:
; if
;
i iu
i |
1 #] “ay
:
: i
om ti
; ay
;
1 ah ay
A
7 mt)
i)
i a
1 i
; Ny
; nn
i
; ‘th
ont
ae
ae
: 7 nn
-
al -
4 -
Hil FY
ait hi
: :
; i}
: vai
AY
i 7
; } :
il] hi
- -
' ay 7
H
1 on hy
tt at
: aa
} :
1 a ag
rau ;
i -
: Pet
7
th
;
| {
i
| /
4
t .
ini
'
i + it
i)
B if -
+) }
Fj H a
t : j
Ta ,
4 4 t
; {
ai ‘aa
i BB
f i
j it
: un
' - ih 1h
, | 5 :
; Rh i
{ | :
| i! ;
eeu
‘7 3
H | if
+ if ] :
j Ff
th Fh
wy ;
} '
a a j
: a i :
' 3 i
1 4 ay
‘ ;
4
i) i
; ’ 4 Me
L i i ay
i i i]
' I Hh |
’ i a Be
1 4
} i}
+ i i
i
ae i i
a af
| 7 ‘ 4
t
ia ny
WwW eh
z -
iyo 4 H
ti \
i | Hy :
i : | ;
Te i
‘eS ai ii
7 i
ie a
3 : i.
f ,)) Pe
7 baa
§ '
‘| in|
7 : i
i} d |
/
q | bie
. ie
arias)
ee ;
| mi
i}
Pi ut
i i
ar?
.| i f t 7
| f
i -
|
{! :
3) int
oy
i ! a
i |
; : ie
He a ai5
uy
Ve i;
‘| a
i : |
* i
;
7 7
: :
i in}
; Hy
i?
i}
+t cn
\
i
f
r i
i Hh)
} wi
|
4 in
|
| |
: | Be
'
5! -
bd ;
‘) Bi
~
; ;
t = 7
i - '
; ;
i
:'F 4
ne :
i) it
;
i :
' .
Ww a)
a :
ai
i i}
TH
i i}
‘
; iti
}
i} . ! :
: ; :
ie i}
{
i] ti
j {
: :
; ;
' 7 :
: i}
mei)
_ ;
itn
} :
7 :
- t
et
at)
{ Fi
7
i -
7 :
:
| ae
; ;
- .
a!
: i}
}
' iat
' 7 ;
:
\
i

a es
Oe a an sa a a et ste mee

136 Chronicles of the Cape Fear River

well’s admiral, Robert Blake. There was also residing at the
fort the family of Benjamin Blaney. A native he was of Rox-
bury, near Boston. He had migrated to Carolina as a carpenter,
and had by industry acquired a competence to enable him to
dispense aid to the sick and needy and other charities, in the
performance of which he was an example of usefulness, charity,
and unostentation. Most of the families at the fort were Fed-
eralists, and, though all deplored the event, they were the more
sensibly impressed with the news of the death of Alexander
Hamilton, who in this month of July had been slain in a duel
with Colonel Burr, the account of which had been written to me
by Colonel Williams. The whole Union was in a measure
moved to grief by this sad event. Colonel Hamilton occupied a
large space in the public mind. He had been the able leader of
Federalism—of a class of men who may in truth be said to have
been actuated by far higher motives than those of mere party.

My advices from West Point were that Major Wadsworth,
Capt. W. A. Barron and Mr. DeMasson formed the academic
corps; that Lieutenant Wilson was on duty at Fort Mifflin,
Lieutenant Macomb in South Carolina, and Lieutenant Arm-
istead in New York.

In my excursions on the water of Cape Fear I was aided by
Captain Walker, Dr. Griffin, and Mr. Blaney, who as sports-
men were familiar with the numerous shoals and channels and
anchorages thereof, so that the returns were not only in game
but also in giving me knowledge of the capacity of this harbor,
situate as it is on one of the most shallow and troublesome
coasts to navigators. The anchorage, covered from the ocean by
Bald Head, or Smith’s Island, extending from the Main Bar to
the New Inlet, and upon which island there is a growth of live
oak and palmetto, and abounding with fallow deer.

Intimacy with Mr. Walker furnished me with many items
of the war in Carolina, with which he was familiar, although
not taking part in the battles, for he had been a moderate Tory,
averse to taking arms against the mother country, in which
his friend and brother-in-law, Louis DeRosset, had influenced
him. Mr. DeRosset was of the King’s council. Mr. Walker
had been the executor of Gen. James Moore, the planner and
director of the American force at the Battle of Moore’s Creek,
fought by Lillington and Caswell. From the papers of that
officer he had gathered many an anecdote of the march of Corn-
wallis. Mr. Walker had been in the Regulators’ War of 1770

Early Years 137

and then commanded a company in the Battle of Alamance, in
the western part of the State. He was cured of much of his
Toryism by the tyrannical conduct of Maj. J. H. Craig, the
British governor at Wilmington, afterwards governor-general of
Canada. The conduct of this man had been oppressive and
needlessly cruel to the people of Wilmington, and Captain
Walker had been able to influence some relief for those who
were in arrest, ete. He and his brother-in-law, John DuBois,
had been appointed commissioners to arrange the cartel of pris-
oners, and to negotiate for the families who were to leave Wil-
mington when Cornwallis marched to Virginia, thus showing
the confidence that both Whig and Tory had reposed in those
gentlemen. Mr. Walker’s family were of the settlers called
“Retainers,” coming from Ireland under the auspices of Col-
onel Sampson and of his father, Robert Walker. Among the
families of “Retainers” were those of the Holmeses, Owens,
Kenans, etc., now become independent planters and distin-
guished citizens. The father of Captain Walker, the above
Robert, was of the same family with that of the Protestant hero,
the Rev. George Walker, of Londonderry. The mother of Cap-
tain Walker was Ann, of the family of Montgomery, of Mount
Alexander in Ireland, who had made a runaway match with
Robert Walker. Capt. James Walker married Magdalen M.
DuBois, the daughter of John DuBois and Gabriella DeRosset,
his wife.

In the month of September, in reply to my report of the 26th
of July, I received orders from the War Department to proceed
with as much of the work therein contemplated as was embraced
in General Smith’s contract upon the tapia work at the site of
old Fort Johnston, that had been there constructed in 1748
by His Excellency Gabriel Johnston, then colonial governor.
In clearing away the sand I found much of the old tapia walls
far superior to our contemplated plan for the battery of tapia.

Soon after this the slaves of General Smith commenced the
burning of lime in pens, called kilns, made of sapling pines
formed in squares containing from one thousand to one thou-
sand two hundred bushels of oyster shells (alive) collected in
scows from the shoals in the harbor—there abundant. These
pens were filled with alternate layers of shells and “lightwood”
from pitch pine, and thus were burned in about one day—very
much to the annoyance of the neighborhood by the smoke and
vapor of burning shellfish, when the wind was strong enough to