Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Southern Campaigns topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Historian recounts North Carolina encounters: Fort Johnston burned, militia clashed at Morse Creek Bridge
Summary
Scott told GTN that as royal officials fled, Fort Johnston near the Cape Fear was burned and local militia actions — including at Morse Creek Bridge near Wilmington in early 1776 — marked the conflict's Southern outbreak.
In the Talk City interview, Scott connected national developments to North Carolina events that helped bring the Revolutionary conflict into the South.
Scott recounted that as British royal officials fled, Fort Johnston was burned rather than held as a British outpost; militia on both sides organized and clashed at local sites such as Morse Creek Bridge north of Wilmington in early 1776. He described these incidents as part of a broader pattern that pulled the southern colonies into the conflict as the British concentrated forces in the North.
Scott said these Southern encounters prompted the colonies to declare themselves states in some areas and to organize militias for local defense. He underscored that military activity in the South changed local governance and daily life in the war years, shaping the region's wartime experience.
