N.C. Patriots Drive the British Out

One morning, in the spring of 1776, a group of American patriots, hastily summoned from their farms, stood on one side of a rude bridge across a small stream.

Toward them, down the rural road, marched a regiment of British troops.

As they reached the bridge, the Redcoats charged, shouting "Broadswords and King George!"

The patriots repelled the British forces and the war for independence in North Carolina began.

This bridge wasn't in Lexington, Mass.

Moores Creek National Battlefield is in eastern North Carolina, just northwest of Wilmington.

And the victory here of about 1,000 patriots over 1,600 loyalists led by British officers drove North Carolina's royal governor out of the region and left the South in patriot hands for several crucial years.

On the weekend closest to the Feb. 27 anniversary of the Battle at Moores Creek Bridge, the Pender County park celebrates in style.

A renovated visitors center features a filmed reenactment of the battle and exhibits trace the course of the Revolution in the South.

As always on the battle's anniversary, a camp of reenactors will present a living history display of North Carolina life in the 1770's.

"The same groups have been coming since the 1970's," says Tim Boyd, education specialist at the park. "They do musket and artillery demonstrations, but really concentrate on recreating the lifestyle of those days. The Johnston and Guilford County militias, and the N.C. Highland Regiment from up near Boone have been coming for about 30 years.

"We'll have activities for all ages - period music, a toy making tent where kids can make cornhusk dolls, plus authentic 18th century demonstrations by a blacksmith and surgeon."

The Highland reenactors represent an important, but often overlooked, component of the Revolution in North Carolina.

Veterans of the British Highland regiments received landgrants from the king centered around Cross Creek, now Fayetteville. Many of the Scots, although from King George's view not nearly enough, sided with the Loyalist forces.

After the defeat at Moores Creek, the British wouldn't mess with North Carolina again until late in the war.

Revolutionary War sites in South Carolina:

Historic Camden

Charles Pinckney National Historic Site

Cowpens National Battlefield

Fort Moultrie in Charleston Harbor

Kings Mountain National Military Park

South Carolina National Heritage Corridor

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Cornwallis marched across North Carolina in the 1780's on his way to Yorktown, and defeat.

It wasn't an easy passage. After occupying Charleston and securing most of South Carolina, the British wanted to march north to join up with their northern army, crushing the rebellious states in between.

But Cornwallis couldn't seem to make it into North Carolina.

He got as far as Charlotte Towne in 1780, only to be turned back by the defeat of his favorite field officer, Major Patrick Ferguson, at King's Mountain on the South Carolina border on Oct. 7, 1780.

Ferguson was a dandy who wore a checked hunting shirt over his uniform and directed his troops by blowing on a silver whistle.

The colonists thoroughly detested him and the Overmountain Boys marched 330 miles from Virginia and Tennessee, picking up volunteers all along the way, to meet him in battle. They were determined to make sure he didn't survive to invade their homesteads.

Ferguson reportedly had eight balls of lead shot in him when he fell.

Historians say King's Mountain was the turning point of the Revolution, when the British started to lose.

Reenactors retrace the patriot march to King's Mountain every September on the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail, a walking and driving route that was the first designated historic trail in the east. The trail crosses parts of five states.

Cornwallis did eventually make his way across North Carolina, only to meet General Nathaniel Greene's patriot army at a little crossroads called Guilford Courthouse in March, 1781.

Technically, the British won the battle, but effectively lost the war.

The huge losses his men suffered soured public support for the war in Britain and led to Cornwallis' surrender a few months later in Yorktown, Va.

The city that grew up near the courthouse took the name of the patriots' Quaker general, calling itself Greensboro.

The weekend nearest the battle's March 15 anniversary is celebrated annually at the park with reenactors, a lecture series, and other events.

The national park itself presents remarkably compelling exhibits on the battle, as well as self-guided walking, biking and auto tours.

Cornwallis famously compared the North Carolina patriots to a hive of hornets. A visit to the state's Revolutionary War battlefields tells you why.

Visit www.nps.gov/revwar for a listing of Revolutionary sites.

[a version of this story was originally published in North Carolina Magazine]

Photos courtesty of the NC Division of Tourism, Film & Sports Development