Battle of Moores Creek

In the early days of 1776, the rebellion of the American colonists to end British control of North America was under way. The citizens of all colonies were divided between Patriot rebels (aka American Whigs) and those still loyal to England, the Loyalists (aka Tories). Of course British troops opposed the Patriots as well, but since it took so long to send troops from England, the British were counting on large militias of Loyalists to do much of the fighting. From the first shots fired at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, in April 1775, both sides began active recruitment of men for battle.

Soon after the events in Massachusetts, North Carolina Patriots attacked the home of the Royal Governor, Josiah Martin, and ran him out of the capital of New Bern. He fled to Fort Johnson near present day Southport, North Carolina, on the banks of the Cape Fear River. In July the fort was attacked and burned by Patriots, forcing Martin to take refuge on a British ship anchored off the coast.

At the same time Josiah Martin was having his problems, Scotsman Allen Maclean was petitioning England to let him form two battalions of Scots, one in the northern colonies and one in the southern colonies. There were a large number of Scottish Loyalists throughout the colonies. General Donald MacDonald and Colonel Donald MacLeod were put in charge of the recruitment drive in the southern colonies.

When Josiah Martin got the news that a British force of 2,000 men was sailing towards Wilmington, North Carolina, and would be arriving by mid-February 1776, he got word out to the recruiters that he would need a substantial army to be in the Wilmington area by the time the British arrived. His plan was to combine the Loyalist militia and the British army and then march through the colony to put an end to the rebellion in North Carolina.

On February 5th, the Loyalist militia leaders met at Cross Creek to discuss how to proceed. Cross Creek is near modern day Fayetteville, which is about 80 miles northwest of Wilmington in the interior of North Carolina. On the 15^th, approximately 3,500 Loyalist militiamen gathered a few miles north of Cross Creek. However, these numbers dwindled by the time they actually began the march to the Wilmington. Militiamen were everyday citizens who volunteered to fight, not paid soldiers, and could therefore leave at any time. Many were under the impression that they would be marching to the sea along with trained British soldiers, which was not the case. The idea of having to fight Patriots all the way to Wilmington didn’t sit well with many, and by the time the men were ready to march, only about 1,600 remained. Furthermore, many did not have guns, but swords instead.

The Patriots heard about the Loyalist gathering a few days after the February 5^th meeting and quickly rallied a number of militias to stop MacDonald and his men before they could get to the coast. In New Bern, a militia was rounded up under the command of Colonel Richard Caswell. Militias headed by Colonels Alexander Lilington and John Nash were readied near Wilmington, as were Colonel James Moore and his 650 North Carolina Continentals. Continentals were paid and trained soldiers authorized by the Continental Congress, the first government of the United States. Moore was put in charge of the entire campaign.

Moore and his troops marched from Wilmington on the 10^th and eventually took up a position at the Rockfish Creek Bridge, just 7 miles from the Loyalist camp at Cross Creek. MacDonald had planned to march to the coast on a road that would cross the bridge over Rockfish Creek, but upon learning of Moore’s position he decided to head east and take Negro Head Point Road, a road that would eventually cross Moores Creek. He began his march on February 20^th, crossing the Cape Fear River at Cross Creek and heading in the direction of Corbett’s Ferry where he could cross the Black River.

In the meantime, Caswell and his 850 militiamen had left New Bern on the 13^th and arrived at Corbett’s Ferry on the 21^st only a few hours ahead of McDonald. Just in case Caswell and MacDonald came to blows and Caswell lost, Moore ordered Lillington and Ashe to take control of the Moores Creek Bridge. Between the two they had about 350 men. Moore and his men began a march back to Wilmington to block MacDonald should he break through at Moores Creek. As it turned out, Moore’s Continentals would not take part in the final battle.

Hearing about an alternate crossing of the Black River from a slave, MacDonald chose not to confront Caswell at Corbett’s Ferry and crossed at the alternate route. Caswell soon realized that MacDonald had gone around him and quickly headed for Moores Creek Bridge, again getting there only a few hours before MacDonald on February 26^th.

Lillington and Ashe had set up defenses and artillery on the eastern side of the Moores Creek Bridge, the side the Patriots would ultimately be on when the fighting started. Caswell set up a decoy camp on the west side with just a few men. He quickly assembled earthworks (earthen walls for defense) to give the appearance of a legitimate defensive position.

MacDonald sent one of his men into Caswell’s camp to demand surrender; Caswell refused. While there, the emissary made a careful study of Caswell’s position and reported to MacDonald that Patriot forces were slim and that they would be fighting with their backs to Moores Creek, making retreat difficult. MacDonald decided to attack the next morning. In the meantime, Caswell and his men abandoned the camp and retreated over the other side with the rest of the men. They tore up planks from the bridge and greased the girders to make it look like they had run off in the night and were trying to make it difficult for the Loyalists to follow them. It also made it difficult for the Loyalists to retreat once they had crossed the bridge.

About 1 AM on the 27^th, the Loyalists began their march down Negro Head Point Road. MacDonald was sick so he put Donald MacLeod in charge. They arrived at the bridge as day was breaking and found Caswell’s camp abandoned. A Patriot sentry fired a shot to warn Caswell that the Loyalists had arrived. Shortly thereafter, MacLeod ordered a charge across the bridge; many of his Scottish Loyalists had nothing more than swords in hand. When they had crossed the bridge and had come within thirty yards of the Patriot defenses, the Patriots opened up with artillery and musket fire, killing at least thirty Loyalists including MacLeod and another officer, Captain John Campbell. The Loyalist retreated as best as they could back across the river, some of them drowning in the dark and deep water. Those still alive took off running. The battle was over in just a matter of a few minutes.

Loyalists’ viewpoint once they crossed the bridge

It’s hard to imagine that the deaths of only thirty men could send an army of 1,600 scurrying back from where they came, especially when they outnumbered the Patriots in the first place, but one has to understand the mindset of militiamen. As mentioned earlier, these are not trained soldiers. They are farmers, trappers, and tradesmen who have families back home. All it takes is for a few of their comrades to meet with a bullet and the rest simply say, “The hell with this!” Both British and American forces had to deal with this throughout the war. Militias were an excellent source of men, but they could not always be counted on once the shooting started.

The Patriots pieced the Moores Creek Bridge back together and gave chase. Over the next few days, around 850 of the Loyalists were captured. The leaders were sent to a Philadelphia prison camp, but the rest were “paroled home.” Believe it or not, back in the days when a gentleman’s word was his honor, prisoners were set free as long as they promised to sit out the war.

In addition to the prisoners, the Patriots captured 1,500 rifles and other assorted weapons, plus £15,000 in sterling silver. The defeat made other North Carolina Loyalists leery of joining the British cause, and for the rest of the war, North Carolina remained firmly in Patriot hands, one of the few colonies to do so.

As it turned out, the British forces that were on their way to Wilmington never even left until mid-February, arriving in North Carolina only in May. With no Loyalist army to meet with them, the ships sailed down the coast to try and take control of Charleston, South Carolina, but they were beaten back by the guns of Fort Moultrie. With that, the British put their efforts towards stopping the rebellion in the north, not returning with much effort to the south until 1778.

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