USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina, V I pt 2 > Part 32
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*Early in October General Greene, hoping that after Cornwalli- should have been taken Washington would despatch a force to his aid. sent Colonel Lee to Virginia to represent the situation of affairs in South Carolina. Washington assented to the suggestion and pro- posed that the French admiral should convey a detachment un fer Lafayette to the Cape Fear: but eventually the admiral found it inconvenient to delay his departure from the coast longer, and th- plan was abandoned. General Wayne, however, marched some the py from Virginia to the south and operated in Georgia ( Lee's Memoirs, p. 518).
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703
EXCESSES IN WILMINGTON
But the distresses of the people of Wilmington were not quite over. They had grave complaints to make of the November spoliation of their property at the hands of Rutherford's militia, who appear to have regarded that the town had been captured and was subject to plunder. The depredations were inexcusable. When requested, however, guards were placed by the general to protect the homes of the inhabi- tants. Such salt as the British had left was seized, and that being insufficient to load all the wagons. an additional supply was taken from the storehouses of the merchants, for that was a commodity of prime necessity, and was greatly needed at the west. When the army returned home, as it arrived at the place where a company was mustered out. the salt was distributed, one bushel to each man as his com- pensation, and it was of more real value than the auditor's certificates which they subsequently received for their ser- vices. General Rutherford. quiet being restored, marched his army to the interior, having first given orders to Major Graham to take all the dragoons and mounted infantry and effectually disperse such Tories as were still embodied along Graham's Graham, 374 the South Carolina line.
While the investment of Wilmington was in progress, Fanning, having received a supply of ammunition. toward the close of October gathered around him a hundred Tories and renewed his operations on Deep River. The Whigs, however. soon embodied and marched against him. On their approach he gave them battle. at first driving them off, but on their returning to the attack he himself retreated, and made good his escape. Fearing utter discomfiture if he maintained a large camp, he then separated his men into small parties, and these bands passed here and there through the Whig settlements, committing many depredations.
The Assembly at Salem
The Assembly had adjourned to meet at Salem in Novem- ber, and on the 8th of that month Colonel Martin, the act- ing governor. arrived. bringing with him two companies of soldiers. General Caswell and sixty-three members of the legislature also appeared, but twenty-cight members of the house and ten members of the senate were absent. Two
Fanning ::- news operi- tions
704
MARTIN'S ADMINISTRATION, 1781-83
1721 - November
Clewell's Wachovia, 153
.
S. R., XXII, 211 Tories not suppressed
S. R., XX11, 608
weeks passed in listless inaction. Then on the night of November 24th the alarmning news was received that a large body of Tories was approaching with the purpose of seizing the person of Governor Martin. It was a cold November night, rain falling; and all night long the two companies were in anxious expectancy.
However, no attack was made; but the peril and the hope- lessness of profiting by longer delay led to an adjournment, and on November 27th, without having transacted any busi- ness, the legislature adjourned to meet again on Jan- uary 25th.
Deep River was still the scene of great disturbance. for although Fanning had certain intelligence of Craig's depar- ture. he and his lieutenants continued their depredations and murders, until at length on December 10th Colonel Elijah Isaacs, who had been taken at Camden and was Rutherford's companion at St. Augustine. "came down from the moun- tains" with a party of three hundred men and established his camp at Coxe's Mill, in the settlement where the Tory bands had their hea lquarters. For some weeks he remained there, but although his presence had some effect, he was unable to entirely suppress the roving bands, whose appetite for blood and plunder seemed insatiable. Nor, notwithstanding the departure of Craig's regulars and the operations of General Rutherford, were the Tories of the lower Cape Fear entirely subdued. In Bladen they still gave trouble. General Marion had made a truce with Colonel Gainey, a South Carolina Tory, in June. 1781, establishing a large truce-ground ad- joining Anson and Bladen. in which the Tories could live in a state of neutrality, not to be interfered with, they under- taking to commit no depredations. Toward the end of January many coming from Gainey's truce-land did much mischief in Bladen, and Colonel Robeson wrote to Governor Martin that the worst of the Bladen Tories continued to stand out and would not surrender, "and I am of the opinion won't until they can be beaten or killed." Further. about a hundred of these irrepressible sympathizers of the British had gone over to the truce-land, and were a menace to that part of North Carolina. Colonel Robeson urged that the State regiment should be stationed on Raft Swamp and
705
TRIALS FOR TREASON
1782
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Ashpole, as a means of repressing them. but that regiment was not then fully organized, and was not sent.
