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Localities at Hillsborough.

Departure for the Allamance.

Place of Pyle's Defeat

an office, during his tarryings in Hillsborough, after driving General Greene out of the state After sketching this, we visited the office of the Clerk of the Superio Court, and made the fac similes and extracts from its records, printed or pages 367-8. We next visited the head-quarters of Cornwallis, a large frame building situated in the rear of Morris's Hillsborough House, on King Street. Generals Gates and Greene also occupied it when they were in Hillsborough, and there a large number of the members of the Provincial Congress were generally lodged. The old court-house, where the Regulators performed their lawless acts, is no longer in existence. I was informed by Major Taylor, an octogenarian on whom we called, that it was a brick edifice, and stood almost upon the exact site of the present court-house, which is a spacious brick building, with steeple and clock. The successor of the first was a wooden structure, and being removed to make room for the present building, was converted into a place of meeting for a society of Baptists, who yet wor

CORNWALLIS's Or
FICE.1

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ship there. Upon the hill near the Episa 1849. copal church, and fronting King Street, is the spot where the Regulators were hung. The residence of Governor Tryon, while in Hillsborough, was on Church Street, a little west of Masonic Hall. These compose the chief objects of historic interest at Hillsborough. The town

CORNWALLIS'S HEAD-QUARTERS.

has other associations connected with the Southern campaigns, but we will not anticipate the revealments of history by considering them now.

At one o'clock I exchanged adieus with the kind Dr. Wilson, crossed the Eno, and, pursuing the route traversed by Tryon on his march to the Allamance, crossed the rapid and now turbid Haw,' just below the falls, at sunset. I think I never traveled a worse road than the one stretching between the Eno and the Haw. It passes over a continued series of red clay hills, which are heavily wooded with oaks, gums, black locusts, and chestnuts. Small streams course among these elevations; and in summer this region must be exceedingly picturesque. Now every tree and shrub was leafless, except the holly and the laurel, and nothing green appeared among the wide-reaching branches but the beautiful tufts of mistletoe which every where decked the great oaks with their delicate leaves and transparent berries. Two and a half miles beyond the Haw, and eighteen from Hillsborough, I passed the night at Foust's house of entertainment, and after an early breakfast, rode to the place where Colonel Pyle, a Tory officer, with a considerable body of Loyalists, was deceived and defeated by Lieutenant-colonel Henry Lee and his dragoons, with Colonel Pickens, in the spring of 1781. Dr. Holt, who lives a short distance from that locality, kindly accompanied me to the spot and pointed out the place where the battle occurred; where Colonel Pyle lay concealed in a pond, and where many of the slain were buried. The place of conflict is about half a mile north of the old Salisbury highway, upon a "plantation road," two miles east of the Allamance, in Orange county. Let us listen to the voices of history and tradition.

In February, 1781, General Greene, then in command of the American army at the South, accomplished a wonderful and successful retreat across North Carolina into Virginia, closely pursued by Lord Cornwallis. This memorable retreat we shall consider presently.

This view is from the piazza of the Union Hotel. The building is of logs, covered with clap-boards. When James Monroe (afterward President of the United States) visited the Southern army in 1780, as military commissioner for Virginia, he used this building for his office while in Hillsborough.

The Haw River (which derives its name from the abundance of hawthorns in that region) rises in Rockingham and Guilford counties, and in Chatham county unites with the Deep River, and forms the northwest branch of the Cape Fear.

Cornwallis at Hillsborough.

Greene's Plans.

Expedition under Lieutenant Colonel Lee.

His Public Life

When Cornwallis was certified that Greene had escaped across the Dan with all his force, baggage, and stores, he ordered a halt, a and, after refreshing his wearied troops, a Feb. 14, moved slowly back to Hillsborough, and there established his head-quarters.' His 1781. object was partially accomplished; he had not captured the "rebel army," but he had driven it from the Carolinas, and he now anticipated a general rising of the Tories, to assist him in crushing effectually the remaining Republicanism at the South. Although driven across the Dan, Greene had no idea of abandoning North Carolina to the quiet possession of the enemy. In the fertile and friendly county of Halifax, in Virginia, his troops reposed for a few days, and then they were called again to the field of active exertion. He resolved to recruit his thinned battalions, and as soon as possible recross the Dan and confront Cornwallis.

