With the nation’s approaching 250th birthday as a backdrop, WIZS’s Bill Harris and local historian Mark Pace continue their conversation about people, places and events from right here in the four-county area, “Old Granville County.”
Franklin County’s Regiment of Militia was officially formed in January 1779, in the middle of the Revolutionary War. This group of men, along with the Granville County militia, fought the British troops in battles across the Carolinas in the early 1780’s, including the Siege of Charleston, Camden and Charlotte before giving the Brits a fit at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse.
Gen. Charles Cornwallis led his troops to major victories, but they met their match at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse.
Local historian Mark Pace said the British technically won the battle, but suffered such heavy casualties at the hands of the Patriots – led by Gen. Nathaniel Greene – that it was a hollow victory.
Just a year earlier, Cornwallis had spent 16 days in Charlotte trying to suppress the Patriots in that area, Pace said. Most likely members of the local militia were there as well and contributed to Cornwallis’s description of the then-small town as a “hornet’s nest.”
(A couple of hundred years later, the NBA team that called Charlotte home took note of the description and now the Charlotte Hornets play in an arena called The Hive.)
The Granville County militia performed well at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, Pace said on Thursday’s Part 2 of Around Old Granville on TownTalk.
The Continental Line, akin to a national Army, of sorts, Pace explained, got much-needed assistance from states’ militias. North Carolina furnished about 4,000 or so men to the militia, each county calling up recruits or volunteers to join the effort.
Why did the states feel the need to call up militias in the first place?
Well, it’s probably not the only reason, but back in the mid-1750’s, the Colonists were being required to pay all kinds of taxes to the British Crown. But they didn’t have anyone in England to speak on their behalf, which was how the phrase “no taxation without representation” came about.
Two big taxes “that irritated Americans to no end,” Pace said, were the Stamp Act and the Sugar Tax. The Stamp Act taxed printed materials, from wills and deeds to newspapers and playing cards. The Sugar Act is self-explanatory, but it became a thorn in the side of Americans because of what was the most popular drink at the time – rum, which is derived from molasses. And molasses is made from sugarcane juice.
The Granville militia, in the mid-1770’s was under the leadership of Micajah Bullock, who is buried near Bullock’s Church located along U.S. Hwy 15 South near Creedmoor and Col. John Taylor of the Williamsboro vicinity. Another prominent Granville County resident was Thomas Person, who was a general in the militia. At the time, he was the wealthiest person in the county and he opened up his estate for training purposes during the Revolution.
Pace called Person “the heart and soul of the Revolution in this area.”
During previous “Around Old Granville” segments, Pace and Harris have talked about the significance of Williamsboro, once a prospering center of commerce that today is merely a crossroads that people pass through as they travel N.C. Hwy 39.
The community was named for John Williams, Pace said, whose name can be found among a list of Founding Fathers for this nation.
Williams, along with Robert Burton, John Penn and Benjamin Hawkins, all hailed from the Williamsboro area and were elected to the Continental Congress. Penn signed the Declaration of Independence, but Williams signed the Articles of Confederation. He also became speaker of the N.C. House, and was one of the first N.C. Supreme Court judges.
Sadly, Williams’s home, Montpelier, no longer stands. But it was a hub of activity back then, Pace said.
Montpelier was where N.C. Gov. Burke went when it became clear he needed to evacuate Hillsborough (then the capital) in advance of Cornwallis’s arrival.
Montpelier is also where Leonard Henderson, for whom Henderson is named, is buried.
In fact, Williamsboro had been considered as the state’s capital, but leaders ultimately chose the more centrally located Raleigh.
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