Historic Charlotte

the Catawba and join up with Greene’s soldiers
who were retreating northward through
Salisbury. The British marched through
Lincoln County and reached McCowan’s Ford
at the opposite shore from Mecklenburg
County shortly after Morgan and his men had
reached the other side.
Nathanael Greene arrived in Morgan’s
camp on January 30, 1781. On the same day,
the waters of the Catawba receded enough to
allow Cornwallis to begin making plans to
cross the river. Greene ordered William Lee
Davidson to delay the British advance while
Morgan and his troops dashed for Salisbury
and the Trading Ford on the Yadkin River.
Joel Jetton, a patriot militiaman, awoke
suddenly on the morning of February 1st at
McCowan’s Ford when he heard the whinnying
of horses and the sloshing of water.
Coming straight at him were three mounted
British officers and hundreds of redcoats.
“The British! The British!” Jetton yelled as he
scurried up the bank and awoke his startled
compatriots. The militia opened fire, making
the muddy waters of the Catawba turn red
with British blood.
The gunfire caused General Davidson to
rush to McCowan’s Ford, where he began rallying
the militia and organizing reinforcements.
The British, who had now gained the
shore in sufficient strength to deliver volleys,
fired their muskets at the patriots. A musket
ball penetrated Davidson’s chest, killing him
instantly. Thereafter, any semblance of resistance
on the part of the militia evaporated, as
young and old alike fled for their lives.
Davidson’s ultimate sacrifice paid great
dividends for Greene and Morgan. It gave the
patriot army the critical head start it needed
to reach the Yadkin at the Trading Ford, seven
miles beyond Salisbury, and to cross the river
in boats before the first elements of
Cornwallis’s army arrived on the night of
February 3rd.
Mecklenburg County was no longer affected
directly by the American Revolutionary
War. As the tide of battle surged back into
South Carolina and eventually into Virginia,
where Cornwallis was entrapped at Yorktown
and forced to surrender his army to General
George Washington on October 19, 1781, the
farmers of the Carolina Piedmont returned to
the performance of their daily chores. The
great majority of the early settlers of
Mecklenburg County scratched out a meager
living in the fields they labored to keep free
from unwanted trees. These subsistence farmers
grew what they ate and made what they
wore. The staple crop was corn They were
poor and malnourished. Infectious diseases
like measles, influenza, whooping cough, and
✧
A re-enactor portrays Hezekiah Alexander
at the circa 1740 Hezekiah Alexander
House on the grounds of the Charlotte
Museum of History.
COURTESY CHARLOTTE MUSEUM OF HISTORY.
CHAPTER II
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