Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge

Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge
Part of the American Revolutionary War
Reconstructed earthworks of the Patriot militia
Date February 27, 1776 Location present-day Pender County, near Wilmington, North Carolina Coordinates: 34°27′27″N 78°06′35″W / 34.457455°N 78.109612°W / 34.457455; -78.109612 Result Patriot victory
Belligerents
North Carolina Patriot's	North Carolina Loyalist's
Commanders and leaders
James Moore Richard Caswell Alexander Lillington	Donald MacDonald  (POW) Donald McLeod † John Campbell †
Strength
1,050 militia	Start of march: 1,400–1,600 Battle: 700–800
Casualties and losses
1 killed, 1 wounded	30–50 killed or wounded 850 Loyalists were captured by Patriot forces after the battle and over the next few days.
Battle site North Carolina

The Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge was a battle of the American Revolutionary War fought near Wilmington in present-day Pender County, North Carolina on February 27, 1776. The victory of North Carolina Revolutionary forces over Southern Loyalists helped build political support for the revolution and increased recruitment of additional soldiers into their forces.

Loyalist recruitment efforts in the interior of North Carolina began in earnest with news of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, and Patriots in the province also began organizing Continental Army and militia units. When word arrived in January 1776 of a planned British Army expedition to the area, Josiah Martin, the royal governor, ordered the Loyalist militia to muster in anticipation of their arrival. Revolutionary militia and Continental units mobilized to prevent the junction, blockading several routes until the poorly armed Loyalists were forced to confront them at Moore's Creek Bridge, about 18 miles (29 km) north of Wilmington.

In a brief early-morning engagement, a charge across the bridge by sword-wielding Loyalist Scotsmen was met by a barrage of musket fire. One Loyalist leader was killed, another captured, and the whole force was scattered. In the following days, many Loyalists were arrested, putting a damper on further recruiting efforts. North Carolina was not militarily threatened again until 1780, and memories of the battle and its aftermath negated efforts by Charles Cornwallis to recruit Loyalists in the area in 1781.

In early 1775, with political and military tensions rising in the Thirteen Colonies, North Carolina's royal governor, Josiah Martin, hoped to combine the recruiting of Scots settlers in the North Carolina interior with that of sympathetic former Regulators (a group originally opposed to corrupt colonial administration) and disaffected Loyalists in the coastal areas to build a large Loyalist force to counteract Patriot sympathies in the province. His petition to London to recruit 1,000 men had been rejected, but he continued efforts to rally Loyalist support.