CHAP. VI. 1776. spread from house to house, without making any attempt to extinguish them. It is not certain that they did not themselves contribute to extend them. After the fire had continued for several weeks, in which time it had only made slow progress, as the wind set against it, and had consumed about four-fifths of the town, Colonel Howe, who commanded a regiment of North Carolina regulars, which had come to the assistance of Virginia, and who had waited on the Convention, to press on them the necessity of destroying the place, returned with orders to burn the remaining houses. These orders were carried into immediate February. execution: after which, the troops marched from Norfolk to the different stations which were assigned them.* Thus was destroyed by far the most populous and flourishing town in Virginia. That part of the destruction, effected by order of the Convention, was produced by the fear that it would be held by the enemy as a permanent post, and the hope, that, after it was burnt down, the seat of war would be intirely removed from the province. It was one of those ill-judged measures, founded on a course of false reasoning, to which the inexperienced are often exposed. After Norfolk was laid in ashes, Lord Dunmore frequently changed his position, and continued a predatory war on the rivers, burning houses, and robbing plantations, which * Virginia Gazette. served 1776. CHAP. VI. served only to distress a few individuals, and to increase the detestation in which he and his cause were held through the country. At length, his wretched followers, wearied with their miserable condition, and no longer willing to continue it, were sent in about fifty vessels to Florida.* North Carolina. As the war became more serious, the Convention deemed it necessary to increase the number of regular regiments from two to nine; six of which, in the first instance, and afterwards the remaining three, were taken into the continental service. Transactions of In North Carolina, Governor Martin, though obliged to take refuge on board a ship of war, in Cape Fear River, still indulged the hope of being able to reduce that colony. go A body of ignorant and disorderly men, on the frontiers, styling themselves regulators, who were enemies to all vernment, had attempted, by arms, some time before the existing war, to control and stop the administration of justice. Having failed in this attempt, they had now become as hostile to the colonial, as they had before been to the royal government. There were also in the province a large number of families who had lately emigrated from the Highlands of Scotland, and who, retaining their attachment to the place * Ann. Reg. of 1776 of their nativity, transferred it to the government under CHAP. VI. which they had been bred. From the union of these parties, who were bold, active, and numerous, Governor Martin entertained sanguine hopes of making a successful struggle for the province. His confidence was much increased by the certainty that Sir Henry Clinton was coming on with a small party; and that Sir Peter Parker and Lord Cornwallis were to sail with a squadron, and seven regiments, early in the year, from Ireland, on an expedition to the southern provinces, and that North Carolina would be their first object. To prepare to co-operate with this force, should it arrive, or, in any event, to make a great, and he hoped a successful effort, to give the ascendency, in North Carolina, to the royal cause, he sent several commissions to the leaders of the Highlanders, for raising and commanding regiments; and granted one to a Mr. M'Donald, their chief, to act as their general. He also sent them a proclamation, to be used on a proper occasion, commanding all persons, on their allegiance, to repair to the royal standard. Impatient to begin his operations, this was erected by General McDonald at Cross-Creek, about the middle of February, and about fifteen hundred men arranged, themselves under it. Upon the first advice that the loyalists were assembling, Brigadier-General Moore immediately marched at the head of a provincial regiment, with such militia as he could CHAP. VI. 1776. could suddenly collect, and some pieces of cannon, to an important post, within a few miles of them, called Rockfish-Bridge, of which he took possession; and, being inferior in numbers, he immediately intrenched himself, and took the necessary precautions to render his camp defen'cible. General M'Donald soon approached, at the head of his army, and sent a letter to Moore, enclosing the Governor's proclamation, and recommending to him and his party to join the King's standard, by a given hour the next day. This invitation was accompanied with the threat that he should be under the necessity of considering them as enemies, in the event of their refusing to accede to the proposition he had made. Moore, knowing that the provincial forces were collecting and marching from all quarters, protracted the negotiation, in the hope that M'Donald might be completely surrounded. When, at length, it became necessary to speak decisively, he, in his final answer, declared, that he and his followers were engaged in a cause the most glorious and honourable in the world --- the defence of the liberties of mankind; and, in return for the proclamation of the governor, he sent the test proposed by Congress, with a proffer, that, if they subscribed it, and laid down their arms, they should be received as friends; but, if they refused to comply, they must expect consequences similar to those with which they had threatened his people. M'Donald now perceiving the danger he was in, of being enclosed, 1776. enclosed, suddenly decamped, and endeavoured, with CHAP. VI. much dexterity, by forced marches, by the unexpected passing of rivers, and great celerity of movement, to disengage himself. His primary object was to join Governor Martin, Lord William Campbell, and General Clinton, who had never arrived in this colony, and to penetrate with them, the, interior of the province; by which means it was expected, that all the back settlers of the southern colonies would be united in support of the royal cause, and the Indians be also induced to take up arms in their favour. Action at Moore's Creek The provincial parties, however, were so close in the pursuit, and so alert in every part of the country, that he, Bridge. at length, found himself under the necessity of engaging Colonels Caswell and Lillington, who, with about one thousand minute-men and militia, had intrenched themselves directly in his front, at a place called Moore's Creek Bridge. The royalists were greatly superior in number, but were under the disadvantage of being compelled to cross the bridge, the planks of which were partly taken up, in the face of the intrenchments occupied by the provincials. They commenced the attack, however, with great spirit; but Colonel M'Leod, who, in consequence of the indisposition of M'Donald, commanded them, and several others of their bravest officers and men, having fallen in the first onset, their courage deserted them, and they fled with the utmost precipitation in all directions, leaving VOL. II. 3 с behind |