Location
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Coordinates: 35.7435, -79.6977.
Type: Sight
Tour: Tory War
County: Randolph
None
Your visit starts in the parking lot of Riverside Park in Franklinville, northwest of the center of town. It requires a short but somewhat challenging hike on a sand-and-gravel trail, past a bridge with steps.
Context
Nearly a year after the main British army in the south surrendered in Yorktown, Va., Loyalist and Patriot militia are still settling old scores.
Situation
On May 2nd of 1782, Loyalist (“Tory”) militia leader Col. David Fanning left his base near Ramseur to pursue Andrew Hunter. Hunter was a Patriot who had broken his parole agreement, a promise he would not take up arms again in exchange for being released as a prisoner of war. After a ten-mile ride, Fanning overtook Hunter in a wagon and put him under guard while examining his papers. Hunter knew Fanning’s vigilante reputation, and according to Fanning, “took the opportunity, and sprung upon my riding mare, and went off with my saddle, holsters, pistols, and all my papers of any consequence to me. We fired two guns at him; he received two balls through his body but it did not prevent him from sitting the saddle; and make his es