| “ | The lawyers use us as we do our stocks: they kill one here and there, or pluck us well, and then let us run a while to feather again. We must make these men subject to the laws, or they will enslave the whole community.
— Herman Husband, unofficial leader of the Regulators
|
” |
The Regulators were a group of rebellious farmers active in the Province of North Carolina between 1766 to 1771. The Regulators protested against perceived corruption and abuse of power by royal officials, especially Royal Governor William Tryon. Although their protest were initially peaceful, their protest escalted into a conflict known as the Regulator War.
The Regulator War gradually developed after peaceful attempts by North Carolinians to have their grievances addressed largely failed to produce satisfactory results. The Regulator War was initially marked by periodic outbursts of violence by local farmers against surveyors and other land designators operating on behalf of the colonial government. In the spring of 1768, this group of farmers named itself the "Regulators", after their goal of "regulating" local officials and their exercise of power.
That same year, the Regulators moved on the seat of North Carolina's colonial court, Hillsborough. They disrupted court proceedings, compelling the presiding judge Richard Henderson to flee Hillsborough overnight. The next morning, the Regulators sacked Hillsborough, burning the judge's home and barn, and beating local officials accused of corruption, including Edmund Fanning, Governor Tryon's right-hand man. The Regulators defiantly refused to pay taxes and threatened further violence against officials who would not consider their demands for justice.
Sporadic violence continued to plague the region until 1771, when Governor Tryon mustered around 1,000 royal militia and marched toward Hillsborough to put down the rebellion. The Regulators, numbering some 2,000 strong, formed up and camped south of Great Alamance Creek, about 30 miles west of Hillsborough. On May 11, Tryon marched from Hillsborough to confront the Regulators, and on the morning of May 16, 1771, the two sides formed up on opposite sides of a gulley.
After demands were exchanged and neither side backed down, fighting erupted between the Regulators and Tryon’s royal militia. The Regulators lacked ammunition and artillery, while Tryon had brought eight cannon with him to the field. However, the Regulators held their ground for two and a half hours before they were compelled to retreat. The Battle of Alamance, as the encounter was known, ended in a decisive victory for the colonial government that signaled the conclusive defeat of the Regulator Movement. The colonial militia lost nine killed and a few dozen wounded; casualties for the Regulators are not recorded, but were higher. Tryon executed several Regulators captured after the battle, but the majority of the Regulators received a pardon on the condition that they pledge an oath of allegiance to the government.
Battle vs. Túpac Amaru's Rebels (by Field Marshal Montgomery)[]
TBW
Expert's Opinions[]
The Peruvian rebels were better organized and fought more battles against a superior force. That allowed them to overcome the disadvantage of slightly less musketeers in their ranks.