USA > North Carolina > Alamance County > Some neglected history of North Carolina, being an account of the revolution of the regulators and of the battle of Alamance, the first battle of the American Revolution > Part 11
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The plain middle class of people hated Fan- ning for his bigotry and pompous overbearing. Believing that "obedience to tyrants a sin against humanity," this sturdy class set them- selves together in an organization known as the "Regulators," to regulate the common- wealth into a healthier condition. The people said it was not the laws nor the form of gov- ernment to which they objected, but the mal- practice of the tax collectors and other County officers. ( See account of a meeting at Mrs. Steele's at Salisbury on p. 63. )
It must be remembered that prior to 1749 there was no printing press in the Province and that before 1775 the only newspapers were the Gasette, begun in 1749, at Newberne, and con- tinued till the Revolution, with the exception of a suspension from 1755 to 1768, and the North Carolina Gasette, begun in 1763, at Wilming- ton. but changed to the Cape Fear Mercury in the same year, which continued to the Revolu- tion. With the poor mail facilities in those days, those little sheets ( for they were of very
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small size) had but little circulation anywhere, and none at all in the interior. They contained the legislative enactments in numbers about sufficient to supply the members only.
As before stated, the public press in those days had but a limited influence, but what power it did have was used for setting forth the grievances of the people; and here for a moment we will digress to speak of their liter- ary works, for they furnish strong and true touches in the panorama of those early days.
The productions were sometimes in print and sometimes in manuscript. They betray no proof of classic scholarship, nor any of the elegance of polished writing, for they were literally what they intended them to be, the work of the people; and there is a truthful earnestness in some of them more effective than the skill of a rhetorician could portray. Some- times they were grave, sometimes satirical; sometimes ballad or song, again it was in narrative. The poet laureate in those days was Rednap Howell, a native of New Jersey, and a brother of Richard Howell, who was a patriot of the Revolution and Governor of New Jersey, and like his brother Rednap was a poet and wrote the ode "Welcome to Washington." (Lossing, Field Book of Revolution, Vol. 2, p. 245.) Rednap Howell taught the very chil-
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dren to sing in doggerel the infamy of the proud officials, singling out Edmund Fanning, clerk of the court for Orange County, and John Frohock, clerk of the court for Rowan county :
"Says Frohock to Fanning, 'To tell the plain truth, When I came to this country I was but a youth. My father sent me, I wa'n't worth a cross, And then my first duty was to steal a horse. I quickly got credit and then ran away, And haven't paid for him to this day.'
"Says Fanning to Frohock, "Tis folly to lie, I rode an old mare that was blind in one eye. Five shillings in money I had in my purse, My coat it was patched, but not much the worse. But now we've got rich, as 'tis very well known That we will do very well if they'll let us alone.'"
Still other lines were in existence, even prior to this, no doubt from the same pen :
"When Fanning first to Orange came He looked both pale and wan. An old patched coat upon his back, An old blind mare he rode on. Both man and mare wa'n't worth five pounds As I've been often told, But by his thieving robberies He's lined his coat with gold."
(See Colonial Records of North Carolina, Vol. 7, p. 507, for Fanning's order "for some double gold lace for a hat and some narrow double gold lace for a jacket, plain, narrow and good.")
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It was currently reported and believed, in spite of his impecunious condition when he came to the Province. Fanning in a very short time had accumulated a fortune of £10,000- $50,000-certainly a large sum to have been made honestly in his day and generation by a man occupying his office among a poor people.
Tryon appointed Fanning adjutant-general with rank of colonel in the campaign to run the boundary line with the Cherokee Indians. For this service it was currently reported that he received £1,000. (Col. Rec. of N. C., Vol. 7, Pref. Notes, p. 13.)
Frohock too died a rich man. Under these circumstances it is not surprising that the Regulators dragged Fanning from Hillsbor- ough Court House by his heels and beat him with many stripes, and at another time fired bullets into his dwelling, and still later demol- ished it.
Early in 1770, while Lord Chatham and Lord North were "thundering in Parliament," denouncing the attitude of the Mother Country toward the colonists, comparing England as an "unjust and cruel mother toward her help- less step-children," the letters of "Junius" were attracting general attention ; all sorts of politi- cal contentions were being hurled against King George's government.
