Battle of Charlotte

The Battle of Charlotte (September 26, 1780) deservedly marked its place in the annuals of the American Revolution. A small rebel militia, led by able-bodied commander, Colonel William Richardson Davie, defiantly stood firm and faced British General Lord Charles Cornwallis’ army, sixteen times greater than their number. After fending off three assaults and driving the attackers back, the Americans withdrew in an orderly fashion. Such obstinate defiance by militia “rabble” was unheard in the war; the Battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775 is another example. In the backcountry of North Carolina, determined settlers with rifle took a stand against what they viewed as invaders intent on ravishing their land and destroying their life-style. A battle often overlooked by students and casual observers of the American Revolution, the Battle of Charlotte has earned its right to stand proud in the founding lime light of a new nation.

Prior to Battle

Continental Major General Horatio Gates’ southern army was defeated at Camden, South Carolina (August 16, 1780). Two days later, Colonel Thomas Sumter, leading a large force of militia, met the same fate at Fishing Creek. The surviving remnants of the Carolina militia and Continental troops rendezvoused at Charlotte; a small town of approximately 20 houses. Officers molded the men into units and marched toward Salisbury, about 43 miles northwest. Wounded were transported by wagons trailed by the women and children camp followers. The rear was guarded by 300 Catawba Native Americans. The North Carolina militia under Major General Jethro Sumner and Brigadier General William Davidson had remained nearby to keep an eye on British General Cornwallis’ army. They were encamped along McAlpine Creek, near present day-Old Providence Road; about ten miles southeast of Charlotte. Colonel William Richardson Davie of the North Carolina State Cavalry was ordered to remain in Charlotte with approximately 150 horsemen to shield the retreating columns against British cavalry.

By late September, 1780, British Lt. General Charles Cornwallis had much to be thankful for. He achieved a major victory over combined rebel Continental and  Militia forces at Camden, South Carolina. The South Carolina Militia leader, Colonel (later to be formal Brigadier General) Thomas Sumter’s force had been decimated and scattered at the Battle of Fishing Creek by British Legion commander Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton. His left flank, west along the mountains, was secured by a large force of militia loyalists commanded by British officer Major Patrick Ferguson; with more Tories arriving daily. Though his right flank was still pestered by sporadic militia attacks led by a new upstart, former Continental officer Colonel Francis ‘Swamp Fox’ Marion, Cornwallis thought that Major James Wemyss’ scorch and burn sixty-mile raid through the territory in early September had settled this problem. Lastly, he was confident that a massive number of loyalists awaited his arrival in North Carolina and flock to his banner, particularly the Scotch immigrants. With that in mind, General Cornwallis decided the time was right to advance his army into North Carolina and reclaim that colony for the crown, as was done in Georgia and South Carolina.

But Cornwallis’ conviction that North Carolina was ripe to fall to the British was premature. The Carolina militias South and North, were far from defeated. Though militias proved rubbish in open battle, where a bayonet charge ruled the field, they were incredibly defiant when fighting from behind defenses. The rebel militia would not only continue to harass Cornwallis’ outposts, but by their aggressive attacks against loyalist militia (British labeled ‘friends’), they would persist in hampering and discouraging southern Tories from joining with crown forces. And perhaps most importantly, Cornwallis did not factor in North Carolina’s frontier settlers or “Over the Mountain Men. A hornets’ nest that would be stirred up by Cornwallis’ subordinate, Major Fergusson’s proclamation that all must claim fealty to the crown or suffer death and destruction. Between Major Wemyss’ terrorist campaign to the east and Major Fergusson’s threat to the west, anti-British hatred swarmed throughout the Carolinas, steading the will of local rebel militias to stand and fight. And at the Battle of Charlotte, Cornwallis would get a taste to come of the bull-headed defiance that yielded ground dearly.

Cornwallis Advances into North Carolina

In preparation for an invasion north, Cornwallis had been assembling his troops since September 11, 1780 along the Waxhaw Creek in South Carolina near the North Carolina border. Over the next two weeks Cornwallis was forced to stall any movement north while his men convalesced from an outbreak of Yellow Fever. He could not remain in the region long for a once abundant land had been stripped clean of food and supplies by foraging troops of both armies. While in camp, he waited for word on the progress of Major Wemyss’ raid against rebel militias and patriot communities along his east flank and nearer the coast. His Lordship finally broke camp on September 23^rd and marched his army towards Charlotte, some forty miles distant. On September 24^th, the British crossed the state line, shy of Charlotte by about 20 miles.

