Gen. Nathanael Greene in the South

The Continental Congress had been unfortunate in its selection of commanders in the South. It had chosen Robert Howe, who lost Savannah. It had chosen Benjamin Lincoln, who lost Charleston. In August 1780, near Camden, South Carolina, the British attacked Horatio Gates' army, which broke and ran in wild confusion. The way was cleared for Lord Cornwallis to pursue his goals of gathering southern Loyalists and taking the war into Virginia. His southern ports could be mobilized to move men and materiel into the Carolinas.
Congress entrusted General Washington with the choice of Gates' successor. On October 5 it resolved "that the Commander-in-Chief be and is hereby directed to appoint an officer to command the southern army, in the room of Major General Gates." George Washington acted without delay. The day after he received his copy of the resolution, he wrote to Nathanael Greene at West Point, "It is my wish to appoint You." Congress approved the appointment, and gave Greene command over all troops from Delaware to Georgia with extraordinarily full powers, "subject to the control of the Commander-in-Chief." Greene took command at Charlotte, North Carolina on December 2, 1780. Brigadier General Isaac Huger of the South Carolina Continentals was appointed his second in command.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Nathanael Greene to Francis Marion, 4 December 1780:

". . . I have not the Honor of your Acquaintance but am no Stranger to your Character and merit. . . . Untill a more permanent Army can be collected than is in the field at present, we must endeavor to keep up a partizan war and preserve the tide of sentiment among the People as much as possible in our Favour. Spies are the Eyes of any army. . . . At present I am badly off for Intelligence. It is of the highest Importance that I get the earliest Information of any Reinforcements which may arrive at Charlestown or leave the Town to join Lord Cornwallis. I wish you therefore to fix some Plan for procuring such Information and for conveying it to me with all possible Dispatch. The Spy should be taught to be particular in his Enquiries, and to get the names of the Corps Strength and Commanding Officer's name, Place from whence they came and where they are going. It will be best to fix upon some Body in Town to do this, and have a Runner between you and him, to give you the Intelligence as a Person cannot make these Enquiries without being suspected who lives out of Town. The utmost Secrecy will be necessary in this Business."

The Battle of Moores Creek Bridge: The Patriot Victory

When Col. Alexander Lillington arrived at Moores Creek Bridge on February 25, 1776, he quickly saw the position's defensive advantages for the patriot army. The creek, a dark sluggish stream about 35' wide, wound through swampy terrain and could only be crossed in the vicinity of this bridge. To dominate the crossing, Lillington built a low earthwork on a slight rise overlooking the bridge and its approach from the east. Joining Lillington the next day, Col. Richard Caswell sent his men across the bridge to build earthworks there. By the evening of February 26th, the patriots straddled the bridge. Lillington's 150 men waited on the east side of the creek, and Caswell's 850 men camped on the west. Donald MacDonald's loyalists, 1,600 strong but with arms for less than half that many, camped six miles away.

MacDonald had lost the race to the Moores Creek Bridge and had to decide whether to avoid battle or to cut through their opponents. At a council of war, agreement was reached to attack the enemy. An element in the decision was a scout's report that Caswell's position lay on their side of the river and was thus vulnerable.

At 1 a.m. on the 27th, the loyalists set out to attack, with 75 Highland broadswordsmen under Capt. John Campbell in the lead. MacDonald had fallen ill, and Donald McLeod was in command. The going was slow, for the route lay through thickets and swampy ground. During the previous night, Caswell and his men had abandoned their camp and withdrawn across the creek to the eastern bank. Once on the other side of the bridge, Caswell's men removed the planks and greased the girders. Posting artillery to cover the bridge, they waited in darkness for the advancing Scots.

An hour before dawn the loyalists came upon Caswell's deserted camp and found the fires burning low. Moving on to nearby woods, McLeod regrouped his men and passed the rallying cry–"King George and Broad Swords"–along the line. There they waited for daybreak. Suddenly gunfire sounded near the bridge. Though it was not yet light, McLeod couldn't wait any longer. Three cheers rang out–the signal for the attack–and the loyalists rushed the partly demolished bridge with broadswords out and bagpipes skirling. Picking their way over the bridge and onto the opposite bank, they got within 30 paces of the patriot earthworks before they were met by a fire of muskets and artillery. Nearly all the advance party were cut down, and the whole force soon retreated. It was over in a few minutes. Pursuit turned the repulse into a rout. The loyalists lost some 30 killed and 40 wounded. Only one patriot died.

Within weeks the patriots had captured "all suspected person" and disarmed "all Highlanders and ex-Regulators that were ... in the late battle." The spoils included 1,500 rifles, 350 "guns and shot-bags," 150 swords and dirks, and £15,000 sterling. Some 850 "common Soldiers" and most of the loyalists were captured. The leaders were imprisoned or banished from the colony. The soldiers were paroled to their homes.