Among the most active and efficient officers engaged in the Southern campaigns was Henry Lee,' at this time lieutenant colonel, in command of a corps of choice cav alry. He was in Greene's camp when that general issued his orders to prepare for recrossing the Dan into the Carolinas. His patriot heart leaped for joy when the order was given, and he was much gratified when himself and General Pickens, who commanded a body of South Carolina militia, with Captain Oldham and two companies of Maryland veteran militia, were directedb to repass the b Feb. 18, Dan and reconnoitre the front 1781 of Cornwallis, for he burned to measure strength with the fiery Tarleton. They were sent by Greene to interrupt the intercourse of Cornwallis with the country surrounding his army at Hillsborough, and to suppress every attempt of the Loyalists to join him in force. This proved necessary, for the British commander issued a proclamation on the twentieth of February,c inviting c 1781 the Loyalists to join his standard at Hillsborough.

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Lieutenant-colonel Lee crossed the Dan on the eighteenth, and was followed

1 Cornwallis remained in Hillsborough about ten days. While a detachment of his army lay at the Red House, a short distance from the town, they occupied the Church of Hugh M'Aden, the first located missionary in North Carolina. Supposing M'Aden (then a short time in his grave) to have been a rebel, because he was a Presbyterian, the British burned his library and papers. His early journal escaped the Hames.-Foote, 273.

Henry Lee was born at the family seat, in Stratford (see page 217), on the twenty-ninth of January, 1756. He was educated at Princeton College, where he graduated in 1773. Fond of active life, and imbued with a military spirit, he sought and obtained the command of a company, in Colonel Bland's regiment of Virginia volunteers, in 1776. He joined the Continental army in September, 1777, where he soon attracted the favorable notice of Washington. He was promoted to the rank of major, in command of a separate corps of cavalry. On the sixth of November, 1780, Congress promoted him to lioutenant colonel, and ordered him to join the Southern army under General Greene, where his career was marked by great skill and bravery. His military exploits and the honors conferred upon him by Congress, are noticed in various places in this volume. In 1786, he was appointed a delegate to Congress, which position he held until the adoption of the Constitution. In 1791, he succeeded Beverly Randolph as governor of Virginia, and remained in office three years. He commanded the forces, by appointment of Washington, which were

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Pursuit of Tarleton.

a Feb. 21.

Approach of Tories under Colonel Pyle.

Conception of a Plan to Ensnare them.

by Pickens and Oldham. He sent out his scouts, and early on the morning of the nineteenth he was informed by them that Tarleton and his legion were out toward the Haw reconnoi. tering, and offering protection to the Loyalists who were desirous of marching to Cornwal lis's camp. Lee and Pickens pushed on to gain the great road leading from Hillsborough to the Haw. They ascertained that Tarleton had passed there the day before, and was probably then on the western side of the Haw. The next daya the Americans crossed the Haw, and were informed that the Loyalists between that and the Deep River were certainly assembling to join the earl. They also learned from a countryman (a sort of passive Tory named Ephraim Cooke) that Tarleton's force consisted of most of his cavalry, four hundred infantry, and two light field pieces; and that he was encamped about four miles distant with all the carelessness of confident security. Lee determined to surprise him, and placed his little army in battle order for a quick march. They reached the designated spot too late, for Tarleton had left and proceeded a few miles further, to the plantation of Colonel William O'Neil, whose memory, if common report speaks true, deserves a greater share of the odium of his countrymen than the most bitter Tory, for by his avaricious acts while claiming to be a Whig, he drove many of his neighbors to join the ranks of the Loyalists. Two of Tarleton's officers, who were left behind, were captured.

b Feb. 25, 1781.

a scout.

