Point, opposite Fort Sullivan, South Carolina, at which place it remained in the forces which were there opposing the operations of Sir Henry Clinton. In March, 1777, orders were again given the North Carolina brigade to join Washington. Moving up through North Carolina and Virginia, and crossing the Potomac near Alexandria, the main army was finally reached on the Jersey side of the Delaware River, at Middlebrook. The accession of these brave North Carolinians was gladly hailed by Washington, and they were given a thundering welcome in the shape of “a salutation of thirteen cannon, each fired thirteen times.”[N] At Alexandria, in the latter part of May, the march of Nash’s brigade had been delayed to inoculate the troops against small-pox. Early in July, the North Carolinians, together with the other troops around Philadelphia, were detailed to complete the fortifications on the Delaware River.[O] On the 14th of August, 1777, while the Continental forces were in camp at Trenton, we find Colonel Buncombe and the other field-officers of Nash’s brigade uniting in a protest against a Pennsylvanian, Colonel Edward Hand, being made a brigadier-general to command North Carolina troops, _vice_ General James Moore, who had recently died.[P] While not questioning Colonel Hand’s merit, they declared that the appointment of any outsider would be a “reflection on North Carolina and a stab at military honour throughout the continent in general.” The memorial also contained some rather unpleasant references to Thomas Burke (then a delegate from North Carolina in the Continental Congress), and charged him with neglecting the interests of the State he represented to advance one of his own countrymen--he and Hand both being natives of Ireland. Burke was so enraged thereby that he declared, referring to the signers of the protest: “Their behaviour in this instance has determined me to forego all particular attention to them. I hope they will so distinguish themselves that their merit alone will be sufficient for their promotion, without standing in need of any assistance which I could give.” Whether Doctor Burke did forego all particular attention to the North Carolinians does not appear, but he certainly succeeded in his efforts to secure the promotion of Hand, who, it is a pleasure to add, rendered long and honorable service during the war, and held a major-general’s commission in the regular army after the return of peace. On the 11th day of September, 1777, was fought the battle of Brandywine, and here Colonel Buncombe’s regiment was actively engaged. In this conflict, the North Carolina brigade and Greene’s division were ranged in the centre of the American Army.[Q] Being ordered to support the right wing (then sorely pressed), their absence left the troops under General Wayne to cope alone with a vastly superior force of the enemy. After a brave and bloody resistance, Wayne was forced to retire, and the day was lost.