In the sketch by Mrs. Rogers, heretofore quoted, she says: “With the death of Colonel Buncombe, the name died in this country, though his patriotic spirit survived, he having eight great-grandsons who volunteered in the Confederate army, one of whom, John Buncombe Goelet, died on Malvern Hill in defence of Richmond, Virginia. He was color-bearer of the Third Alabama Regiment, and belonged to Company A, Mobile Cadets.”
Prior to the Revolution, Colonel Buncombe held a commission in the military establishment of the colony. He commanded a regiment of the provincial troops of North Carolina, in the county of Tyrrell.[E] Like nearly all of the better element of North Carolinians—such men as Robert Howe, Richard Caswell, Francis Nash, Thomas Polk, Alexander Lillington, Griffith Rutherford, and others who afterwards won fame in the Revolution—he used every effort to aid Governor Tryon in suppressing the excesses and riots of the Regulators, and received the official thanks of His Excellency for the “truly public spirit” displayed by him in the prosecution of this work. He did not, however personally participate in the Alamance campaign, as the regiments of his section of the colony were not called into active service.
In religion, Colonel Buncombe was a member of the Church of England, and, when he left the West Indies, a chaplain is said to have accompanied his household to North Carolina.
In the several years preceding the outbreak of the Revolution, the patriots of North Carolina were boldly preparing for any emergency which might arise. As early as April 26, 1774, William Hooper had asserted in a letter addressed to Judge Iredell, that the colonies were “striding fast to independence, and ere long would build an empire upon the ruins of Great Britain; would adopt its constitution purged of its impurities, and from an experience of its defects guard against those evils which had wasted its vigor and brought it to an untimely end.”[F] These were troublous times—times calling for men of high purpose and courageous bearing, who, in the face of King, Parliament and Royal Governor, would boldly contend for the rights which were as dear to them as to the people of England. Nor was courage alone sufficient to cope with King George’s representatives in Carolina. Political dexterity played no small part in the controversies of that day. Some years prior to the time of which we treat, when the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act, more resistance, and armed resistance, too, was encountered in North Carolina than anywhere else. But no resistance came from the Assembly, for Governor Tryon prorogued that body to prevent official action. This prorogation also prevented the Assembly from later electing delegates to what is known as the Stamp Act Congress. Tryon’s trickery worked so well that his successor, Governor Josiah Martin, decided to play a similar game in 1774. A controversy arising over the laws establishing courts in the colony, and the King’s instructions being at variance with the ideas of the Assembly, that body refused to yield; and Governor Martin thereupon put a stop to proceedings by proroguing it. He also determined not to re-convene it until the members were more inclined to obey the royal will. This latter purpose being divulged by the governor’s private secretary to John Harvey, that bold statesman determined that an independent assembly, or convention, should be called. He left New Bern, the seat of government, and, on the third of April, discussed the matter with Willie Jones. The night following found him at Buncombe Hall, in the county of Tyrrell. At this place Mr. Harvey confided his plan to Samuel Johnston and Colonel Buncombe.[G] These notables were impressed with the gravity of the situation, and the night was far spent ere their consultation came to an end. Referring to this conference, in his History of North Carolina,[H] Moore says: “Buncombe was impulsive and impressionable, but Johnston was the embodiment of caution and deliberation. He was full of determination to resist Lord North’s measures, but he feared the effects of too much popular power. These eminent men, with Hooper, John Ashe, Caswell, Person, and others, at once acceded to Harvey’s proposition, and the ball of the Revolution was put in motion.”