North Carolina’s Militia, under Brigadier General Davidson, was about a dozen miles east of where Cornwallis crossed into North Carolina. Davidson knew he did not have the men to stop Cornwallis. But he had to somehow slow His Lordship down; this to allow more time for what was left of the southern army and remnants of Sumter’s command to reassemble at Salisbury. He ordered Colonel William Richardson Davie, who had remained near Charlotte in charge of state cavalry, to delay Cornwallis’ army for as long as possible. Davie had already been shadowing Cornwallis’ movements and reported that on the 24^th his “patroles gave information that the enemy were in motion on the Steele-Creek road leading to Charlotte.” His men skirmished with the British van and “on the night…of the 25^th captured a number of Prisoners, and about midnight took post at Charlotte, seven miles from the place where Cornwallis was encamped.” Davie’s cavalry, along with the Mecklenburg Militia and detached companies of Rowan, Anson, and Halifax Counties, had moved into Charlotte to meet the British within the town and began to set up defenses in key locations.

The van of the British army was led by his go to regiment; the Legion of Horse and Infantry, commanded by Cornwallis’ prized mastiff; Lt. Colonel Banastre Tarleton. However, Tarleton remained laid up for some weeks, deathly sick with the Yellow Fever. The unit was being led by Tarleton’s grossly incompetent deputy, Major George Hanger; a renowned marksman and gunsmith who proved time and again he was pure rubbish leading men in battle. Hanger’s nose had already been bloodied most recently by Colonel Davie at the Battle of Wahab, September 21^st. While the Legion were encamped at the Wahab Plantation nearby the famed 71^st Highlanders, Davie staged a daring attack against the hated partisan horsemen. Though the rebels were hugely outnumbered, Hanger stood dumbfounded as his Legion were driven from the field. The British suffered up to 100 casualties while the able rebel leader had only one wounded. Davie also reaped the reward of 96 prized horses along with precious baggage that included arms and ammunition. At Charlotte, the self-indulging, pompous Major Hanger would once again demonstrate that his finest hours were achieved by remaining on the firing range, far from battle.

Forces

Between 150 to 200 Americans commanded by Colonel William Richardson Davie of North Carolina

• Seventeen Companies of the NC State Cavalry and the Mecklenburg County Militia commanded by Col. William Richardson Davie with Major Joseph Dickson
• Two Companies of the Rowan County Militia led by Capt. John Brandon and Capt. John Locke
• Seventy men from the Anson County Militia commanded by Maj. George Lee Davidson
• Four Companies of the Halifax District Brigade of Militia led by Lt. Col. William Brickell

Approximately 2,200 British led by Lt. General Charles Cornwallis (that included 1,500 regulars)

• 33^rd Regiment of Foot (Cornwallis’ own) led by Lt. Col. James Webster
• 71^st Regiment of Foot (Fraser’s Highlanders), 1^st Battalion, Light Infantry company led by Captain Cambell
• Royal Regiment of Artillery with two 3-pounders and one 6-pounder
• Banastre Tarleton’s British Legion: 2 companies of cavalry and 2 companies of infantry totaling 160 men, led by Major George Hanger as Tarleton was ill
• One detached company of Volunteers of Ireland totaling 60 men led by Captain John Doyle

Battle

Colonel Davie recorded much of what occurred before and during the battle on September 26, 1780 in his post war narrative: The Revolutionary War Sketches of William R. Davie. Davie described Charlotte that eventful day writing: “The Town situated on rising ground contains about twenty houses built on two streets which cross each other at right angles, in the intersection of which stands the Court-House. The left of the town as the enemy came up was an open common, the right was covered with underwood up to the gardens.”  The able rebel commander demonstrated his resolve to bloody this enemy by writing “relying on the firmness of the militia was determined to give his Lordship some earnest of what he might expect in No Carolina.”

Early in the morning, Captain Joseph Graham’s pickets of Mecklenburg County Militia reported the British advance guard moving towards the town. Davie posted a company of dismounted dragoons under Captain John Brandon, along with Captain Graham’s company of militia, in the center of town at the court house writing, “posted them under the Court-House where they were covered breast-high by a stone wall.” The rest of the militia companies, under Major Joseph Dickson’s command were posted in front of Captain Graham and hidden from view; “…they were advanced about eighty yards and posted behind some houses and gardens on each side of the street.”  The Americans did not have long to wait and soon watched as the British Legion cavalry advanced on the town. The dragoons were supported on each flank by the British Legion infantry and Lt. Colonel James Webster’s 33^rd Regiment’s Light Infantry. And behind them, exposed by the spacious common leading into the town’s center, was General Cornwallis and the rest of his army.

