worst offenders in this matter. Her delegation had generally been composed of her ablest and most distinguished leaders-among them Caswell, Hooper, Hewes, Penn, Harnett, Burke, Johnston, Hugh Wil- liamson, and Benjamin Hawkins. One of them, Samuel John- Vol. I-32
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ston, had been elected president of the Congress, but had de- clined to serve. After 1780, however, the State was seldom represented in Congress by a full delegation and at times even was not represented at all. From July 21 to September 21, 1781, William Sharpe alone represented the State. Then fol- lowed an interval when no delegate from the State was pres- ent. On October 4, 1781, Benjamin Hawkins took his seat and alone represented the State until March 19, 1782, when he departed, leaving the State again unrepresented until July 19 when Hugh Williamson appeared and took his seat. Accord- ingly when the Assembly next met Governor Burke pointed out its duty of "the appointing of Delegates to represent the State in Congress and providing for their decent support while employed in that high and important service." His recommendation, however, seems to have had but little effect. The State's delegates continued to attend only spasmodically. Nor did the other states show any greater interest. In a Con- gress entitled to ninety-one members, only twenty-three were present, January 14, 1784, to vote for the ratification of the treaty of peace which acknowledged their independence. Rep- resenting North Carolina on that occasion were Hugh Wil- liamson and Richard Dobbs Spaight.
In his message Governor Burke pointed out the necessity for important reforms in the civil affairs of the State. He called attention to the negligence and corruption that prevailed among the specific tax collectors, commissaries and quartermasters; the "disorder of the public accounts ;" the "insufficiency of the provisions for the Judges and Attorney-General" which "has much embarrassed the Judi- ciary Department of the Government and threatens to leave the State altogether without Courts of Justice." One of the most forcible passages in his address deals with the evils of arbitrary impressments for public pur- poses, which he had set himself "absolutely to restrain and hoped finally to render them unnecessary." Perceiving "that rendering the merchant's property precarious, and de- priving him of the means of carrying on his trade by seizing without payment his stock, must infallibly ruin our Impor- tations and exportations, and leave us without foreign sup- plies," he recommended "to the patronage of the General Assembly this important source of wealth, strength and popu- lation." The message itself, in style, in spirit and in con- tent was a strong document; the circumstances under which it was delivered made it all the more impressive. All rea-
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lized that it was the last act of a distinguished public career, which had begun with brilliance and was closing under a dark cloud of adversity.
The Assembly hastened to carry many of the governor's recommendations into effect. It passed an act to complete the State's continental battalions and imposed a penalty of £50 upon any officer who failed to make proper returns. An- other act required specific tax collectors, commissaries, and quartermasters to make settlements of their accounts. The war had produced unsettled business conditions. Titles to property had become insecure because many persons in the State "through the confusion of the times," had not been able to prove and register deeds and other conveyances as required by law, and because others had not completed build- ings on town lots "within the time limited by law" on ac- count of the "impossibility of procuring necessary mate- rials for building * occasioned by the present war with Great Britain." The Assembly accordingly passed sev- eral acts designed to give necessary relief from such condi- tions, and to stabilize business. With the same purpose in view it established a scale of depreciation for paper currency. An important reform was made in the judiciary by granting equity jurisdiction to the superior court judges. Several acts were passed granting relief to towns from conditions produced by the war. Illustrative of this kind of legislation is an act relating to the election of commissioners for the town of Edenton. By an act of 1745 the General Assembly named the commissioners and conferred upon them the power of self-perpetuation; this act was now declared to be "in- consistent with the spirit of our present Constitution," and the commissioners were made elective by the freeholders of the town. Other acts resulting from the war provided for the re-opening of the land office; for the sale of confiscated .
property ; and for the relief of the officers and soldiers of the Continental Line.
