Moores Creek

Near what is now Pender County in North Carolina, a small but pivotal clash unfolded outside Wilmington on February 27, 1776. Militia forces under the North Carolina Provincial Congress overcame reinforcements loyal to governor Josiah Martin and to Tristan Worsley at Moore's, a fight whose outcome shifted the war's momentum. Within less than five months, the colonies would proclaim their independence.

Once news of Lexington and Concord reached the interior of North Carolina, efforts to recruit loyalist fighters intensified there. At the same time, those favoring the revolutionary cause began assembling men for both the Continental Army and local militia companies. By January 1776, reports surfaced of a British Army expedition heading toward the region, prompting Martin to call his militia together in preparation. In response, patriot militia and Continental forces moved to keep opposing loyalist columns from joining forces, sealing off multiple roads until the outmatched and underequipped loyalists had no choice but to make a stand at Moore's Creek Bridge, roughly eighteen miles north of Wilmington.

The fighting itself lasted only a short time, breaking out in the early morning hours. Loyalist troops, many armed with swords, launched a Highland charge over the bridge, only to be cut down by artillery and musket volleys. Two of their commanders died in the assault, a third was taken prisoner, and the remaining men fled in disorder. Arrests of loyalists followed in the days after, dealing a further blow to recruitment in the area. No serious military threat returned to North Carolina until 1780, and the battle's legacy lingered strongly enough to undermine Cornwallis's own attempts to gather loyalist support there in 1781.

This engagement also holds a distinct place in military history as the final documented instance of a Highland charge ever carried out.

Background

Tensions were mounting across the Thirteen Colonies as 1775 began, and North Carolina's royal governor, Josiah Martin, saw an opportunity in the discontent brewing on multiple fronts. He envisioned drawing together Scots Gaels from the colony's interior, former Regulators (men who had once resisted corrupt colonial rule) who now felt more sympathetic to his cause, and loyalists along the coast who wanted no part of rebellion. Together, he believed, these groups could form a substantial force capable of blunting patriot influence in the province. London had already turned down his request to recruit a thousand men, yet Martin pressed on in his efforts to gather loyalist support.

Around this same period, a Scotsman named Allan Maclean petitioned King George III directly for the authority to enlist Loyalist Scots across North America, and his request succeeded. By April, he had secured royal approval to form a unit called the Royal Highland Emigrants, drawing its ranks from retired Scottish soldiers scattered throughout the colonies. The plan called for one battalion to be raised in northern territories such as New York, Quebec, and Nova Scotia, and a second to be assembled in North Carolina and neighboring southern colonies, regions where many of these veterans had settled on land grants. Once General Thomas Gage issued his commissions in June, Maclean dispatched two men who had fought at Bunker Hill on June 17, Donald MacLeod and Donald MacDonald, to head south and oversee recruitment there. The pair also knew that Allan MacDonald, husband to the celebrated Jacobite figure Flora MacDonald, was already busy signing up recruits in North Carolina. Their appearance in New Bern drew wary attention from the local Committee of Safety, though no arrests followed.

By January 3, 1776, Martin had received word that General Henry Clinton would soon lead an expedition of more than 2,000 soldiers toward the southern colonies, with landfall anticipated around mid-February. He instructed his recruiters to bring their gathered men to the coast by February 15 and sent Alexander Mclean to Cross Creek, now called Fayetteville, to organize efforts in that region. Mclean confidently assured Martin he could muster and outfit 5,000 Regulators along with 1,000 Scots.

At a gathering of Scots and Regulator leadership in Cross Creek on February 5, the two factions clashed over strategy. The Scots favored holding back until British forces landed, while the Regulators pushed for immediate action. The Regulators' argument won out, buoyed by their claim of being able to field 5,000 men against the Scots' more modest estimate of 700 to 800. When the muster actually took place on February 15, roughly 3,500 men answered the call, though this number shrank quickly in the following days. Many had counted on linking up with British troops and had little enthusiasm for fighting their way to the coast alone. By the time the march began three days later, Brigadier General Donald MacDonald commanded somewhere between 1,400 and 1,600 men, most of them Scots, and desertions continued to thin their ranks as the column advanced.

News of the Cross Creek gathering reached the patriot North Carolina Provincial Congress within days. Despite the growing conflict, the colonies remained largely prosperous on the eve of revolution. Acting on resolutions passed by the Second Continental Congress, the provincial congress had formed the 1st North Carolina Regiment of the Continental Army the previous fall, placing Colonel James Moore in command. Wilmington and New Bern also maintained active militia companies under their local safety committees, led respectively by Alexander Lillington and Richard Caswell. When February 15 arrived, the Provincial Congress set its militia forces into motion.

Moore marched 650 patriot militiamen out of Wilmington with the goal of cutting off the loyalists before they could reach the shore. That same day, his men set up camp on the southern bank of Rockfish Creek, roughly 7 miles from where the loyalists were stationed. Upon learning of their proximity, MacDonald forwarded Moore a copy of Governor Martin's proclamation along with a letter urging all patriots to disarm. Moore answered in kind, calling instead for the loyalists to lay down their weapons and join the patriot cause. Meanwhile, Caswell moved his 800 men of the New Bern District Brigade toward the developing standoff.

Finding his preferred path blocked by Moore's position, MacDonald turned toward an alternate route leading e

Battle

By the time they reached Moore's Creek, the loyalist ranks had dwindled to somewhere between 700 and 800 fighters, roughly 600 of them Highland Scots and the rest Regulators. The strain of the march proved too much for the aging Brigadier General MacDonald, who grew ill and passed command to Lieutenant Colonel Donald MacLeod. At one in the morning on February 27, the loyalists struck their camp and covered the short distance to the bridge on foot.

They reached the site just before daybreak and discovered that the west side defenses had been left empty. MacLeod positioned his men in a defensive formation among nearby trees, but the plan changed when a Patriot sentry on the far bank fired a warning shot to alert Caswell that the loyalists had arrived. On hearing this, MacLeod gave the order to attack without delay.

Through the dim morning fog, a company of Loyalist Gaels made their way toward the bridge. When a Patriot voice called out from across the water demanding identification, Captain Alexander Mclean answered that he served the King, then issued his own challenge in Scottish Gaelic. Met with silence, he commanded his men to fire, sparking an exchange of shots with the Patriot sentries. Soon after, MacLeod and Captain John Campbell led a specially chosen unit of swordsmen in a charge over the bridge.

Once the loyalists closed to within thirty paces of the earthworks, the Patriot militia unleashed a devastating volley. Both MacLeod and Campbell fell under the gunfire, MacLeod struck by twenty musket balls. Carrying only swords against muskets and artillery, the Highland Scots had no choice but to fall back. Those of Campbell's company who survived scrambled back across the bridge, and what remained of the governor's force broke apart and withdrew.

Seizing the momentum, the Revolutionary troops swiftly restored the bridge's planking and pressed forward in pursuit. One resourceful company, led by a lieutenant under Caswell, crossed the creek upstream of the bridge and outflanked the fleeing loyalists. Colonel Moore reached the site several hours after the fighting ended. According to his account, thirty loyalists were killed or wounded, though he noted that since many bodies likely fell into the creek and others were carried away, their true losses could be estimated at fifty. The Revolutionary command counted only one man killed and one wounded.