By John Miles
On February 27, 1776, near the west bank of Moore’s Creek, 30 miles above Wilmington in the colony of North Carolina, Lt. Col. Donald McLeod and the men of the 1st Battalion of the 84th Regiment waited for daybreak. As they took what little rest they could, they were told that when the sun came up, they would do something their grandsires had done 30 years before at Culloden. They were going to channel their ancestors’ martial spirits and make a Scottish Highland Charge.
The 1st Battalion of the 84th Regiment was originally organized by Scottish Lt. Col. Allan Maclean and was made up of former Scottish soldiers recruited in Canada and New York, including many who had served in the French and Indian War and stayed in North America. Joining them in North Carolina were loyalist recruits, including some who had emigrated to the colony in the years following Bonnie Prince Charlie’s failed Scottish rebellion in 1745, and subsequent British oppression. With the official British designation of 1st Battalion, 84th Regiment of Foot, Royal Highland Emigrants, the unit’s soldiers wore the same uniform as the famed 42nd “Black Watch” Regiment.
The force, numbering some 1,500 soldiers under the command of Brig. Gen. Donald MacDonald, had been ordered to march to the coast. There they were to unite with more British Army troops arriving by ship. Lord Charles Cornwallis, sailing from Ireland, was arriving with seven regiments, while a group of 2,000 regulars under the command of Sir Henry Clinton, was sailing from New England. The combined British forces would campaign to eliminate any American Patriot units operating in the Carolinas.
General Donald MacDonald was a veteran of the battle of Culloden, the final battle in the Scottish Jacobite rebellion of 1745. He was certainly one of the most noteworthy Scottish Highlanders to serve the King’s cause in America during the Revolutionary War. He joined the 84th Regiment early on and was in Massachusetts with other 84th officers where, as a Lieutenant Colonel, he fought and was slightly wounded at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Soon afterward, he was sent to North Carolina by Gen. Thomas Gage, then in overall command of British troops in the American Colonies. MacDonald was expected to recruit fellow Scots to join the Royal Highland Emigrant Regiment. In this he was accompanied by his nephew in marriage, Donald McLeod.
The two officers arrived at New Bern, North Carolina in July 1775 and were questioned by the town’s Committee of Public Safety. Since the commencement of war, Committees of Public Safety had sprung up across the Colonies to serve as improvised Patriot law enforcement organizations. MacDonald and Macleod had to convince an incredulous committee that they had only come to recover from wounds suffered at Bunker Hill and to visit relatives. Lacking any evidence to detain the two, the committee released them.
Josiah Martin, the Royal Governor of North Carolina, was then residing on a British Navy warship off the coast after the governor’s mansion was taken over by revolutionaries. The Governor met with MacDonald and appointed him Brigadier General of militia. The governor also promoted McLeod to Lieutenant Colonel, making him second in command of the 1st Battalion of the 84th Regiment.
These two native-born Scots were sent to North Carolina to recruit for the regiment because of the large number of Scottish immigrants there. Scots Gaelic sermons were still being preached in North Carolina Presbyterian churches as late as 1858. Well-aware of the fighting abilities of the Scottish immigrants, the Continental Congress had sent recruiters to try to win them over to the Patriot cause. But because the Continental envoys spoke no Gaelic, their efforts met with little success.
After arriving in New Bern, Donald MacDonald linked up with his brother Allan, who was a captain in the 84th. Allan was the husband of the famed Flora MacDonald, heroine of the escape of Charles Edward Stuart, “Bonnie Prince Charlie,” to France following the Battle of Culloden in 1746. After the final Jacobite rebellion failed, the MacDonalds suffered, along with many Scots, the breaking up of their vast clan holdings and enforced loyalty to the British Crown. Partly to escape this persecution, in 1774 Allan and Flora arrived in North Carolina, where they purchased two plantations.
