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 13
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prisoners. Rev. Dr. Caldwell and Mr. Robert Thompson had just left Tryon, or at least Dr. Caldwell had, and Mr. Thompson was in the act of taking leave. . Dr. Caldwell, being mounted, galloped away, and in a moment drew rein in front of the Regulators. He had been to intercede again, hoping to prevent bloodshed and trying to effect a reconciliation between the opposing forces; but finding Tryon obstinate, as he would promise nothing unless the Regulators would lay down their arms and submit to his demand, addressed them as follows :
GENTLEMEN AND REGULATORS :
Those of you who are not too far committed should desist and quietly return to your homes, those of you who have laid yourselves liable should submit without resist- ance. I and others promise to obtain for you the best possible terms. The Governor will grant you nothing. You are unprepared for war! You have no cannon ! You have no military training ! You have no command- ing officers to lead you in battle. You have no ammu- nition. You will be defeated !
Just at this juncture, Patrick Muller, an old Scotch soldier, who had seen service in the King's army, called out to him, "Doctor Cald- well, get out of the way or Tryon's army will kill you in three minutes!"
Battle of Alamance.
Facing page 218.
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This view is from the north side of the Salisbury Road, the river being to the north of the field. On the right are the cavalry, with General Tryon mounted on a white charger ; on the left are the trees, rocks, fences, and hedges from behind which the Regulators poured their deadly shower of bullets. In the center of the field are a few of the Regulators who had fallen in battle.
It was now about midday. Mr. Robert Thompson, who was leaving to go back to the Regulators, for whom he had been interceding with Tryon for a reconciliation in their behalf, was detained by Tryon as a prisoner. Indignant at such perfidy, he thereupon told the Governor some very plain truths. He was an amiable, but bold, outspoken gentle- man, deservedly beloved and respected for his unimpeachable character. (Revolutionary History of North Carolina, p 33.) Being un- armed, therefore his leaving was not an escape, but simply retiring in the conscious dignity of
a gentleman. At this moment the irritable Governor snatched a gun from a militiaman and with his own hand shot and killed Thomp-
son. Tryon perceived his folly the next mo- ment, and sent a flag of truce toward the Regulators' side of the field. Donald Mal- colm, one of the overnor's aides, was the bearer of this flag. (He was afterwards a very obnoxious under-officer of the customs at Boston.) He had proceeded but a short dis-
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tance when the Regulators, enraged at the re- vengeful act of the blood-thirsty Tryon, imme- diately began firing with deadly aim. When the firing commenced, the bearer of the flag retreated with safety to his person, but had the misfortune to have the buttons of his small clothes leave their fastenings. Trumbal, in his "M'Fingal," with rather more wit than modesty, refers to the circumstance in four lines. Tryon, now all the more enraged at the disrespect to his white flag, mounted on his white charger, handsome and commanding in his person, rising in his stirrups led his army to battle, crying, "Fire! fire!" Yet his men hesitated, when he again cried out "Fire on them!" or "Fire on me!" "Fire and be damned !" cried a Regulator, and instantly the din of battle began.
The British subjects, in obedience to their commander, now began firing. The first vol- ley struck the ground in front of the Regu- lators. McPherson, one of the Regulators, says (Caruthers's Life of Dr. Caldwell) he overheard one of Tryon's colonels say to the artillery, "I told you you aimed too low." The next volley went over their heads. At the beginning the Regulators seemed to be get- ting the best of the situation. Keeping up a continuous fire, they betook themselves behind
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trees after the first volley from the artillery, and adopted the Indian method of warfare by getting behind trees, rocks, fences, or anything that offered the slightest protection; while Tryon's men. in regular military order, were firing by platoons. Tryon's men in the open field and in plain view made splendid targets for the Regulator sharpshooters. So rapid were their discharges that Tryon's troops had all they could do to return the fire, without at- tempting to rout them from their positions. The Governor's army had greatly the advan- tage as to arms, ammunition, and military dis- cipline; but the Regulators compelled them to remain in the road, just where they wished them to be, while they occupied a more advan- tageous position, and nearly every man was ensconced behind a tree. Alexander Martin, who was present, and who with Dr. Caldwell had visited Tryon's camp, says, "The Regu- lators, pursuing the Indian mode of fighting, did considerable injury to the King's troops; but owing to the artillery, and firmness of the latter, were, after a conflict of more than an hour, struck with a panic and fled." William- son, in his History of North Carolina, says, "The engagement commenced with the dis- charge of cannon. Colonel Fanning, who commanded the left wing, being unused to ac-
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tion and deficient in courage, fell back with the whole of his regiment, except Captain Nash and his company"; and that "in the meantime the cannon did great execution."
