On the fifth of September, Major William R. Davies was appointed, by Governor Nash, colonel commandant of cavalry, and, with Major George Davidson, was very active in collecting supplies for Gates's broken
* Colonel Polk was commissary of provisions at that time. The acceptance of protection from the British was considered equivalent to a renunciation of republicanism. He was, therefore, denounced as a Tory. Among Gates's papers in the New York Historical Society is the following order, issued after Cornwallis had retreated to Winnsborough: "From a number of suspicious circumstances respecting the conduct and behavior of Colonel Thomas Polk, commissary general of provisions for the State of North Carolina, and commissary of purchases for the Continental troops, it is our opinion that the said Colonel Polk should be directly ordered to Salisbury to answer for his conduct; and that the persons of Duncan Ochiltree and William M'Aferty * be likewise brought under guard to Salisbury. Given unanimously as our opinion, this twelfth day of November, 1780."
* William Richardson Davie was born at Egremont, near Whitehaven, England, on the twentieth of June, 1756. He came with his father to America at the age of five years, and was adopted by William Richardson, a maternal uncle, who lived near the Catawba, in South Carolina. He commenced study at Princeton, but during the summer of 1776 entered the army as a volunteer. He resumed his studies after the battle of Long Island, graduated in the autumn of 1776, and returned to Carolina, where he commenced the study of law in Salisbury. He was elected lieutenant of a troop of horse in 1779, and was attached to Pulaski's legion. He soon rose to the rank of major. At Stono, below Charleston, he was wounded in the thigh. When he recovered, he returned to Salisbury and resumed his books. In the winter of 1780, he raised a troop of cavalry, with which he was very active in beating back the enemy, while forcing his way northward. He was in the battle at Hanging Rock; with Rutherford at Ramsour's Mills, and nobly confronted the British army at Charlotte, after a brilliant display of courage and skill at Wahab's plantation. General Greene appointed Davie commissary general of the Southern army; and he was with that officer in his Retreat, and at the battles at Guilford, Hobkirk's Hill, and Ninety-Six. In 1783, he commenced his career as a lawyer, and the same year married the daughter of General Allen Jones. He was a member of the convention which framed the Federal Constitution. He was instrumental in procuring the erection of the buildings of the University at Chapel Hill, and as grand master of the Masonic Fraternity, he laid the corner stone. He received the commission of major general of militia in 1797, and in 1798 was appointed a brigadier in the army of the United States. He was elected governor of North Carolina the same year, and in 1799 was appointed an embassador to France by President Adams. On his return, he was engaged in some Indian treaties, but on the death of his wife in 1803, he withdrew from public life. He died at Tivoli, near Landsford, in South Carolina, in December, 1820, in the sixty-fourth year of his age.
* M'Cafferty, as the name is properly spelled, was a wealthy Scotchman, and was employed by Cornwallis as a guide when he left Charlotte
Cornwallis's March toward Charlotte.—Operations of the Americans against him.—Skirmish at Charlotte.
army, and in repressing the depredations of the British. They had continually maneuvered in front of the approaching enemy, and fell gradually back to Charlotte as the British pressed onward. While encamped at Providence, Davie learned that some Tories and light troops were on the western bank of the Catawba, not far distant. He determined to beat up their quarters; and early on the morning of the twenty-first of September,1780 he surprised them at Captain Wahab's * plantation, and killed and wounded sixty, while he lost but one man wounded. He took ninety-six horses, with their equipments, and one hundred and twenty stand of arms, and returned to his camp, having marched sixty miles within twenty-four hours.
On the day of the engagement at Wahab's, Generals Sumner and Davidson, with their brigades of militia, arrived at Providence. On the advance of the British, they retreated to Salisbury, ordering Colonel Davie and Major Joseph Graham to annoy the enemy on his march. Four days afterward, Cornwallis having established a post at Blair's Mill, on Five Mile Creek, commenced his march toward Charlotte, by the Steel Creek road. Davie and Graham were on the alert, annoying him all the way. They took several of his men prisoners, in one or two skirmishes. Davie reached Charlotte at midnight,Sept. 25 and determined to give the enemy a warm reception. He dismounted his cavalry, who were armed with swords, pistols, and muskets, and posted them in front of the court-house, under cover of a stone wall, breast high. His infantry and Graham's volunteers were advanced eighty yards in front on each side of the street, covered by the garden inclosures of the villagers. While this arrangement was in progress, Tarleton's legion, the van of the royal army, approached. Tarleton was sick, and Major Hanger was in command. As soon as he reached the Common at the entrance of the village, and observed the Americans, Hanger's trumpeter sounded a charge. The cavalry moved slowly, while the flanking infantry attacked Graham and his party. While they were engaged, Hanger, with his cavalry, rushed toward the court-house, when Davie poured a deadly volley upon them. They recoiled, but were instantly rallied on the Common. In the mean while, the contest in the street was warmly maintained. Again the cavalry charged, and again fell back in confusion to the Common. The British infantry having gained Davie's right, he withdrew from the courthouse, and formed his line on the eastern side of the town. Cornwallis had now reached the cavalry, and upbraided them for want of courage. They charged a third time, when Davie, having mounted his men, gave the enemy such a reception that they again fell back to the Common. The 71st and 33d British regiments of Webster's brigade (which fought so gallantly at Guilford nearly five months afterward) now advanced to the support of the light
* Captain Wahab was with Davie on this occasion, and for the first time in many months had the opportunity of embracing his wife and children. Before he was out of sight of his dwelling, he saw his dear ones driven from it by the foe, and their shelter burned to the ground, without the power to protect them.
Retreat of the Americans from Charlotte.—March of Cornwallis Southward.—Young Ladies of Mecklenburg and Rowan.