Governor Martin's action
In order to hasten a restoration of normal conditions, Governor Martin, considering that an end ought to be put to all hostile operations now that there was no longer any British force to contend with, determined to enforce the civil law while offering the olive branch of peace.
He ordered that special terms of court should be held for the trial of the prisoners in jail. and such other criminals as might be captured : and on Christmas day he issued a proclamation pardoning all who had taken up arms against the State who should surrender before March Ioth, on con- dition that they would enlist in the continental battalions for a term of twelve months; but such as had been guilty of murder, robbery or housebreaking were excepted from this offer.
Those inhabitants who had taken sides against their coun- try were regarded by the administration as mere law- breakers and amenable to punishment in the courts. On January 17th a session of the court was begun at Hillsboro. 1782 Four culprits were arraigned for high treason, and con- victed : one of them, Thomas Dark, had figured as a captain in Fanning's band, and was as enterprising and nearly as dangerous as Fanning himself. From his cruelty to pris- oners, in cutting, hacking and wounding them, he had ac- quired among his followers the name of "young Tarleton." At that term of the court Colonel Alfred Moore conducted the prosecutions on behalf of the State, and gained great reputation for legal acquirements. At Wilmington court others were tried and convicted; and at the March term of Salisbury court Samuel Bryan, John Hampton, and Nicholas White were likewise found guilty of high treason and condemned to death. These men were the leaders in the Tory movement in June, 1780, escaping Rutherford and joining Major McArthur with the British dragoons at An- son Court House, then occupied as a British post. The judges in a statement made to the governor said that Bryan and Hampton were generally considered as very
S. R., XX11, 910
Tories tried and convicted
S. R .. XVI, 263, 270
706
MARTIN'S ADMINISTRATION, 1781-83
1782
honest men; and it did not appear to the court that they had on their march through the State committed any unusual violence, there being no proof that they had been guilty of any murder, or house-burning, or even plundering except for the use of the army. Governor Burke at once reprieved the prisoners until May roth, when the Assembly might deter- mine on the proper course to pursue with regard to them, or they might be exchanged ; and as some of the people about Salisbury were threatening violence against these prisoners, he directed Major Lewis, who was in command there, to be very attentive and prevent any interference with them.
The return of Governor Burke
S. R., XVI, 15 et seq .; 178, 181
Burke escapes, Jan. 16, 1732
Toward the close of October, Governor Burke, who had been held a close prisoner at Wilmington, was conveyed to Charleston, and was at first confined in a fort on Sullivan's Island; but on November 6thi he was paroled to James Island, then infested by desperate refugees, full of hatred toward those who had expelled them from their homes. They had been accustomed to murder Whigs without com- punction, and Governor Burke was often threatened and considered himself every moment in danger of assassination. At length a party of revengeful Loyalists fired on a small group who were at the governor's quarters, killing one man on one side and wounding another standing on the other side of him. The next morning the governor wrote to General Leslie portraying the perils of his position and requesting a parole within the American lines, or that he might be re- moved to a place of safety. General Leslie took no notice of this reasonable request. Finding that he was to be sacri- ficed to the rage of the exasperated Tories, whenever his assassination could be effected, and that he was not held as a prisoner of war. Governor Burke determined that he was perfectly released from all obligations to remain on James Island. His situation involved mutual obligations to which General Leslie seemed indifferent. Having resolved to es- cape, he succeeded in doing so on January 16th. He reached General Greene's headquarters safely, and at once wrote to General Leslie asking to be exchanged, and saying that he would return on parole provided General Leslie would
BURKE RESUMES THE ADMINISTRATION
pledge himself to treat him not differently from the conti- nental officers. General Leslie acceded to neither of these propositions. At the end of January the governor there- fore returned to North Carolina.