Captain Montgomery, the officer of a com- pany of mountain boys, presumably from Surry County, was the principal commander of the Regulators, if any one should be known by that title. He led the charge and routed the British . forces under Tryon, who retreated, leaving two cannon on the field. "Two brothers, McPher- son * by name, rushed up and captured the guns, but having no ammunition suitable were unable to use them."
When the British artillery fired the next vol- ley. Captain Montgomery was killed by a shell. About this time a Regulator's bullet whizzed through Gov. Tryon's hat. With his artillery- men still falling from the well-aimed Regu-
*"The elder McPherson, who gave me an account of the battle, last fall, after describing the retreat of Tryon's front columns and the capture of the artillery by the McPherson brothers, in which he agreed precisely with the statements above given, said with much animation, as a kind of sedative to his feelings, 'Oh, sir, if either John or Daniel Gillespie had only known as much about military discipline then as they knew a few years later, the bloody Tryon would have never slept again in his grand palace.' The statements of no one man, neither McPherson nor anybody else, are given in this work without some qualifying expression, unless they are sus- tained by the testimony of others." (Caruthers's Life of Dr. Caldwell.)
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lators' bullets, the thought of another bullet passing so close to his royal personage perhaps caused myriads of visions to pass before him, for at this juncture he ordered the second white flag sent toward the Regulators' side of the field, presumably to stop the battle, as for what other purpose would a commanding general send out a white flag? The meaning of the flag no one knew so well as Patrick Muller, the old Scotchman, who called out, "It's a flag of truce; don't fire!" But they heeded him not, and the flag soon fell from the Governor's aide- de-camp, who was immediately shot dead. (Foote, Sketches of North Carolina, p. 61.) General Tryon, enraged at the disregard of his second white flag, now rallied his troops and led a charge that ended the battle. With re- doubled volleys they fired on the Regulators, whose ammunition was giving out, as they had "only as many balls in their pouches as they were accustomed to carry with them on a day's hunting." (Foote, Sketches of North Carolina, p. 61.) "It had been the uniform testimony of the Regulators in this section that they did not fly from Tryon's cannon until their ammuni- tion had failed ; and this was probably the fact.
for the most of them did not expect they would need more powder and balls than they were ac- customed to take with them on a common hunt-
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ing expedition. An old man, who was seven- teen years old at the time of the battle, told the writer a little more than a year ago that he as- sisted George Parsons in moulding his balls the night before the battle, and that when they had moulded twelve bullets they stopped. He then observed somewhat jocosely to Parsons that if he shot all those bullets, and did execution with them at each shot, he would do his share. Par- sons replied in the same spirit, that he would certainly use every one of them if there should be occasion for it. He afterwards told my in- formant that he had used every one of them, and he believed that he had done execution with every one, with one exception, when his gun choked in loading." ( Caruthers's Life of Dr. Caldwell, pp. 156, 157.)
The Regulators, with their commander cold in death, and no officer to urge them anew to the fray, retreated to the woods. A small num- ber, about a dozen or more men, were sur- rounded and captured by Tryon's forces and made prisoners of war. Later they were tried as traitors, condemned, and six of the number executed at Hillsborough, on a charge of high treason. Gideon Wright (of the then new county of Surry), who fought under Tryon at Alamance, in his report of the battle, as pre- served in the Moravian Records, says, "Many
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of the Regulators had taken refuge in the woods, whereupon the Governor ordered the woods set on fire, and in consequence some of the wounded, unable to get off the field, were roasted alive." Dr. Clewell, in his excellent work ( Clewell's History of Wachovia, p. 110), says that the killed and wounded were in the woods, and that the Governor's order to fire the woods was aimed at the wounded, who were "roasted alive." Tryon, in his report (Loss- ing, Field Book of the Revolution, Vol. 2, p. 577). says, "The woods were swarming with riflemen who had taken to 'tree fighting' and were doing serious execution among the provin- cial (King's) militia, when it became necessary to drive out the Regulators so engaged." After the battle his coadjutors say he was at least hu- mane, in that he did not torture the wounded Regulators, as he showed them every consider- ation. and had their wounds dressed by his own surgeons. (Col. Rec., Vol. 10, p. 1023.) After "roasting them alive" we can imagine no fur- ther torture to which he could subject them.
