By the summer of 1775, North Carolina’s royal governor, Josiah Martin, was an outcast among the land he presided over. Forced to flee the mainland by Patriot sympathizers, Martin believed his colony was not lost to rebels. His prompting initiated a British expedition to North Carolina and excited the loyalists present there enough to rise up. Descendants of Scottish Highlanders who settled large areas of North Carolina put on their kilts and broadswords and marched for King George III toward Wilmington to the tune of bagpipes.
Patriot regulars from North Carolina stood in their way about 15 miles northeast of Wilmington. On February 27, 1776, the Scots and Tories attacked the North Carolinians behind Moore’s Creek. The brief fight turned out to be another victory for the Patriot cause in the south (preceded by the Battle of Great Bridge). Though small by later standards of the Revolutionary War, the battle received widespread coverage throughout the American colonies. Below is a transcript of one of the earliest newspaper accounts of the Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge, published on March 15, 1776, in Williamsburg’s Virginia Gazette.
Emerging Revolutionary War Era 