Fire in Greensborough. court-house was formerly situated. Very few of the villages in the interior of the state appeared to me more like a Northern town than Greensborough. A cloudy sky, a biting north wind, and the dropping of a few snow-flakes when I left Greensborough, betokened an unpleasant day for my researches. It was ten o'clock when I reached Martinsville, once a pleasant hamlet, now a desolation. There are only a few dilapidated and deserted dwellings left; and nothing remains of the old Guilford Court House but the ruins of a chimney, depicted on the plan of the battle, printed on page 608. Only one house was inhabited, and that by the tiller of the soil around it. Descending into a narrow, broken valley, from Martinsville, and ascending the opposite slope to still higher ground on the road to Salem, I passed among the fields consecrated by the events of the battle at Guilford, in March, a 1781, to the house of Mr. Hotchkiss, a Quaker, a March 14. who, I was informed could point out every locality of interest in his neighborhood. Mr. Hotchkiss was absent, scene printed on page 611, the whole country was covered with a white mantle. Here, by this hospitable fireside, let us consider the battle, and those wonderful antecedent events which distinguished General Greene's celebrated RETREAT. After the unlucky battle near Camden, where General Gates lost the laurels he had obtained at Saratoga, Congress perceived the necessity of appointing a more efficient commander for the army in the Southern Department, Natherers and directed General Washington to make the selection. The commander-in-chief appointed General Nathaniel Greene, b late the quarter-master general, who immediately proceeded to his field of labor.' Passing through Delaware, Maryland, and Vir- 1780. b Oct. 30, Nathaniel Greene was born of Quaker parents, at Warwick, in Rhode Island, in 1746. His father was an anchor smith, and in that business Nathaniel was trained. While yet a boy, he learned the Latin language, and by prudence and perseverance he collected a small library while a minor. The perusal of military history occupied much of his attention. He had just attained his majority, when his abilities were so highly estimated, that he was chosen a representative in the Legislature of Rhode Island. Fired with Greene's Arrival in Carolina. Courtesy of Gates. Disposition of the belligerent Armies. ginia, he ascertained what supplies he was likely to obtain from those states; and leaving the Baron Steuben to direct the defense of Virginia, and to raise levies and stores for the Southern army, he proceeded to Hillsborough, the seat of government of North Carolina. Governor Nash received him with joy, for the dangers which menaced the state were imminent. After remaining there a few days, he hastened on to Charlotte, the head-quarters of the army. General Gates received him with great respect, and on the day after his arrival he took formal command of the army, a Gates immediately set out for a Dec. 3, 1780. the head-quarters of Washington (then in New Jersey, near the Hudson), to submit to an inquiry into his conduct, which had been ordered by Congress. From that time until the commencement of his retreat from the Carolinas, Greene was exceedingly active in the arrangement of the army, and in wisely directing its move b Oct. 5, 1780. ments. His first arrangement was to divide his army into two detachments, the largest of which, under himself, was to be stationed opposite Cheraw Hill, on the east side of the Peedee River, in Chesterfield District, upon a small stream called Hick's Creek, about seventy miles to the right of Cornwallis, who was then at Winnsborough, in Fairfield District. The other, composed of about one thousand troops, under General Morgan, was placed some fifty miles to the left, near the junction of the Broad and Pacolet Rivers, in Union District. Cornwallis sent Colonel Tarleton, with a considerable force, to disperse the little army of Morgan, and soon the memorable battle of the Cowpens occurred, in which the Americans were victorious. Tarleton, with the remnant of his troops, retreated precipitately to the main army of Cornwallis, who was then at Turkey Creek; and Morgan, in the evening of the same day, crossed the Broad River, and moved, by forced marches, toward the Catawba, to form a junction with the division of General Greene. e Jan. 17, 1781. When Cornwallis heard of the defeat of Tarleton and the direction that Morgan had taken, he resolved on pursuit, with the hope of regaining the prisoners taken at the Cowpens, and of demolishing the Americans before they could reach the Catawba. He was joined on the eighteenth by General Leslie and his troops, from Camden. To facilitate his march, he ordered all the superfluous baggage and wagons to be destroyedd at Ram d Jan. 25. military zeal, and ardent patriotism, young Greene resolved to take up arms for his country, when he heard of the battle