Chronicle did not exist as a town during the American Revolution. The area, while populated by some early American colonists and traversed by Cherokee and Catawba natives, was largely devoid of large-scale settlements when the founding fathers drafted the Declaration of Independence in the metropolitan city of Philadelphia.
Indeed, in the late 1700s, most of western North Carolina (also known as the “backcountry”), was a sparsely populated frontier. The majority of North Carolina’s colonists lived on the coastline, where the British had initially settled, including the capital town of New Bern.
Despite this, the area that is today known as Chronicle, and Lincoln and Catawba counties as a whole, played an important role in the events of the revolution.
The Regulator War
Backcountry colonists were not wealthy in the mid 1760s. The land of the piedmont and mountain regions of North Carolina was less suitable for growing crops, and with so few settlers and towns, there was little other industry. Despite this, the colonists were subjected to the same taxes as wealthy coastal elites but afforded almost none of the benefits.
Local county officials were unelected, appointed instead by the Royal Governor. These officials were often corrupt, falsely convicting innocent individuals of crimes and extorting false taxes from colonists.
British imperial measures like the Stamp Act of 1765 led to increased dissatisfaction with colonial rule across the American colonies. Local expenses, such as the construction of Royal Governor William Tryon’s palace in New Bern, increased the tax burden even more dramatically.
In the mid 1760s, backcountry colonists began printing pamphlets and organizing protests to demand lower taxes and fair treatment, which they claimed to be their right as British citizens. Early leaders of the movement, including quaker Herman Husband, were staunchly opposed to violence as a method of change. Husband wrote that the movement’s goal was “to be Governed by Law, and not by the Will of officers.”
Members of the movement became known as the “Regulators,” because the movement aimed to regulate the abuses of government. The colonists filed suit with the government, sent petitions to the colonial assembly, and attempted to garner meetings with government officials. Some Regulators were even elected to the colonial assembly, including Herman Husband.
When the assembly and the greater colonial government still did not address any of the colonists’ concerns, they began to use extralegal means to protest the government. They pledged to not pay taxes, repossessed property that had been taken by the colonial authorities, and disrupted court proceedings.
Tryon said of the Regulators that “the Grievances complained of by no means Warrant” their actions, which “tended to the subversion of the Constitution of this Government.”
In 1768, Tryon ordered the creation of a new county west of the Catawba River, to be named “Tryon County” in his honor. Many citizens of the area were outraged by the change, which they saw as an insult amid the increasing tensions. William Chronicle Sr. became a vocal proponent of the Regulator Movement and opponent of the new county’s creation. His son, William Chronicle Jr., would later learn to share his revolutionary beliefs.
In 1770, tensions finally boiled over when a mob of Regulators attacked several members of the political elite in Hillsborough, including the sheriff. Several officials were forced to flee the town. Herman Husband was expelled from the assembly and the Johnson Riot Act was passed, allowing the colonial government to take violent action against anyone who assembled “unlawfully, tumultuously and riotously.”
As violent acts continued, Tryon raised a militia of roughly 1100 men from eastern North Carolina. Many of the militiamen sympathized with the Regulators and would later become patriots in the Revolution.
The militia marched west and met against a large force of Regulators at Hillsborough in May of 1771. The American Battlefield Trust estimates “between two and three thousand” regulators were camped at Hillsborough. The Encyclopedia Britannica claims that the number was 3,700.
Tryon offered to leave peacefully if the Regulators surrendered their arms and swore allegiance to the government, but the Regulators refused. After a skirmish that led to nearly 200 casualties including 19 dead on both sides, the Regulators began to run out of ammunition and were forced to surrender.
Tryon issued a proclamation, promising a pardon to all Regulators who surrendered their weapons and swore an oath of allegiance to obey the law and pay taxes. According to the American Battlefield Trust, “eventually around three-quarters of all free men in the Piedmont region would take the oath.”
Though the Regulator movement ultimately failed, it paved the way for the greater American Revolution just five years later, and instilled in a young William Chronicle Jr. the ideals that would lead him to become a hero.
