Maclean, brought written assurances from the principal persons to whom he had been directed to apply, that between two and three thousand men, of whom about half were well armed, would take the field at the governor's summons. Under this encouragement a commission was made out on the tenth of January 1776, authorizing Allan Macdonald of Kingsborough, with eight other Scots of Cumberland and Anson, and seventeen persons who resided in a belt of counties in middle Carolina and in Rowan, to raise and array and, by the fifteenth of February, march all the king's loyal subjects in a body to Brunswick, on Cape Fear river, opposite to Wilmington. Donald Macdonald, then in his sixty-fifth year, was to command the army; next him in rank came Donald Macleod.

A meeting of the newly commissioned officers was summoned for the fifth of February at Cross creek, or, as it is now called, Fayetteville. At the appointed time all the Scots appeared, and four only of the rest. The trustworthy Scots, who promised no more than seven hundred men, advised to await the arrival of the British troops; the other royalists, boasting that they could array five thousand of whom five hundred they said were already imbodied, prevailed in their demand for an immediate rising.

Collecting the Highlanders and remnants of the old regulators, Donald Macdonald, on the eighteenth, began his march, and at evening encamped on the Cape Fear river, four miles below Fayetteville. On that same day Moore, who at the first menace of danger took the field at the head of his regiment and then lay in an intrenched camp at Rockfish, was joined by Lillington with one hundred and fifty minute-men from Wilmington, by Kenon with two hundred of the Duplin militia, and by Ashe with about a hundred volunteer rangers; so that his number was increased to eleven hundred.

On the nineteenth, Macdonald sent Martin's proclamation into the American camp, calling on Moore and his troops to join the king's standard, or to be considered as enemies. Moore, in his instant reply, besought Macdonald not to array the deluded people under his command against men who were resolved to hazard everything in defence of the liberties of mankind. Macdonald promptly rejoined: "As a soldier in his

majesty's service, it is my duty to conquer, if I cannot reclaim, all those who may be hardy enough to take up arms against the best of masters;" and he paraded his party with a view to assail Moore in the coming night. But the camp at Rockfish was too strong to be attempted; and, at the bare suspicion of such a project, two companies of Cotton's loyalist corps ran off with their arms.

Knowing that Caswell, at the head of the minute-men of Newbern and others to the number of six or eight hundred, were marching through Duplin county to effect a junction with Moore, Macdonald became aware of his extreme danger. Cut off from the direct road along the Cape Fear river, he resolved, by celerity of movement and crossing streams at unexpected places, to disengage himself from the larger force at Rockfish, and encounter the party with Caswell alone. Before moving, he urged his men to fidelity, expressed bitter scorn of "the base cravens who had deserted the night before," and continued: "If any among you is so faint-hearted as not to serve with the resolution of conquering or dying, this is the time for such to declare themselves." The speech was answered by a general huzza for the king; but from Cotton's corps about twenty men laid down their arms. The corps then proceeded to Fayetteville, crossed the Cape Fear by night, sunk their boats, and sent a party fifteen miles in advance to secure the bridge over South river. This the main body passed on the twenty-first, and took the direct route to Wilmington. On the same day Moore detached Lillington and Ashe to re-enforce Caswell, or, if that could not be effected, to occupy Moore's Creek bridge.

On the following day the Scots and regulators drew near to Caswell, who perceived their purpose, and, the more effectually to intercept their march, changed his own course. On the twenty-third they thought to overtake him, and were arrayed in the order of battle, eighty able-bodied Highlanders, armed with broadswords, forming the centre of the army. Caswell was already posted at Corbett's Ferry, and could not be reached for want of boats; but, at a point six miles higher up the Black river, a negro succeeded in raising a broad, shallow boat that had been sunk; and while Maclean and Fraser,

with a few men, a drum, and pipe, were left to amuse Caswell, the main body of the loyalists crossed Black river near what is now Newkirk Bridge.

On the twenty-fifth Lillington took post with his small party on the east side of the bridge over Moore's Creek. On the afternoon of the twenty-sixth Caswell reached its west side, and, raising a small breastwork and destroying a part of the bridge, awaited the enemy, who on that day advanced within six miles of him. A messenger from the loyalists, sent to his camp under the pretext of summoning him to return to his allegiance, brought back word that he had halted upon the same side of the river with themselves, and could be attacked with advantage; but the Carolina commander had no sooner misled his enemy than, lighting up fires and leaving them burning, he crossed the creek, took off the planks from the bridge, and placed his men behind such slight intrenchments as the night permitted to be thrown up.

