USA > North Carolina > Sketches of North Carolina, historical and biographical : illustrative of the principles of a portion of her early settlers > Part 49
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His brethren in the ministry were fond of his visits, and the neighboring congregations glad to see him in their midst. Free from envy and jealousy himself, he does not appear to have excited it in others. Sympathizing with his brethren, they rejoiced with him in his success, and partook of his spirit. Those that acted much with him, hardly knew how to criticise him ; even when he laid himself open to it, they loved him so, and held his motives and his feelings in such tender regard. One who knew him well says of him, " He was a close student ; a man of untiring industry. I have known him to spend the whole evening after a laborious day's journey, in preparing something for the pulpit or the press. His learning was not profound, nor his acquisitions astonishingly great,
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but everything he knew was made to subserve the cause of truth and righteousness. His style was very plain and simple, not desti- tute of polish. His pulpit performances were always carefully pre- pared, and short, seldom exceeding fifty minutes. In the early part of his ministry, he committed to memory nearly all his discourses ; after his return from Europe, he used notes in the pulpit. His dis- courses were faithful, pungent, and affectionate. The true secret of it all was the depth of his piety, which, in him, was an all-pervading principle. If I were to mention any of his faults, I should say he was too confiding. They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars, for ever and ever."
His death was unexpected, though he had been some time un- well. He seemed to compose himself to sleep ; and was roused to activity no more. Fayetteville was astonished and overwhelmed at his death ; and in her grief, multitudes mingled their tears.
FAYETTEVILLE PRESBYTERY.
In the fall of 1812, among the preliminary steps, to form, from the Synod of the Carolinas, two Synods ; 1st, the Synod of North Carolina, and 2d, the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia ; the Presbytery of Orange was divided, and the following members set off to form the Presbytery of Fayetteville, viz. : Samuel Stanford, Robert Tate, William L. Turner, Malcolm McNair, Murdock Mc- Millan, John McIntyre, William B. Meroney, Allan McDougal, and William Peacock. Of these, Messrs. Tate and McIntyre only are living, both in advanced years of life and their ministry.
The bounds of this Presbytery contain the fields of labor of the two earliest settled Presbyterian preachers in North Carolina ; Hugh McAden, who preached for some years in Duplin and New Hanover, and James Campbell, who lived in Cumberland county, and was the minister for the Scotch.
Something has been said of Stanford, Tate, Turner, and Mero- ney. Something ought to be said of the others. Malcolm McNair was born in Robeson county, the 24th of August, 1776; and was reared religiously by pious parents. After receiving what instruc- tion could be imparted by Mr. Nelson, the teacher in the neighbor- hood, he was sent to Dr. McCorkle's school in Rowan, for a time ; and finished his course of study, classical and theological, with Dr. Caldwell of Guilford, at whose school he became hopefully pious. On the 25th of October, 1799, he was taken under care of the
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Presbytery of Orange, at Buffalo church ; and on the 27th of March, 1801, at Barbacue church, Cumberland county, he was licensed to preach the gospel. At the same time and place, six companions of his study were also licensed, viz. : Duncan Brown, Murdock Mur- phy, John Matthews, Murdock McMillan, Hugh Shaw, and Ezekiel B. Currie ; three of whom are still living. In 1803, June 2d, he was ordained pastor of Centre and Ashpole churches in Robeson County, and Laurel Hill, in Richmond county, and in preaching to these congregations and others in the neighborhood he passed his life, which was brought to a close on the 4th of August, 1822.
His labors were greatly blessed in the hopeful conversion of many souls. Dr. Hall makes a most favorable mention of him in his re- port to Synod, as appears in their records for 1810. In his fune- ral sermon, by Rev. Colin McIver, it is said, " There was something in his mode of address so sweetly captivating, so irresistibly allur- ing, that his preaching was always listened to with deep attention, even by those who, on various occasions, scrupled not to speak of the revival, either as the offspring of misguided zeal, or as the result of diabolical agency. In his preaching, he might truly be called an eloquent man ; and his eloquence was not of the vehement, but of the persuasive kind. I can truly say, that for suavity of manners, generosity, and the kindly affections, for gentleness, meekness, and patience, I have seldom seen him equalled, and never excelled. He was a great lover of peace, and a punctual member of the judica- tories of the church ; in both of these things, he kept a good con- science. His end was peace.