at Lexington. He was appointed to the command of three regiments in the Army of Observation, raised by his state, and led them to Roxbury. In consequence of this violation of their discipline, the Quakers disowned him. General Washington soon perceived his worth, and in August the following year, Congress promoted him from the office of brigadier of his state militia to that of major general in the Continental army. He was in the battles at Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, and Germantown. In March, 1778, he was appointed quarter-master general, and in June was engaged in the battle of Monmouth. He resigned his office of quarter-master general in 1780, and was succeeded by Timothy Pickering. He took the command of the Southern Department, December third, 1780, and in February following made his famous retreat. He engaged in the battle of Guilford, in March, 1781, when he was defeated. In April following, he fought with Lord Rawdon, near Camden, where he was again defeated, but retreated in good order, and soon afterward captured several British posts in South Carolina. He besieged Fort Ninety-Six in May, but was unsuccessful. On the eighth of September, he gained a partial victory at Eutaw Springs, for which Congress presented him with a British standard and a gold medal. This engagement closed the war in South Carolina. He returned to Rhode Island at the conclusion of the war. He went to Georgia in 1785 to look after an estate belonging to him near Savannah. While walking one day, in June, without an umbrella, he was 'sun struck," and died on the nineteenth of that month, in 1786, at the age of fortysix years. His body was buried in a vault in Savannah, on the same day, but owing to negligence in designating the one, a search for his remains, in 1820, was unsuccessful. No man living can now point out the sepulchre of that ablest of Washington's generals. On the eighth of August following, Congress adopted the following resolution: "That a monument be erected to Nathaniel Greene, Esq., at the seat of the Federal government, with the following inscription: Sacred to the memory of Nathaniel Greene, Esq., a native of the State of Rhode Island, who died on the nineteenth of June, 1786; late major general in the service of the United States, and commander of their army in the Southern Department. The United States, in Congress assembled, in honor of his patriotism, valor, and ability, have erected this monument.” The Board of Treasury was directed to take action for the due execution of the foregoing resolutions. 16 In person General Greene was rather corpulent, and above the common size. His complexion was fair and florid; his countenance serene and mild. His health was generally delicate, but was preserved by temperance and exercise. Greene in Co-operation with Morgan. Conference of the Commanders. Battle at Ramsour's Mills. General Rutherford. sour's Mills, on the south fork of the Catawba.' In the mean while, General Greene had been apprised of the battle and the result, and on the same day when Cornwallis commenced pursuit, he ordered Brigadier Stevens to march with his Virginia militia (whose term of service was almost expired) by way of Charlotte, to take Morgan's prisoners and conduct. them to Charlottesville, in Virginia. Greene, anxious to confer with Morgan personally, left the camp on the Pedee, under the command of General Huger and Colonel Otho H. Williams, and started, with one aid and two or three mounted militia, for the Catawba, a On the route he was informed of Cornwallis's pursuit, and immediately sent an express to Huger and Williams to break up the camp, and march with all possible dispatch to form a junction with Morgan's light troops at Salisbury or Charlotte. Greene reached Sherrard's Ford, on the Catawba, on the thirty-first, where he had an interview with Morgan, and directed his future movements. a Jan. 28. At this place a severe battle was fought on the twentieth of June, 1780, between a body of North Carolina militia and a large force of Loyalists. Early in June, General Rutherford* was in command of more than five hundred North Carolina militia, and was in the vicinity of Charlotte. Having received intelligence that the Tories were embodying in arms beyond the Catawba, in Tryon county, he issued orders to commanders in the vicinity to arouse the militia for the dispersion of those men. Ramsour's Mills, in the present county of Lincoln, on the south fork of the Catawba, was their place of rendezvous, and toward that point he marched, he having received intelligence that Lord Rawdon had retired to Camden. The Tories were assembled under Colonels John Moore and Major Nicholas Welch, to the number of almost thirteen hundred, on the twentieth of June. On Sunday, the eighteenth, having concentrated the militia of Mecklenburg, Rowan, and neighborhood, Rutherford proceeded to the Catawba, and crossed that river at the Tuckesege Ford, on the