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Toward the Province of North Carolina the course of the Mother Country was like that of the "Father of the faithful," driving her, Hagar-like, into the wilderness, there to pine and perish from neglect. It is nothing more than one would expect, then, that her sons, "like Ishmael of old," should be ready to raise their hands against every form of oppression. But the God of Abraham protected the exiles and blessed them with fair and fruitful lands, refreshing shades and gushing fountains. The promise was also unto them "to make a great nation," because they too "were of the promised seed."
At this time, far away across the Atlantic the farmers of Orange County, in the Province of North Carolina, were organizing prepara- tory to making resistance against the oppres- sion of the government of the Mother Country and her representatives in the Province, Gov- ernor Tryon and Col. Edmund Fanning.
In those days a thousand or more men banded together for a noble purpose against a common wrong were not without influence. Be it said to their credit, the Regulators in their meetings were orderly, never allowing intoxicating beverages to be sold, for they realized the criticism that would follow such practices. In this they were far advanced as
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well as far seeing, and a long way ahead of their time. It shows their soberness and care- ful deliberation.
The Regulators were made up principally of farmers, of whom, as a class, none are more conservative, more independent-and less re- strained; under the tyrannical lash what they among themselves determine to vindicate is usually on the side of right and justice. When the law fell into the hands of a succession of outrageous judges, unscrupulous attorneys, dishonest sheriffs, and thieving, villainous county officers,-all confederates of the tvranni- cal Tryon, Governor of the Province of North Carolina,-then it became necessary for these bold, courageous, good, substantial, liberty- loving yeomen to lay their hands on the instru- ments of warfare and to stand ready to prick the old sore, and if need be to perform a sur- gical operation for the good of the body-politic.
CHAPTER IV
Tryon's Preparations for War and Orders to General Waddell; the Cabarrus "Black Boys" Capture a Con- voy; General Waddell Receives This Information and Sends Dispatches to Tryon; Breaks Camp and Marches Eastward ; Met by a Company of Regulators and forced to Retreat; Tryon Receives Waddell's Dis- patches; Marches Toward Haw River; Regulators Send Petition to Tryon, Praying for an Audience; Transcript from Tryon's Journal ; Regulators' Needs; Alamance Battle-ground; Seymour Whiting's Poem; Battle of Alamance; Tryon's Advance; Fought on Plantation of Capt. Michael Holt; Strength of Gov- ernor's Army ; Harmon Husband Flees ; Dr. Caldwell and Others Visit Tryon's Camp in Behalf of the Regulators; They Present Second Petition; Tryon's Proclamation ; the Battle Begins; the Governor Kills Mr. Robt. Thompson; Tryon's White Flag; Tryon's Army Retreats; Second White Flag; Tryon Rallies His Men and Leads a Charge ; His Army Victorious ; Prisoners Taken; Tryon Orders Battle-field Set on Fire; Losses and Captures; Execution of Few, Mes- ser, and Pugh, Other Prisoners in Chains.
Governor Tryon, the "Great Wolf of North Carolina," had collected from the eastern coun- ties 1,100 men drilled in military tactics and ready for war (Col. Rec.of N.C., Vol. 9,p.610), though not as yet having had an opportunity
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to win their spurs or pluck military honors. Fanning's frequent couriers from Hillsborough had kept the Governor well posted concerning the Regulators, their meetings, their growth, strength, and moral influence upon the com- munity.
On May 1, 1771, the Governor left New- berne with his army, marching toward the westward, with all his detachments well officer- ed, including a detachment of artillery raised at Wilmington and composed of sailors, con- sisting of two field pieces, six swivel guns, mounted on carriages, and two six-pounders. (State Rec. of N. C., Vol. 19, pp. 837, 838, 839.)
Governor Tryon, while marching through the country from Newberne toward the west, had new forces to join him daily, perhaps from diplomacy, or from the fascinations of military paraphernalia. He was familiar with the terri- tory through which he was traveling, having a short time before traversed the route with a surveying party to run the line with the Chero- kee Indians, on that occasion being attended with a company of militia in all the pomp of war. It is said that he took great pride in exhibiting his royal person to the Indians, whereupon they applied the cognomen, appro- priately so, "The Great Wolf of North Caro-
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lina." This prophetic title and the line of marked trees cost the Province a greater sum than two-pence per head on all persons sub- jected to poll tax within the Province.