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Lee now resolved to employ stratagem. His legion greatly resembled that of Tarleton, and he made the country people believe that his was a detachment sent by Cornwallis to re-enforce that officer. The two prisoners were commanded to favor the deception, under the penalty of instant death. The legion took the van in the march,b with Lieutenant-colonel Lee at the head, preceded, at the distance of a few hundred yards, by The officer of the van soon met two well-mounted young men, who, bęlieving him to belong to a British re-enforcement, promptly answered an inquiry by saying that they were rejoiced to fall in with him, they having been sent forward by Colonel Pyle, the commander of quite a large body of Loyalists, to find out Tarleton's camp, whither he was marching with his followers." A dragoon was immediately sent to Lee with this information, and was speedily followed by the young men, who mistook "Legion Harry" for Tarleton, and, with the greatest deference, informed him of the advance of Colonel Pyle. Lee dispatched his adjutant to General Pickens to request him to place his riflemen (among whom were those of Captain Graham,' who had just joined him) on the left flank, in a place of concealment in the woods, while he himself should make an attempt to capture the deceived Loyalists. Lee also sent one of the duped young men, with the dragoon who escorted them, to proceed to Colonel Pyle with his compliments, and his request" that the colonel would be so good as to draw out his forces on the side of the road, so as to give convenient room for his (Lee's) much wearied troops to pass by without delay to their right position." The other young countryman was detained to accompany Lee himself, whom he supposed to be Tarleton. The van officer was ordered to halt as soon as he should perceive the Loyalists. This order was obeyed; and presently the young man who had been sent to Colonel Pyle, returned with that officer's assurance that he was "happy to comply with the request of Colonel Tarleton." It was the intention of Lee, when his force should obtain the requisite position to have the complete advantage of Colonel Pyle, to reveal his real name and character, demand the immediate surrender of the Tories, and give them their

sent to quell the whisky insurrection in Pennsylvania. He was a member of Congress in 1799, and was chosen to pronounce a funeral oration at Washington, on the occasion of the death of the first president. He wrote his Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United States, in 1808. He was active in quelling a mob in Baltimore in 1814, and from wounds received at that time he never fairly recovered. Toward the close of 1817, he repaired to the West Indies for the benefit of his health, but without success. Returning, he stopped at Cumberland Island, near St. Mary's, in Georgia, to visit Mrs. Shaw, the daughter of General Greene, where he died on the twenty-fifth of March, 1818, at the age of sixtytwo years. The names of Lee, Marion, Morgan, Sumter, and Pickens form a brilliant galaxy in the Southern firmament of our Revolutionary history. See Caruthers's Life of Caldwell, page 213.

2 The father of the late Secretary of the Navy.

Destruction of the Loyalists

Escape of Colonel Pyle.

The Battle ground.

Escape of Tarleton.

choice, to return quietly to their homes, after being disarmed, or to join the patriot army. Thus far every thing had worked favorably to Lee's humane design.

Lee's cavalry first approached the Loyalists, who, happily for the furtherance of the plan, were on the right side of the road; consequently, the horsemen following Lee were obliged to countermarch and confront the Loyalists. As Lee approached Colonel Pyle, the Loyalists raised the shout, "God save the king!" He rode along the Tory column (who were also mounted, with their rifles on their backs), and, with gracious smiles, complimented them on their fine appearance and loyal conduct. As he approached Pyle and grasped his hand. (the signal for his cavalry to draw when he should summon the Tories to surrender), the Loyalists on the left discovered Pickens's militia, and perceived that they were betrayed. They immediately commenced firing upon the rear-guard of the American cavalry, commanded by Captain Eggleston.' That officer, as a matter of necessity, instantly turned upon the foe, and this movement was speedily followed by the whole column. A scene of dreadful slaughter followed, for the Loyalists, taken by surprise, could not bring their rifles to bear before Lee had struck the fatal blow. Colonel Pyle commanded four hundred Loy. alists; ninety of them were killed in that brief moment, and a large portion of the remainder were wounded. A cry for mercy arose from the discomfited

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Tories, but the hand of mercy was stayed until the red arm of war had

placed the Americans beyond danger. Colonel Pyle was badly wounded, and fled to the shelter of a small pond, which was environed and deeply shaded by a fringe of oaks, persimmons, hawthorns, crab-trees, and black jacks, trellised with the vines of the muscadine. Tradition says that he laid himself under the wa

ter, with nothing but his nose above it, until after dark, when he crawled out, made his way home, and recovered. The place of his concealment is yet known as "Pyle's Pond," of which the engraving is a correct view, as it appeared when I visited the spot in 1849.a It is on the verge of a cultivated field, of some six acres,

a Jan. 2.

half a mile northwest from the Salisbury road.

