Wake Wednesday 250: "Soldiers were made prisoners, disarmed and discharged..."

This extract is from a document recorded in the Colonial and State Records of North Carolina. This record set is housed at UNC and many can be accessed online through the Documenting the American South website.

This particular document is a first person account from March 10, 1776 of the Loyalist rout at Moore's Creek. The letter was written shortly after the battle (February 1776) and nearly exactly one month before the Halifax Congress adopted the Halifax Resolves and selected NC delegates Joseph Hewes, William Hooper and John Penn to present them to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. 

"Letter from an Unknown Source, Dated the 10th of March, 1776.

∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗

Parties of Men are dispersed all over the Colony, apprehending all suspected persons, and disarming all Highlanders and Regulators that were put to the rout in the late battle. The Conquerors have already taken 350 guns and shot-bags; about 150 swords and dirks; 1,500 excellent rifles; two medicine-chests fresh from England, one of them valued at 300 pounds sterling, a box containing half Joaneses and Guineas, secreted in a stable at Cross Creek, discovered by a negro and reported to be worth £15,000 sterling; also thirteen wagons with complete sets of horses, 850 common Soldiers were made prisoners, disarmed and discharged. Colonel Long has also apprehended several of their officers, who are now in Halifax gaol ..."

Halifax Gaol
from old postcard

The writer provides a firsthand account of the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge.  He refers to the Patriots as "The Conquerors." He describes the British costs in men, weapons, supplies and cash. Clearly, for Loyalists, Highland Scots, and Regulators, widespread apprehension was the mood of the day while the conquering Patriots were feeling victorious.

The rest of this extract can be read at this link.

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