On May 4 Tryon halted at Hunter's Lodge, in Wake County, the seat of Col. Theophilis Hunter, four miles from where the city of Raleigh now stands, and went into camp. Remaining there until May 8, he ordered a detachment to attend the sheriff in levying the fines due from men for attending a muster of militia the day before without arms, and in collecting taxes due in the neighborhood ex- cept from those who had joined the army as volunteers.
When Tryon left Newberne he was attended by Col. Joseph Leech, commanding the infan- try; Colonel Moore, commanding the artillery, and Captain Neele, commanding a company of rangers. Marching from Hunter's Lodge on May 8, Tryon next went into camp on the banks of the Eno on the evening of May 9. During this march he was joined by a detach- ment from New Hanover under command of Col. John Ashe, another from Carteret under command of Colonel Craig, another from Johnston under command of Col. William Thompson, another from Beaufort under com- mand of Col. Needham Bryan, one from Wake
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under Col. John Hinton, who had to forcibly draft the men in his command, as there was considerable difficulty in securing volunteer troops. (State Rec. of N. C., Vol. 19, pp. 838, 839.) After breaking camp at Eno on May 13, during his march toward the Great Alamance, Governor Tryon was joined by a detachment from Onslow under command of Col. Richard Caswell and one from Orange made up of clerks. constables, coroners, broken down sheriffs and other material of a similar kind under the command of his friend, Col. Edmund Fanning.
Before leaving Newberne he ordered General Waddell, the best fighter within the Province (Col. Rec. of N. C., Vol. 8, pp. 540, 548), with a detachment of 250 men to cross Deep River at Buffalo Ford and thence to march toward the Yadkin, collect forces from the western coun- ties and rendezvous four miles west of Salis- bury, at Pott's Creek, after crossing the Yadkin river; there to await a convoy from Charles- ton, S. C., with a supply of powder for Tryon's army.
Some time after the conference of the Regu- lators and county officers at Mrs. Steele's, near Salisbury, on March 7, 1771, there was a "sur- prise party" in Cabarrus County (at that date Mecklenburg County) on the night of May 9,
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1771, at which time the munitions of war for Tryon's army were captured and destroyed. This occurrence demonstrates that there were within the province of North Carolina many discreet persons, the advocates of law and order, who sympathized with the cause of the Regulators and the justness which actuated their stern opposition to official corruption and extortion.
Governor Tryon, being well posted concern- ing the Regulators, lost no time in making preparations for warfare. He issued a circular to his colonels in the various counties ( Col. Rec. of N. C., Vol. 8, p. 540) ; ( Appendix D) on March 19, 1771, ordering them to select fifty volunteers for their respective regiments, offering them liberal rations, bounty and pay of forty shillings of eight pence per day while serving, each man to be given a pair of leggins, a cockade and a haversack, and send them to Newberne. He also began to look out for munitions of war, and accordingly he procured from Charleston, S. C., three wagon loads of munitions of war, consisting of powder, flints, blankets and other materials for the quartermaster's department. These warlike materials were delivered in Char- lotte, but from some suspicions arising in the minds of the Whigs ( Regulators) as to their true destination and use, wagons could not be
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hired in the neighborhood for their transporta- tion. (For an account of this Gunpowder plot we quote from Hunter's Sketches of Western North Carolina, Historical and Biographical. pp. 158 to 162.) At length. Col. Moses Alexander, a magistrate under the Colonial Government, succeeded in getting wagons, by impressment, to convey the munitions to Hillsborough, to obey the behests of a tyrannical Governor. The vigilance of the jealous Whigs was ever on the lookout for the suppression of all such infringe- ments upon the growing spirit of freedom, then quietly but surely planting itself in the hearts of the people.
The following individuals (Col. Rec. of N. C., Vol. 9, pp. 57, 68, 89, 169, 172, 275 ), James, William and John White, brothers, and William White, a cousin-all born and raised on Rocky River and one mile from the Rocky River Church-Robert Caruthers, Robert Davis, Ben- jamin Cockrane, James A. and Joshua Hadley, bound themselves by a most solemn oath not to divulge the secret object of their contemplated mission, and in order more effectually to pre- vent detection, blackened their faces prepara- tory to their intended work of destruction. They were joined and led in this and other expeditions by William Alexander, of Sugar Creek congregation, a brave soldier, and after-
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wards known and distinguished from others bearing the same name as "Captain Black Bill Alexander," and whose sword now hangs in the Library Hall of Davidson College, North Carolina, presented in behalf of his descendants by the late worthy, intelligent, and Christian citizen, W. Shakespeare Harris, Esq.