At the head of Tarleton’s infamous Legion cavalry, Major Hanger’s incompetence was on full display. Instead of holding his cavalry in place and allow his infantry to roll up the Americans on both flanks, then charge, breaking the backbone of the rebel’s defense, he decided to play ‘hell for leather’ cavalryman. With an all too typical disdain for ‘militia rabble,’ he lined up his dragoons three hundred yards from the court-house “with a front to fill the street;” writing in his post-war narrative. The bugle sounded the charge and in a thunderous display of might and precision, the cavalry “advanced in full gallop.”  In three previous victories Hanger relied on a tactic that had reaped instant death and destruction upon the Americans, particularly at Buford’s Massacre (May 29, 1780). But Davie was no Colonel Buford. He would not wait until the British were upon him before firing. At sixty yards, the able rebel commander bellowed the order, his men rose from behind their stone wall, and rifles roared in an earsplitting volley. A sheet of well-aimed lead broke the Legion’s charge, tumbling men and horses while the rest fled back to the British line.

Meanwhile, the British infantry greatly outnumbered the defenders on both American flanks and pressed their attack with gradual success, pushing the militia back to the stone wall at the court house. While some of his men in forward companies had remained and were “hotly engaged” with the enemy, Davie ordered those at the stone wall to hold their fire for the cavalry that was forming for another charge. Major Hanger had rallied his dragoons, the bugle sounded the charge, and once more, with drawn sabers, screaming green coated horsemen galloped head-on towards the defiant rebels. And once more, Davie bellowed and his men rose, unleashing a wall of flame and metal that tore into the British. Davie wrote, “They were again well received by the militia and galloped of in the outmost confusion in the presence of the whole British army.”

By the time the second Legion cavalry charge was hurtled back, the battle had been decided. The Legion infantry and 33^rd light infantry continued to press their numerical advantage along the flanks. The rebel defenses in the houses and gardens were turned under the pressure with remnants racing back to the stone wall by the Court House. Davie ordered an orderly withdrawal of all forces writing that they left “in good order, successively covering each other, and formed in a single line at the end of the street about one hundred yards from the Court-House under a galling fire from the British light infantry who advanced under cover of the Houses and gardens. The British cavalry soon appeared again, chargin in columns by the Court-House [this their third charge], but on receiving a fire reserved for them by part of the militia they wheeled off behind the houses.”

This third and perhaps the most embarrassing for Hanger’s Legion cavalry had been prompted by General Cornwallis. He had ridden to the van to see matters for himself and was clearly agitated by what he saw. Charles Steadman, Commissary General, was present and afterwards observed that the experienced general witnessed his own 33^rd advancing while his famed Legion cavalry were in total disarray. Cornwallis ordered the Legion to charge, but was ignored. According to Steadman Cornwallis lost his temper and called out, “Legion, remember you have everything to lose, but nothing to gain.” At which point Hanger was able to press what men he could for the third charge that met the same fate as the previous two attempts.

Though the cavalry were driven from the field, the infantry steadily advanced. Davie ordered his men to disperse through the adjacent woods to the Salisbury Road. There they formed and continued their orderly retreat. He later wrote that the British pursuit was carried out with “great caution and respect for some miles.”  Captain Joseph Graham and Captain John Brandon’s men formed the rear guard. At Sugar Creek Church they held a hill and fired upon the pursuing infantry distanced about 250 yards. The light infantry found protection amidst the woods and along fences and returned the fire for nearly half an hour before Hanger’s cavalrymen once more showed themselves. This time they drove hard at Graham’s small company and the Americans fled into the woods.

In this last action, Lt. George Locke, son of Brigadier General Matthew Locke, was driven down. He tried to shield himself with his rifle, but was cut to pieces by a Legionnaire sabers. Captain Graham had been badly wounded with three bullet wounds in the thigh, a saber thrust in his side, and a gash on the neck including four cuts to the forehead. Left for dead, he was able to crawl away to a spring alongside the church and survive; later writing of his head wound that “some of my brains  exuded.”

Casualties

Davie reported that “Lt. Locke and 4 privates killed [and] Major Graham and five privates wounded.” As to British losses he wrote that “twelve non-commissioned officers killed and wounded; Major Hanger and Captains Campbell and McDonald wounded, with about thirty privates.”  Near Sugar Creek, where the last action of the day took place, two British soldiers were later found near the church. The British reported that thirty rebels had been killed with multiple wounded. Their loss was listed as thirty-three wounded with none killed. This tally has been scrutinized from the sheer fact that only around 150 American militia participated in the battle. Most of these men were able to exact an orderly retreat; far more than the number of casualties reported by the British. So too, after repeated cavalry charges in which the Legion were shot at close range by rifle, it is difficult to accept that none of the horsemen were killed.

