Imagine the Scene

Walk behind the guardrail until you have a good view of the bridge and the highway into the distance.

In your mind’s eye, replace the modern bridge over Contentnea Creek with a sturdy wooden one. The creek was a highway for shipping goods to New Bern via flatboat, especially naval supplies like pine tar and turpentine.[2]

Starting in 1743, Samuel Peacock was granted this land and the tract on the far side, a total of 833 acres. First he operated a ferry here, but then he was licensed by the North Carolina Provincial Assembly to build a toll bridge, completed by 1751. Had you crossed then, you would have paid these government-approved rates:

“For every Man and Horse, Four Pence.
“For every Carriage, drawn by one or two Horses or Oxen, One Shilling.
“And for every Horse, Mare, or Ox, Four Pence each.
“And for every Head of Neat Cattle, One Penny.
“And for every Twenty Hogs or Sheep, One Shilling.”[3]

In current dollars, that’s about $4 per person, horse, or ox, and $12 for your carriage—or every 20 hogs![4]

Peacock lived on this side until he sold his land, and the bridge, to Samuel Ruffin three years later. Samuel moved to a tract next to his brother John’s. John owned the next bridge south, over Nahunta Creek or Swamp. So there was briefly a Peacock monopoly over this stretch of the route from Wilmington to Halifax![5]

In 1774, two years before he became the first governor of the new state of North Carolina, Richard Caswell paid 10 shillings to cross here heading up to Halifax.[6] Ruffin rebuilt the bridge the next year.[7]

The right to collect tolls under that earlier law ended in 1776 when the colony did, but Ruffin continued to charge them anyway. In fact, because the creek is fordable half the year, he dropped large trees along the creek bed on either side, to force people to use the bridge! In 1778, an indignant General Assembly took the franchise away from him. The assembly levied a fine of five pounds for each offense if Ruffin ever again charged someone for crossing the bridge, as the state felt he had been “more than abundantly reimbursed.” It also authorized another man to build a bridge over the creek. It is unclear from later maps whether that man replaced Ruffin’s with his or built another nearby first; regardless, that man has a third bridge at this spot in 1781. But reports from the Revolutionary War still called it “Peacock’s Bridge.” 

On this side of the bridge on May 6, in the road and spreading out around you, are about 400 militia. These men are dressed in everyday clothes and carrying whatever weapons they own. They no doubt chat nervously as they wait, until a moving dot of green appears on the dirt wagon road (now NC 58) far to the south across the creek. They take positions as the dot grows into the approaching British Legion, heavy cavalry or “dragoons” wearing green jackets, followed by perhaps 50 Tories.[8] Most sources say Tarleton is with them. A Wilson County historian who traced the British march says Tarleton himself was upstream at Cobb’s Mill (later Wiggins’) near modern Wilson, but sent patrols out.[9]

Probably 100 yards or more from here—past the effective range of most weapons of the day—the horsemen draw sabres and charge. The militia fire at least one volley, but soon the British are on the bridge, and the Patriots lose heart. They scatter in all directions, most likely heading into the swamps or creek where the horses cannot follow.

After ensuring they have dispersed, the patrol continues up the road—presumably without paying any tolls! Tarleton must have been surprised whenever he learned the news, since the day before, he had written Cornwallis, “The Country is alarmed but the Militia will not turn out.”[10]

Battle Map

Skirmish at Peacock’s Bridge: Patriot positions are guesses for illustration. 1) Patriots await British approach at toll bridge. 2) British Legion, wearing green, charges. 3) Patriots fire a volley and scatter along creek or into swamps where horses cannot reach them.