The accounts vary much as to the .number killed and wounded. Williamson, in his his- tory, says that "seventy of the militia." mean- ing the Governor's men, "were killed or wound- ed." Martin says the Governor's loss was nine killed and sixty-one wounded. General Tryon,
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in his report, says his "loss in killed, wounded, and missing was about sixty men and the en- emy two hundred." (Col. Rec., Vol. 8, pp. 609, 616.) Dr. Caruthers, in his "Life of Dr. Caldwell," says McPherson, who was present and gave him the particulars, told him "nine Regulators were said to have been killed on the field, and a great number wounded." "The account I have always had from the Regulators and other old men in the region is that nine of the Regulators and twenty-seven of the Roy- alists were left dead on the field." This state- ment is concurred in by historians Williamson and Foote. Martin, in his History of North Carolina, Vol. 2, p. 276. says, "That out of a company from Beaufort County, fifteen were either killed or wounded by the Regulators." If the rest of Tryon's army suffered losses in the same proportion his loss would have been larger than is reported. According to a statement in Williamson ( Williamson's History of North Carolina, Vol. 2. p. 150), which was probably from an official communication, Tryon lost more men than is reported. Martin, in his his- tory, says, "Captain Potter commanded a com- pany of thirty men from Beaufort. Fifteen of these were killed or wounded in action." If half of one small company was killed or wound- ed, it is natural to suppose that Tryon must
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have had a more severe loss than is reported; but this is a matter which cannot be determined with accuracy, nor is it of great importance.
During the battle. James Pugh, a gunsmith by trade,-who had repaired many of the Regu- lators' guns prior to the fight .- a sharpshooter and a brother-in-law of Harmon Husband, with three other men, securely protected by a ledge of rocks and a large tree on the edge of a ravine, did great execution with rifles. Pugh, being a crack sharpshooter, did the firing, while the other three men did the loading for him. He killed fifteen (15) of Tryon's artillerymen. (Lossing, Field Book of the Revolution, Vol. 2, p. 576.) Although the cannon were directed against Pugh and his assistants, they could not be driven from their position; but at length they were surrounded. Pugh was taken pris- oner. The others made their escape, and Pugh was tried for treason and executed a month later at Hillsborough.
Amongst the Regulators, Rednap Howell was the master-spirit that controlled their movements. This staunch Regulator's plans were far-reaching, and his aims for redress of grievances were far advanced. He was one of the committee that presented the petition to the Governor and General Assembly in 1768, and again the day before the battle. Of the forty-
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seven sections in the present Constitution of North Carolina adopted in 1776, thirteen of them, or one-fourth, are the embodiment of re- forms sought by the Regulators from Tryon and the General Assembly in 1768 and 1769.
Governor Tryon, after the Battle of Ala- mance, ordered a court of oyer and terminer to meet at Hillsborough and adjourn from day to day until his arrival with the prisoners. His next order was that "the dead should be buried on May 17, at five o'clock in the evening, in front of the park of artillery," "funeral services to be performed with military honors to the deceased." "After the ceremony, prayers and thanksgiving for the signal victory it has pleased Divine Providence yesterday to grant to the King's army over the insurgents." ( Col. Rec., Vol. 8, p. 584.) For the accommodation of the wounded who were too badly injured to march with the army. Tryon appropriated the residence of Captain Michael Holt, on whose plantation the battle was fought, and fitted it up for a temporary hospital. A man from each detachment, with one sergeant, was ordered to report to the hospital for guard duty. John Walker was appointed hospital steward. report- ing to Dr. Richards, surgeon in charge.
