Existing comment:
The North Carolina Continental Line:
The North Carolina Continental line, which would ultimately include eleven regiments and six to seven thousand soldiers, was born in the summer of 1775. In June, the Continental Congress issued quotas to each state, tasking North Carolina with recruiting one thousand men for service. In response, the Provincial Congress, meeting in Hillsborough in August, authorized the creation of the first two North Carolina Continental regiments under the command of James Moore and Robert Howe. While the First and Second regiments served in North Carolina in 1776, the Provincial Congress raised another eight regiments, including the North Carolina Light Horse, to meet increased quotas from the Continental Congress.
North Carolina's Continental line joined George Washington's main army near Philadelphia in August 1777 and participated in the defense of the city that fall. After surviving Valley Forge, the soldiers took part in the campaign through New Jersey in 1778 that culminated in the battle of Monmouth Courthouse. The North Carolina regiments -- reduced to three units -- moved south as the theater of war shifted, only to be captured by the British after the failed defense of Charleston in May 1780. New recruits failed to enlist in large numbers until June 1781, after the American success at Guilford Courthouse had inspired more men to serve. The state's Continental line limped through the rest of the war with Gen. Nathanael Greene's army in the south. When the army disbanded in 1783, it included only one North Carolina unit consisting of two hundred soldiers. |