November 9, 2007: Georgia/North Carolina Trip Day 7
	November 7, 2007: Georgia/North Carolina Trip Day 5
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Touring the Alamance Battleground

On Wednesday evening, we'd seen a sign along I-40 on our way to our motel pointing the way to the Alamance Battlefield, and we looked up some information about it that night. It sounded as if it would be interesting, so we decided that this morning, Thursday, we would go by and see what it was all about- before going over to Judy's house for the rest of the day. Actually, we had thought about going to a state park a couple of hours away to do some hiking, but the weather was overcast and quite chilly, so we decided to save that for another time.

Battlefield Orientation

To get to the battlefield, we just took the same road that our hotel was on and head south and then west. After about ten miles, we came across the battlefield site.

At the right is an aerial view of the Alamance Battlefield. We came into the area from the right, eventually left the area at the lower left to go to the Old Brick Church, and then backtracked back through the battleground to get to Judy's house. I have marked the locations of most of the things you'll see in the pictures and movies, and I hope you find the orientation helpful. You can refer to this view throughout the rest of this section.

Markers and Monuments

When we arrived in the battlefield area, the first thing we saw was the historical sign marking the location of the Battle of Alamance. The Battle of Alamance is often referred to as the first engagement of the Revolutionary War, although as we found out later at the visitor center, this is something of an overstatement.

The term "Regulators" has a cloudy provenance; most references seem to indicate that the name was taken to express the fact that the backcountrymen who joined the movement were not opposed to the hegemony of the English Crown, but thought that the "regulations" that were imposed were imposed unjustly. For example, they could not understand why Governor Tryon needed a palance in New Bern while the backcountrymen could hardly make ends meet after paying their taxes and fees.

So, the "Regulator Movement," as it was called, was not a movement in opposition to the Crown, as was the American Revolution, but rather a movement that was attempting to even out the application of the rules and regulations to everyone- rules and regulations that the backcountrymen actually saw as necessary for the most part. So one can't really say that the Regulators were fighting for independence; rather, they were fighting for fairness- at least as they saw it. How the Crown saw it, we don't really know.

But, to make a long story short, Governor Tryon eventually found that he had to face the Regulators and defeat them or lose operational control over his colony. He gathered a militia, composed about half and half of English soldiers and local colonists, marched from New Bern to Alamance (about 150 miles) and engaged the Regulators in the area defined by the aerial view above. There were battlefield errors made on both sides, but the end result was that Governor Tryon carried the day. The Regulator Movement was effectively ended that day, although a rather different movement was already underway that would reverse that victory some ten years later.

The first thing we did when we got to the battlefield area was stop at the roadside marker that described a little bit of the history of the conflict as well as the battle itself. This marker was located on the south side of the highway a bit beyond the entry to the visitor center.

Out in the open field beyond the descriptive marker were two monuments. One monument, shown was solely for the Battle of Alamance, while the other, more elaborate monument dealt with the repercussions of this battle on the broader canvas of the Revolutionary War.

This monument had plaques all the way around, a couple of which are shown here. The left-hand image duplicates what was on the roadside historical marker, but the right-hand one has more information. In case you can't read it, the legend says: "Of twelve Regulataors condemned at Hillsboro, the following six were executed by the British Governor: James Pugh, Robert Matear, Benjamin Merrill, Captain Messer and two others, whose names are now unknown. 'Our blood will be as good seed in good ground, that will soon produce one hundredfold.'-James Pugh, under the gallows at Hillsboro, N.C., June 19th, 1771."

Around on the other side was yet another bronze plaque, shown here. Again, in case you cannot read the inscription, it says:

 1773
 Without courts and beyond the Governor's contro, the people were a law unto themselves. The corresponded with all the other colonies and watched the proceedings of the British Parliament.

 1774
 A convention of the people of the province assembled- "The first representative assembly that ever met in North Carolina or in America, save by Royal authority." it met in open, flagrant defiance of the Crown, its Governor, and his proclamations.