Among other prisoners taken immediately after the battle was one by the name of James
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Few, who was immediately hanged on the spot, according to Martin's History, without a trial, or, according to Williamson, the historian, without the sentence of a court martial. This was an act of cold-blooded cruelty and almost fiendish malice which admitted of no apology, for the unfortunate Few was in a state of in- sanity, and was therefore not a fit subject for any manner of punishment. Wylie Jones, who was sent by Tryon, after the battle, to seize the papers of Harmon Husband, found among them a letter from Few, in which he alleged that he was sent by heaven to relieve the world from oppression; and that he was to begin in North Carolina. McPherson says he was "a young man, a carpenter by trade, and owned the small spot of ground just outside of Hills- borough. He was engaged to be married to a young lady whom Fanning seduced. He was a member of the Regulators; was taken on the field of battle; and, at the instigation of Fan-
ning, was executed on the spot." (Foote, Swain, and Caruthers.) "The effect upon the susceptible and perhaps somewhat visionary mind of a young man, in such circumstance, of having his prospects of domestic happiness blighted by such a base villain as Fanning, who was trampling upon and running over every one, and especially the poor around him, be-
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cause he was protected by the Governor and by the Superior Court, and was above the reach of the law, probably produced in Few a degree of monomania, and he began to think that he was commissioned from heaven to rid the world of such heartless oppressors; and as the Regu- lators were engaged in a conflict against op-, pression and extortion, in which Fanning and his class were so much interested, it afforded him a good opportunity to begin his work. The sacrifice of Few, however, uncalled for as it was, could not abate the rage of Tryon or quiet the guilty mind of Fanning, under whose influ- ence he apears to have acted in this matter. The people of Hillsborough petitioned Tryon to spare Few's family, but of late he had been turning a deaf ear to petitions, and he extended his vengeance to the unoffending parents, brothers and sisters, by the destruction of their property ; and thus showed that he was as desti- tute of humanity as he was regardless of jus- tice." (Caruthers's Life of Dr. Caldwell, pp. 159, 159; Lossing, Field Book of the Revolu- tion, Vol. 2, p. 578; Hawks, Graham, and Swain.) According to the author of a com- munication in the Weekly Times,-accepted by Caruthers, Foote, Graham, Hawks, Swain, Lossing, and others,-Captain Messer, an in- fluential man in his neighborhood, having taken
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an active part in the cause of the Regulators, was captured along with Few, Pugh, and others, was to have been hung the day after the battle ; but owing to a very affecting incident which oc- curred, he was reserved for the fiendish execu- tion at Hillsborough. His wife, having heard during the night of what was to take place next morning, went to the battle-field to see the last of her husband, taking along with her their eld- est son, a lad of ten years, an uncommonly smart and pretty child for his age. The wife was prostrated on the ground, her face covered with her hands, while her heart was breaking, and the boy weeping over his mother. and in his childish way trying to comfort her in their dire distress while the preparation was going on preparatory to the execution; the wife crying and begging the Governor to spare the life of her husband. Suddenly the child sprang from the ground, and walking up to the Governor, said, "Governor Tryon, sir, hang me and let my father live!" Tryon, in angry astonishment, demanded of him, "Who told you to say that?" "Nobody, sir," bravely replied the boy. "Why do you make such a request?" the Governor next interrogated. "Because, sir," bravely re- plied the boy, "if you hang my father my mother will die and the children will perish !" This request was made with such simplicity and
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earnestness that it touched even the stony heart of the "Great Wolf of North Carolina," and he promised the boy that his father should not die that day. At Fanning's suggestion a pardon was offered him on condition that he would bring into camp Harmon Husband; and he was permitted to go in pursuit of the fleeing Quaker, while his wife and son were retained as host- ages. On his return to Tryon's camp he re- ported that he was unable to bring Husband for want of more force, although he had over- taken him in Virginia. While his wife was sent home, Captain Messer was put in chains and dragged around the country through the Jersey and Moravian settlements while await- ing his execution.
