The Regulators and the Battle of Alamance, 1771

On the morning of May 16, 1771, two armies faced each other across open ground near Great Alamance Creek in the North Carolina Piedmont. On one side stood roughly 1,000 militiamen under Governor William Tryon, with artillery and a line of officers in good coats. On the other stood perhaps 2,000 backcountry men, many with no firearm and no military training, who had no overall commander.

Tryon sent word that they had an hour to lay down their arms and disperse. They did not. What followed ended the largest organized protest movement in colonial North Carolina.

A backcountry that felt cheated

By the late 1760s, settlers in Orange, Granville, Anson and neighboring counties were paying taxes and fees to officials they believed were robbing them. County sheriffs collected taxes, and some kept part of the money. Clerks, registers of deeds and lawyers charged fees that often exceeded what the law allowed, and farmers short of cash had little power to refuse.

The poll tax, a flat charge on each adult man, fell as heavily on a poor farmer as on a rich planter. Hard money was scarce, and farmers who could not pay saw their land and livestock sold at auction. Many also resented that the royal governor's administration, based in the east, spent public money on projects far from the backcountry. Tryon's new residence at New Bern, finished in 1770 and known as Tryon's Palace, became a symbol of this resentment.

Edmund Fanning, Orange County's register of deeds and a close ally of the governor, became the most hated local official. Residents accused him of charging excessive fees. Beginning in 1768, the protesters called themselves Regulators, meaning they wanted to regulate abuses by public officials. They sent petitions, refused to pay disputed fees, and demanded open accounts. Herman Husband, a farmer and writer who had moved from Maryland, became their best-known spokesman.

From petitions to riot

The Regulators first tried legal means. When petitions produced little change, tensions rose. In 1768 Tryon marched to Hillsborough with militia, and the confrontation ended without bloodshed. In September 1770, a crowd of Regulators broke up the superior court at Hillsborough. They beat several lawyers and officials, including Fanning, and damaged his house.

The assembly responded in early 1771 with what became known as the Johnston Riot Act. It made certain riotous gatherings a serious crime and set penalties for those who did not surrender. Tryon then raised militia from mostly eastern and central counties and marched west.

The battle at Alamance

Tryon's force camped near Alamance Creek in mid-May. The Regulators gathered nearby, but they were poorly organized and had no unified plan. Husband was among those present, though accounts say he left before the fighting began. He had a Quaker background and was uncomfortable with violence.

After Tryon's deadline passed, his troops advanced. Accounts differ on exactly how the shooting started, but it began around midday. The Regulators fought from behind trees for about two hours, while the militia used cannon and disciplined volleys. The Regulators eventually ran short of ammunition and broke.

Tryon reported nine of his men killed and dozens wounded. Regulator deaths are less certain. Contemporary and later estimates vary, and many Regulators were wounded or fled. A second militia column under Hugh Waddell, coming from the west, had been turned back before the battle.

Executions and aftermath

Tryon took prisoners and had one of them, James Few, hanged at the camp the next day, apparently without a trial. A special court at Hillsborough later tried a group of Regulators for treason. Twelve were convicted, six were hanged on June 19, 1771, and the rest were pardoned. Tryon also offered pardons to those who swore an oath of loyalty, and thousands did. Husband fled North Carolina, and Tryon soon left to become governor of New York.

The battle crushed the movement, and many Regulators moved west into what is now Tennessee. The grievances behind it, however, did not simply disappear.

A prelude to revolution?

Later writers sometimes called Alamance the first battle of the American Revolution. Most historians are more cautious. The Regulators were protesting local officials, not British rule, and many claimed loyalty to the Crown. Some former Regulators joined the Patriot cause in 1776, while others sided with the Loyalists or stayed neutral, partly because the Patriot leaders came from the same eastern elite that had put them down.

What Alamance did show was how deeply colonial society was divided over who held power and how they used it. The same questions about representation, taxation and accountability would shape the Revolution, though on a much larger scale. Alamance Battleground, a state historic site in Alamance County, now preserves the field.