Its dense fringe is gone, and nothing indi

cates its former concealment but numerous stumps of the ancient forest. Lee and Pickens did not pursue the retreating Loyalists; but, anxious to overtake Tarleton, who was at Colonel O'Neil's, upon the Greensborough road, three miles northward, he resumed his march, notwithstanding it was almost sunset. He halted within a mile of O'Neil's, and encamped for the night, where they were joined by Colonel Preston and three hundred hardy mountaineers from Virginia, who had hastened to the support of Greene. At ten o'clock in the morning, the Americans formed for attack, when it was ascertained that Tarleton, alarmed by the exaggerated stories of some of the survivors of Pyle's corps, who made their way to his camp, had hastened to obey the orders of Cornwallis, just received, and was moving toward the Haw. The Americans pursued him as far as that river, when they halted, and Tarleton, after a narrow escape at the ford, returned in safety to Hillsborough. Fortune, the capricious goddess," says Lee, "gave us Pyle, and saved Tarleton."

Captain Eggleston was one of the most efficient cavalry officers in Lee's legion, during the campaigns further south the same year. We shall meet him hereafter.

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In this action the Americans did not lose a single man, and only one horse. The generally accurate and impartial Stedman, influenced, doubtless, by wrong information, called the event a massacre ;" says that "no quarter was granted" when asked; and that "between two and three hundred of them were inhumanly butchered while in the act of begging for mercy."-History of the American War, ii., 334.

3 Ábout a quarter of a mile northwest from this pond, is the spot where the battle occurred. It was then heavily wooded; now it is a cleared field, on the plantation of Colonel Michael Holt. Mr. Holt planted an apple-tree upon the spot where fourteen of the slain were buried in one grave. Near by, a persimmontree indicates the place of burial of several others. Memoirs, page 160

The Allamance.

Factory Labor.

Regulator Battle-ground.

Greensborough.

CHAPTER XV.

"Cornwallis led a country dance;
The like was never seen, sir;
Much retrograde, and much advance,
And all with General Greene, sir.
They rambled up and rambled down,
Joined hands, and off they ran, sir;
Our General Greene to old Charlestown,
And the earl to Wilmington, sir.'

There was Greene in the South; you must know him—
Whom some called a "Hickory Quaker;"

But he ne'er turned his back on the foeman,

Nor ever was known for a Shaker."-WILLIAM ELLIOT.

LEFT the place of Pyle's defeat toward noon, and, following a sinuous and seldom-traveled road through a forest of wild crab-apple trees and black jacks, crossed the Allamance at the cotton-factory of Holt and Carrigan, two miles distant. Around this mill quite a village of neat log-houses, occupied by the operatives, were collected, and every thing had the appearance of thrift. I went in, and was pleased to see the hands of intelligent white females employed in a useful occupation. Manual labor by white people is a rare sight at the South, where an abundance of slave labor appears to render such occupation unnecessary; and it can seldom be said of one of our fair sisters there, "She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff." This cotton-mill, like the few others which I saw in the Carolinas, is a real blessing, present and prospective, for it gives employment and comfort to many poor girls who might otherwise be wretched; and it is a seed of industry planted in a generous soil, which may hereafter germinate and bear abundant fruit of its kind in the midst of cotton plantations, thereby augmenting immensely the true wealth of the nation.

At a distance of two miles and a half beyond the Allamance, on the Salisbury road, 1 reached the Regulator battle-ground; and, in company with a young man residing in the vicinity, visited the points of particular interest, and made the sketch printed on page 371. The rock and the ravine from whence James Pugh and his companions (see page 370) did such execution with their rifles, are now hardly visible. The place is a few rods north of the road. The ravine is almost filled by the washing down of earth from the slopes during eighty years; and the rock projects only a few ells above the surface. The whole of the natural scenery is changed, and nothing but tradition can identify the spot.

While viewing the battle-ground, the wind, which had been a gentle and pleasant breeze from the south all the morning, veered to the northeast, and brought omens of a cold storm. I left the borders of the Allamance, and its associations, at one o'clock, and traversing a very hilly country for eighteen miles, arrived, a little after dark, at Greensborough, a thriving, compact village, situated about five miles southeast from the site of old Guilford Court House. It is the capitol of Guilford county, and successor of old Martinsburg, where the

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These lines form a part of a song which was very popular at the close of the war, and was sung to the air of "Yankee Doodle."

This factory, in the midst of a cotton-growing country, and upon a never-failing stream, can not be otherwise than a source of great profit to the owners. The machinery is chiefly employed in the manufacture of cotton yarn. Thirteen hundred and fifty spindles were in operation. Twelve looms were employed in the manufacture of coarse cotton goods suitable for the use of the negroes. Proverbs, xxxi., 19

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