The Southern Revolution: The Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge

Background
By the summer of 1775, the American colonies were in open rebellion against Great Britain. The news from Lexington had polarized the southern colonies, and tensions between loyalist and patriot in North Carolina rose as revolutionary fervor led to royal governor Josiah Martin's retreat from the capital of New Bern. Seething, Martin attempted to exploit the large population of Scottish Highlanders opposed to colonial independence.

The erstwhile governor vowed to raise a Tory army 10,000 strong. This would join the southern British forces under Lord Cornwallis to snuff out the rebellion and put the Carolinas firmly back under royal authority. To that end, Martin directed General Donald MacDonald and Lt. Colonel Donald McLeod to recruit loyalist supporters among the Highlanders. Any man willing to fight for the Crown was promised 200 acres of land and ample tax exemptions.

Though the terms were generous, they hardly attracted the 10,000 men that Martin envisioned. When General MacDonald marshaled his forces at Cross Creek (near present-day Fayetteville) in February of 1776, he commanded a force of 1,600 men--with only 500 firearms among them. The plan was to rendezvous with forces under General Henry Clinton near Wilmington. The route would take them along the southwest bank of the Cape Fear River through North Carolina's backwoods wetlands. The problem was that the local patriot militia knew all about it.

The militia promptly began preparing defenses around Wilmington; in New Bern, minutemen assembled under the command of Colonel Richard Caswell and were ordered to support the defenses around Cape Fear. A force under Colonel James Moore deflected MacDonald's loyalists at Rockfish Creek, and Caswell's men marched to meet them at the bridge spanning Moore's Creek, which the Highlanders needed to cross en route to Wilmington. A detachment of men under Colonel Alexander Lillington were sent to hold the bridge and reinforce Colonel Caswell's troops.