Influence of Flora M'Donald.—The Pretender saved by her.—Patriot Expedition against the Highlanders.
Allan M'Donald, and it is said used all her influence in bringing her countrymen to the standard of the Scotch general. Her husband took a captain's commission under him, and was one of the most active officers in the engagement which speedily ensued.
As soon as Colonel James Moore, of Hanover, was apprised of the gathering of the Loyalists to the banner of M'Donald, he marched with his regulars and a detachment of New Hanover militia (in all about eleven hundred men), toward Cross Creek,
and encamped about twelve miles south of the Highlander's head-quarters.Feb 15. 1776 He fortified his camp, and by scouts and spies cut off all communication between M'Donald and Governor Martin. The Loyalist general, feeling the necessity of dislodging the patriots, marched toward their camp. When within four miles, he halted, and sent the governor's proclamation, and a friendly but firm letter to Moore, urging him to prevent bloodshed by joining the royal standard; at the same time threatening him, in case of refusal, with the treatment due to rebels against the king. After some delay, during which he sent an express to Colonel Caswell, Moore replied, that he was engaged in a holy cause, from which he could not be seduced. He besought M'Donald to prevent bloodshed by signing the Test proposed by the Provincial Congress, and menaced him with the same treatment which the general proposed to award to the patriot colonel and his followers. M'Donald was not prepared to put his threats into execution, for he was advised of the rapid gathering of the minute-men around him. Informed, in the mean while, of the expected arrival of Sir Henry Clinton and Lord William Campbell in the Cape Fear River, M'Donald resolved to avoid an engagement that might
The Highlanders pursued by Colonel Moore.—Colonels Caswell and Lillington.—Biographical Sketch of Caswell
prove disastrous, and attempt to join the governor and his friends at Wilmington. At midnight he decamped, with his followers, crossed the Cape Fear, and pushed on at a rapid pace, over swollen streams, rough hills, and deep morasses, hotly pursued by Colonel Moore. On the third day of his march, he crossed the South River (one of the principal tributaries of the Cape Fear), from Bladen into New Hanover, and as he approached Moore's Creek, a small tributary of that stream, * he discovered the gleaming of fire-arms.Feb 26, 1776 He had come upon the camp of Colonels Caswell ** and Lillington, *** near the mouth of
* Moore's Creek runs from north to south, and empties into the South River, about twenty miles above Wilmington.