Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge NC

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Southern theater, 1775–1783
Williamsburg – Great Bridge – Moore's Creek Bridge – Rice Boats – Alligator Bridge – Beaufort – Kettle Creek – Briar Creek – Stono Ferry – Savannah – Charleston – Camden – Kings Mountain – Cowpens – Guilford Court House – Hobkirk's Hill – Eutaw Springs – Yorktown
The Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge was fought on February 27, 1776 between North Carolina patriots and Scottish Loyalists. A group of Loyalist troops under the command of Colonel Donald McLeod, an 80-year-old experienced British officer leading around 700 Scots Highland emigrants and 800 Loyalist milita were assembeled on February 15 in response to the rebel Patriot movements in the region. A group of around 1,000 Patriot volunteers and minutemen decided to contest the Loyalist march to the coast which they were planing to join a group of British regulars at Moore's Creek bridge located about 20 miles north of Wilmington, North Carolina.

Southern theater, 1775–1783
Williamsburg – Great Bridge – Moore's Creek Bridge – Rice Boats – Alligator Bridge – Beaufort – Kettle Creek – Briar Creek – Stono Ferry – Savannah – Charleston – Camden – Kings Mountain – Cowpens – Guilford Court House – Hobkirk's Hill – Eutaw Springs – Yorktown

In the misty dawn of February 27, 1776, with drums beating and bagpiles skirling, the Highland Scots, some dressed in plaids and kilts, arrived at the bridge to find it blocked by the rebel Colonists commanded by Colonels Caswell and Lillington. The British rushed at the bridge only to be met by heavy Patriot fire at point-blank range. With the whole attack party cut down in just 10 minutes, the Colonists rushed across the bridge in a counter attack forcing the Highlanders and Loyalists to flee. The Patriots were victorious having lost only one man killed and another wounded to inflict around 30 casualties on the British troops and preventing the rendezvous with the British. Over 850 Loyalist and other British troops were captured over the next few days, including Colonel McLeod.

Although not realizing it at the time, the Patriot victory did more to check the Loyalist sentiment in the colony, but it fanned the fires of the revolutionary fervor to bring most of the North and South Carolina colonies into the fight against the British army.

Aftermath

The federal government took over the site as a national park operated by the War Department in 1926; the National Park Service began managing the battlefield in 1933. For over a century, the Moores Creek National Battlefield has evolved as a historical site preserving and interpreting the 1776 battle.

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