Mr. McIntyre still lives, an example of active and zealous old age. A Scotch shepherd, emigrating to South Carolina, bereft of his family, and a subject of the Revival that spread over the country from 1802 and onward, he devoted himself to the ministry, and at the age of forty-four years, and a second time a widower, com- menced his Latin Grammar with Mr. McMillan, who preached in Richmond and Moore counties, and taught a classical school. With prayer and patience he persevered in his course till he passed, on examination, in his Horace and Greek Testament, to the satisfaction of Orange Presbytery, from whom he received license to preach. God crowned his patience and perseverance with abundant success. He was first settled in Cumberland. Dr. Hall mentions him in his report with warm approbation.
Mr. McMillan, educated much as M'Nair had been, and licensed at the same time, settled in Moore County, in the neighborhood of his fel- low student, and was blessed in his labors. M'Nair was suaviter in
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modo, M'Millan, fortiter in re. He is honorably mentioned by Dr. Hall in his report to Synod, in 1810. After laboring some years in Carolina, he removed to the West.
William Peacock was born in Glasgow, North Britain, Aug. 25th, 1768. His father dying while he was very young, he was trained up by a pious mother, of whom he used to say that she often took him, with her, to the closet, and there he had often heard her pray. In his twenty-first year, he came to Fayetteville as a clerk in the employment of a merchant. Some time after, he opened a store on the Pedee, in Montgomery county, and prospered in his business. During the Great Revival that spread over Carolina from 1802 and onward, he became hopefully converted to God, and devoted himself to the work of the ministry. The usual course of education was dispensed with in his case, and he was received under the care of the Presbytery of Orange in April, 1810, and, in the fall, licensed to preach ; and, in the course of the next year, ordained Pastor of Sharon church, near his dwelling. Here he labored successfully till the close of his life, Sept., 1830. A man of middlingstature, well built, stout and muscular-of a good mind and ardent feelings, he dwelt with simplicity and force on the great truths of Christian doctrine and practice. Brought up in the strict order of Scotch Presbyterianism, he was, in his ministerial life, ex animo, a Presby- terian. His labors were blessed, and the bounds of his church greatly enlarged. He died a sa good man dies ;- and his end was peace.
Mr. M'Dougald passed his ministerial life serving the congrega- tions along the Cape Fear and its waters-principally Bluff and Tir- zah. His labors were very acceptable, till the infirmities of age disabled him for active service. He passed to his reward in a good old age.
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CHAPTER XXXIV.
CHARLOTTE AND HER RECOLLECTIONS.
BESIDES the honor of being the seat of the Convention, in 1775, that issued the first Declaration of Independence, Charlotte, in Mecklenburg, North Carolina, has claims upon posterity both singular and meritorious. The centre of a fertile and populous county, she was doomed to see the blood of her sons shed, and the Declaration of Independence of all foreign dominion, maintained at the point of the British bayonet.
After the battle of Camden, Charlotte, that had been a rallying place for the American forces, became designated as the head- quarters of the British army. The resistance made by the few troops that could be hastily assembled, was in the hope of delay- ing and intimidating, rather than in the expectation of successfully opposing the advance of the enemy.
Tarleton in his " History of the Southern Campaign, 1780 and 1781," page 159, says, " Earl Cornwallis moved forward as soon as the legion under Major Hanger joined him. A party of militia fired at the advanced dragoons and light infantry as they entered the town, and a more considerable body appeared drawn up near the court-house. The conduct of the Americans created suspi- cion in the British ; an ambuscade was apprehended by the light troops, who moved forward for some time with great circumspec- tion ; a charge of cavalry under Major Hanger dissipated this ill- grounded jealousy, and totally dispersed the militia. The pursuit lasted some time, and about thirty of the enemy were killed and taken.
" The King's troops did not come out of this skirmish unhurt ; Major Hanger, and Captains Campbell and McDonald were wounded, and twelve non-commissioned officers and men were killed and wounded."
The position of Charlotte, however favorable to the Americans, was anything but agreeable to the Earl Cornwallis. He pos- sessed in the adjacent country a few friends and timid depend- ents. The panic that had gone over South Carolina after the success of the British in that State, and had driven multitudes to
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"take protection," in despair of self-preservation, had in some degree extended itself to North Carolina ; and on the approach of the enemy, some families " took protection " from the spoliations of the foraging parties.
