A partial view of Moore’s Creek Battleground, Pender County.
Battle of Moore’s Creek
It preceded the Declaration «if Independ¬
ence and is considered as marking a con¬
siderable victory for the Patriots in their
eff«irts against the Tories.
THE onset of the Revolution
found North Carolina in a very
confused and disorganized con¬
dition. without any duly constitu¬
ted or organized government. When
the Mecklenburg patriots adopted
their famous Resolves on May
20, 1775. the Royal Governor.
Josiah Martin, took alarm and
abandoned the reins of power,
taking refuge on a British cruiser
then lying in the Cape Fear. From
this vantage point of safety, all
he could do was to issue procla¬
mations of denunciation and dire
threats which he was without the
power to enforce.
A meeting of representatives of
the patriots was held at Hillsboro
beginning on August 21, 1775,
to which every county and borough
town sent delegates. The meeting
was attended by one hundred and
eighty-four members. The eminent
Samuel Johnston of Eden ton, one
of the foremost men of his gener¬
ation. was chosen as President of
this Assembly, with Andrew Knox
as Secretary. It is worthy of notice
that James Glasgow acted as Assist¬
ant Secretary. Later he became
Secretary of State for North Caro¬
lina and had a county named in his
honor, but alas! he fell from his
By R. C. LAWRENCE
high estate and was convicted of
defalcation in office and thoroughly
disgraced.
An exchange of courtesies now
took place between the President
of the Assembly on the one hand,
and the Royal Governor Martin on
the other. On his part the Royal
Governor denounced the Assembly
as “one of the black artifices of
falsehood and sedition." On his
part, the President of the Assembly
claimed that the Governor's proc¬
lamation was a “false, scurrilous,
malicious and seditious libel."
The Assembly then arranged to
put the State into a position for de¬
fense and for a provisional civil
and military government. The
civil government consisted of the
Provincial Council, which was
composed of one representative
appointed by the Assembly, who
was in fact the executive head of
the State, and two persons repre¬
senting each of the districts into
which the State had been divided.
These districts were designated as
the Wilmington. Newbern, Edcn-
ton, Halifax, Hillsboro and Salis¬
bury districts. There was also a
Committee of Safety for each of
these districts, together with local
county and municipal committees.
The military organization pro¬
vided for consisted of the regular
or “Continental Line regiments,"
and the militia, or "Minute
Men.” Of the first of the "Con¬
tinental Line" regiments, James
Moore was named as Colonel;
Francis Nash (later killed at
Germantown), Lieutenant Colonel;
and Thomas Clark, Major. Robert
Howe was appointed as Colonel
of the second regiment; Alexander
Martin, Lieutenant Colonel, and
John Patton. Major.
The "Minute Men" were also
organized and a Colonel named
for each district, the ones with
whom we are concerned being
Richard Caswell, who became Colo¬
nel for the Newbern district, and
Alexander Lillington, who was
appointed as Colonel for the Wil¬
mington district.
The first meeting of the newly
appointed Provincial Council was
held in October, 1775, at which
time Cornelius Harnett was elected
as its President, which constituted
him the de facto Governor. In
December, two additional regi-
