Mecklenburg! continued

   PREFACE: By the late 1760 and through the 1770s, North Carolina's Piedmont was  a smoldering hot bed of discontent. By 1770, laws were passed to put down the Regulators by military force. (law passed  after  the treacherous Col Fanning was dragged out of  Superior Court, thrown down the stairs and beaten by some  Regulators.)

After that incident, Col. Fanning , with military backing,  rode through the countryside administering the Oath of Allegiance to The Crown. Fanning shot and hung several for refusing.

By 1771, at a skirmish in the Regulators were squashed in Alamance, and thirty -one men were dragged in irons through Mecklenburg  and other western counties.

The ladies of Edenton, North Carolina decided to take a stand on behalf of the Regulators  and met  in 1774 to hold their own tea party. They voted to refuse  British imports over at Albemarle Sound...especially tea and cloth.  Penelope Barker, organizer, stated the they would not "hide behind costumes " as the men had done at the Boston Tea Party. "The British will know who we are !"  she vowed. Fifty-one women inspired the South to renew their fight for liberty as word traveled to the western counties.

Penelope Barker, Organizer, Ladies of Edenton.

The opening scene below is my own dramatization of  how the "Ladies Tea Party" was discussed in the Potts family. Although these were not their exact words, never doubt that the subject was tea...jfh

          
                                                       
                                               PART FIVE

1774, 3:00 p.m.,Tea Time : James, now fifty-five, has had a long morning taking care of business. Then there's always the children to worry about:  Jean is almost of a marriageable age, and there are worrisome suitors. William seems to have a head for business like his father, but John....ah, now there's one who marches to a different drummer... an idealist with a militaristic viewpoint. There's no telling where that may lead the lad.

For now, James just wants to relax and have his usual afternoon cup of  tea. He wanders into the kitchen where he knows that Margaret and Febe will have the teapot and biscuits set out as usual. But wait, what is this? Nothing? After all these years of  proper tea at three  clock sharp, there is nothing?

"What, Wife, is there no tea to be had today?"

"No, James. There will take no more British tea in this house. The ladies of Edenton are rejecting  shipments coming  into the bay. We must make do without it...for the cause."

British satirical rendering of the Ladies of Edenton.

The women had spoken. Now James may have been a force for liberty, but the idea of life without tea was disturbing . It was as if tea mixed with the Irish blood of  ancestors who  enjoyed a proper tea time for hundreds of years. Now this... no tea to be had  in North Carolina.

James, like many Mecklenburg planters, probably felt disillusionment about many things. For four years now, the Regulators had been  forced to underground activity. How he must have longed for the way life was when he was young and starry-eyed and starting over in an exciting new land.

All was not lost.  There was  a shift in the prevailing winds the very next year: 1775.

Patriots gathered together at Charlotte, North Carolina  and constructed what came to be known as the "Mecklenburg Resolutions" (often said to be the forerunner of the Declaration of Independence). This document was a call to arms for Southern Patriots to fund a fight for freedom from an oppressive Royal Government and corrupt officials like Governor Tryon and  Col. Fanning. Mecklenburg would lead the way .

So it was that during the mid 1770s and 1780s, the American Revolution marched into the pages of history. Our Allies? The poor dissipated Catawba Tribe  whose numbers had dwindled from decades of white man's disease and rum. Added to the opposition, the powerful warriors of the Cherokee Tribes rode down from the Smokies to fight side by side with the British. The Cherokees declared their own war  on the Scotch- Irish colonists, as well, in an uneven match of skill and numbers.

The Cherokee side with the British

One Hessian officer on the British side said the war was "...nothing more or less than a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian rebellion!"

This ethnic/religious group represented over seventy-five percent of the Patriots, according to  estimates! Some battles were won, some lost early on, but it was to be the underestimated battle of Cowan's Ford that would turn the tide in the Southland...in an unexpected way.

 

On  February 1, 1781, our direct ancestor, son of James and Margaret, twenty-eight year old  husband and new father, Patriot Captain John Potts is listed  in Civil War records. He is to serve under Brig. Gen. William Lee Davidson at Cowan's Ford, on the Catawba River.     

       

                                                     PART SIX

Captain John Potts shivers  in the cold driving rain a mile back from  the Catawba . February 1, 1781 will be his longest day since entering The Revolutionary War. Nighttime has come, and the cold penetrates his soaked  and tattered uniform. Warming his hands by the campfire, he looks around at seventy Mecklenburg men under his command and knows they  are desperate for the warmth of home . He thinks of his wife Elizabeth Stevenson Potts and his infant boy Daniel John and how they  clung to him as he said his goodbyes. He wonders if he will make it back to them alive.

