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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Letter from an inhabitant of Halifax to Robert Howe [Extract]
No Author
February 24, 1776
Volume 11, Pages 282-283

[Remembrancer of Public Events 1776 Part 2. page 29]

Williamsburgh, March 1.
Extract of a Letter from a member of the Provincial Congress of North Carolina, to Col. Howe, dated at Halifax, Feb. 24, 1776.

“A gentleman by the name of Smith has just lodged seven of the Leaders of the regulators in Halifax goal. He informs me, that the insurrection is entirely suppressed, with respect to the

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regulators; and says he thinks the Highlanders are dispersed before now. I do not give implicit credit to this last conjecture.

However it is clear to me that there will not be a gun fired upon this occasion; for the number of our troops (not less, perhaps, than 5000) will undoubtedly awe the Highlanders into submission, if they are not already dispersed.

Governor Martin, it seems, had kept up a correspondence with the disaffected in the western part of the Province, had formed a plan of insurrection, issued Colonel's commissions to many counties for this purpose, and ordered that such men as should take arms should repair to the royal standard, at Brunswick, by the 15th of this month, promising that they should be then and there supported by 5000 regulars.'