02/27/2025
A small contingent of the SOH participanted in the 249th anniversary of the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge, that occurred on this day on Feb. 27, 1776. Next year is the 250th.
Here is an explanation from the US Army:
27 FEBRUARY 1776 – BATTLE OF MOORE'S CREEK BRIDGE
In a small early engagement in the Revolutionary War’s Southern Theater, North Carolina militia crushed a Loyalist counter-revolution at the Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge on 27 February 1776.
Soon after hearing the news of the 19 April 1775 Battles of Lexington and Concord, Patriots in North Carolina began organizing Continental Army and militia units, while the province's Loyalists began their own recruitment efforts in the interior.
In January 1776, Royal Governor Josiah Martin learned that a British military expedition of 2,000 men commanded by Major General Henry Clinton was heading toward the southern colonies to suppress the rebellion and restore Crown authority.
He ordered the Loyalist militia to muster in anticipation of their arrival. The revolutionary militiamen and Continentals meanwhile mobilized to prevent the junction of the two enemy forces, and blocked the crossing at Moore’s Creek Bridge, about 18 miles north of Wilmington, North Carolina. To make the crossing more difficult, they removed the planks and greased the beams and stringers.
Expecting opposition from only a small Patriot force, the Loyalists advanced across the partially dismantled bridge. On the opposite bank, nearly one thousand North Carolina Patriots waited to open fire with cannons and muskets.
Lieutenant Colonel Donald McLeod led the Loyalists, many of whom were Scottish highlanders armed with broadswords, in a charge across the stringers that was met by volleys of musketry and artillery. When the smoke cleared, as many as 70 of their number lay dead and wounded, including the lifeless body of Lieutenant Colonel McLeod.
The shocked and now leaderless Loyalists either retreated in confusion or surrendered.
