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SKETCHES OF NORTH CAROLINA.

CHAPTER XXXIV.
CHARLOTTE AND HER RECOLLECTIONS.

BESIDES the honor of being the seat of the Convention, in 1775, that issued the first Declaration of Independence, Charlotte, in Mecklenburg, North Carolina, has claims upon posterity both singular and meritorious. The centre of a fertile and populous county, she was doomed to see the blood of her sons shed, and the Declaration of Independence of all foreign dominion, maintained at the point of the British bayonet.

After the battle of Camden, Charlotte, that had been a rallying place for the American forces, became designated as the head-quarters of the British army. The resistance made by the few troops that could be hastily assembled, was in the hope of delaying and intimidating, rather than in the expectation of successfully opposing the advance of the enemy.

Tarleton in his "History of the Southern Campaign, 1780 and 1781," page 159, says, "Earl Cornwallis moved forward as soon as the legion under Major Hanger joined him. A party of militia fired at the advanced dragoons and light infantry as they entered the town, and a more considerable body appeared drawn up near the court-house. The conduct of the Americans created suspicion in the British; an ambuscade was apprehended by the light troops, who moved forward for some time with great circumspection; a charge of cavalry under Major Hanger dissipated this ill-grounded jealousy, and totally dispersed the militia. The pursuit lasted some time, and about thirty of the enemy were killed and taken.

"The King's troops did not come out of this skirmish unhurt; Major Hanger, and Captains Campbell and McDonald were wounded, and twelve non-commissioned officers and men were killed and wounded."

The position of Charlotte, however favorable to the Americans, was anything but agreeable to the Earl Cornwallis. He possessed in the adjacent country a few friends and timid dependents. The panic that had gone over South Carolina after the success of the British in that State, and had driven multitudes to