9th Aug., 1826.
Dear Sir:
I have made the following memorandum from my father’s papers, they may be of service to you, they will serve to direct your attention to those particular points and enable you to come at these parts without the trouble of reading a whole book to look for them. North Carolina raised (10) ten complete regiments previous to 1778, and at that time a law passed to fill up those Regiments, raising 2,648 men. In ’77 by requistion from Congress, a Regiment was raised in Halifax District of 700 for 12 months. In Dec., ’77, Gen. Allen Jones marched with 1200 men to the aid of South Carolina, then threatened with invasion; these men were halted at Camden until the alarm abated, in the mean time having served to keep in awe the disaffected.
In ’77, 2,500 men marched under Ashe & Rutherford to repel invasion at the time expected in the South; these men were called for 5 months.
In ’79, about (1,000) one thousand men marched under Butler, to serve three months; the bounty of volunteers $300, draughted men $150.
In October, ’79, 1,000 men marched to South Carolina, by application from that State, under General Lillington.
There was about 400 North Carolinians at Charleston when it fell.
The Legislature of 1780, in consequence of the invasion of South Carolina, passed several Laws to aid that State, in consequence of which three Brigades of Militia were at Gates’ defeat, commanded by Rutherford, Butler & Gregory.
In October, ’80, there was about 1,000 militia under the command of General Davidson, & Sumner; about three hundred mounted men under Col. Davie; about seven hundred men under Cleaveland,
Shelby, Sevier and McDowell, at which time General Jones marched about 200 men to Smallwood’s camp at Providence.In 1782 there was a requisition by law of every 20th man, between 16 and fifty, to fill up the Continental battalions.
After the Battle of Guilford General Jones, with a board of officers at Halifax, turned over 400 men into the Continental service, these were placed under the command of Col. J. B. Ashe and behaved to admiration at Eutaw, where the almost annihilated a British Regiment; these men were condemned to regular service for misconduct at Guilford.
In 1780, when Moore collected about 1,100 Tories at Ramsour’s Mill, Rutherford and Lock raised about one thousand men; these with Major Davie’s Troop of Cavalry dispersed them; see Lee’s Memoirs of Southern War.
In ’80, Col. Irwin had 200 Mecklenburg militia, who were at the attack at Rocky Mount and afterwards at Hanging Rock.
By reference to the Books of the Comptroller you will find the settlement of my Father’s accounts as the commissioner of the Specific Tax; that will shew how much our State did to support the Southern Armies in ’81 and ’82. When both South Carolina and Virginia were exhausted we fed all their troops, and their Cavalry was wintered at Halifax where we fattened both men and horses.
I regret that all my father’s letters and loose papers are in South Carolina, also his letter book which he used from about ’85 to his death. I have only his memorandums, made at different times, about the war, also his narration of the battles he was in, also some observations on Cordon’s History which he always considered as very erroneous, in particular doing great injustice to the North Carolina Troops and to the share that our State had in the Revolution.
It may not be amiss to observe that these troops were actually in service with the knowledge of my Father, many more were no doubt out of which he knew nothing as I find that the Assembly directed many more raised at different times; by his papers it would seem that this State had about three thousand men under arms in ’82, of which these memorandums say nothing, as my Father was directed
by the Governor to make arrangements to support that number of troops in the vicinity of Fayetteville in order to awe the British force then at Wilmington and also the Tories in the adjacent Counties. I have remarks on some parts of Gordon on battle of Guilford at Ramsour’s Mill and at Charlotte, which will be cheerfully sent you if you wish.