But notwithstanding the terror of his arms, his lordship found his situation in Charlotte, which became his head-quarters on the 26th of September, to be distressing and humiliating. The reasons given by Tarleton are both striking and sufficient. He says, " Charlotte town afforded some conveniences blended with great disadvantages. The mills in its neighborhood were supposed of sufficient consequenee to render it for the present an eligible posi- tion, and in future a necessary post when the army advanced. But the aptness of its intermediate situation between Camden and Salisbury, and the quantity of its mills, did not counterbalance its defects."
" It was evident, and had been frequently mentioned to the king's officers, that the counties of Mecklenburg and Rohan " (Rowan) "were more hostile to England than any others in America. The vigilance and animosity of these surrounding districts checked the exertions of the well-affected, and totally destroyed all com- munication between the king's troops and the loyalists in other parts of the province. No British commander could obtain any information in that position which would facilitate his designs, or guide his future conduct."
A higher encomium of the principles and patriotism of the Irish, or rather Scotch-Irish, settlements in Carolina could not have been given. It is the testimony of an eye-witness, and he an inveterate enemy, with the best means of information. Of the town and its environs, he goes on to say-" the town and its environs abounded with inveterate enemies. The plantations in the neighborhood were small and uncultivated ; the road narrow and crossed in every direction ; and the whole face of the country covered with close and thick woods. In addition to these disadvantages, no estimation could be made of the sentiments of half the inhabitants of North Carolina, whilst the royal army remained at Charlotte."
After speaking of the almost entire impossibility of obtaining correct information concerning the movements of the Governor and Assembly,-the preparations of the militia,-and the forces and designs of the Continentals, Tarleton dwells at large upon the difficulty of obtaining provisions while he remained in Charlotte. The same difficulty, though not always to the same degree, at- tended the British army during the whole campaign in North Caro-
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lina. He says-" the foraging parties were every day harassed by the inhabitants, who did not remain at home to receive payment for the product of their plantations, but generally fired from covert places, to annoy the British detachments. Ineffectual attempts were made upon convoys coming from Camden, and the intermediate post at Blair's Mill-but individuals with expresses were frequently murdered. An attack was directed against the piquet at Polk's Mill, two miles from the town. The Americans were gallantly received by Lieut. Guyon, of the 23d regiment : and the fire of his party, from a loopholed building adjoining the mill, repulsed the assailants."
"Notwithstanding the different checks and losses sustained by the militia of the district, they continued their hostilities with unwea- ried perseverance ; and the British troops were so effectually block- aded in their present position, that very few out of a great many messengers could reach Charlottetown, in the beginning of Octo- ber, to give intelligence of Ferguson's situation."
The repulse at McIntire's is a good illustration of what Tarlton says in these quotations. The commander in Charlotte having heard of the abundant supply of grain and fodder that might be obtained from the rebel neighborhood, some seven miles from Charlotte, on the road to Beattie's Ford, sends out a force sufficient, as was supposed, to overawe the neighborhood, accompanied with a sufficient train of baggage wagons to bring in the necessary sup- plies. A lad, who was ploughing a field by the road side, upon seeing the advance of the soldiers, leaves his plough, mounts his horse and gallops through bye-paths to give notice to the inhabit- ants that a foraging party was out. They, of course, fled and spread the alarm, riding away their horses, and hiding or removing their most valuable effects.
The family at Mr. McIntire's had just time to escape ; the men in the fields armed themselves and took to the woods; and the women and servants rode off towards the residences of neighbors, whose houses were supposed to be out of the track of this armed force ; the house and all the property were left to the mercy of the foragers.
The neighboring men, conjecturing the object of the party, ral- lied around McIntire's farm, according to the rules which had been voluntarily adopted, that neighbors would help each other ; and about a dozen of them, armed with rifles and divided into com- panies of two, lay concealed in the woods in sight of the house, not far from each other.
