The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-08-14
For The Messenger.

foT Inc messenger
Ny visit 10 Moore's Creek battlefield
On the Goth OF July was socially AMI
personally very pleasant; where | ex-
pected 10 meet the hundreds of a
neighborhood | found myself In the
midst of thousands Of several COMMITTEES,
and | hope | pleased them all ny max
ing only a short speech.
But my visit gave me food for re
Election as TO the results of the Moore's
Creek fight on the eth of February.
111G, and as 10 the character OF III
troops there engaged. The congress Of
the United States has tardily reccg-
nized the Importance OF that action
fought early in he American Revolu-
ton, by the appropriation of So, 900 for
a commemorative mOnument-it ought
10 be five or six times that sum. Gen
eral Clinton, one of the few good Of
icers sent by Great Britain 10 whip
the colonies into submission, realized
the full significance Of the battle of
MOore's Greek. On the 9Th Of May he
issued from the ship Pallas in the Cape
Fear his offer of amnesty, specially eX-
ceptlng Harnett and Howe; on the 18th
he ordered Lord CORVALLIS to land on
the plantation of General Howe and
ravage the country; on the 18th he col
lected his troops in thirty ships and
left the coast of North Carolina. carry
Ing with him Morton, the last royal
governor, as full OF pure ~'cisSednesS'
as Was George Burlington, the first
royal governor.
The effects of the MO0"e's Creek
battle on the volunteer royalists Of the
Cape Fear country was to fill them
with dependency and gloom, and
thenceforward their efforts We're COM
~paratively feeble in behalf OF King
George. General Mcdonald, command
ing the royalists, though not personally
engaged in the battle, was taken prs
oner, together with Allan Mcdonald.
husband OF the celebrated Flora Nc
Donald, and they Were confined in ,he
Jail at Halifax.
1t is a significant fact that Flora
Mcdonald, who, in less degree. like
Madam Roland in the French revolu-
ton, was the very life of the British
cause among the Scotch emigrants of
the Cape Fear, seems at this time %
have lost all heart, stout as that heart
was, and to ave become only anX-
1ous to leave a land where her hopes
hal been blighted, and her expectations
overwhelmed in disappointment. She
addressed herself with her wonted en-
ergy and womanly self-denial TO the
task Of securing the release OF her
Notwithstanding the country, MAX
Ing the most urgent appeals, and even
pawning her little remaining family
plate.
What a remarkable character was de-
velOped in this Scotch woman! Lofty
OF purpose, brave, patient of toll and
privation, and devoted in her affection,
her nature was deeply tinged with
rOmance-how deeply was known only
at her death on the Isle of Skye, wnen
it was found hat she had prepared her
shrOud, made of the sheet on which
Prince Charles Edward lay on he
night Of his escape, preserved, a price
less relic to her, through all her wan
dsrings. Worth a hundred of this son
of the house Of Stuart, this Scotch girl
lad idealiZed him in her pure ara
magnanimous soul, and placed him on
Il pedestal as a hero to wOrship-he,
the betrayer of his friends, the success
or Of a long line of kings and queens,
facilitating, ungrateful and mean.
doomed to the ignominiOus failure fha:
he deserved, at whom, in the bitterness
of spirit, Mcnamara hurled this ex-
clamation in Paris: What has your
family done, sir. thus 10 draw down
the vengeance OF heaven on every
branch Of it through so many ages?''
1t is probable that at the time Of
the battle of MOore's Creek Allan and
Flora Mcdonald were not living a.
Fayetteville, but at their place west of
uere, Cameron Hill" But one eros =
ing the handsome iron Ecles bridge on
Green street passes the site of their
ABODE more than a century and a
quarter ago. There, on the banks Of
cross Creek, they set UP their house
mold goods, TO restore their broken for
tunes, and to begin life anew: there.
AMID heavens bOunties in q new IN
Loldlng world, they took heart Of grace
and many Il "~barn-door chucky'', a.
SIT waiter Scott would say, was killed
at the "door-stone" for the huEgry
Allan Mcdonald and his followers,
after a long days hunt Of the red deer
roamlng q hundreds through the FOR
ests of the upper Cape Fear.
1t Is a remarkable fact that, diagon-
ally across Green street from vha~
the McDona!ds lived, IL now @ hand
some residence; and on this spot stood
during the American Revolution a
house used ~ Lord CORVALLIS as
headquarters when his army marched
through this section.
Inc bait nf Moore's CreeA gives
rise 10 other reflections. The patriotic
1ervor OF the American reyolutionists
was aroused TO the highest pitch Of IL
aignation against the Scotch royalists.
whom they denounced "a Tories, and
pursued with un~relenlns animosi:y.
10 this day not a little of that feel
Ing fingers in the hearts CT thu de-
s~cendants OF the Wings In this par. a.
| the state.