Qualla: Battle of Mobley's Meeting House

Battle of Mobley's Meeting House: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

It was supposed to be impossible to climb up - and impossible to climb down. The Tory militia camped at Mobley's Meeting House had chosen the site for exactly that reason: a steep embankment on a fork of the Little River, a fortified blockhouse, and a sturdy church building. Three sides were defensible. The fourth was the embankment, and no one would attack from there because no one could. At daybreak on June 8, 1780, Colonel William Bratton's Whig militia attacked from three sides. The Tories panicked. A number of them tried to escape down the supposedly impossible embankment - and were injured falling. More men were hurt by gravity than by gunfire that morning. The fight was small, brief, and almost bloodless by the standards of the war. But after the catastrophes of May - Charleston fallen, Waxhaws a massacre - the patriots needed a win, however symbolic.

Battle of Mobley's Meeting House: The Bad Spring of 1780

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

By June 1780 the southern campaign of the American Revolution had run very badly for the patriots. The British had captured Savannah, then Charleston in May, and on May 29 Banastre Tarleton's dragoons had cut to pieces a small Continental force at the Waxhaws - the engagement tha...

Battle of Mobley's Meeting House: Richard Winn Rides Out

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Richard Winn, a prominent local Whig leader, began to rally supporters. By June 7 he had between one and two hundred men in the New Acquisition District - roughly today's York County. The Whig officers included Colonel William Bratton, who had led militia since the war began in 1...

Battle of Mobley's Meeting House: The Embankment That Was Not Impossible

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The assault came at daybreak from three sides - the fourth left open because no one expected anyone to use it. The Whig accounts say they suffered no casualties; the Tories suffered a few killed and some captured. But the most striking detail is what happened on the embankment si...

Battle of Mobley's Meeting House: Symbol and Reprisal

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Colonel Turnbull at Rocky Mount sent the New York Volunteers - the 'Green Coat Tories' under Captain Christian Huck - in reprisal. Huck's column went on a small rampage, destroying Richard Winn's plantation, the home and parsonage of the Reverend John Simpson, and attacking the s...