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While lying there, they witnessed the advance of the British,- saw them pause on the brow of the hill near the branch and recon- noitre, and then slowly advance to the house. The dragoons dis- mounted and fastened their horses, and the work of plunder began. Harnessing some of their horses to the farm wagons they began to load them with forage ; and when the baggage wagons arrived they proceeded to load them with corn and oats. While this was doing the soldiers were running down and catching the poultry in the yard, and killing pigs and calves. By accident some of them over- set the beehives ranged by the garden fence, and the enraged in- sects fell in fury upon the soldiery. The scene became one of uproar and boisterous merriment. The commander of the forces, a portly florid Englishman, stood in the door with one hand on each post, enjoying the scene of plunder, and laughing at the antics of the soldiers discomfitted by the bees.
The owner and his neighbors had approached within rifle shot of the house, under cover of the woods, and were exasperated wit- nesses of the merry plunder of the foragers. At length one of them cried out-" Boys, I can't stand this-I take the captain. Every one choose his man and look to yourselves." Quick as his word, the sharp crack of his rifle was heard; and the captain fell from the doorway. The rifles of the other eleven answered in quick succession ; and nine men and two horses lay upon the ground.
'The trumpet sounded a recall; and the dragoons hastened to form a line. The assailants shifted their position, and from another direction, from a skirt of woods, poured in another straggling fire, with fatal accuracy. The dragoons began a pursuit, and set on the dogs ; but soon a fire from another direction alarmed them, lest they were surrounded. The dogs came on the trail of these re- treating men, and the leading one sprung upon the heels of a man who had just discharged his rifle. A pistol-shot laid him dead ; and the other dogs, coming up to him, paused, gave a howl, and returned. The alarm became general, and the troops hastened their retreat, attempting to carry off the loaded wagons. But the more distant neighbors had now rallied, and the woods echoed on all sides with the rifles and guns of concealed enemies. The lead- ing horses of the wagons were some of them shot down before they ascended the hill by the branch, and the road was blocked up ; and the retreat became a scene of confusion in spite of the discipline of the British soldiers, who drew up in battle array and offered fight to the invisible enemy that only changed their ground and renewed
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their fire. In full belief that they were assailed by a numerous foe, and disappointed, of their forage, they returned to camp- swearing that every bush on the road concealed a rebel.
The men that brought about this retreat were well known in Mecklenburg. One of them, whose residence was not far from the spot, now lies in the burying-ground in Charlotte, with the following inscription on the marble slab that covers his grave
SACRED To the
MEMORY OF MAJOR GENERAL GEORGE GRAHAM, WHO DIED On the 29th of March, 1826, in the 68th year of his age.
He lived more than half a century in the vicinity of This place, and was a zealous and active defender of his COUNTRY'S RIGHTS, in the REVOLUTIONARY WAR, and one of the GALLANT TWELVE who dared to attack, and actually drove 400 British troops at McIntire's 7 miles North of Charlotte, on the 3d of October, 1780. GEORGE GRAHAM filled many high and responsible PUBLIC TRUSTS, the duties of which he discharged with fidelity. He was the people's friend, not their fetterer, and uniformly engaged the UNLIMITED CONFIDENCE and respect of his FELLOW CITIZENS.
This George Graham is the same person that is mentioned by General Joseph Graham, as his brother that was sent to Salisbury by the committee of Mecklenburg, to bring the two delinquents to justice. The concurrent voice of tradition is that he merited all that is said of him on his tomb stone.
It has been thought by some that Tarleton, in his Memoirs of the Southern Campaigns, was more unfavorable to Lord Cornwallis than justice would require ; and while he had no inducement to favor in any way the American cause, he magnified his lordship's blun- ders and misfortunes. Another English writer, who was a pro- fessed friend of Cornwallis, and was surgeon in his army through the whole southern war, and had the best means of information, giving an account of the taking of Charlotte, thus writes :-
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CHARLOTTE AND HER RECOLLECTIONS.
" And Charlotte was taken possession of after a slight resistance by the militia, towards the end of September. At this period, Major Hanger commanded the legion, Colonel Tarleton being ill. In the centre of Charlotte, intersecting the two principal streets, stood a large brick building, the upper part being the Court-House, and the lower part the Market-House. Behind the shambles, a few Americans on horseback had placed themselves. The legion was ordered to drive them off ; but upon receving a fire from be- hind the stalls, this corps fell back. Lord Cornwallis rode up in person and made use of these words : 'Legion, remember you have everything to lose but nothing to gain ;' alluding, it is sup- posed, to the former reputation of this corps. Webster's brigade moved on, drove the Americans from behind the Court-House, the legion then pursued them ; but the whole of the British army was actually kept at bay for some minutes, by a few mounted Ameri- cans, not exceeding twenty in number."-Steadman's History of the American War, vol. ii., p. 217.
