When the British Came
By Jack E. Fryar, Jr.
An excerpt from The Coastal Chronicles, Volume I
Part I of a 3-part series
reproduced courtesy of Dram Tree Books

The slave stood and stared, his breath showing as a fine fog in the chilled January air. A worker at Ellis Plantation, nine miles below the North Carolina colonial town of Wilmington, the man had been heading to the estate’s rice fields abutting the Cape Fear River to make repairs to a flood gate before the planting season came upon them once again. But the sight he viewed now caused the burlap sack containing his tools to drop unnoticed from his callused fingers. In the river, ships were ferrying red-clad soldiers to shore, while three galleys continued to pull past, headed in the direction of town. After months of waiting with baited breath, the British were finally landing.

Things had been relatively quiet in the Lower Caper Fear region of North Carolina for four years, since the militia under Alexander Lillington, Richard Caswell, and James Moore had dealt a resounding defeat to the Loyalist Highlanders at Moore’s Creek in 1776. The battle, which lasted only minutes, had an impact that went far beyond the length of the engagement, resulting in a still birth for Royal Governor Josiah Martin’s designs for the British war effort in the southern colonies. But with the fall of Charleston in 1780, it was evident to everyone, especially those who made their homes there, that Wilmington would be the key to any successful British war efforts in the Carolinas.

Wilmington was a modestly thriving port town in 1781. With a polyglot citizenry made up of farmers, merchants, seamen, government workers and slaves, the town had two qualities that made it strategically important for Cornwallis’ army. One, it controlled the Cape Fear River. Any operations into the North Carolina interior would demand that Wilmington be in British hands to provide a means of supplying Cornwallis’ troops with the food and war materials they would need to put down the rebel uprising in the state. Two, the Lower Cape Fear area was home to a higher concentration of Loyalist sympathizers than could be found elsewhere in the colony. Of the estimated sixty to one hundred politically active white men in the Wilmington area at the time of the invasion, historians say that over half were either loyal to King George or at least unsympathetic to the rebels. Many of these men were merchants, which Wilmington had a higher percentage of than anywhere else in the colony. Of forty-four merchants in the Wilmington area, over half sided with the Crown. Cornwallis depended on those who favored strong ties with the Mother Country to help him defeat and police the conquered rebel territories while the main body of his army pursued operations farther inland.

Of course, the residents of Wilmington realized all this. But in the four years since Moore’s Creek, a complacency had seized the town. While somewhere in the back of their minds everyone knew that British invasion was inevitable, the lack of imminent threat resulted in a procrastination that the town’s residents would have reason to regret in short order. James Iredell recognized the threat in a visit after the fall of Charleston, saying “Wilmington is certainly no place of security, as the enemy may take it when they please.”
Some residents took steps to protect themselves from British occupation. William Hooper, one of North Carolina’s signers of the Declaration of Independence, made arrangements to evacuate his family during the months of 1780, but for some reason didn’t actually pack up and flee. He was not alone. Others began to seriously consider evacuating, but most were caught with their pants down when the invasion finally came.

The British warships Blonde, Otter and Delight, along with three galleys and an artillery transport ship arrived off the Cape Fear coast on January 25. The flotilla carried a land force of three hundred men from the 82nd Infantry Regiment, an artillery detachment, and convalescents from Cornwallis’ army in Charleston, all under the command of the pugnacious Major James H. Craig. Craig was a good choice to lead the invasion force. A veteran of the British victory at Quebec, as well as a veteran of Bunker Hill and Ticonderoga, Craig had earned his command through shrewd soldiering and paying the price in blood. His orders were to take possession of Wilmington and establish a post there if the town was defensible. If not, then he was to station his command in Fort Johnson, at the mouth of the river in what is now Southport.

The main goal of the invasion and occupation was to gather the many small, shallow draft vessels that would be needed to ferry supplies up the Cape Fear to Cornwallis’ advancing army in the interior regions. The boats had to be small and of shallow draft due to the shifting nature of the riverbed as it winds its way to Cross Creek, now modern day Fayetteville. Craig hoped to be able to secure enough of such boats and barges from those owned by locals in and around the Wilmington area.

Though the invasion force arrived on the coast by January 25, poor wind conditions and unfavorable tides forced them to postpone entering the river itself. It didn’t take long for locals to sight the British sails, and word quickly reached Wilmington that the dreaded redcoats had finally arrived. With the fleet came the realization that the town was unprepared for it. Wilmington’s militia commander, Colonel Henry Young, told rebel governor Abner Nash that “we are in great confusion here and very much in Want of Arms.”

Realizing a hodge-podge, unprepared resistance would be worse than no resistance at all, the town decided to surrender and hope for the best. Col. Young and his men were asked to leave, which he and fifty of his troops did. He marched out of Wilmington to take up a position at Heron’s Bridge on the Northeast Cape Fear River, ten miles above the town. The three day delay in landing due to unfavorable weather the British encountered allowed Young to move large quantities of supplies and ammunition out of Wilmington with the aid of local plantation owners, who donated their slaves to help in the effort.

