House in the Horseshoe
Irregular Warfare in the Tory War
Photo: House in the Horseshoe, near Carthage, North Carolina. Author’s photo.
A fierce, irregular war erupted in the Carolinas, pitting neighbors and families against each other. Differences in political allegiances fueled violence and atrocities, and spiraled into a cycle of executions, assassinations, and reprisals. Government officials confiscated the property of their political opponents, forcing most to flee into exile. No, this isn’t a description of the Carolinas during the American Civil War in the 1860s. These scenes played out in a brutal civil war in North and South Carolina during the American Revolution.
The Carolinas witnessed conventional force-on-force warfare, notably at Guilford Courthouse (NC) and Camden (SC). However, most of the conflict descended into irregular warfare between partisan forces. Also referred to as ‘The Tory War’ by some historians, it was America’s first civil war. The loyalist partisan forces were called Tories. The patriot or rebel forces were called Whigs.
The combat in this civil war between the two partisan forces was so ruthless and vicious that it shocked the veterans in the British Army and their mercenary Hessian allies. General Nathanael Greene, upon assuming command of the Continental Army in the southern campaign, wrote to Colonel Alexander Hamilton:
“The division among the people is much greater than I imagined and the Whigs and Tories persecute each other, with little less than savage fury. There is nothing but murders and devastation in every quarter.”
The most famous partisan patriot leader was Francis Marion, known as ‘The Swamp Fox.’ He artfully employed irregular tactics against the British in South Carolina, harassing their extended supply lines. Less well-known is the most successful Tory partisan leader – David Fanning.
At the height of the war in 1781, the British commissioned Fanning, at age 26, as a provincial Colonel. He commanded approximately 950 Torries in Randolph, Chatham, and Orange Counties in North Carolina. On July 29, 1781, he led a band of Loyalists in attacking the homestead of Phillip Alston, a Whig Colonel, in northern Moore County (Cumberland County at the time). The Alston house (ca. 1770) today is a North Carolina state park called House in the Horseshoe. The homestead consisted of 4,000 acres, and Alston built the house on a large horseshoe bend of the Deep River.
The Deep River region in the Carolina Piedmont and Sandhills served as Fanning’s base of operations. Cox’s Mill, a busy enterprise located on a tributary of the Deep River (near Ramseur), served as Fanning’s Headquarters. He frequently encamped and resupplied at Cox’s Mill before voyaging on raids throughout the region.
A series of events, emblematic of guerrilla warfare, led to the skirmish at the House in the Horseshoe. Whig partisans captured several Loyalists and scheduled a trial, and likely execution, at Chatham Courthouse (modern Pittsboro) on July 17th, 1781. Fanning led a force of fifty-three Torries to liberate the prisoners. Fanning arrayed his partisans on approaches to the courthouse and captured fifty-three prisoners, including Whig Officers, a Continental Captain, several Continental soldiers, and rebel government leaders.
He returned with his captives to Cox’s Mill. There, he paroled thirty-nine Whigs and planned to turn the rest, whom he knew to be particularly violent, into the British in Wilmington. Neither the British nor the Colonists had the resources and infrastructure to house captured foes. Captors would force prisoners to sign a document declaring not to fight anymore, sometimes with an oath of allegiance, and then they were released.
With a contingent of fifteen partisans, Fanning embarked with his prisoners for Wilmington. As news of the Fanning’s raid on Chatham Courthouse spread, Colonel Phillip Alston organized a contingent of Whig partisans to pursue them and liberate the prisoners. Fanning’s Torry expedition spent a night in the home of Loyalist Kenneth Black (near modern Southern Pines).
The Tory party departed the next morning, and Kenneth Black guided the party for a segment of their journey. Unfortunately, Fanning’s horse developed a leg injury, which precluded it from making the long trip to Wilmington. Black exchanged horses with the Tory Colonel and headed back to his homestead.
En route, Colonel Alston’s partisans encountered Black at Ray’s Mill Creek (near modern Aberdeen). Black fled on the maimed mount. Alston’s men chased Black and, once in range, shot and hit him. Black continued for a few hundred yards before he fell from the mount. Injured, but still alive, Alston’s guerrillas reportedly smashed Black’s head with the butt of his weapon and killed him. (Phillip Black’s grave was rediscovered in 1960 and restored by the Moore County Historical Society in 2016.)
When Fanning and his entourage returned to the region, they heard about Black’s murder at Cross Hill (near Carthage). Beyond Black’s murder, Alson had a notorious reputation as a vicious Whig partisan. Fanning learned that Alston returned to this homestead and led a force of twenty-five to forty Tories to capture the Whig Colonel.
Riding through the night, Fanning’s force forded the Deep River and by daybreak positioned to attack the house. Alston had a force of approximately twenty-five Whigs encamped on the property. Fanning’s men captured one group of Alston’s sentries, who had fallen asleep on guard duty. Another group of sentries sounded alarms, and Whig partisans started firing on the Tories from windows and doorways of the Alston house.
The fighting raged for three hours. The Tories were pinned down behind fences approximately forty yards from the house and unable to proceed as the Whigs raked the open yard with shot. The Whigs were trapped in the house. Temperance Alston, the Colonel’s wife, placed some of their children on a table inside the brick fireplace to protect them from the gunfire. The younger children hid with her in the bed.
In one charge on the house, the Whigs killed Captain Andrews, a Regular British officer. Fanning feared that Whig reinforcements would arrive to rescue the besieged Whigs. He instructed his men to load a nearby oxcart with hay, set it ablaze, and roll it toward the house.
As the Tories employed their improvised weapon, Temperance Alston intervened. She walked onto the porch with a white flag, convinced the Tories wouldn’t shoot a woman. She declared that Alston and his forces would surrender if promised safe passage. Fanning, impressed by her courage, agreed.
Fanning paroled Alston and his partisans. During the three hours of combat, Fanning reported that his force suffered two fatalities and four injuries. He claimed the Whigs suffered four killed, several wounded, and all paroled.
It is somewhat prophetic that the partisan strife that led to our Nation’s independence played out on much of the same terrain that modern descendants in the U.S. Army train on for irregular warfare. Many of the sites of the Tory War are within a short drive from Fort Bragg (and Camp Mackall), home to the U.S. Army Special Operations Command and the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare School and Center. The former is the headquarters for the operational deployment of Special Forces, Civil Affairs, and Psychological Operations capabilities, while the latter serves as the institutional training center for these forces.
Friday, July 29th, marks the two-hundred and forty-fourth anniversary of the battle. An anniversary celebration at the House in the Horseshoe will take place this Saturday, July 26th, from 10:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. The event will feature firelock rifle demonstrations and living history displays showcasing daily life for soldiers and civilians during the era. A reenactment of the battle will begin at 2:00 P.M. The event is free, but a $5 parking fee applies.
NOTES:
· Segments of this article not cited with linked sources came from Carolina Loyalist, The Revolutionary War Life of Colonel David Fanning by John Hairr, and from display material at the House in the Horseshoe.
· Another recommended overall book on the American Revolution in the Carolinas is The Road to Guilford Courthouse: The American Revolution in the Carolinas by John Buchanan.
Colonel Tony Vacha (U.S. Army, Retired) served for over 33 years in the Army, with assignments in the Infantry, Civil Affairs, and Force Development. He earned a master’s degree in strategic studies at the U.S. Army War College.