The Royal Governor authorized Donald MacDonald to offer generous inducements for enlistment. Each Highlander was offered 200 acres of land, the same pay as regular British troops, and liberal compensation for the use of their horses and wagons. Additionally, they received the assurance that they would not have to fight outside the colony of North Carolina. These incentives resulted in the Scots, including many who were new in America and did not feel attachment to the rebel cause, to eagerly fight for the Crown. Initially, more than 1,500 flocked to the British colors and enlisted in the 84th Royal Highland Emigrant Regiment at Cross Creek (Fayetteville.)
Once MacDonald had a robust number of new recruits in the ranks, he intended to march the 1st Battalion of the 84th, now commanded by Allan Maclean, south towards Wilmington to link-up with Cornwallis and Clinton. While the MacDonald brothers and McLeod were in the process of recruitment, local Patriot sympathizers contacted the American militia in the area. They were able to alert the militia to MacDonald’s plan. Even worse for the loyalists, a courier for the Royal Governor defected and told the Patriots all.
As the Crown’s forces finalized preparations for their march towards the coast, Col. James Moore, commander of Patriot forces in southeastern North Carolina, masterminded a strategy to foil MacDonald’s rendezvous with Cornwallis and Clinton. When MacDonald began his advance on February 21, Moore was able to block the initial route taken by the Highlanders. MacDonald then altered his route by crossing the Cape Fear River and moving toward Corbett’s Ferry on the Black River. When Moore learned that MacDonald had won the race to Corbett’s Ferry, he ordered the Wilmington battalion of 150 militia under Col. Alexander Lillington to join Col. Richard Caswell’s 800 militia from New Bern at Moore’s Creek. The bridge there crossed the last significant water obstacle on the 84th Regiment’s march to the coast. When they assembled, the combined Patriot force numbered more than a thousand.
Up to this point, Brigadier General MacDonald had been striving mightily to carry out General Gage’s orders to link up with the British troops approaching the coast. He did this by refusing to engage in combat with the Patriot forces trying to prevent the rendezvous. Whenever the 84th Regiment’s scouts discovered Patriots blocking their path toward Wilmington, MacDonald would have his command move around the blocking force and continue their march south. However, as they reached Moore’s Creek, the Loyalists decided not to bypass their opponents, but to meet them head-on.
This was not the original intention of General MacDonald. However, the Culloden veteran was an elderly man in his mid-60s and he was near collapse from the exhaustion of the long march. Therefore, he passed command to McLeod, who decided that the time to avoid battle might soon be over. From his sickbed, General MacDonald cautioned McLeod and Maclean against an attack, especially as he felt the 84th Regiment was probably outnumbered and knew almost half of his men had yet to be issued firearms.
The Patriots at Moore’s Creek, found that the ground around a narrow bridge, located on a sandbar, offered an excellent defensive position. Situated at the highest elevation in the area, the bridge crossed the dark, swampy tidal creek at a place where the waterway was 50 feet wide and nearly chin deep.
On the afternoon of February 26, General MacDonald sent a loyalist courier to the Patriot camp, offering them the chance to lay down their weapons, which Colonel Caswell refused. When the courier returned to MacDonald, he indicated the Patriot position would be vulnerable to attack, not having seen earthworks built by the Patriots. Realizing that the courier sent by MacDonald would be thoroughly questioned about the layout of the Patriot’s bivouac, Caswell had his men move their camp across the creek.
After crossing the creek, the Patriots took the planks off the bridge, leaving only the girders, which they covered with axle grease and soap. In the Patriot breastworks a short distance from the southeast bank of the creek they placed at least two light artillery pieces aimed at the bridge. The largest was known affectionately as “Mother Covington,” and the smaller was called “The Daughter.” Not only would the attacking Highlanders have to face dug-in musketeers after crossing the dismantled and greased bridge, but artillery pieces as well.