Without any aces in their deck, the defenseless residents of Wilmington decided to try and bargain for the best deal they could get from the British. They sent John Walker and James DuBois to Major Craig on January 27, 1781 with the town’s terms for capitulation. These included only two articles. One was that the inhabitants of Wilmington were to be considered prisoners of war until they were exchanged by normal means. The other was that the inhabitants of the town would remain there, with all their property and personal safety guaranteed by the British. Craig and the commander of the naval part of the British force, Captain Andrew Barkley, turned down the terms offered by Walker and DuBois, insisting that Wilmington’s residents must “submit to be prisoners of war at discretion or take the consequences of resistance.”

Wilmington fell without resistance. Once Craig landed at Ellis Plantation and Barkley’s galleys had dropped anchor at the foot of Market Street, the British occupied the town with no opposition. Two hundred rebel sympathizers marched out of town, lay down their arms and surrendered. The one act of rebel defiance seems to have been the denial to the British of two batteries of artillery that the rebels spiked before Craig’s force could take possession of them. But Craig and Barkley did succeed in taking an entire flotilla of small craft laden with supplies evacuated by the rebels further up the river, containing rum, turpentine, rice, flour and tobacco.

William Hooper and a great many other rebels managed to flee the British net. As a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Hooper would have been high on Craig’s list of potential prisoners. Local tax collector Thomas Bloodworth loaded a boat with as many tax records, papers, vouchers and deeds as he could lay hands on and sent it upriver to prevent the British from confiscating the documents. Craig’s men found the boat and burned it.

Meanwhile, at Heron’s Bridge, Col. Young was becoming a potential thorn in Craig’s side. The militia officer was said to be recruiting men to help defend the rebel supplies sequestered at the bridge, and Craig couldn’t have that. Young’s possession of the bridge meant a potential choke point on the British’s waterborne resupply route to Cross Creek. Craig took a force of 250 troops and two three-pound cannon to handle the situation on January 30.

Marching to within one mile of the bridge under the cover of darkness, the idea was to launch a surprise attack at dawn. But surprise was lost when two British soldiers came upon a mounted rebel patrol and had to fire their rifles to cover their retreat to cover. Craig’s men didn’t waste time. Knowing that surprise was gone, they jumped up after the rebel patrol and chased them to the bridge. The British were so close on the patrol’s heels that the rebels didn’t have time to raise the bridge. One group of militia delivered a quick volley of shots, then scampered across the bridge to melt into the swampy woods with the rest of the surprised militia. Craig didn’t pursue the rebel soldiers, preferring instead to rest his men after the arduous march to Heron’s Bridge and the mad scramble to take it from Young’s startled troops. In short order Craig had captured the rebel supply vessels, burning the two largest and taking the rest back down river to Wilmington.

By now the British were feeling pretty good about things. They had taken the town, secured their base of operations, and defeated the only rebel force they could find in the area in a matter of days after their landing. Craig granted parole to the remaining residents of Wilmington and began to fortify his position in the town.

Because the small size of his force, Craig decided to build and fortify a series of redoubts just south of the town. With cannon from the transport ships sent ashore for artillery, the fortifications went up. Several Wilmington residents also lost the use of their homes to British needs as well, with Craig’s men tearing them down and using the timber in the construction of the redoubts. Locally owned slaves were impressed by the British to help in the construction.

Major Craig was worried that he didn’thave the manpower to garrison the redoubts effectively, and his fears were made worse when Captain Barkley made ready to leave and take ten of his marines with him. That would leave Craig with a total force of sixty marines and 209 fit troops to hold the vital outpost at Wilmington, not counting artillery and dragoons. “I pity the town,” Craig told Lieutenant Colonel Balfour, his immediate superior in Charleston, “because if I am ever attacked in force I cannot prevent their burning it.” Craig again urged Balfour to send him another couple of hundred men to make the outpost and surrounding countryside secure for British interests.

The citizens, meanwhile, were allowed to go about their business under parole. Craig didn’t bother with oaths of allegiance because he knew they were unenforceable and he couldn’t promise protection from their rebel neighbors for those who took it. Craig did receive help from several local Loyalists, who provided material assistance and information on the strengths of the rebels. John Ross, for example, accompanied Craig’s men on the assault at Heron’s Bridge and was made prizemaster of one of the vessels captured there.

He helped engineers construct the redoubts and served garrison duty because of Craig’s manpower shortage. Plantation owner John Downie helped the British as a guide and served as assistant commissary for all captured goods. For the residents of Wilmington, how they fared under the occupation depended on which side they were on, and how much they accepted the rules of the occupation.
As easy as the initial occupation was, things weren’t all wine and roses for Craig. He remained undermanned, and had all the headaches of administering civil policy while he was in charge of Wilmington. Spats between Loyalists and their Patriot neighbors must have been at the very least an annoyance to his mission. Then came news that Banastre Tarleton’s British force had been defeated at Cowpens in South Carolina, which meant that Cornwallis’ advance to Cross Creek would be further delayed. Meanwhile, rebel militia under Alexander Lillington had retaken Heron’s Bridge and were drawing in troops from the surrounding countryside, making Craig’s position at Wilmington dicey.

The months ahead would be difficult ones for the capable British officer....

November 2008