evening of the nineteenth. He dispatched a messenger to Colonel Francis Locke, of Rowan, informing him of the state of affairs, and ordering him to form a junction with him between the Forks of the Catawba, sixteen miles from Ramsour's. That officer, with the militia under several other subordinate commanders, in all about four hundred men, encamped on the nineteenth on Mountain Creek, higher up on the Catawba, above Beattie's Ford, and also sixteen miles from Ramsour's. At a council of the officers, junction with Rutherford, who was about thirty-five miles distant, was not deemed prudent, and they resolved to attack the Tories without delay. Colonel Johnson, one of their number, was dispatched to apprise General Rutherford of the situation of affairs. He reached Rutherford's camp at ten o'clock the same night. ton. Late in the evening of the nineteenth, Colonel Locke and his companions commenced their march, and at daylight the following morning they were within a mile of the enemy's camp. The latter were upon a high hill, three hundred yards east of Ramsour's Mill, and half a mile from the present village of LincolnTheir position was very advantageous, and as there were but few trees upon the slope, they could fire effectually upon an approaching foe. The companies of Captains Falls, M‘Dowell, and Brandon, of the patriot army, were on horseback, and led on to the attack; the footmen were under the immediate command of Colonel Locke. The Tories were surprised. Their pickets fired when the patriots appeared, and then retreated to the camp. For a moment the Tories were confused, but, recovering, they poured such a deadly fire upon the horsemen, who had pursued the pickets to the lines, that they were compelled to fall back. They rallied, and soon the action became general. Captain Hardin now gained the right flank of the Tories, while the action was warm in the center. In two instances the parties were so close that they beat each other with the buts of their guns. The Whigs soon drove the Tories from the hill, when they discovered them collected in force on the other side of the mill stream. Expecting an immediate attack, messengers were sent to urge Rutherford forward. They met him within six miles of Ramsour's, pushing on with all possible haste. Major Davie, with his cavalry, started off at full gallop, followed by Colonel Davidson's infantry. They were met within two miles of Ramsour's, with the intelligence that the Tories had retreated. Rutherford marched to the scene of action, and there encamped. The conflict was very severe, and seventy men were left dead on the ground. As all were in "citizen's dress," it was difficult to distinguish the Whigs from the Tories among the dead. It is believed that each party had an equal number killed. About one hundred men on each side were wounded. Fifty Tories were taken prisoners. A terrible voice of wail went up from that battle-field the next day, when the relatives of the slain came there in search of them. * Griffith Rutherford was an Irishman by birth, brave and patriotic, but uncultivated in mind and manners. He resided west of Salisbury, in the Locke settlement, and in 1775 represented Rowan county in the Convention at Newbern. In 1776 he led a large force into the Cherokee country, and assisted the people of South Carolina in destroying their corn-fields and villages. He was appointed a brigadier by the Provincial Congress, in April, 1776. He commanded a brigade in the battle near Camden, in August, 1781, and was taken prisoner by the British. He was exchanged, and was in command at Wilmington when that place was evacuated by the British at the close of the war. He was a state senator in 1784, and soon afterward removed to Tennessee, where he died. A county both in North Carolina and Tennessee bears his name. Griffith Rutherford Morgan pursued by Cornwallis. * Jan. 28, Narrow Escape of the former. Passage of the Catawba by Cornwallis's Army. The pursuit by Cornwallis had been keen and untiring. He had kept between the Broad and the Catawba Rivers, and his sole efforts were to reach the fords toward which Morgan was pressing, in time to cut him off. Morgan's march was equally rapid, and he crossed the Catawba at the Island Ford, on the northern border of the present Lincoln county, with his prisoners and baggage, two hours before the arrival of the British van-guard, under Brigadier-general O'Hara. a It was sunset, and the earl, confident of his prey, postponed 1781. further pursuit until morning. This delay was fatal to his success. Rain fell copiously during the night, and in the morning the Catawba was brimful, and entirely unfordable. Thus it remained for forty-eight hours; and in the mean while Morgan's prisoners were sent forward to a place of safety, and measures were adopted to dispute the passage of the river with the British. Had the flood in the river happened a few hours earlier, Morgan's little army must have been lost. The