These determined spirits set out in the evening, while the father of the Whites was absent from home with two horses, each carry- ing a bag of grain. The White boys were on foot, and wishing to move more rapidly with their comrades, who were all mounted, in pur- suit of the wagons loaded with the munitions of war, fortunately for their feet met their father returning home with his burdens, and immediately demanded the use of his horses. The old gentleman, not knowing who they were (as black as Satan himself), pleaded heartily for the horses until he could carry home his bags of meal; but his petitions were in vain. The boys (his sons) ordered him to dismount, removed the bags from the horses, and placed them by the side of the road. They then immediately mounted the disburdened horses, joined their comrades, and in a short space of time came up with the wagons en- camped on Phifer's Hill. three miles west of the present town of Concord, on the road lead-
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ing from Charlotte to Salisbury. They im- mediately unloaded the wagons, then stove in the heads of the kegs and threw the powder into a pile, tore the blankets into strips, made a train of powder a considerable distance from the pile, and then Major James White fired a pistol into the train, which produced a tre- mendous explosion.
A stave from the pile
struck White on the forehead and cut him severely. As soon as this bold exploit became known to Col. Moses Alexander, he put his whole ingenuity to work to find out the perpe- trators of so foul a deed against His Majesty. The transaction remained a mystery for some time. Great threats were made, and in order to induce some one to turn traitor a pardon was offered to any one who would turn King's evidence against the rest. Ashmore and Had- ley, being half-brothers, and composed of the same rotten materials, set out, unknown to each other, to avail themselves of the offered pardon, and accidentally met each other on the threshold of Moses Alexander's house. When they made known their business, Alexander remarked, "That, by virtue of the Governor's proclamation, they were pardoned, but they were the first that ought to be hanged." The rest of the "Black Boys" had to flee from their
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country, and went to the State of Georgia, where they remained for some time.
The Governor, finding he could not get them into his grasp, held out insinuations that if they would return and confess their fault, they should be pardoned. In a short time, the boys returned from Georgia to their homes. As soon as it became known to Moses Alexander, he raised a guard, consisting of himself, his two brothers, John and Jake, and a few others, and surrounded the house of the old man White, the father of the boys. Caruthers, the son-in-law of White, happened to be at his ( White's) house at the time. To make the capture doubly sure, Alexander placed a guard at each door. One of the guard, wishing to favor the escape of Caruthers, struck up a quarrel with Moses Alexander at one door, while his brother, Dan- iel Alexander, whispered to Mrs. White that if there were any of them within they might pass out and he would not notice it ; in the meantime, out goes Caruthers, and in a few jumps was in the river, which opportunely flowed near the besieged mansion. The alarm was immediately given, but pursuit was fruitless.
At another time the loyalists heard of some of the boys being in a harvest field and set out to take them; but always having some one in
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their company to favor their escape, as they rode up in sight of the reapers one of them waved his hand, which the boys understood as a signal to make their departure. On that oc- casion they pursued Robert Davis so closely that it is said he jumped his horse thirty feet down a bank into the river, and dared them to follow him.
And thus the "Black Boys" fled from covert to covert to save their necks from the blood- thirsty loyalists, who were constantly hunting them like wild beasts. They would lie conceal- ed for weeks at a time, and the neighbors would carry them food. until they fairly wearied out their pursuers. The oath by which they bound themselves was a declaration of the strongest kind, and the greater part of the curse was lit- erally fulfilled in the sad ends of Hadley and Ashmore. The latter fled from his country. and was known for many years to the people of Rocky River. He was very intemperate, and in his fits of intoxication was very harsh to his family, driving them from his house in the dead hours of the night. In order to chastise him for the abuse of his family, his neighbors (among whom were some of the "Black Boys") dressed themselves in female attire. went to his house by night. pulled him from his bed, drew his shirt over his head and gave him
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a severe whipping. The castigation, it is said, greatly improved the future treatment of his family. However, he continued through life the same miserable wretch, and died without any friendly hand to sustain him or eye to pity his deplorable end.