Ramsour’s Mill
Lord Charles Cornwallis, a British Major General, was assigned command of the southern theatre during the war. The British, who believed there were still many loyalists in the south, devised a plan to garner support with loyalists and form British militia units across the south. This “southern strategy” saw success, especially in South Carolina.
Lt. Col. John Moore, a local loyalist, was sent home by Cornwallis in 1780 after helping achieve the southern victories. He called upon residents of Lincoln County (which then encompassed Catawba and parts of other counties) to form a militia that would fight for the British side.
With help from another local loyalist Major Nicholas Welch, Moore raised a force of 1,300 men, most of whom were unarmed, and set up camp near Ramsour’s Mill, in modern-day Lincolnton.
A small contingent of patriots from across the North Carolina backcountry were dispatched by General Griffith Rutherford to break up the loyalist camp. Led by Colonel Francis Locke, the disparate militia units came together in modern-day Chronicle, camping on the banks of Mountain Creek. In total, the patriot forces amounted to about four hundred men.
The patriots marched over Anderson Mountain, stopping at the Anderson Mountain Spring to plan the confrontation. Some of the officers argued for a retreat across the Catawba at Sherrills Ford, hoping the much-larger force of loyalists could be held at the river. However, others worried that such a plan would embolden the loyalists, and feared that British reinforcements would be far greater than American reinforcements.
The loyalists had already learned of the existence of the patriot forces and attempted an ambush, but had seen little success.
On the morning of June 20th, 1780, the patriots launched a surprise attack against the loyalist forces at Ramsour’s Mill. Since both sides were militia composed of untrained backcountry farmers, the fighting quickly became chaotic.
“As there was no organization of either part nor regular returns made after the action, the loss could not be ascertained with correctness,” one account of the battle reads. “Fifty-six lay dead on the side of the ridge where the heat of the action prevailed. Many lay scattered on the flanks and over the ridge toward the mill. It is believed that seventy were killed and that the loss on each side was equal. About one hundred men on each side were wounded and fifty Tories were taken prisoners. The men had no uniforms and it could not be told to which party many of the dead belonged.”
Among the combatants was the young Major William Chronicle. The battle lasted only two hours and was a resounding victory for the patriots, scattering the loyalist forces and bringing an end to the long string of defeats that had characterised the southern theater of the war.
Kings Mountain
Disturbed by reports of patriot militias in western North Carolina, Lord Cornwallis dispatched Major Patrick Ferguson to the mountains in an attempt to garner loyalist support and put down the rebellion. The major claimed that he would, “march his army over the mountains, hang their leaders, and lay their country waste with fire and sword.” Ferguson’s tactics were seen as brutal, but proved effective as he drew over a thousand men to his side.
In response, militias from North Carolina and modern-day Tennessee began to pursue Ferguson and his men. Major William Chronicle’s regiment, led by Colonel William Graham, was among them. They amassed a force that included between 60 and 80 men from Lincoln County (which at the time also encompassed Catawba County). Along with the other militia regiments, they surrounded Ferguson at King’s Mountain in October of 1780. Ferguson deployed only the most basic of defenses, believing that American resistance would crumble.
William Graham was sick and was called away before the battle, leaving the young Major Chronicle in command of his Lincoln County militiamen. He personally led the charge up the mountain, advancing on the British position in front of his men. He called out, “Face to the mountain, boys!” Moments later, he was struck in the chest by a bullet and mortally wounded. He was only twenty-five feet from the British position at the moment of his death.
The battle concluded in a resounding American victory. Major Ferguson was killed, the loyalists were routed, and the victory set in motion a chain of events that led to the successful conclusion of the Revolution. Without Ferguson and his men, Cornwallis’ southern strategy was doomed to fail. Thomas Jefferson called the battle “the turn of the tide of success.”
William Chronicle was only 25 at the time of his death. He had no wife and no children. His horse was brought to his father’s stable, who, upon seeing it, knew that his son had been killed. His pistols, sword, and spurs were given to his half brother James McKee, who eventually inherited all else that he owned.
After the battle, most of the Lincoln County militiamen returned to their homes, including several who lived in the area around the Little Mountain. It is likely that the area was first called Chronicle then, in honor of their fallen commander.