This writer then goes on to describe the difficulties of obtaining provisions, much in the same terms as Tarleton has done in the preceding quotations ; and adds, in a copious note, remarks, of which the following are a part : "In Colonel Polk's mill were found 28,000, and a quantity of wheat. There were several large well cultivated farms in the neighborhood of Charlotte. An abun- dance of cattle, few sheep ; the cattle mostly milch cows, or cows with calf, which, at that season of the year, was the best beef. When the army was at Charlotte, we killed, upon average, 100 head per day. The leanness of the cattle will account for the numbers killed each day. In one day no less than 37 cows in calf."
" At this period the Royal army was supported by Lord Raw- don's moving with one half of the army one day, and Col. Webster with the other half the next day, as a covering party to protect the foraging parties and cattle drivers." It is not improbable the affair at McIntire's compelled them to move with greater forces when they wished to gather forage. The writer then proceeds to state, that the reason the southern sections of the country suffered so much in the campaign was, that so much of their wealth lay in cattle, and so much of their work in the lower sections was done by negroes.
The British army lay encamped, the short time they passed at Charlotte, on a plain, south of the town, about midway to the place where the court was first held, then occupied by Mr. Thomas
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Spratt, now by Major Morrow, and on the right hand of the road from the village; and the general's head-quarters, a white house on the southeast corner from the old Court-House, now the second house from the corner.
From all these circumstances combined, as mentioned by the English writers, and handed down by tradition, we cease to won- der that Cornwallis called Charlotte the "hornets' nest," and that, unwilling to pay for supplies with so much English " blood," after the fatal battle of King's Mountain became known to him, his lordship determined to leave this vexatious post. To prevent an- noyance, he chose to depart suddenly, and in the night. Mr. McCafferty, a man of wealth and standing, a Scotchman, and re- sident in Charlotte, was chosen as their guide to lead them by the upper and nearest route to South Carolina. After so bewildering the army in the swamps, that much of their baggage was lost, he con- trived to escape, and leave the army to find their way by the re- turning light of day.
Colonel Thomas Polk, so favorably mentioned in the history of. the declarations, owned property in and around Charlotte. His mill was between two and three miles south of the village, and is now called Bissell's. His body lies interred in the graveyard of the village. Over his grave and that of his wife Susanna, his son William Polk, late of Raleigh, erected a marble slab, a memorial of his resting-place.
The Polk family came early to Mecklenburg, and in the time of the Revolution were numerous, and some of them very wealthy. They resided, part of them, in the bounds of Sugar Creek congre- gation ; and part of them in Providence. Among them was Ezekiel Polk, the grandfather of James K. Polk, President of the United States. The descendants have all emigrated from the county, mostly to Tennessee, or States further south.
Thomas Spratt, at whose house the court was first held, is said to have been the first man that moved his family, on wheels, across the Yadkin. He stopped first on the Rocky River; but being disturbed by the Indians he removed to the spot, near to Charlotte, where he died, and lies buried in the angle of the woods, near his dwelling. There appears to have been at this place a burying- ground as old as that of Sugar Creek, now entirely grown over with trees. The forests here, as elsewhere, seem to strive to eradi- cate the footsteps of man, and resume their dominion.
Garden, in his anecdotes of the American Revolution, says :- "Nor were the ladies in Mecklenburg in any degree inferior in
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enthusiasm to the male population. I find in the South Carolina and American General Gazette, from the 2d to the 9th of Febru- ary, the following paragraph :- ' The young ladies of the best families of Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, have entered into a voluntary association that they will not receive the addresses of any young gentleman at that place, except the brave volunteers who served in the expedition to South Carolina, and assisted in subduing the Scovalite insurgents. The ladies being of opinion that such persons as stay loitering at home, when the important calls of the country demand their military services abroad, must certainly be destitute of that nobleness of sentiment, that brave, manly spirit which would qualify them to be the defenders and guardians of the fair sex.'
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