Unveiling the Hart’s Mill sign in Hillsborough
11:00 am
Saturday, August 11, 2008

Sam Powell, PhD, President, NCSSAR

Good Morning, my name is Sam Powell.  I am the President of the North Carolina Society Sons of the American Revolution. We are a National patriotic society. Our members have traced their ancestry back to a patriot of the American Revolution.  The SAR has as its mission to promote patriotism, and  reaffirm those values on which our country was founded.

I bring  welcome to you from our 700 member State Society and I thank you for being present today.  I would like to thank the Gen. Francis Nash Chapter for hosting today’s event, and in particular, to recognize Compatriot Jay Stobbs, its President, and Compatriot Stewart Dunaway, Chapter Secretary and the Hart's Mill Project Chairman.

I would also like to add my thanks to the NCDOT for providing and erecting this long overdue highway sign in honor of the Revolutionary War battle that occurred here, and the NC Department of Cultural Resources and the Office of Archives and History for their support.

The Battle of Hart’s Mill

The Battle of Hart’s Mill is important to all of the citizens of North Carolina as it is to the citizens of the United States.  It is of special significance to those interested in studying the Southern Campaign of the American Revolution.

Following the Race to the Dan, during which the American Army escaped the clutches of the British Army, the British commander Lord Charles Cornwallis moved his army from the Dan River to Hillsborough.

Nathanael Greene’s American army also moved back into North Carolina, down from Virginia.

The skirmish that occurred here was the start of a campaign that eventually led to the British  defeat at Yorktown, VA .  The attack at Hart’s Mill was the quintessential wake-up call to the British that the American army was not finished.  It was the first attack in a series of skirmishes that kept the British from being able to move to Wilmington for reinforcements, fire fights which included Pyle’s Defeat, Clapp’s Mill and Weitzel’s Mill.

These skirmishes weakened the British and led to the partial destruction of their army one month later at Guilford Courthouse.

The outcome of the war in favor of America was due in no small part to the courage of the soldiers that fought here at Hart’s Mill.  It is, therefore, fitting that we remember the Hart’s Mill engagement with this highway marker.