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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Lecture by William Alexander Graham on the life of Nathanael Greene [Summary]
Graham, William A. (William Alexander), 1804-1875
December 1860
Volume 22, Pages 729-731

AN EPITOME OF NORTH CAROLINA’S MILITARY SERVICES IN THE REVOLUTION, AND THE LAWSENACTED IN ITS FURTHERANCE, CONDENSED-FROM GOV. GRAHAM’S ADDRESS AT GREENSBORO,-N. C., DECEMBER, 1860, ON LIFE AND CHARACTER-OF GEN. GREENE.

I. In December, 1775, Colonel Howe’s regiment of the North Carolina Line was on the request of the Governor, sent to Virginia

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and aided the Virginia troops in suppressing an insurrection of whites and slaves.

II. Lieutenant Colonel Martin with a portion of his regiment of the North Carolina Line and Colonels Rutherford, Polk and Neal’s regiments of North Carolina militia aided South Carolina troops in suppressing the Schovillite Tories in that State.

III. Movements which culminated in the battle and victory of Moore’s Creek Bridge, February 27th, 1776.

IV. Brigades of Generals Howe and Moore go to Charleston and aid in defeating the attack on that city by Sir Peter Parker, July and August, 1776.

V. General Rutherford’s expedition against the Cherokee Indians.

VI. The North Carolina Continental Line with the army under General Washington in New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey in 1777, ’78, ’79.

VII. (1) In 1777 Governor Caswell, upon the application of the State Authorities of Virginia and South Carolina, orders the militia to mobilize to go to those States if called for.

(2) Three thousand troops under General John B. Ashe marched to South Carolina and Georgia, upon urgent application of the Governor of South Carolina.

VIII. Two thousand militia and a portion of the North Carolina Line, under command of Gen. Sumner, sent to the army of General Lincoln in South Carolina.

IX. The remnant of the North Carolina Line that had served in the North with General Washington and a thousand militia march to Charleston. Of the three thousand men surrendered at Charleston at least seventeen hundred are from North Carolina, viz: 700 Line, 1,000 militia.

X. Ramsour’s Mill. Expedition against Bryan’s Tories in Surry. Hanging Rock. Rocky Mount. Wahab’s (Walkup’s). Camden.

XI. Cornwallis’ invasion to Charlotte and retreat. Kings Mountain. Cornwallis’ second invasion. Cowpens. Cowan’s Ford to Guilford Court House.

XII. General Greene to Hobkirk’s Hill, S. C., May 2nd, 1781.

XIII. Sumner’s Brigade of North Carolina Line, Militia under Col. Malmedy, with Sumter and Lee in South Carolina and Georgia at High Hills, Eutaw, etc.

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XIV. General Rutherford’s expedition down the Cape Fear at Wilmington, October and November, 1781.

XV. Tory War in North Carolina preceding and during the Revolution. There were no more daring exploits or magnificent exhibitions of patriotism, valor and sacrifice in their country’s cause than in the actions between the Americans and the Tories. It is to be regretted that so little of this was recorded for the use of the Historian. In Wheeler’s History of North Carolina there are references to these engagements under the heads of the following Counties, viz: Bladen, Duplin, Brunswick, Burke, Chatham, Craven, Gaston, Lincoln, Nash, Orange, Rowan, Surry and New Hanover.

XVI. The North Carolina men enlisted in Mecklenburg and Rowan Counties in the South Carolina State troops in the regiments of Colonel Polk, Wade Hampton and Hill, 1780 and ’81.

In June, 1781, upon the call to furnish men for the Continental Battalions, the counties were excepted which had recently furnished men for the Southern army to serve ten months under General Sumter. In the course of the war on previous occasions leave had been granted to recruit men for both South Carolina and Georgia in this State.