and experience a disastrous defeat at Moore's Creek Bridge from Caswell and Lillington.
On the departure of General Lee to the north from Charleston, March, 1776, the Continental Congress promoted Moore to the rank of brigadier general and commander in chief of the Southern Department.
He endeavored to discharge the duties of this important station with fidelity, but his feeble health sunk under the duty, and he returned home, there to die.
General James Moore married Anna Ivey, by whom he had four children, Duncan Moore, James Moore, Mrs. Swann, Mrs. Waters.
Judge Alfred Moore (born 21st May, 1755; died 10th October, 1810,) was the son of Judge Maurice Moore. He was sent to Boston to acquire his education. While there he made by his genial disposition many friends, and was offered a commission in the Royal Army. This was not accepted, but the presence of a large military garrison and the friendship of one of its officers, added to an inherited taste for the profession of arms, led him to acquire accurate knowledge of military tactics, which soon was to be called into requisition in defense of his native land. He returned home, and when all hopes of reconciliation were lost and contest commenced, the State Congress at Hillsboro, in August, 1775, organized two regiments for the Continental establishment, he was commissioned as captain in the First Regiment, of which his uncle, James Moore, was the colonel. He marched with his command to Charleston and was on duty there at the brilliant affair of Fort Moultrie, and evinced traits of character that ranked him among the first captains of his day.
But circumstances unforeseen and disastrous crowded heavily upon him. His father, Judge Maurice Moore, and his uncle both died the same day. His brother Maurice was killed by mischance at Brunswick. General Francis Nash, his brother-in-law, killed in battle. These calamities left a helpless family on his hands, and he was forced by these untoward events to resign.
His patriotism and his martial spirit, however, did not allow him to be idle or inactive. He raised a troop of volunteers, and so greatly annoyed the enemy that Major Craig (afterwards Sir James Craig, Governor-General of Canada,) when in possession of Wilmington, sent troops to Captain Moore's house, who plundered everything that was valuable, and destroyed the remainder. While the British were at Wilmington, his condition was deplorable--without means, or even decent clothes, driven from his home and family, his property destroyed, yet no murmur of complaint was uttered by him; no abatement of zeal.
Dear must that independence be, purchased at such a terrible price. After the battle of Guilford Court-house (15th March, 1781,) Captain Moore with others did good service in harrassing Lord Cornwallis in his march from Guilford to Wilmington.
But the war was soon to close. The English were then on their march to Yorktown, which proved to be the Waterloo of the contest.
But it was not in the field, although he had done a soldier's duty with credit and gallantry, that Judge Moore's reputation was won, and which preserves his name to a grateful posterity. The General Assembly in 1782 elected him Attorney-General of the State, when it was known that he had never read a law book. This was done to alleviate, in a delicate manner, his immediate wants, and as some slight acknowledgment of gratitude for his sacrifices and sufferings. His habits of industry and acute penetration soon supplied any deficiency. In the opinion of the Supreme Court, in case of State vs. Gernigan,*
* Judge Taylor's opinion in
3d Murphy Rep., 12.
he "discharged the
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