Battle of Moores Creek Bridge
| Moores Creek National Battlefield | |||
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| Location: | North Carolina , United States | ||
| Specialty: | American Revolutionary War battlefield | ||
| Next city: | Wilmington | ||
| Surface: | 0.4 km² | ||
| Founding: | June 2, 1926 | ||
| Visitors: | 55,000 (2007) | ||
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The Battle of Moores Creek Bridge on February 27, 1776 at Moores Creek in the then British province of North Carolina was one of the first military clashes in the American Revolutionary War . Around 1,000 insurgent patriots prevented 1,600 loyalists loyal to the British Crown from advancing from the west of the colony to the Atlantic coast at Cape Fear near today's Wilmington in order to secure the planned landing of a British invading army there. The military success motivated the insurgent provincial assembly of North Carolina to instruct their delegates to the Continental Congress to vote for the independence of the Thirteen Colonies from Great Britain. North Carolina was the first colony to take this formal step towards the American Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.
The battlefield at Moores Creek Bridge has been a federal memorial site since 1926 and designated a National Battlefield since 1980 . It is maintained by the National Park Service .
Political situation
North Carolina was one of the southern colonies of the British Crown in North America. Despite the lack of good harbors on the marshy coast, it was relatively densely populated from the neighboring provinces and in 1776 was fourth among the thirteen colonies in terms of population. In the 1740s and 1750s, Governor Gabriel Johnston of Scottish descent specifically recruited immigrants from the Scottish Highlands . They formed the backbone for the British loyalists at the beginning of the American independence movement. From 1771 onwards, the elected Royal Assembly had largely defected on the part of the American patriots and the governor and the British motherland. Therefore, Governor Josiah Martin did not call the meeting in 1774, whereupon a free provincial assembly was constituted, which in 1774 sent 75 delegates to the rebellious continental congress. Governor Martin tried to dissolve the meeting and call in British troops. When he was unsuccessful and instead the provincial assembly mobilized rebel, patriotic militias in the vicinity of the capital New Bern , he fled the capital in the summer of 1775 on a warship that was anchored off the coast.
The battle on February 27, 1776
After the first skirmishes between British troops and American insurgents at Lexington and Concord and the siege of Boston with the battle of Bunker Hill in the northern colonies in 1775 , the British tried to demonstrate their power in the south. Governor Martin was promised a fleet from New York that was to land in North Carolina at the beginning of March , along with troop transports from Ireland . They were supposed to restore the rule of the British there and move on by land to the also insurgent province of South Carolina . Governor Martin believed he could muster around 10,000 men for the loyal militia, secure the landing of the troops and suppress the revolution.
Three officers from parts of the militia who remained loyal were dispatched to the Scottish-populated region of the province around Cross Creek , today's Fayetteville (North Carolina) . But with the promise of 200 acres of land and tax exemption for twenty years, they were only able to recruit around 1,600 men, mostly Scottish Highlanders who were trained for close combat with the broadsword .
Three groups of patriotic militias opposed them in the hinterland of the coastal city of Wilmington . General Moore, the commander of the patriotic troops, relocated the main road to the coast for the Loyalists coming from the south, whereupon they turned to a small road that led them from the west to Moores Creek in what is now Pender County . Around 150 patriots from the neighborhood reached the only bridge over the shallow but marshy river on February 25 and pitched their camp on the east bank and began to build earth walls as parapets. On February 26, about 800 more patriots reached the bridge and set up camp on the west bank. The loyalists advanced on the night of February 27th, whereupon the patriots on the west bank abandoned their camp and joined the smaller unit across the bridge. They broke open the majority of the bridge's planks, but couldn't destroy them completely until the morning when the Loyalists arrived.
The real battle was short-lived, for the most part not equipped with firearms Scottish loyalists marched with bagpipes , the sword and the battle cry of King George and broad sword (King George III. And broadsword) and had the bridge on the beams individually, one after the other cross. They were taken under fire by the patriots with muzzle-loaders and two small cannons that shot sacks of cloth with pellets . Thirty Highlanders fell within minutes, including their commander, Captain Donald McLeod. Two patriots were wounded, one later died of the injuries.
consequences
In the weeks that followed, the Patriots arrested several hundred loyalist militiamen, including their Commander in Chief, General Donald MacDonald, and looted the British arsenal and war chest for £ 15,000. The two British fleets did not dare to land in North Carolina, but instead cruised off the coast until they undertook a direct attack on the capital of South Carolina, Charleston , in June 1776, which was repulsed at the Battle of Sullivan's Island . They retired to New York.
The North Carolina Provincial Assembly was motivated by its military success to be the first of the colonies to vote for independence. On April 12, 1776, she commissioned her two delegates to the Continental Congress there to vote for the separation from the Kingdom of Great Britain.
The memorial
The battlefield of 1776 had no particular significance for several decades. It became private property of a farmer and later divided. Only in 1856, on the 80th anniversary of the battle, did it receive brief attention and around 1,500 residents of the region gathered for a picnic on February 27. On the 100th anniversary of the War of Independence, politicians again became aware of the site, but it was not until 1897 that the state of North Carolina bought two plots of land on the east bank of the river to create a public park. It was looked after by the private association Moores Creek Monumental Association , which set up the area, which was expanded in 1907 by additional properties on the west bank, for recreational purposes.
In 1926 it passed to the federal government and was administered by the War Ministry as a military park . After it was handed over to the National Park Service in 1933 , attempts to use funds from the New Deal to reconstruct the original state failed . Only in preparation for the 50th year the National Park Service was founded was funds made available for expansion as part of Mission 66 in the early 1960s . At that time, buildings of the Moores Creek Monumental Association in the actual battlefield were removed and new ones were erected on the edge of the site, the route was reconstructed along the site lines based on historical models and the six memorial stones were relocated to their current locations. In 1966, the memorial was also entered on the National Register of Historic Places . In 1980, the Moores Creek Military Park was renamed to the current name Moores Creek National Battlefield to avoid confusion with nearby military bases. The bridge over Moores Creek was reconstructed in the 1990s, following archaeological exploration of the construction in the 1970s. It cannot be climbed because it was built in the state of battle with the planks torn out. The site was expanded in 1951, 1974, 1982 and 1997, and today all parts of the battlefield are located within the memorial.
The National Battlefield is mainly visited by locals for recreation and school classes as part of an educational program. There is a small visitor center with an exhibition, a lecture room in which events for school classes take place, a picnic area and several small hiking trails. It is partly covered with dry pine forest, which merges into swampy, open land in the center of the area.
literature
- Michael A. Capps, Steven A. Davis: Moores Creek National Battlefield - An Administrative History , National Park Service, Atlanta, Georgia, 1999. (also online: Moores Creek National Battlefield )
Web links
- National Park Service: Moores Creek National Battlefield (official site; English)