 1775 April the 8th
 Ended the last royal legislative body that ever met in North Carolina.
 1775 May the 20th
 The Mecklenburg Declaration was made.
 1775 August the 20th
 A popular government for the province was established, "every county and borough town being represented in the convention."

 1776 February
 The first victory of the Revolutionary War was gained at Moore's Creek bridge, North Carolina, by the people of the province.
 1776 April 12th
 North Carolina was first to declare for Continental independence.

The Visitor Center

We drove over to the visitor center to take a look at the exhibits, and found ourselves in the care of one of the staff manning the center. He was an extremely entertaining fellow, what with his deep southern accent and his encyclopedic knowledge of the battles that were fought here. He took us and another couple out to the open patio of the center, and began to tell us the entire story of the battle (but not until he'd had us watch a forty-minute movie that was originally shown on PBS locally).

The patio outside had a descriptive marker detailing the skirmish that occurred here, and the patio commanded an excellent view of the battlefield.

It was really a pleasure to listen to our guide, Bill Thompson, and ask him questions, and I think that the movie I made of a just a small part of his explanations out on the patio overlooking the battlefield will show you why. Please have a look at that movie using the player below:

The John Allen Cabin

John Allen was one of the men who lived here in Alamance County at the time of the Regulator movement, and our guide seemed to indicate that he was actually a member of that movement. John Allen's home used to be about a mile from this site, but the entire cabin was moved to this location to become part of the Alamance Battlefield park. Our guide indicated that there were a number of reasons why this old structure had been made part of the battlefield memorial, and Fred made a movie of his explanation. You can watch that movie with the player at right.

The cabin and its outbuildings was extremely interesting. The construction, of logs and clay, was pretty amazing; the house seemed quite solid. It was two-storey inside, with an inside stairway leading to the second floor. Inside, our guide pointed out that the cabin was actually pretty spacious for the time, indicating that Mr. Allen was doing well. I made a movie of part of his description, and you can watch that movie with the player at left.

Both Fred and I took quite a few pictures inside and outside the cabin, and I've selected four of his and four of mine to include in this album. To view the full-size pictures, just click on the thumbnails that I've provided below:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

The Battlefield

When we finished at the John Allen cabin, we walked out into the battlefield itself to see if we could pick out some of the features that our guide had been talking about. To help us, the park has put up red and blue flags to indicate where the lines of men had been. One prominent feature described in accounts of the time was the big boulder which served as the point where such negotiations as occurred were carried on. Our guide also pointed out that the British regulars were taken aback at the ungentlemanly way that the colonists fought. Instead of forming in neat lines, out in the open, they had the bad form to hide behind trees and such- very unprofessional.

We went back into the visitor center to look at some of the exhibits, buy a DVD for my sister and thank our guide. One of the local sites that he had mentioned was the Old Brick Church that figured into many of the accounts, and we decided to set off to see it.

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A Visit to The Old Brick Church

The Old Brick Church was not too hard to find, although we did make a couple of wrong turns in trying to locate it.

We finally located the church about two miles from the battleground, and got out of the car to look around the church grounds and the graveyard that was next to it.

The church building itself was not constructed until the early 1800s, although the building that is on the site now is the restored church, the restoration having been done in the late 1990s. The church, however, and by that one means the actual fellowship, has been in operation since the mid-1700s, and thus the group was in operation at the time of the Alamance conflict.

The church is a plain brick building, and we took a number of pictures of it and the historical plaques on it, and I have put thumbnails for the best of these below. To see the full-size pictures, just click on these thumbnails:

Right beside the church is the church graveyard, and we found it immensely interesting to wander around that graveyard, looking at the gravestones. They dated back to the earliest history of the church itself, and came forward until about the end of the nineteenth century. Prominent among the graves were those of the extended Clapp family, that family figuring into the organization of the church itself. We took a number of pictures of some of the gravestones, and I've put a list of some of them below. To see the actual gravestone, just click on the items in the list:

George Washington Clapp

Johann Ludwig Klap

John Clapp

John B. Clapp

Emily

Barbara

When we were done at the church, right around lunchtime, we left the area and headed over to Judy's.