On the day fixed for the meeting of the Assembly, Gov- Clewell's ernor Martin and a number of members arrived at Salem ; but a quorum did not attend. Five days later, January 30th, while the members were still lingering in hope of additional arrivals, Governor Burke unexpectedly appeared on the scene. At the election in March, Colonel Martin would cease to be the speaker of the senate and therefore it was argued he could not act as governor after that date. This consideration induced Governor Burke to assert his right to resume the administration : and the next day, January 31st, Colonel Martin delivered to him all the papers in his pos- session as governor. and gave him all the information possi- ble about public matters. As no quorum appeared. the As- sembly then adjourned.
He resumes the administration
Entering promptly on the administration, Governor January 3Ist Burke immediately undertook to remedy the great derange- ment of public affairs, and applied himself to the work of establishing peace in the State and making the people secure in their homes. His attention was first given to the condi- tion of supplies and provisions for the army, and to the accounts of those in charge of public property. But he was not unmindful of the Tory bands. On February 5th he di- rected General Butler to send parties into the disaffected settlements, for Fanning was gaining strength and it was feared that he would seize Butler himself and other prin- cipal officers. To form the nucleus of an army Burke di- S R .. XVI, rected the state drafts to rendezvous immediately at Hillsboro. 500 Indeed he was now all energy and acted with spirit. Having ordered Glaubeck to meet him at Halifax, and Glaubeck not attending. he at once put him under arrest ; and similar ac- tion was taken as to others who were not prompt in observ- ing his directions. Calling his council together, it was deter- S. R .. XVI, 131. 196. 54- mined that the general plan the governor had in mind at the time of his capture should be now carried into effect, and a
1.92
Wachovia, 159
708
BURKE'S ADMINISTR.ITION. 1782
1-82
strong and efficient force should be marched into the dis- affected region and the Tories quieted or expelled from the State. And inasmuch as it was thought that the regulations restricting exportations had worked to the injury of the State, he by prodemation gave permission for the free and unlimited exportation of all commodities, and otherwise sought to re-establish commerce in its natural channel .. Some of those who had been convicted of treason by the courts he allowed to be executed, but he pardoned others on condition that they should serve twelve months in the con- tinental service. they being thereafter regarded as citizens of the State.
Major Bennet Crofton was the senior officer of the state battalion authorized by the last Assembly, among the other officers of that battalion being Captain George Farragut. a native of Minorca .* Governor Burke did not think Major Crofton equal to the command of the expedition which he had in mind. and so selected Major Hogg of the continentals for that duty. Major Crofton. however. refused to abdicate, and although the governor placed him under ar- rest, his disobedience of orders interfered so seriously with the collection of the draits that the proposed expedition came to naught.
S. R., XVI, 560-562*
Fanning's brutality
To the proclamation of Governor Martin offering pardon. Fanning made some objections, and proposed other term .. saying that if his terms were not agreed on his sword would be continually unsheathed, as he was determined he would not leave one old offender alive that had injured any of his Majesty's friends. The general conduct of this re- lentless partisan at this time is well illustrated by some ex- tracts from his diary : "We wounded two of them mortall; and several slightly. .. . The day following we pursued thema to Cumberland County, and on my way I burned Captami Coxe's house and his father's. On my return to Ligth River, ... fell in with one of Captain Golson's men who had been very assiduous in assisting the rebels. I killed him . . . And I went with a design of burning Captain Gol- n',
*Afterward the father of Admiral David Glasgow Farragut.
1
700
DAT'ID FANNING
house, which I did, and also two others. In my way I fell in with a man, . .. and on observing ine that day he at- tempted to escape. but I shot him." Pending negotiations, however, Fanning remained more quiet ; and eventually in February he and his officers made a proposition for a truce to last at least six months, and not to exceed twelve. similar in terms to the truce granted to Colonel Gainey in South Carolina by Marion the preceding June: the truce-land to be from Cumberland County twenty miles north and south, and thirty east and west, to be kept totally clear of light horse. Every man who had been in arms in behalf of the British Government was to have a right to withdraw him- self into that district, and to have free trade with any port. but not to carry arms.