Aftermath

The fact that a handful of rebel militia stood defiant before Cornwallis’ entire army while fending off repeated attacks by regular soldiers was not lost on the British. Cornwallis’ experienced firsthand just what sort of fight lay ahead and what Davie later stated, giving “his Lordship some earnest of what he might expect in No Carolina.”  But perhaps more importantly than heaping glory upon Major Davie’s skilled use of his militia and their determination to fight, was that Cornwallis’ army had halted their advance. Whether his Lordship did so because of stiff opposition by the North Carolina militia, or he had predetermined to establish Charlotte as a temporary base while assessing his options for continuing the invasion is open for discussion. The fact that North Carolina’s militia commander General Davidson’s desire that the British advance be delayed was achieved.

Major Hanger, who mishandled Tarleton’s cavalry and botched what should have been a methodically scattering of “pesky rebel vermin,” tried to brush off his ineptitude; later stating that it was a “trifling, insignificant skirmish.” Tarleton, always with a keen eye for his legacy and importance in the eye of the British public, always lied or offered specious excuses when he or his precious Legion acted poorly. He wrote of the affair after the war that “a charge of cavalry under Major Hanger…totally dispersed the militia.”  But the truth was not lost on British officers who witnessed what occurred that day. Commissioner Steadman was candid in writing that the entire army was held up by a handful of militia. Lt. Roderick Mackenzie of Fraser’s 71^st Highlanders lay the blame where it belonged writing that no “entreaties” or “exertions” could “induce the legion cavalry to approach the American militia. They retreated without fulfilling the intentions of the General [Cornwallis]. He therefore, much dissatisfied ordered the light and legion infantry to dislodge the enemy, which they immediately effected.”

Cornwallis would remain in Charlotte until October 14^th, the day he heard the devastating news from the Battle of Kings Mountain (October 7^th). Major Patrick Ferguson, who commanded the large Tory militia that both protected the British army’s western flank and was the recruiting centerpiece for loyalist militia, had been killed. Moreso, his entire force had been wiped out. This halted any further consideration of further advancement into North Carolina. After sixteen frustrating days of a reoccurrence of Yellow Fever, plus continual harassment by rebel hit and run attacks on British outposts and foraging parties, the news from Kings Mountain was the last straw. Cornwallis withdrew his army back to South Carolina, at Winnsboro, to reassess his plans for placating the south. As for the illustrious Major Hanger; he was stricken with Yellow Fever so severe, that he had to leave the British Legion, never to return to duty with that regiment.

The militia’s actions at Charlotte that day gave rise to a growing respect for colonial militias and “ninety-day wonders;” something rarely heaped upon the shoulders of those who often were the subject of distain and dismissal. Davie, in his closing thoughts on the affair, succinctly argues this point, writing his men’s behavior “furnishes a very striking instance of the bravery and importance of the American Militia, few examples can be shewn of any troops who in one action…although pressed by a much superior body of Infantry and charged three times by thrice their number of Cavalry, unsupported & in the presence of the enemy whole army and finally retreating in good order.”

An interesting epilogue to the battle would result in a parting epithet by Cornwallis to the city of Charleston. Upon departure, it is said that Cornwallis cursed his sixteen days of frustration by stating to the effect, “Let’s get out of here; this place is a damned hornet’s nest.”  The Charlotte official city seal now proudly features a hornet’s nest that is also displayed by many local city organizations and clubs. Hornet’s Next Park is situated on Beatties Ford Road, close to the battle site, which is noted by a monument and self-guided trail.

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RESOURCE

American Revolution in North Carolina. “Charlotte,” Little River, South Carolina.

Anderson, William Lee.  “The Battle of Charlotte.” Charlotte Museum of History, Charlotte, NC.

Buchanan, John. The Road to Guilford Courthouse: The American Revolution in the Carolinas.  1997: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, NY.

Crawford, Alan Pell.  This Fierce People, The Untold Story of America’s Revolution in the South.  2024: Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY.

Hanger, George.  The Life, Adventures, and Opinions of Colonel George Hanger, Written by Himself. Vol 2. 1801: London.

Norris, David A. & Barefoot, Daniel W.  “Battle of Charlotte.” Encyclopedia of North Carolina, North Carolina Press.

Rankin, Hugh F.  North Carolina in the American Revolution. 1971: University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill. NC.

Robinson, Blackwell P.  The Revolutionary War Sketches of William R. Davie.  1976: North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, Division of Archives and History, Raleigh, North Carolina.

Walter, Edgar.  Partisans and Redcoats: The Southern Conflict That Turned the Tide of the American Revolution. 2001: Harper Collins, New York, NY.