Location
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Coordinates: 35.9034,-79.3270.
Type: Sight
Tour: Regulators
County: Alamance
Partial
The tour of this Sight starts in the cemetery of Spring Friends Meeting House. You can park on the shoulder of Stockard Road, or there is an unmarked pull-in at the north edge.
Lindley Mills still operates, producing speciality flours for gourmet bakers. It has kindly agreed to let AmRevNC visitors use its lot later in this tour. Please consider supporting them by visiting their Web site, and respect their rights by only parking where directed and not exploring their property.
That part of the tour location is not regularly maintained and may (or may not) require hiking shoes and awareness of woodland hazards!
Context
With both the British and American armies gone from the area, Col. David Fanning and his Loyalist militia soldiers have kidnapped Gov. Thomas Burke and up to 140 others in Hillsborough, including members of the state government.
Situation
Tory
Fanning’s army of 705 Loyalists (“Tories”) left Hillsborough the previous afternoon headed for their home base at Cox’s Mill, near today’s Ramseur.[1] It now approaches Stafford Branch where that enters Cane Creek, near a mill owned by Thomas Lindley.
Patriot
Brig. Gen. John Butler, commander of the state’s multi-county Hillsborough Military District, has been trying to clear Loyalist activity from this region, and learns of the raid. Knowing the road Fanning will have to take, Butler leaves his camp somewhere to the north.[2] He places his army of at most 500 men on a plateau the road curves around.[3]
Date
Thursday, September 13, 1781.
Timeline
