School History of North Carolina : from 1584 to the present timeMoore, John W. (John Wheeler)
History
School History of North Carolina : from 1584 to the present time
Moore, John W. (John Wheeler)
North Carolina -- History
6. On the sea, where the mighty fleets of Great Britain had at
such fearful disadvantage the few cruisers of their opponents,
were also to be found brilliant representatives of this
Commonwealth. Captain Johnston Blakeley, of Wilmington, had been
reared by Colonel Edward Jones, the Solicitor-General of North
Carolina. He had already made reputation in the Mediterranean
Sea under Commodore Preble.
7. Early in 1614 he went to sea in the United State's sloop-of-
war Wasp, and captured, with great eclat, the British sloop-
of-war Reindeer. Having burned this prize for fear of its
recapture, he refitted in a French port, and in August
encountered another British ship, the Avon. The British vessel
had struck her colors, when a fleet of the enemy came upon the
scene and the victorious Wasp was forced to fly. In a few days
Blakeley, thus cruising over the crowded seas surrounding
England, captured fifteen merchant vessels. On one of these, the
brig Atlanta, he put a prize crew and sent her to the United
States.
8. This is the last that is known of this gallant and ill fated
officer. He perished in some unknown manner at sea, but has left
an imperishable name to our keeping.
9. Captain Otway Burns, of Beaufort, was the commander of a
cruiser known as the Snap-Dragon. With this privateer he long
roamed the seas, and was victorious in many well fought actions.
He survived the war and was afterwards a member of the
Legislature. The village of Burnsville was named in his honor.
10. In addition to the troops already mentioned, a regiment
commanded by Colonel Joseph Graham, so highly distinguished in
the Revolution, was sent against Billy Weathersford and his Creek
warriors, who had massacred nearly three hundred white people in
Fort Minims, on the Alabama River. Another North Carolinian by
birth, General Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee, was in command of
the force sent to avenge this outrage of the red men. *
*General Andrew Jackson was born in Mecklenburg county, on the
15th day of March, 1767,
11. So swiftly and completely had Jackson done his work, that
when the North Carolina regiment arrived there was nothing left
to do; for, as Weathersford declared, his braves were all dead,
and the war ended. The Indians were required, as a preliminary
to peace, to bring in their fugitive chief, Weathersford. That
bold and able half-breed did not wait for arrest upon hearing
these terms, but rode into General Jackson's camp, and in
surrendering himself, boldly announced that he did so because he
no longer had warriors to continue the struggle." I have nothing
to ask for myself," said he, "but I want peace for my people."
1815.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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