North Carolina Line

NORTH CAROLINA LINE. North Carolina created its first two full-time regiments on 1 September 1775 and they passed to the Continental Army on 28 November 1775, when the Congress accepted them. Four more regiments were added during 1776, and in the expansion of 1777 the total number of regiments rose to nine, all of which were sent north to serve with Commander in Chief George Washington. One of the Additional Continental Regiments (Sheppard's) was known familiarly as the Tenth North Carolina Regiment and also served in Pennsylvania, but technically it was not considered to be part of the state line. The Seventh through Ninth North Carolina Regiments and Sheppard's unit were disbanded at Valley Forge on 1 June 1778, and the men were redistributed in an effort to maintain troop strength. The remaining regiments moved back to North Carolina, and in November 1779 all of the enlisted men from the Fourth through Sixth North Carolina Regiments transferred to replace the troops of the First and Third, which had been captured at Charleston. On 1 January 1781 the state's quota of regiments dropped to three, but only the First and Second Regiments were able to fill their ranks and return to combat status that summer. The last of the Line went home on furlough in early April 1783 and then were formally disbanded on 15 November 1783. North Carolina also raised three separate troops of light dragoons and a separate artillery company for the Continental army in 1776 and 1777, but these units were not part of the state line.

SEE ALSO Charleston, South Carolina.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Davis, Charles L. A Brief History of the North Carolina Troops on the Continental Establishment in the War of the Revolution. Philadelphia: N.p., 1896.

Hay, Gertrude Sloan, ed. Roster of Soldiers from North Carolina in the American Revolution with an Appendix Containing a Collection of Miscellaneous Records. Durham: North Carolina Daughters of the American Revolution, 1932.

Rankin, Hugh F. The North Carolina Continentals. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1971.