Though the battle was a small one, the implications were large. The victory demonstrated the surprising patriot strength in the countryside, discouraged the growth of loyalist sentiment in the Carolinas, and spurred revolutionary feeling throughout the colonies. The British seaborne force, which finally arrived in May, moved on to Sullivan's Island off Charleston, South Carolina. In late June, patriot militia repulsed Sir Peter Parker's land and naval attack, ending the British hopes of squashing rebellion in the South for two years. "Had the South been conquered in the first half of 1776," historian Edward Channing concluded, "it is entirely conceivable that rebellion would never have turned into revolution ... At Moore's Creek and Sullivan's Island the Carolinas turned aside the one combination of circumstances that might have made British conquest possible."

(Source:  State Library of North Carolina)

The Battle of Moores Creek Bridge: Meanwhile...

During Josiah Martin's offshore exile, the patriots, in August and September 1775, set up a Provincial Council to govern the colony. Upon recommendation of the Continental Congress, two regiments of the Continental Line and several battalions of minutemen and militia were raised.

At the news that loyalists were assembling at Cross Creek, the patriots mobilized their forces. In Wilmington, they threw up breastworks and prepared for fighting. In New Bern, authorities mustered the district's militia under Colonel Richard Caswell, and ordered it to join with other militia to counter the loyalists. Colonel James Moore, senior officer of the 1st North Carolina Continentals and first to take the field, was given command.

The loyalists' plan was to advance along the southwest bank of the Cape Fear River to the coast, provision the British troops arriving by sea, and join with them to re-conquer the colony. On February 20, 1776, Donald MacDonald began his movement toward the coast. Blocked by James Moore at Rockfish Creek, he marched eastward in the general direction of Richard Caswell's force, crossed the Cape Fear, and proceeded toward the Negro Head Point Road, a route into Wilmington along which he expected little opposition. Outmaneuvered by MacDonald's march tactics, Caswell withdrew from defending Corbett's Ferry on the Black River in order to "take possession of the Bridge upon Widow Moore's Creek," some 20 miles above Wilmington and a place the loyalists had to cross on their way to the coast. After sending Colonel Alexander Lillington to join Caswell, Moore fell back toward Wilmington, hoping to fall on the rear of MacDonald's column as Caswell obstructed him in front.

(Source: State Library of North Carolina)

The Battle of Moores Creek Bridge: Martin's Plan

In exile, royal governor Josiah Martin planned the reconquest of North Carolina. First, he would raise within that colony an army of 10,000 men, two-thirds loyalist Highlanders and former Regulators. This army would then rendezvous on the coast with a powerful expeditionary force under Lord Cornwallis, Sir Henry Clinton, and Sir Peter Parker. These combined army and naval forces were to concentrate at Brunswick, a seaport town below Wilmington, by February 15, 1776. Together they would re-establish royal authority in the Carolinas, striking wherever rebellion showed itself. Martin persuaded his London superiors and commander-in-chief Thomas Gage that this host could easily restore order. The British ministry approved the plan, and dispatched orders to the several commanders.

Martin now set about recruiting his army. On January 10, 1776, he called upon all loyal subjects to unite to put down "a most daring, horrid, and unnatural Rebellion." Six months earlier General Gage had sent Donald MacDonald and Donald McLeod to North Carolina to recruit a Highland battalion. Martin now appointed MacDonald a brigadier general and McLeod a lieutenant colonel in the loyalist militia with directions to enlist men.

To all Highlanders who pledged service to the Crown, the British government promised 200 acres of land, cancellation of land fees, and tax exemption for 20 years. These terms, and Martin's efforts among other groups, brought in recruits, though not nearly as many as had been expected. The call went out for loyalists to assemble under MacDonald near Cross Creek (Fayetteville) and then march to the coast. When the force was organized on February 15, there were about 1,600 men present: Highlanders, other loyalists, and some 130 ex-Regulators.

(Source:  State Library of North Carolina)

The Battle of Moores Creek Bridge: The Prelude

As the economic and political controversy with Great Britain gave way to open rebellion in the mid-1770s, North Carolina was left a badly divided colony. The legislature, which was popularly elected, opposed royal governor Josiah Martin, almost to a man. "Government here is as absolutely prostrate as impotent," Martin warned his superiors in London, "and nothing but the shadow of it is left." Yet many people who disliked parliamentary taxation and royal authority over provincial affairs nevertheless found the thought of fighting the mother country abhorrent. By mid-1775, North Carolinians had split into two groups: patriots, perhaps half the people, who were willing to take up arms for independence; and loyalists, primarily the Crown's officials, wealthy merchants, planters, and others of a conservative mind who opposed redressing their grievances by war. This last party included many Highlanders, who in recent decades had immigrated in sizable numbers to North Carolina, and some of the Regulators who had been defeated at Alamance in 1771.

