Colonel Edward Buncombe, Fifth North Carolina Continental Regiment / His Life, Military Careeer, and Death While a Wounded Prisoner in Philadelphia During the War of the Revolution

FIFTH NORTH CAROLINA Continental Regiment.
HIS LIFE, MILITARY CAREER, AND DEATH WHILE A WOUNDED PRISONER IN PHILADELPHIA DURING THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.
ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE NORTH CAROLINA SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI AT ITS MEETING HELD IN HILLSBOROUGH, JULY 4, 1901.
BY Marshall DeLancey Haywood.
PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY.
RALEIGH: ALFORD, BYNUM & CHRISTOPHERS, PRINTERS, 1901.
Author

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Society:
It is no small privilege which the North Carolina Society of the Cincinnati enjoys when it meets in this ancient Revolutionary capital, for here our organization was first brought into being. The year of grace 1783, which is the date of its birth, was one of mingled joy and depression to the people of America. The war, it is true, had been fought to a successful close; and, by a treaty wherein they were separately specified, King George had acknowledged the thirteen colonies to be “free, sovereign, and independent States.” But how changed was the order of things! The desolation following in the wake of war was scarcely less terrible than war itself, and no State had made greater sacrifices for the cause of liberty than North Carolina. Under daring partisan leaders at home, under Washington in the north, and Greene in the south, her sons had in countless fights lengthened the list of killed and wounded, while those who were spared came home to prove that—
“Peace hath her victories
No less renown’d than war.”