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An Afternoon at Judy's House

We were kind of following our noses as we headed over to Judy's house. I've never driven around in this part of Alamance County, and I wasn't sure where we would come out. Of course now, doing these pictures, I can mark our route, but at the time, it was hit or miss.

We got to Judy's in the early afternoon and we had a bit of lunch with her and Patrick. Ted had already left for his seminar in Newport News, VA, and he had left his dog, Lucy, with Judy. Judy has a couple of small dogs- daschunds- who are indoor dogs. They are small enough to sit in her lap while she relaxes in her favorite chair. Lucy is much too big for that, but not so big, apparently, that she can't jump up on just about everything and everyone- including the other dogs. They did a lot of running around while we were sitting and conversing; I was once again reminded why it is that when I have a pet, it's a cat.

Judy has gotten very "into" parakeets, and some time ago got a pair of them to keep in the playroom off the living room. Over the last year, they seem to have multiplied, and now she has three or four cages and maybe ten or twelve birds. They ARE interesting, and fun to watch, but I would probably get tired of the incessant chirping unless they were off by themselves (as they are at Judy's). Fred made a movie of the birds, and you can watch that movie with the player at right.

After a while, we went outside to wander around the farm. Fred hasn't been here in a few years, and Judy had a lot she wanted to show him. Just outside the house and to the west is Judy's horse pasture, and both of her horses were out grazing for the afternoon. Patrick has been quite a help to my sister since they have gotten to know each other (although it is probably true that just about anyone Judy might find attractive or interesting would only remain so if they could become comfortable with her animal-oriented, gardening-oriented lifestyle). Anyway, Patrick and Judy seem to do well together.

One of the aspects of Judy's farm of which she is justifiably the most proud is the woodland garden that she has constructed in the copse of trees right in front of her house. Some years ago, she got the idea to clean out that area of trees, which had always been just a wild area that served to block the line of sight from the road to the house, giving the house a very secluded feel. When she got it cleaned out, though, she had the idea to try to duplicate the kind of forest trail that she'd hiked locally or in the mountains and, over a couple of years, worked diligently and hard to transform the forest into that kind of environment. Of course she built some trails, and of course she brought into the area many plants from elsewhere on the farm and from outside the farm that would do well in such a shady area. So the paths became more of a nature trail than just a path.

But the really neat feature of the garden, and the one that took the most effort (of course) is the artificial creek that she constructed. It is a very involved affair that recirculates water through a serpentine watercourse that must be at least a hundred feet long. She (with some help from friends) first laid down plastic to seal the watercourse and then painstakingly brought in rocks from everywhere to place on top of the plastic to hide it and to form little waterfalls. The result is a very realistic-looking creek that seems to begin from a spring at the top of the watercourse, flows down the serpentine path and ends at a large pool (which contains the pump that recirculates the water). It is an incredible achievement, and I hope that you will watch the movie that I made of the water feature by using the player at right.

The garden is really an incredible and very restful place, and in the summer is a riot of plants. Judy and Patrick tell me that they spend lots of time out here when the weather is nice. So do the dogs, apparently, because there are lots of places where they seem to root around. Today, it being quite chilly, the dogs have little sweaters on.

We took a walk over to the new barn so Judy could show Fred her four cats and we walked down the driveway to the old barn so Judy could pick up the mail.

Finally, Judy and Fred spent a good deal of time wandering around the garden and examining the plants that were still producing this late in the fall. Judy and Fred both share this interest in horticulture of all kinds- vegetables, flowers, trees, whatever- and Fred was very intrigued by an evergreen that he had heard of but had not seen before.

We spent a really relaxing afternoon with Judy and Patrick. At dinnertime, we decided to go pick up some Chinese food and brought it back for a little buffet. We watched "Sordid Lives," one of the movies that Fred had brought along with him, and generally just vegetated. Along about ten, we left for the motel a couple of exits east on I-40.

You can return to today's index or use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	November 9, 2007: Georgia/North Carolina Trip Day 7
	November 7, 2007: Georgia/North Carolina Trip Day 5
	Return to Main Index for Georgia/North Carolina Trip