DDH - Old Mother Covington
from The Dave Bowman Show
We tend to remember the American Revolution as a clean fight. Patriots in homespun. Redcoats in formation. Muskets cracking across open fields. But that is not how it felt in North Carolina in 1776. Before there was Saratoga. Before there was Yorktown. Before Jefferson put ink to parchment and accused the king of stirring up “domestic insurrections among us,” there was a swamp. A narrow bridge. And neighbors marching against neighbors. Royal Governor Josiah Martin believed he could crush the rebellion from the inside. Ten thousand loyalists would rise. Seven thousand British troops would land. The Carolinas would fall. The Revolution would choke before it ever reached full flame. Instead, in the cold darkness before dawn on February 27, 1776, Highland Scots charged across a greased bridge shouting “King George and broadswords!” What followed lasted three minutes. Three minutes that shattered a royal strategy. Three minutes that hardened a colony. Three minutes that pushed North Carolina to become the first to authorize independence. This is the story of Moore’s Creek Bridge. This is the story behind the grievance. And this is why Old Mother Covington still echoes in the dark.
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