LVIII. Feb. and could not be reached for want of boats. The CHAP. royalists were in extreme danger; but at a point six miles higher up the Black River a negro succeeded in 1776. raising for their use a broad shallow boat; and while Maclean and Fraser, with a few men, a drum and a pipe, were left to amuse Caswell, the main body of the loyalists crossed Black River near what is now Newkirk Bridge. On the twenty fifth Lillington, who had not as yet been able to join Caswell, took post with his small party on the east side of the bridge over Moore's Creek. On the afternoon of the twenty sixth, Caswell reached its west side, and raising a small breast work and destroying a part of the bridge, awaited the enemy, who on that day advanced within six miles of him. A messenger from the loyalists, sent to his camp under the pretext of summoning him to return. to his allegiance, brought back word that he had halted upon the same side of the river with themselves, and could be attacked with advantage; but the wise Carolina commander, who was one of the best woodmen in the province, as well as a man of superior ability, had no sooner misled his enemy, than lighting up fires and leaving them burning, he crossed the creek, took off the planks from the bridge, and placed his men behind trees and such slight intrenchments as the night permitted to be thrown up. The loyalists, expecting an easy victory, unanimously agreed that his camp should be immediately assaulted. His force at that time amounted to a thousand men, consisting of the Newbern minute men, of militia from Craven, Johnson, Dobbs, and Wake counties, and the detachment under Lillington. The LVIII. Feb. CHAP. army under Macdonald, who was himself confined to his tent by illness, numbered between fifteen and six1776. teen hundred. At one o'clock in the morning of the twenty seventh, the loyalists, commanded by Donald Macleod, began their march; but it cost so much time to cross an intervening morass, that it was within an hour of daylight before they reached the western bank of the creek. There they had expected to find Caswell encamped; they entered the ground in three columns without resistance, for Caswell and all his force had taken post on the opposite side. The Scots were now within less than twenty miles of Wilmington; orders were directly given to reduce the columns, and for the sake of concealment to form the line of battle within the verge of the wood; the rallying cry was, "King George and broadswords;" the signal for the attack, three cheers, the drum to beat and the pipes to play. It was still dark; Macleod, who led the van of about forty, was challenged at the bridge by the Carolina sentinels, asking: "Who goes there?" He answered: "A friend."-"A friend to whom?""To the king." Upon this the sentinels bent themselves down with their faces towards the ground. Macleod then challenged them in Gaelic, thinking they might be some of his own party who had crossed the bridge; receiving no answer, he fired his own piece, and ordered those with him to fire. Of the bridge that separated the Scots and the Carolinians, nothing had been left but the two logs, which had served as sleepers; only two persons therefore could pass at a time. Donald Macleod and John Campbell rushed forward and succeeded in getting over; Highlanders who followed with broadswords, were shot LVIII. Feb. down on the logs, falling into the deep and muddy CHAP. water of the creek. Macleod, who was greatly esteemed for his valor and his worth, was mortally 1776. wounded; and yet he was seen to rise repeatedly from the ground, flourishing his sword and encouraging his men to come on, till he received twenty six, or as some say thirty six balls in his body. Campbell also was shot dead. It was impossible to furnish men for the deadly pass, and in a very few minutes the assailants fled in irretrievable despair. The Americans had but three wounded, one only mortally; of their opponents, about thirty, less than fifty at most, were killed and mortally wounded, most of them while passing the bridge. The routed fugitives could never be rallied; during the following day the aged Macdonald, their general, and many others of the chief men, were taken prisoners; amongst the rest, Macdonald of Kingsborough and one of his sons, who were at first confined in Halifax jail and afterwards transferred to Reading in Pennsylvania. Thirteen wagons, with complete sets of horses, eighteen hundred stand of arms, one hundred and fifty swords, two medicine chests just received from England, a box containing fifteen thousand pounds sterling in gold, fell to the victors; eight or nine hundred common soldiers were taken, disarmed, and dismissed. A generous zeal pervaded all ranks of people in every part of North Carolina; in less than a fortnight more than nine thousand four hundred men had risen against the enemy; and the coming of Clinton inspired no terror. They knew well the difficulty of moving from the sea into their back country, and almost every man was ready to turn out at an hour's CHAP. warning. Moore, under orders from the council, disLVIII. armed the Highlanders and Regulators of the back 1776. country, and sent the ringleaders to Halifax jail. Feb. Virginia offered assistance, and South Carolina would gladly have contributed relief; but North Carolina had men enough of her own to crush the insurrection and guard against invasion; and as they marched in triumph through their piny forests, they were persuaded that in their own woods they could win an easy victory over British regulars. Martin had promised the king to raise ten thousand recruits; the storeship, with their ten thousand stands of arms and two millions of cartridges, was then buffeting the storms of the Atlantic; and he could not supply a single company. North Carolina remained confident, secure, and tranquil; the terrors of a fate like that of Norfolk could not dismay the patriots of Wilming ton; the people spoke more and more of independence; and the provincial congress, at its impending session, was expected to give an authoritative form to the prevailing desire. CHAPTER LIX. BOSTON DELIVERED. FEBRUARY-MARCH, 1776. CHAP. LIX. Feb. IN February, 1776, the commander in chief of the American army found himself supplied with only money enough to answer claims antecedent to the 1776. last day of December; his want of powder was still so great as to require the most careful concealment. Congress had strangely lavished its resources on the equipment of a navy; leaving him in such dearth of the materials of war, that he was compelled to look for them in every direction, and at one time had even asked if something could be spared him from the hoped-for acquisitions of Montgomery. Having no permanent army, and unable to enlist for the year a sufficient number of soldiers to defend his lines, he was obliged to rely for two months on the service of three regiments of militia from Connecticut, one from New Hampshire, and six from Massachusetts; but at the same time, with all the explicitness and force that his experience, his dangers, and his trials could suggest, he set be |