CHAPTER V
After the Battle Tryon Begins His March of Devasta- tion; Husband's Estates His First Stop; Burns and Lays Waste His Property and Crops; Personal Men- tion of Husband and Family; His Implication in the Whiskey Riot in Pennsylvania; Tryon Marches Through the Jersey Settlements, Pillaging with Fire and Sword; in Camp at Reedy Creek; Joined by Waddell June 4; Combined Army Marches to the Moravian Settlements ; Celebration of King's Birth- day; General Waddell Ordered to March Westward and Subdue and Enforce Submission of Regulators in Rowan and Adjoining Counties; Governor Begins His March Toward Hillsborough; in Camp at Guil- ford Court House; His Proclamation Outlawing Cer- tain Regulators; Breaks Camp and Marches to Hills- borough; Prisoners Tried and Condemned ; His Per- sonal Supervision of the Gallows and Details of Exe- cution; Dr. Caldwell Comforts Condemned Men ; Place of Execution; Pugh as a Man and Patriot; Robert Matear and Governor's Enmity for Him ; Cap- tain Messer ; Captain Merrill and His Talk While on the Scaffold.
About the 19th of May, Tryon with his army took up a line of march, advancing into the plantations of the principal Regulators, burn- ing their buildings and laying waste to all
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property. (Col. Rec., Vol. 8, pp. 615,.651; State Records of North Carolina, Vol. 19, p. 846.) Among the farms thus devastated was the seat of Mr. Harmon Husband on Deep River, whose farm, containing 600 acres of excellent land, was in a high state of cultivation. Upon his immense wheat fields of more than fifty (50) acres, with the golden grain just ready for the reapers, his corn fields just tasseled out, and upon his clover meadows covering broad acres awaiting the scythe, Tryon's soldiers turned their horses, numbering several hun- dreds, to graze, and a cotemporaneous account says "the army left the place without a spear of grass, stalk of corn or herbage growing, and without a fence standing, Tryon having burned all the houses and improvements of the place." (Col. Rec. of N. C., Vol. 8, p. 615, and State Records of N. C., p. 846.) Tryon was in camp at Sandy Creek, on Deep River, the home of Harmon Husband, for a week, levy- ing taxes. Detachments were sent out to assist in collecting taxes and dispersing the Regula- tors, who were still lurking around in small parties, probably from mutual sympathy and not with any purpose of making any further resistance. While we are in the neighborhood of Harmon Husband, who had left for Penn- sylvania just as the battle began, we will make
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some mention of his family. As soon as Hus- band realized that blood would be shed. being a Quaker, and having religious scruples against warfare, declaring that his principles would not allow him to fight, he rode off the battle- ground just as Dr. Caldwell galloped up and began to address the Regulators. He was not seen in North Carolina again until after the Revolution. Charity must stretch her mantle to cover this delinquency of the leader of the Regulators ; for why should he have urged the people to assemble for resistance to oppression unless to have fought? Unless, as already stated, he perhaps thought that by large num- bers the Governor would be induced to comply with the requests for reconciliation. But after seeing the Governor's well-officered army and realizing that the outcome of a military conflict could result only in disaster for the Regulators, and knowing the disposition of Tryon, and that he would be captured and executed without mercy, being one of the leaders, he decided that it would be best for his personal safety to flee to Pennsylvania, his old home, which he did as fast as his horse could carry him. Husband, as a citizen, was not an objectionable character. He was sober, intelligent, industrious and pros- perous; honest and just in his dealings, and, judging from his plenteous crops, destroyed
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by Tryon's army, a good farmer. Husband came back to his old home after the Revolution, on business, but did not remain very long. Two of his sons settled on Deep River, near the Buffalo Ford, on their father's plantation, which was devastated by Tryon's army, and lived there for many years. A daughter of Husband married a man by the name of Wright, and lived in the community for fifteen or twenty years. The family of Rev. Dr. Caldwell speak of her in very high terms, not only as a woman of superior mind and agree- able manners, but as uncommonly interesting and intelligent for the age and country in which she lived. Her mother was a sister of James Pugh, who was captured at the Battle of Alamance and afterwards executed at Hills- borough. ( Caruthers's Life of Dr. Caldwell. )
Husband soon became prominent in Pennsyl- vania, being repeatedly elected to membership in the Pennsylvania Legislature. He was appointed a member of the Committee of Safety, along with Breckinridge, Bradford and Gallatin. He was implicated in a whiskey insurrection in Western Pennsylvania, and was arrested and taken to Philadelphia, where he was pardoned through the intercession of Dr. David Caldwell and Dr. Benjamin Rush and the North Carolina Senators. He met his wife
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at an Inn on his return home, and died before reaching his old neighborhood.
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