event was properly marked by the friends of liberty as the tangible interposition of Providence. The arrival of Greene, at this juncture, was equally providential; for Morgan had resolved upon a line of retreat which must have proved fatal. Greene interposed counter orders, and the whole army was saved. When the waters subsided, Cornwallis resumed his pursuit. Lieutenant-colonel Webster, with a small detachment, moved toward Beattie's Ford, to give the impression that the British army would cross there; while Cornwallis, decamping at midnight with the main b Feb. 1, 1781. body, moved rapidly toward Cowan's Ford, six miles below. This was a private crossingplace, and the earl supposed he would thus elude the vigilance of Greene and Morgan. It was a miscalculation, as numerous camp-fires assured him when he approached the ford, a little before dawn.b General Davidson, the commander in Salisbury District, who had arrived the day before with three hundred North Carolina militia, was sent by Greene, who was quartered at Salisbury,' to guard the ford and dispute its passage if attempted. Neglecting to place his main body near the river, so as to make an imposing appearance, he did not deter Cornwallis from proceeding to cross. The current was rapid, the stream in many places waistdeep, and almost five hundred yards wide, yet the brave Britons, led on by General O'Hara, plunged into the stream, and in the face of a riflemen, who were posted at the ford, pressed forward severe fire from Captain Graham's' I Greene was quartered at Salisbury, in the house of Elizabeth Steele, a patriot of purest mold. She had heard Greene utter words of despondency, and her heart was touched. While he was at table, she brought two bags full of specie, the earnings of years of toil, and presented them to him, saying, "Take these; for you will want them, and I can do without them." Greene was grateful; and before he left her house he wrote upon the back of a portrait of the king, hanging in the room, "O George, hide thy face and mourn!" and then hung it up, with the face to the wall. That portrait, with the writing, is in the present possession of the Honorable David L. Swain, of Chapel Hill. 2 Captain Joseph Graham was an excellent specimen of those young men of Carolina who flocked to the army fighting for independence. He was born in Pennsylvania, on the thirteenth of October, 1759, and at the age of seven years accompanied his widowed mother to North Carolina. He was educated at Queen's Museum, in Charlotte, and was a spectator at the famous convention, held there in May, 1775. In May, 1778, at the age of nineteen, young Graham enlisted in the fourth regiment of North Carolina regular troops, under Colonel Archibald Lyle. Marching northward, his commander received instructions to return to Carolina, and Graham went home on furlough. He was called into active service in the autumn of that year, and accompanied General Rutherford to the banks of the Savannah, soon after the defeat of General Ashe at Brier Creek. He was with General Lincoln while maneuvering against Prevost, and was in the severe battle at Stono, in June, 1779. A fever prostrated him, and he returned home. While plowing in Queen's Museum. Success of the British. Death of General Davidson. British Account of the Conflict. While ascend to the opposite bank.' The British reserved their fire until they had gained the shore, and then, pouring a few volleys into the ranks of Graham, soon dispersed them. ing the bank, Colonel Hall, of the British army, was killed. General Davidson was stationed half a mile from the ford, with the main body of the militia. Hearing the firing, he hastened to the spot, with Colonel William Polk and the Reverend Thomas M.Caule. They arrived just as the Americans were about to flee. Davidson was the last upon the ground, and as he turned to follow his troops he was shot dead by a rifle ball. The mili the field, he heard of the fall of Charleston and defeat of Buford at the Waxhaw, and, like Cincinnatus, he left the furrow to engage in public duties. He was appointed adjutant of the Mecklenburg regiment. He was engaged in active service for some time, and fought the enemy with Major Davie, at Charlotte, in the autumn of 1780. In that engagement he was cut down and severely wounded by a British dragoon. He received six sabre and three bullet wounds. These confined him in the hospital for two months. When recovered, he raised a company of mounted riflemen, and, with his fifty men, disputed the passage of the British army at Cowan's Ford. With his company, and some troops from Rowan, he surprised and captured a British guard at Hart's Mill, only a mile and a half from head-quarters at Hillsborough, and the next day was with Lee when Pyle was defeated. He was engaged in active service all that summer, and in September was appointed a major, and, with a pretty strong force, proceeded toward Wilmington to rescue Governor