troops. Davie, perceiving the contest now to be very unequal, retreated toward Salisbury, leaving Cornwallis master of Charlotte. Colonel Francis Locke (who commanded at Ramsour's) and five privates were killed; and Major Graham and twelve others were wounded in this action. The British lost twelve non-commissioned officers and privates, killed; Major Hanger, two captains, and many privates, were wounded. Cornwallis remained in Charlotte until the fourteenth of October, when he retreated southward. It had been his intention to advance northward; but the loss of Ferguson and his corps, and the general lukewarmness, if not absolute hostility of the people, and the constant annoyance by the American troops, * caused him to retrograde, and on the twenty-ninth he established his head-quarters at Winnsborough, in Fairfield District, South Carolina, midway between the Catawba and Broad Rivers. There we shall leave the earl for the present.
The British army, while at Charlotte, lay encamped upon a plain, south of the town, on the right side of the road. Cornwallis's head-quarters were next to the southeast corner of the street from the court-house; and most of the other houses were occupied, in part, by his officers. I found no person in Charlotte yet living who remembered the British occupation and the noble deeds of the patriots; but history, general and local, fully attests the patriotism of its inhabitants during the whole war. ** It was never visited by the British army after Cornwallis returned to Winnsborough, and only for a short time was the head-quarters of the American army, while Gates was preparing for another campaign. It was at this place General Greene took the command of the Southern army from Gates, fifty days after Cornwallis decamped Dec. 3, 1780
* Provisions soon became scarce in the British camp, for the people in the neighborhood refused a supply. In Colonel Polk's mill, two miles from the town, they found twenty-eight thousand weight of flour, and a quantity of wheat. Foraging parties went out daily for cattle and other necessaries, but so hostile were the people that Webster's and Rawdon's brigades were obliged to move, on alternate days, as a covering party. There were few sheep, and the cattle were so lean that they killed one hundred head a day. On one day, according to Stedman (who was commissary), they killed thirty-seven cows with calf. Frequent skirmishes occurred. On one occasion, the plantation of Mr. M'Intyre, seven miles north of Charlotte, on the road to Beattie's Ford, was plundered, the family having barely time to escape. While loading their wagons with plunder, a bee-hive was overturned, and the insects made a furious attack upon the soldiers. While their commander stood in the door laughing at the scene, a party of twelve patriots approached in a moment, the captain, nine men, and two horses lay dead upon the ground The British hastily retreated to their camp, believing that a large American force was concealed near.
** On one occasion, the young ladies of Mecklenburg and Rowan entered into a pledge not to receive the attentions of young men who would not volunteer in defense of the country, they "being of opinion that such persons as stay loitering at home, when the important calls of the country demand their military services abroad, must certainly be destitute of that nobleness of sentiment, that brave and manly spirit which would qualify them to be the defenders and guardians of the fair sex."—South Carolina and American General Gazette, February, 1780.
* One of the twelve was George Graham, brother of General Joseph Graham. He was born in Pennsylvania, in 1753, and went to North Carolina, with his widowed mother, when six years of age. He was educated at Queen's Museum, and was strongly imbued with the republican principles of the Scotch-irish of that region. He was one of the party who rode from Charlotte to Salisbury and arrested those who proposed to detain Captain Jack, as mentioned on page 621. He was active in partisan duties while the British were at Charlotte. After the war, he rose to the rank of major general of militia, and often served his country in the State Legislature. He died at Charlotte, on the twenty-ninth of March, 1826, in the sixty-eighth year of his age.
Departure from Charlotte.—Gold Region of North Carolina.—Tuckesege Ford.