Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge
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| Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge | |||||||
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| Part of American Revolutionary War | |||||||
 Reconstructed earthworks of the Patriot militia | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Patriot militia | Loyalist militia | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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James Moore, Richard Caswell, Alexander Lillington | Donald McLeod † | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 1,000 | 1,500 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
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1 killed 1 wounded |
30 killed 40 wounded 850 captured [1] | ||||||
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The Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge was fought near Wilmington, North Carolina on February 27, 1776, between North Carolina patriots and Scottish Loyalists.
The American victory helped spur sentiment for the revolution and increased recruitment of additional soldiers into their forces.
Background
A group of Loyalist troops under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Donald McLeod, an 80-year-old experienced British officer, assembled on February 15 in response to the Patriot activities in the region.
McLeod led a force of about 700 Scots Highland emigrants and 800 Loyalist militia towards the Atlantic coast, with plans to join a group of British regulars at Moore's Creek Bridge, located about 20 miles (30 km) north of Wilmington. Among the force was Captain Alan MacDonald, husband of the famous Jacobite heroine Flora MacDonald.
A group of around 1,000 Patriot volunteers and minutemen decided to contest the Loyalist march to the coast.
Battle
The evening before the battle, a small scouting party approached the bridge and saw only a small encampment on the north side of the bridge. They were not aware of the much larger force hidden behind the earthworks on the south side of the bridge. They reported their findings back to Lt. Colonel McLeod, who then believed they would encounter little to no resistance when crossing the bridge.
At dawn on February 27, 1776, the Highland Scots, under the command of Lt. Colonel McLeod and Captain John Campbell, arrived at the bridge to find it blocked by Americans, commanded by Colonels Alexander Lillington and Richard Caswell.
The Loyalists rushed at the bridge, only to be met by heavy Patriot fire at point-blank range. The Scots, armed only with broadswords, stood little chance against the rifles of the Patriots. With the whole attacking party cut down in just three minutes, the Americans rushed across the bridge in a counter-attack, forcing the remaining Highlanders and Loyalists to flee.
The Patriots were victorious, having had only one man killed and one wounded, while inflicting about 70 casualties, including the deaths of both McLeod and Campbell, upon their enemy and preventing the planned rendezvous with the British regulars. Private John Grady of Duplin County was the first North Carolinian killed in battle during the American Revolution. Over 850 Loyalists were captured over the next few days.
Aftermath
Although no one realized it at the time, the Patriot victory not only helped to check the Loyalist sentiment in the colony, but fanned the fires of the revolutionary fervor to bring most of the North and South Carolina colonies into the fight against the British army. The British, having been defeated so soundly, decided to focus their efforts in the northern colonies and abandoned the south to the colonists.
Historical site
The Federal government took over the battle 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.