After making his proposition for a truce, for a time Fan- ning remained passive : but having heard of the execution of some of his men under the sentence of the court, he could control himself no longer. and wrote to the governor: "I understand that you have hung three of my men, and have a captain and six mien under sentence. If the effusion of blood is not stopped and the lives of these men saved, I will retal- iate. blood for blood, and tenfold for one; and there shall never an officer or private of the rebel party escape that falls into my hands hereafter, but they shall suffer the pain and punishment of instant death. If my request is not granted by March 8th, I shall fall upon the severest and most inhu- man terms imaginable." March Sth came and his proposi- tion for a truce-ground had not been agreed to: and, more- over, he had heard that Colonel Balfour. of Randolph County, had said that there should be no "resting place for a Tory's foot on the face of the earth." This excited his ire, and, accepting the challenge, he wreaked a fearful vengeance. Having equipped a party. he set out for Balfour's plantation. Margaret Balfour, the colonel's sister. has preserved an ac- count of that affair : "On March toth," she wrote, "about twenty-five armed ruffians came to the house with the inten- tion to kill my brother. Tibbie and I endeavored to prevent them. but it was all in vain. The wretches cut and bruised us both a great deal, and dragged us from the dear man. Then before our eyes the worthless, base, horrible Fan-
1782
S. R .. XXII, 213 Negotia- tions with Fanning. Feb., 1782
R.Afour killed. Mar. 10, 1782
Biog Hist N. C., 11, 16
710
BURKE'S ADMINISTRATION, 1782
1,82 -- March 1 ,
Fanning's butcheries
ning shot a bullet into his head, which soon put a period to the life of the best of men and most affectionate and duti ful husband, father, son and brother. The sight was so shocking that it is impossible for tongue to express an :- thing like our feelings; but the barbarians, not in the ies touched by our anguish, drove us out of the house. and !! everything they could carry off, except the negroes. .. happened to be all from home at the time." Fanning, de- tailing the adventures of that raid, writes in his diary: "We also wounded another of his men. We then proceeded to their colonel's (Collier), belonging to the said county of Randolph. On our way we burned several rebels' houses. and catched several prisoners. . . . It was late before we got to Collier's. He made his escape, having received three balls through his shirt. But I took care to destroy the whole of his plantation. I then . .. came to one Captain John Bryan's. . . . I told him that if he would come out of the house, I would give him parole, which he refused. .. . With that i immediately ordered the house to be set on fire. . . . As soon as he saw the flames increasing, lie called out to me, and desired me to spare his house for his wife's and children's sake, and he would walk out with his arms in his hands. I immediately answered him that if he walked out his house should be saved for his wife and children. When he came out he said, 'Here. damn you, here I am.' With that he re- ceived two balls through his body. He came out with his gun cocked and his sword at the same time. . . . I proceeded on to one Major Dugin's house, and destroyed all his prop- erty, and all the rebel officers' property for a distance of forty miles."
Such were some of the scenes of the barbarous warfare, waged even after the surrender of Cornwallis, in the Deep River region.
Progress of events
A new election occurred in March, and the Assembly con- vened at Hillsboro on April 13th. Conditions had greatly changed. The surrender of Cornwallis, the successes of Greene, and the departure of Craig, put a new aspect on the face of affairs. The end of the long struggle was now in
1782 April
EGY
y
711
EFFORTS FOR PEACE
sight. Indeed, although then unknown in America, Parlia- ment had declared for peace. On February 27, 1782, it was moved and carried in the British House of Commons that the king the war ought to cease. The king, however, was not of that mind. He was still eager to press hostilities notwithstand- ing the apparent hopelessness of victory, and his answer to the address of the House was so unsatisfactory that on March 4th that body solemnly resolved that "it would con- sider as enemies to the king and to the country all who should advise a further prosecution of the war." This lan- guage could not be misunderstood. Sullenly and reluctantly George III yielded when he could contest no further. Lord North resigned. the ministry was changed, and Rocking- liam came into power on the principles of a restoration of peace. Unhappily he soon died, but his policy had prevailed, and now it was only a matter of negotiation. His atti- tude toward the colonies struggling for independence had been so humane and based on such high principles, that three years after his death North Carolina erected a memorial in his honor by creating a new county and bestowing upon it his name.
