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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 headquarters of the British army. The
resistance made by the few troops that could be hastily assembled, was
in the hope of delaying 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
suspicion in the British; an ambuscade was apprehended by the Iight
troops, who moved forward for some time with great circumspection; 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 possessed in the adjacent country a
few friends and timid dependents. The panic that had gone over South
Carolina after the success of the British in that State, and had driven
multitudes to "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 Bead-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
position, 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 communication 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 eve-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,
attended the British army during the whole campaign in North Carolina.
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
.hill—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 unwearied perseverance; and the
British troops were so effectually blockaded in their present position,
that very few out of a great many messengers could reach Charlottetown,
in the beginning of October, 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
supplies. 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 inhabitants 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, rallied 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 companies of two, lay concealed in the woods in
sight of the house, not far from each other.
While lying there, they
witnessed the advance of the British,—saw them pause on the brow of the
hill near the branch and reconnoitre, and then slowly advance to the
house. The dragoons dismounted 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 insects 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 witnesses of the merry plunder of the
foragers. At length one of them cried out—"Boys, I can't stand this—J
take the captain. Every one choose his roan 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 retreating 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, Corning 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 buns of concealed enemies. The leading horses of the wagons
were some of theirs 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 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 20th 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, 1750.
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 blunders and misfortunes. Another English writer, who was
a professed 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:—
"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 behind the
stalls, this corps fell back. Lord Cornwallis rode tip in person and
made use of these words: 'Legion, remember you have everything to lose
but nothing; to gain;' alluding, it is supposed, to the former
reputation of this corps. Webster's brigade moved on, drove the
Americans from behind the Court-I-louse, the legion then pursued them;
but the whole of the British army was actually kept at bay for some
minutes, by a few mounted Americans, 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
abundance 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 clay, 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 iii 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 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 wonder 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 annoyance, he chose to depart suddenly,
and in the night. Mr. McCafferty, a man of wealth and standing, a
Scotchman, and resident 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 contrived to escape, and leave the army to find their way by the
returning 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 congregation; 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 eradicate
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 enthusiasm to the male population. I find in the
South Carolina and American General Gazette, from the 2d to the 9th of
February, the following paragraph!—'The young ladies of the best
families of Mecklenburg colony, 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.'
"The ladies of the
adjoining county of Rowan have desired the plan of a similar association
to be drawn up and prepared for signature." |