Frequently, when the loyalists ranged the country in pursuit of the "Black Boys," the Whigs would collect in bodies consisting of twenty-five or thirty men, ready to pounce upon the pursuers if they had captured any of the boys. From the allurements held out to the boys to give themselves up, they went at one time nearly to Hillsborough to beg the pardon of Governor Tryon ; but finding out it was his in- tention, if he could get them into his hands, to hang every one of them, they returned, and kept themselves concealed until patriotic senti- ment grew so rapidly from that time ( 1771) to the Mecklenburg Declaration (20th of May, 1775) that concealment was no longer neces- sary. When the drama of the Revolution open- ed, these same "Black Boys" stood up manfully for the cause of American freedom, and nobly assisted in achieving, on many a hard-fought battle-field, the independence of our country.
While Gen. Hugh Waddell was awaiting the convoy from Charleston, South Carolina, with the blankets, powder, and flints for Tryon's
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army, he received intelligence from Col. Moses Alexander that the munitions of war had been destroyed by the Regulators. He then deter- mined to try to rejoin Tryon's army, and dis- patched couriers to Hillsborough advising Tryon of the capture of the wagon-train with his munitions of war by the Regulators. Gen- eral Waddell broke camp at Potts' Creek on the morning of May 10, and took up his line of march in the direction of Hillsborough, intend- ing to rejoin Tryon's army at Haw River. He had advanced but a short distance after cross- ing the Yadkin River when he received a mes- sage from the Regulators warning him to halt or retreat. Finding that many of his men were averse to fighting their own countrymen, and, many being favorable to the Regulators were thinning his ranks by desertion. he retreated toward Salisbury, hotly pursued by the Regu- lators, who opposed his progress by entangling him in a skirmish, and surrounding his small detachment, took most of his men prisoners. General Waddell and officers, with a few men, were allowed to escape. It may seem singular. in capturing General Waddell's brigade, taking most of his men prisoners, and disarming them, that no lives were lost. The reason is perhaps best explained by the fact that the Regulators did not wish to sacrifice the lives of their coun-
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trymen, nor did General Waddell's men wish to kill the Regulators, with whom they were at heart sympathizers. Capt. Benjamin Merrill, who was an officer of militia in Rowan County, had raised a company of oppressed neighbors to join the Regulators, and he was in com- mand of the forces opposing the advance of General Waddell. He was afterwards cap- tured by a force under Colonel Fanning (and later executed at Hillsborough, with the other prisoners) while Governor Tryon was march- ing with his army through the "Jersey Settle- ments," administering his new-coined oath and devastating property and crops. General Wad- dell, with the small number of his detachment which escaped capture, retreated to Salisbury and went into camp, where he held a consulta- tion with his officers.
GENERAL WADDELL'S CAMP,
Potts' Creek, 10th May, 1771.
By a Council of the Western Detachment.
Considering the great superiority of the insurgents in numbers, and the resolution of a greater part of our own men not to fight. it was resolved that they should retreat across the Yadkin.
William Lindsay, Ad. Alexander, Thomas Neel, Fr. Ross, Robert Schaw,
Griffith Rutherford,
Samuel Spencer,
Robert Harris,
Samuel Sneed,
William Luckie.
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May IIth, 1771, Captain Alexander made oath before Griffith Rutherford, that he had passed along the lines of the Regulators in arms, drawn up on ground he was ac- quainted with. The foot appeared to him to extend a quarter of a mile seven or eight deep, and the horse to extend one hundred and twenty yards, twelve or fourteen deep. (Foote, Sketches of North Carolina, p. 59; Col. Rec. of N. C., Vol. 8, p. 608.)
General Waddell immediately dispatched an express to Governor Tryon at Hillsborough, warning him of the common danger, and advising him of the capture of the ammunition train by the Regulators the day before. Tryon, already alarmed at the reports coming in that the Regulators were concentrating their forces at Alamance, on the route to Salisbury im- mediately raised his camp and began marching toward Haw River. On Sunday, May 12, he crossed this stream just below the Falls at Wood's Ferry. Next day he marched four miles to O'Neal's, on the west side of the Little Alamance. A strong detachment was also sent to take possession of the west bank of the Great Alamance to prevent the Regulators occupying this strong post, and went into camp on the evening of May 13, 1771, just six miles from the Regulators' camp on the other side of the Great Alamance. On May 14 Tryon's whole army was encamped on the west bank of the Great Alamance ( see frontispiece ) there to
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