The loyalists, expecting an easy victory, unanimously agreed that his camp should be assaulted. His force at that time amounted to a thousand men, consisting of the Newbern minute-men, of militia from Craven, Johnson, Dobbs, and Wake counties, and the detachment under Lillington. At one o'clock in the morning of the twenty-seventh the army of Macdonald began their march; but it was within an hour of daylight before they reached the western bank of the creek, and found that Caswell and his force had taken post on the opposite side. The Scots were now within less than twenty miles of Wilmington; orders were directly given to reduce the columns, and to form the line of battle within the verge of the wood; the rallying cry was, "King George and broadswords!" the signal for the attack, three cheers, the drum to beat and the pipes to play. It was still dark; Macleod, who led the van of about forty, was challenged at the bridge by the Carolina sentinels. Of the bridge nothing had been left but the two logs, which had served as sleepers. Macleod and John Campbell rushed forward and succeeded in getting over; Highlanders followed with broadswords. Macleod, who was greatly esteemed, was mortally wounded; he was seen to rise repeatedly from the ground, encouraging his men to come on,

till he received many balls. Campbell likewise fell. In a very few minutes the assailants fled in irretrievable despair. The Americans had but three wounded, one only mortally; of their opponents, more than thirty were killed or mortally wounded, most of them on the bridge, from which they fell into the deep, muddy creek.

The fugitives could never be rallied; during the following day Macdonald their general, and others of the chief men, were taken prisoners; among the rest, Macdonald of Kingsborough and one of his sons, who were at first confined in Halifax jail, and afterward transferred to Reading in Pennsylvania. Eight or nine hundred common soldiers were taken, disarmed, and dismissed. Thirteen wagons, with complete sets of horses, about fifteen hundred rifles in excellent condition, three hundred and fifty guns, one hundred and fifty swords, two medicine-chests just received from England, and a box of guineas and other gold coin, fell to the victors.

As the tidings of danger to the public liberty spread through the colony the patriots took up arms in untold numbers, rumored to exceed nine thousand. Moore, under orders from the council, disarmed the Highlanders and regulators of the back country, and imprisoned the ringleaders. The menaced invasion under Clinton caused no terror. Almost every man was ready to turn out at an hour's warning. North Carolina had men enough of her own to crush domestic insurrections and repel enemies from abroad; and, as they marched in triumph through their piny forests, they were persuaded that in their own groves they could win an easy victory over British regulars. The terrors of a fate like that of Norfolk could not dismay the patriots of Wilmington.

North Carolina, proud of its victory over domestic enemies, and roused to defiance by the arrival of Clinton in their great river, met in congress at Halifax on the fourth of April; on the eighth appointed a select committee, of which Harnett was the head, to consider the usurpations and violences of the British parliament and king; and on the twelfth, after listening to its report, unanimously "empowered their delegates in the continental congress to concur with the delegates of the other colonies in declaring independency and forming

foreign alliances." At the same time, they reserved to their colony the sole right of forming its own constitution and laws. The people of North Carolina were the first in America to vote an explicit sanction to independence.

The border colony on the south had shown equal decision. So early as July 1775, Sir James Wright, the able governor of Georgia, had frankly written home: "God grant conciliatory measures may take place; there is not an hour to be lost; the state of affairs will not admit of the least delay." The people of Georgia met in congress; a council of safety maintained an executive supervision; local affairs were left to parochial committees; but the crown officers were not molested. The militia officers were compelled to sign the association, and a ship which arrived with two hundred and four slaves was forced to go away without landing them. In September two hundred and fifty barrels of powder were taken by the "liberty " people from a vessel at Tybee.

"Twelve months ago," said the people of Georgia in 1776, 66 we were declared rebels, and yet we meet with no opposition; Britain may destroy our towns, but we can retire to the back country and tire her out." On the appearance of a small squadron in the Savannah, Joseph Habersham, on the eighteenth of January, with a party of volunteers, confined Sir James Wright under a guard in his own house. The other crown officers either fled or were seized.

The provincial congress, which assembled in Savannah on the second of February, elected Archibald Bulloch, John Houstoun, Lyman Hall, Button Gwinnet, and George Walton their delegates to the continental congress; and, being so remote from the seat of congress, they declined to give them any other instruction than this: "Keep in view the general utility, remembering that the great and righteous cause in which we are engaged is not provincial but continental; and concur in all measures calculated for the common good." In this way. the delegates of Georgia were left free to join in declaring independence whenever it should be the choice of the continental congress.

A few days after this instruction was adopted, the royal governor, taking with him the great seal of the province,