News of the fighting at Lexington and Concord in April, 1775, received in North Carolina a month later, further weakened royal authority. Unable to stem the tide of revolution in the colony, Martin abandoned New Bern, the capital, and fled to Fort Johnston on the lower Cape Fear, arriving on June 2, 1775. Within 6 weeks, North Carolina militia forced him to flee again, this time offshore to the British warship Cruizer, as the fort burned behind him.

(Source:  State Library of North Carolina)

More on the "Shirt Men"

From Washington's Crossing, by David Hackett Fischer, published 2004, Oxford University Press, page 24:

Backcountry regiments from western Virginia were called "shirt men," from their homespun backcountry hunting shirts made of sturdy tow cloth that had been "steeped in a tan vat until it became the color of a dry leaf." In woods or high grass they were nearly invisible. Congress recommended on November 4, 1775, that their hunting shirts and leggings be adopted for the entire army.

The "Shirt Men"

From a letter reprinted in The Magazine of History with Notes and Queries, Vol. III, January-June 1906, published by William Abbatt, New York:

June 12 1775.

"Patriot Dixon son of the once beautiful and good natured York Lady, with some others went in the night to rob the magazine.
There being no ground about it 'tis said some of the seamen of the Fowey when at Wmsburg set some of the guns, so as to go off if a string near them was touched, accordingly off went a gun; when the patriots went in to steal; none of them were wounded. They immediately alarmed the town, swearing that the magazine was full of armed men and 40 guns had been fired at them. You will see the Govr with his famillie on board the Fowey again, I do not think his Lady will return to Williamsburg. 'Tis said he will, provided the shirt men are sent away. These shirt men or Virginia uniform are dressed with an Oznaburg shirt over their cloaths, a belt round them with a Tommyhawk or Scalping Knife. They look like a band of Assassins and it is my opinion if they fight at all it will be in that way." He [Norfolk tory James Parker] ends "I am still of opinion when General Gage begins to act on the offensive the Rebellion will be immediately crushed."

Private James Collins, re: Cowpens

from Autobiography of a Revolutionary Soldier, by James Collins, Clinton, Louisiana: Feliciana Democrat, 1859:

It was not long until it became necessary for us to seek safety by joining Morgan, who was encamped at the Cowpens, but we were not permitted to remain long idle, for Tarleton came on like a thunder storm, which soon put us to our best mettle. After the tidings of his approach came into camp–in the night–we were all awakened, ordered under arms, and formed in order of battle by daybreak. About sunrise on the 17th January, 1781, the enemy came into full view. The sight, to me at least, seemed somewhat imposing; they halted for a short time, and then advanced rapidly, as if certain victory. The militia under Pickins and Moffitt, was posted on the right of the regulars some distance in advance, while Washington's cavalry was stationed in the rear. We gave the enemy one fire, when they charged us with their bayonets; we gave way and retreated for our horses, Tarleton's cavalry pursued us; ("now," thought I, "my hide is in the loft;") just as we got to our horses, they overtook us and began to make a few hacks at some, however, without doing much injury. They, in their haste, had pretty much scattered, perhaps, thinking they would have another Fishing creek frolic, but in a few moments, Col. Washington's cavalry was among them, like a whirlwind, and the poor fellows began to kneel from their horses, without being able to remount. The shock was so sudden and violent, they could not stand it, and immediately betook themselves to flight; there was no time to rally, and they appeared to be as hard to stop as a drove of wild Choctaw steers, going to a Pennsylvania market. In a few moments the clashing of swords was out of hearing and quickly out of sight; by this time, both lines of the infantry were warmingly engaged and we being relieved from the pursuit of the enemy began to rally and prepare to redeem our credit, when Morgan rode up in front, and waving his sword, cried out, "Form, form, my brave fellows! give them one more fire and the day is ours. Old Morgan, was never beaten." We then advanced briskly, and gained the right flank of the enemy, and they being hard pressed in front, by Howard, and falling very fast, could not stand it long. They began to throw down their arms, and surrender themselves prisoners of war. The whole army, except Tarleton and his horsemen, fell into the hands of Morgan, together with all the baggage. After the fight was over, the sight was truly melancholy. The dead on the side of the British, exceeded the number killed at the battle of King's Mountain, being if I recollect aright, three hundred, or upwards. The loss, on the side of the Americans, was only fifteen or sixteen, and a few slightly wounded. This day, I fired my little rifle five times whether with any effect or not, I do not know. Next day after receiving some small share of the plunder, and taking care to get as much powder as we could, we (the militia) were disbanded and returned to our old haunts, where we obtained a few day's rest.