Jane Phillips: 250 Years Ago, in Dobbs County During the American Revolution
JANE’S MONTHLY NOTES FOR LENOIR COUNTY HISTORY - OCTOBER 1775
250 Years Ago, in Dobbs County
During the American Revolution
(Today Lenoir, Greene, and parts of Wayne Counties)
In Kinston (Kington) 250 years ago in October 1775, Dobbs County (now Lenoir County) was a time for Patriot political organizing and militia preparations for the American Revolution. While both Patriots and Loyalists initially declared loyalty to the King, they differed on the terms for remaining British. Patriots believed in their natural rights and the British Constitution, arguing for fair treatment and reconciliation, but prepared for armed resistance if those terms were unmet. Loyalists, in contrast, were often intensely loyal to the Crown and feared the anarchy that might result from a break with British rule.
Dobbs County was populated by a mix of English, Irish, Scottish, German, Swiss, and French settlers, including an enslaved African American population, many of whom engaged in the local militia.
The North Carolina Provincial Congress authorized the formation of county militias in September 1775. In October, leaders like Colonel Richard Caswell and Colonel Sheppard, Sr., were actively recruiting and preparing for the coming conflict with Great Britain. Other key militia officers included Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Torrans, Major Martin Caswell, Major William McKinnie, and various Captains such as Benjamin Exum, Jacob Hooks, and John Sheppard.
Like others across the colony, the Dobbs County Committee of Safety became the de facto local government, taking executive authority and enforcing Patriot ideology. They were responsible for:
*Spreading Patriot propaganda.
*Enforcing the Continental Congress's trade boycotts against British goods.
*Stockpiling arms and preparing the militia for military action.
*Arresting suspected Loyalists, who were then sent to district committees or the Provincial Council for trial.
Dobbs County was firmly under the control of the Patriot-led Committee of Safety, which was composed of leading citizens and had taken charge of the county's preparations for the crisis. The Committee engaged in preparations to suppress Loyalist organizing and resisting the Royal Governor's authority.
By October 1775, news of what had happened in the Massachusetts Colony had spread to all the colonies. The Battles of Concord and Lexington, Bunker Hill, Ticonderoga, and Siege of Boston heightened tensions throughout the colonies.
In North Carolina, tensions between Patriots and Loyalists were high. North Carolina's royal governor, Josiah Martin, considered Richard Caswell, a prominent Dobbs County resident, "the most active tool of sedition" in the colony. Tensions were growing, bringing political polarization and forced choices. The escalating conflict left no room for neutrality; residents were forced to choose a side. Patriots, through the Committees of Safety, actively pressured those with moderate views or loyalist leanings to join their cause or face social and economic sanctions. These sanctions included publishing the names of suspected Loyalists and encouraging citizens to "break off all dealings with him or her". Royal Governor Josiah Martin, having fled the capital, New Bern, in May 1775, desperately sought to rally Loyalist support from a British warship offshore. In early 1775, he had already received pledges of loyalty from five hundred prominent North Carolinians, including some from Dobbs County. His proclamations in August 1775 from the ship called for Loyalists to mobilize, which intensified the local Patriot efforts to organize their own militia.
These tensions were a prelude to a full-blown civil war that would erupt in North Carolina the following year with the Patriot victory at the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge in February 1776, in which units of the Dobbs County Regiment participated.
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