Solid cannon projectiles were called round shot, and the weight of the cannonball was what gave the individual cannon their specific designation. During the Revolutionary War, the weight of projectiles typically ranged from three pounds up to twenty-four pounds. The larger caliber cannons were used for defending fortifications and for besieging them. In common practice, 12-pounders were normally the heaviest used in field service, as they weighed approximately 2,000 pounds each. In addition to round shot, cannons could also fire a projectile known as a shell. A shell was a hollow iron ball that was filled with gunpowder. A fuse inserted into the shell was lit by the blast as it was fired at the enemy. The shell would then land in the opposing ranks where it would explode, throwing shrapnel into the enemy. Both shell and shot could be fired the farthest and were generally used when enemy troop formations were at a distance.
Cannon of the era could also fire antipersonnel ammunition at close-range targets. These close-in munitions included grapeshot and canister. Grapeshot was a group of one-inch solid iron balls, stacked around a center pintle and held together with rope and canvas. When the cannon was fired, the projectile opened up as it left the barrel. Another defensive munition was case shot or canister. This consisted of iron shot or musket balls placed inside a cylindrical tin canister that fragment on discharge. Both grapeshot and canister turned artillery pieces into giant shotguns that would prove devastating to attacking troops.
Camped about six miles from the Patriots at Moore’s Creek, and believing the courier’s observation that the Patriots would be vulnerable to attack, McLeod held a council of war. In the council the younger officers prevailed, and the attack on Moore’s Creek was set for dawn the next day, February 27, 1776. At 1 a.m. the Loyalist force began the march to the Patriot camp, and by 5 a.m. arrived at the west bank of the creek.
The stillness of the wetland was broken at sunrise when several hundred Highlanders, their broadswords in hand, stormed the bridge in a Highland Charge. Other Highlanders were trying to cross farther upstream and attempt an envelopment. Bagpipes played in the background as the attackers shouted, “King George and broadswords!” A picked company of 80 Scots under Lt. John Campbell led the charge, to be followed by McLeod and the main force. Campbell, McLeod, and others got across the greased bridge stringers by sticking the points of their broadswords into the girders to prevent them slipping off.
Those who got across the dismantled bridge were then hit by musket and cannon fire as they approached the enemy breastworks. More than 50 Highlanders, including McLeod, became battle casualties, with many of the wounded falling in and drowning in the neck-deep creek. A post-mortem inspection showed that McLeod’s body was riddled with nine musket balls and twenty-four birdshot, fired by some of the Patriot militiamen shooting their civilian muskets loaded for bird hunting. It is quite possible that some of the musket balls in his body came from Patriot artillery canister rounds.
With the men of the 84th Regiment now in retreat, the Patriots left their entrenchments and ran to the creek, where they quickly re-laid the planks and chased the Loyalists. About 850 Loyalist soldiers were taken prisoner, including Lieutenant Colonel Maclean, General MacDonald, and his brother, Allan. In the battle at the bridge, which lasted only a few minutes, only two Patriots were wounded, one of whom, John Grady of Duplin County, died four days later of his wounds. His body was later buried on the battlefield. The war trophies claimed by the victorious Patriots were substantial: 150 broadswords, hundreds of muskets, and £15,000 British Pounds, which would be more than $2.5 million in today’s U.S. currency. The Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge only lasted a few minutes, but was significant as the first decisive Patriot victory of the war.
Since there would be no 84th Royal Highland Emigrant Regiment to link up with, Generals Clinton and Cornwallis bypassed Wilmington and sailed for South Carolina. The Battle of Fort Sullivan was fought on June 28, 1776, near Charleston during the first British attempt to capture the city. Col.William Moultrie commanded the partially constructed fort and Francis Marion was one of his officers. The British amphibious assault failed when the channel between the two islands was found to be too deep to wade, and the American defenses prevented a naval landing. The British Navy’s bombardment had little effect due to the spongy nature of the fort’s Palmetto log construction. Conversely, the shot and shell fired by the defenders wrought significant damage on the British fleet, which retreated after a day. The British withdrew their expedition force to New York and did not return to the Carolinas until 1780 when they captured Wilmington and Charleston and then eventually proceeded up the coast to Yorktown, Virginia.
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