Yet John sees his duty clearly: to slow the progress of Lt. Gen. Charles Cornwallis and 5,000 well trained men as they advance toward Maj. Gen Nathaniel Greene and his rag tag militia. (John's devotion to his commander Brig. Gen William Lee Davidson is unwavering). Men station themselves at each ford in the river,  knowing that Cornwallis will have to cross one of them. Meanwhile, the swift water Catawba is swollen to overflowing, the rain will not stop, and the Patriots are outnumbered five to one.

Back home, we see the probable scenarios our minds' eye:  James and Margaret  and the New Providence Presbyterian Church are praying for John's safety. We know that James, in his sixty-second year, is not well, and he surely hopes  to remain alive until John is safely home. Not knowing his son's fate is most likely taking its toll on James who makes out his  will. He decides to leave a "two year old heifer" to his granddaughter Margaret Baxter, Jean's daughter with husband John Baxter. (possibly James' granddaughter helped raise it as a calf ,or was fond of it). He makes sure that Febe is safely left in wife Margaret's hands, and wills the two elderly slaves to his sons. He divides property and money amongst his children, wife and others. In  an odd twist, after securing Margaret in the "plantation where we live now", James leaves Minevess to Jean's son James Potts Baxter ... still just a small boy. (Sadly, his grandson will never take possession of the plantation a he dies at age ten). James wills his "two big bibles" to each of his sons, so they may lead their households well. The patriarch is now ready for fate to take him when it will... if only he could see John before he takes his last breath.

Meanwhile on the riverbanks, armed "pickers" are stationed at all fords, awaiting Cornwallis and his troops. Five hundred Patriots are stationed close to Beattie's ford, the most likely crossing for men on horseback. John and his seventy  from Mecklenburg are at the second line of defense: Tool's ford. Only twenty-five are sent to Cowan's ford, the least likely crossing. The men are "up to our knees in mud" one officer reported later.

Cornwallis enters the water as it overflows its banks and loses one of his cannons in a swampy part of the river. Half his men are back there looking for it! The other half advance across the Catawba.

The Patriots stationed at the fords are falling asleep, and the enemy can see the flickering of their camp fires through the trees. The plan is to catch the Patriots off guard.

Cornwallis' guides, Cherokee and African Americans,  lead him to the worst possible crossing...unintentionally or not. The British army is coming in at  high water Cowan's Ford!

At this crossing, the river is at its deepest and almost impassable. The swollen river washes over the heads of the horses, and the British are almost swept away in the rapid current. They  lash themselves together with rope  and trudge forward.

Through the early morning fog, John is startled to see the enemy one hundred yards from the banks at the next ford. They are unexpectedly coming in downstream where only twenty-five Patriots are stationed. John  calls his  sleepy men to rally at the crossing . Why in the world are they crossing there! is undoubtedly what John is thinking. The half-drowned British force is coming across firing as the Patriots trudge through the mud , half dressed, rushing toward Cowan's ford.  General Davidson rides  to their aid with his infantry, as John and the others continue to fire into the river.

The fall of General Davidson.

Suddenly,John's beloved General Davidson is struck in the head by the enemy and falls dead from his horse . Even  as his infantry retreats, the Patriots do the best they can to maintain and are able to stall the British advancement. Yet they are far outnumbered and must concede defeat.

Although this battle was counted as a win for the British, most say it defined the end of the war in the South and aided in the eventual winning of the war for the colonists. The enemy's plans  were squashed and many of their men killed and wounded. Cornwallis  vowed never to enter the South again, especially  the Carolinas,  as it is, quote: " a hornets' nest!"    John will be home by Spring.

What a homecoming it must have been. Captain John Potts' wife Elizabeth, baby Daniel John,  brother William, sister Jean  and their families, parents James and Margaret ...all there to celebrate his safe return. ( John may have been wounded. We don't know). James' condition is worse. I can hear him tell Margaret and his children to keep his funeral simple but to be sure  the cost of it is covered and all debts are paid...as is in fact, stated first and foremost in his will . I can feel the family's tears as the end draws near. James  breathes his last on May 8, 1781. Somehow I can see  his loved ones around him and can feel his spirit say " All is well."  They are gone now, yet the  family bloodline... like that old Catawba River with tributaries spreading far  and wide...flows on forever, and from James’ son John, springs a great family….our family.   

Robert Potts House today: once part of the plantation

Potts family buried at Providence Presbyterian Church Cemetary.

Final note: Cousins: Captain John Potts' son Daniel John, was the father of Jonathan H. who was father to 'Will", (our grandmother Winnie Potts Bridges' father).