One of the first problems to which the Assembly turned its attention was to provide for the men whose sacrifices, en- durance and courage had brought the struggle to its trium- phant close. An act was passed to make good to the officers and soldiers of the Continental Line the losses they had sus- tained by reason of the depreciation of the currency, and a commission consisting of John Hawks, James Coor, and Wil- liam Blount was appointed to carry it into effect. In 1780, it will be recalled, the Assembly reserved an immense tract
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of the State's western lands to be used as bounties for her soldiers. At the April session, 1782, therefore, declaring that it was "proper that some effectual and permanent re- ward should be rendered for the signal bravery and persever- ing zeal of the Continental officers and soldiers in the serv- ice of the State," the Assembly passed an act providing for the distribution of this land, allotting to each private soldier,' 640 acres; to each non-commissioned officer, 1,000 acres; to each subaltern, 2,560 acres; to each captain 3,840 acres; to each major, 4,800 acres; to each lieutenant-colonel, 5,760 acres; to each colonel, 7,200 acres; to each brigadier-general, 12,000 acres; to each chaplain, 7,200 acres; to each surgeon, 4,800 acres ; and to each surgeon's mate, 2,560 acres. Similar allotments were made to the heirs of those who had been killed in the service. To General Greene, "as a mark of the high sense this State entertains of the extraordinary serv- ices of that brave and gallant officer," the General Assembly granted 25,000 acres. Absalom Tatom, Isaac Shelby, and Anthony Bledsoe were appointed commissioners to lay off these claims.
: The Assembly also turned its attention to those citizens of the State who were prisoners in the hands of the British. Every war has its stories of prison brutalities and horrors, and the war of the American Revolution was no exception. Each side freely charged the other with intentional mistreat- ment of its prisoners, and unfortunately each was able to cite incidents which seem to sustain its charges. But even if we dismiss from consideration all accusations of intentional mis- treatment by either side, there remains a story of terrible privations and sufferings. The British perhaps were more blameable than the Americans since their resources and means of alleviating suffering were greater. Stories of Brit- ish prison-ships of the American Revolution find their par- allel in the stories of Andersonville and Fort Delaware dur- ing the Civil War. After the fall of Charleston the soldiers of the North Carolina Continental Line who became prisoners of war were placed on prison-ships in Charleston harbor; many others were sent thither after Camden. Close confine- ment, improper food, and ill-usage proved fatal to scores of them. Others were sent to the West Indies where under heavy pressure, amounting practically to compulsion, they entered the British service against Spain. But many were still in captivity when the Assembly met in 1782. The Gen- eral Assembly accordingly adopted a resolution requesting
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the governor to open negotiations with General Leslie, the British commander at Charleston, for an exchange of these captives for "such of our disaffected Inhabitants [who were] guilty of Military offences only." Governor Martin com- plied with this resolution with such success, through the me- diation of General Greene, that when the Assembly met April 18, 1783, he was able to report that the exchanges had been effected "and our late suffering people restored to their friends and families."
Having provided rewards for its soldiers, and secured the release of those in prison, the Assembly next sought to adopt a policy that would tend to allay the bitterness which the war had aroused. When the Assembly met, April 18, 1783, Governor Martin announced that the king had acknowl- edged the independence of the United States, adding that to the General Assembly "belongs the Task, that in sheathing the Sword, you soften the horrors [of war] and repair those ravages which war has made with a skillful hand, and thereby heal the wounds of your bleeding Country. Our late revolted Citizens who, through ignorance and delusion, have forfeited their lives but are endeavouring to expiate their crimes by new proofs of fidelity, have fresh claims to your Clemency on this happy occasion." Following this advice and declar- . ing it to be the policy, "of all wise states on the termination of civil wars, to grant an act of pardon and oblivion for past offenses," the Assembly passed an act providing that all treasons, misprision of treason, felonies, and misdemeanors. committed since July 4, 1776, by any person or persons, should be "pardoned, released, and put in total oblivion," but from the benefits of this amnesty it excepted five classes of per- sons. They were: (1), citizens of the State who had ac- cepted commissions as officers and acted as such under the king; (2), those who were named in the confiscation acts; (3), those who had left the State with the Britishi armies and should fail to return within twelve months after the passage of this law; (4), Peter Mallette, Samuel Andrews, and David Fanning; and (5), persons guilty of deliberate and wilful house-burning, murder, and rape. But in spite of legislative leniency, the people of North Carolina never really pardoned or forgave the men whose voices and hands had been raised against them in their struggle for independence. Many of the Loyalists returned expecting to resume their old places in their communities, only to find themselves under a ban socially and politically, and unable to bear the frowns
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