Burke, who had been abducted from Hillsborough by Fanning, a noted Tory, and his associates. South of Fayetteville he encountered a band of Tories, and, after a severe skirmish, defeated them. His force was only one hundred and thirty-six; that of the Tories was six hundred. It was a brilliant achievement. He was engaged in two or three other military enterprises soon afterward, when the surrender of Cornwallis caused a cessation of hostilities at the South. With this campaign, Major Graham's revolutionary services closed. In the course of four years (at the end of which he was only twenty-three years of age) he had commanded in fifteen engagements, and was greatly beloved by his companions. Major Graham was elected the first sheriff of Mecklenburg, after the close of the war, and, in 1787, married a daughter of John Davidson, one of the members of the famous Mecklenburg Convention. By her he had twelve children, the youngest of whom, the Honorable William A. Graham, is now (1852) Secretary of the Navy of the United States. Soon after his marriage, he erected iron-works, and settled in Lincoln county, eight miles from Beattie's Ford, where he lived forty years, and died. In 1814, one thousand men were raised in North Carolina to assist the Tennessee and Georgia volunteers against the Creek Indians. Graham was urgently solicited to take the command. He consented, and received the commission of major general. He arrived with his corps just as the Creeks had submitted to Generals Jackson, Coffee, and Carroll, after the battle at the Horse Shoe. For many years after that war, General Graham was the senior officer of the fifth division of the state militia. Temperate in all things, he enjoyed remarkable health until about the time of his death, which occurred from apoplexy, on the twelfth of November, 1836, at the age of seventy-seven years. His honored remains lie in a secluded spot, near the great road leading from Beattie's Ford to Lincolnton. 1 Stedman, an eye-witness, from whose work the plan is copied, gives the following account of the passage of the river. This description illustrates the plan. "The light infantry of the guards, led by Colonel Hall, first entered the water. They were followed by the grenadiers, and the grenadiers by the battalions, the men marching in platoons, to support one another against the rapidity of the stream. When the light infantry had nearly reached the middle of the river, they were challenged by one of the enemy's sentinels. The sentinel having challenged thrice and received no answer, immediately gave the alarm by discharging his musket; and the enemy's pickets were turned out. No sooner did the guide [a Tory] who attended the light infantry to show them the ford, hear the report of the sentinel's musket, than he turned round and left them. This, which at first seemed to portend much mischief, in the end proved a fortunate incident. Colonel Hall, being forsaken by his guide, and not knowing the true direction of the ford, led the column directly across the river, to the nearest part of the opposite bank. This direction, as it afterward appeared, carried the British troops considerably above the place where the ford terminated on the other side, and where the enemy's pickets were posted, so that when they delivered their fire the light infantry were already so far advanced as to be out of the line of its direction, and it took place angularly upon the grenadiers, so as to produce no great effect."-History of the American War, ii., 328. 2 General William Davidson was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in 1746. His family went to North Carolina (Rowan county) when he was four years old. He was educated at Queen's Museum,* an * This building stood upon the site of the present residence of W. J. Alexander, Esq., and was better known during the Rev. olution as Liberty Hall Academy. Previous to the establishment of an institution of learning here, there were but two chartered seminaries in the province; one at Edenton, and the other at Newbern. In these none but members of the Established Church were allowed to hold official station. The Presbyterians, who were very numerous, resolved to have a seminary of their own, and applied for an unrestricted charter for a college. It was granted; but, notwithstanding it was called Queen's College, in compliment to the consort of the king, and was located in a town called by her name, and a county of the same name as her birth-place, the charter was repealed in 1771 by royal decree. The triple compliment was of no avail. It continued to exist, nevertheless, and the first Legislature under the State Constitution, in 1777, gave it a charter under the title of Liberty Hall Academy. The people of Mecklenburg would not allow any preference to be given to one religious denomination over another in the management of the affairs of the institution; and with firmness they pressed forward, with a determination |