Despite Governor Martin’s frantic proclamation forbidding its meeting, the independent convention gathered in New Bern on the 25th of August, 1774.[I] No assembly of its kind had ever before convened in America. It was followed by others of like character. Delegates to the Continental Congress were elected. The breach with Great Britain became wider, and finally, as a last resort, independence was declared. And it may be well just here to observe that North Carolina was the very first colony to authorize a national declaration of independence, when in the Provincial or State Congress at Halifax on April 12, 1776, Cornelius Harnett submitted a committee report (which was unanimously adopted), setting forth a resolution: “that the delegates for this colony in the Continental Congress be impowered to concur with the delegates of the other colonies in declaring independency.” This was more than a month before the passage of the famous Virginia resolutions; and even those who question the genuineness of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence have never attempted to disprove the authenticity of this resolution adopted by the Provincial Congress at Halifax. So North Carolina will ever claim the proud distinction of having been first to move for independence, as she was also first to offer resistance to the Stamp Act. The preamble to the above resolve in favor of independence is a masterly vindication of the course pursued by the colonies, and should be read of all men.[J]
As well may be supposed, a man of Colonel Buncombe’s spirit and patriotism was not the person to hold back from participation in a war, however perilous, which he himself had been instrumental in bringing about. On September 9, 1775, he was elected Colonel of the militia forces of Tyrrell County[K] by the Provincial Congress of North Carolina, then in session at Halifax. He fulfilled the duties of this position for about seven months, and, on the 17th of April, 1776, was transferred to the regular service, being made Colonel of the Fifth Regiment of North Carolina troops in the Continental Line.[L] During the period intervening between its organization and the time when ordered to the field, the Fifth Regiment was maintained at his private expense. On May 7, 1776, the appointment of Colonel Buncombe was confirmed by the Continental Congress,[M] and his regiment was assigned to General Francis Nash’s brigade. This brigade was made up at Wilmington, North Carolina, in the Summer of 1776, and remained in that vicinity till November of the same year. Having been ordered to join Washington’s army, then operating in the north, General Nash and his troops set out from Wilmington about the 15th of November, and, on reaching the town of Halifax, were ordered back south, the object being to keep the British from entering Georgia by way of St. Augustine. No sooner, however, had Charleston been reached, than orders were again countermanded. Thereupon the brigade marched to Haddrell’s Point, opposite Fort Sullivan, South Carolina, at which place it remained in the forces which were there opposing the operations of Sir Henry Clinton. In March, 1777, orders were again given the North Carolina brigade to join Washington. Moving up through North Carolina and Virginia, and crossing the Potomac near Alexandria, the main army was finally reached on the Jersey side of the Delaware River, at Middlebrook. The accession of these brave North Carolinians was gladly hailed by Washington, and they were given a thundering welcome in the shape of “a salutation of thirteen cannon, each fired thirteen times.”[N]
At Alexandria, in the latter part of May, the march of Nash’s brigade had been delayed to inoculate the troops against small-pox.
Early in July, the North Carolinians, together with the other troops around Philadelphia, were detailed to complete the fortifications on the Delaware River.[O]
On the 14th of August, 1777, while the Continental forces were in camp at Trenton, we find Colonel Buncombe and the other field-officers of Nash’s brigade uniting in a protest against a Pennsylvanian, Colonel Edward Hand, being made a brigadier-general to command North Carolina troops, vice General James Moore, who had recently died.[P] While not questioning Colonel Hand’s merit, they declared that the appointment of any outsider would be a “reflection on North Carolina and a stab at military honour throughout the continent in general.” The memorial also contained some rather unpleasant references to Thomas Burke (then a delegate from North Carolina in the Continental Congress), and charged him with neglecting the interests of the State he represented to advance one of his own countrymen—he and Hand both being natives of Ireland. Burke was so enraged thereby that he declared, referring to the signers of the protest: “Their behaviour in this instance has determined me to forego all particular attention to them. I hope they will so distinguish themselves that their merit alone will be sufficient for their promotion, without standing in need of any assistance which I could give.” Whether Doctor Burke did forego all particular attention to the North Carolinians does not appear, but he certainly succeeded in his efforts to secure the promotion of Hand, who, it is a pleasure to add, rendered long and honorable service during the war, and held a major-general’s commission in the regular army after the return of peace.
On the 11th day of September, 1777, was fought the battle of Brandywine, and here Colonel Buncombe’s regiment was actively engaged. In this conflict, the North Carolina brigade and Greene’s division were ranged in the centre of the American Army.[Q] Being ordered to support the right wing (then sorely pressed), their absence left the troops under General Wayne to cope alone with a vastly superior force of the enemy. After a brave and bloody resistance, Wayne was forced to retire, and the day was lost.