But while it seemed that the victory had been won, North Carolina did not abate her efforts to maintain an army in the field so long as any British troops remained on the borders of the State.
Indeed both General Washington and the Continental Congress apprehended from information received from Eu- rope that King George was seeking to form foreign alliances, and would again prosecute an active campaign ; and great pressure was made on the State to fill up her continental bat- talions. Moreover, General Greene gave alarming intelli- gence that a force consisting of four vessels was preparing in Charleston to plunder and destroy the town of Beaufort, where there was a large quantity of public and private stores, and then perhaps intending to enter the sound and take New Bern and Edenton. Apprehensions of this in- vasion led to renewed activity ; and Governor Burke ordered General Caswell and General Jones each to raise five hun- dred men and protect the coast.
1782
Parliament constrains
Rocking- ham honored in North Carolina
Apprehen- sions
712
BURKE'S ADMINISTRATION, 1782
1782 March 553 Besides, in March the Tories to the southward gave sign of renewed hostility. They embodied to the number of five S. R., XVI, hundred, and were very bold. They threatened to march on Wilmington, and it was supposed that their purpose was to plunder the inhabitants of that town. The Whigs quickly embodied, and Colonel Kenan hastened with the Duplin militia to the aid of Colonel Robeson, and together they con- fronted the hostile malcontents. It developed, however. that the object of the Tories was merely to possess them- selves of some vessels in the river and make their escape from the country. Defeated in their purpose, they retired to the truce-ground in South Carolina. and this was the last of their formidable demonstrations in that quarter. .
S. R., XVI, 558
Further in the interior Fanning continued his operations. and was irrepressible. Indeed his audacity was such a men- ace that Governor Burke deemed it necessary to have a party of both horse and foot at Hillsboro to secure the safety of the Assembly when it should meet. When the Assembly convened, it was therefore protected by a military force un- der the command of Major McCauley. Quietude reigned until April 30th. when a report gained credence that the fear- ful Fanning was approaching, and the members and the gov- ernor thought themselves in danger of being carried off into captivity. In the emergency the members took arms and bravely paraded : but happily the alarm was without founda- tion, and the session of the Assembly was not interrupted by any untoward event. Fanning's proposition for a truce land was rejected by the Assembly, and in May he deter- mined to abandon the contest and leave the State. He mar- ried a girl on Deep River, whose father had been useful to him when in distress, and found a refuge in the truce land in South Carolina .*
Fanning departs, May, 1782
S. R., XVI, 534
As the election for governor was coming on, Colonel Mar- tin began to court popularity with great avidity. Burke had gained popular favor the preceding year by the stand he had taken against the excesses of forage masters and those im-
*In June this redoubtable partisan leader, whose boldness, enter- prise and resolution, had he been on the patriot side, would have ranked him high in American annals, made his way to Charleston. and later he passed come time in Florida, but eventually settled in Nova Scotia, where he lived to a green old age.
713
J.IRTIN DEFE.ITS BURKE
pressing and seizing provisions for the army; now Martin sought popularity by a severe attitude toward disaffected April persons. Governor Burke apparently desired a re-election. Major McCauley was a friend of the governor's, and on Sunday morning, April 14th, he visited the different rooms occupied by the members of the Assembly, and gathered from their conversation their views about the approaching election. He reported to the governor that Samuel Johns- ton, William Sharpe. and Colonel Martin, as well as him- self, were much talked of ; but that he was supposed to be still under parole, and that the way he had left Charleston was much debated. However, he said : "Your friends are very steadfast, and with a little of your assistance when a house is made I doubt not but to have success."
But Burke saw that sentiment was against him. He ceased his efforts to secure the election, and when the As- sembly was organized, in an elaborate address he referred to his financial embarrassment and the necessity he was under of devoting his attention exclusively to his private affairs. However, doubtless with the hope of softening the adverse opinion that prevailed because of his breach of his parole of honor, he laid before the Assembly all the corre- spondence relative to his flight from Charleston. Although some steadfast friends still adhered to him, he was not a candidate for the office. Samuel Johnston, William Sharpe, and John Williams were among those voted for, but Colonel Alexander Martin, who had so recently been the acting gov- ernor, won the prize.
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