North Carolina connection to the Texas Revolution

Although Jamestown, VA was the first permanent settlement in the British colonies in 1607, North Carolina has the distinction of being the location of the first attempt to settle in the British Americas 23 years earlier. That settlement on Roanoke Island failed but in 1653 a permanent village did succeed. A royal grant was given in 1663 for the Carolinas and South Carolina was carved out in 1711. Until 1790 North Carolina extended from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River.

As the colonial Americans became dissatisfied with rule of the distant British king in 1776, North Carolina was the first colony to permit their delegates to vote in favor of independence from the British crown. This spirit of resolve and independence was infused into its native sons and when the colonist in the Mexican province called Texas because disatisfied with the oppressive rule of the central Mexican government, sons of North Carolina volunteered to go to Texas' aid. Some went directly to Texas and others that had migrated to other nearby states redirected their migration to Texas.

These men helped draft the Texas Declaration of Independence, gave their lives at the Alamo and at Goliad while others revenged those deaths and brought independence to Texas at the Battle of San Jacinto. The Asheville Citizen-Times newspaper ran two articles in 2014 on Remember the Alamo and Tar Heels played big role in Texas history. Below are those men that heard the call for freedom and responded.

Roll of Honor

 Micajah Autry of Sampson County

 Alexander Horton of Halifax County

John Leander Smith of Buncombe County

 Willis Thomas Avery

 Basil G. Ijams of Rowan County

 Joshua Granville Smith

 Jesse B Badgett

 Allen Ingram

Robert W. Smith

Ed Burleson of Buncombe County

 David Smith Kornegay of Jones County

William Davidson Smith of Burke County

 Andrew Caddell of Person County

 Joseph Lawrence of Buncombe County

George Washington Smyth 

 John Bailey Callicoatte of Montgomery County

 Edward/Edwin O. LeGrand of Burke County

Ashley R. Stephens of Wayne County

Neil Orton Campbell of Rowan County

 Joseph Lindley of Orange County

Campbell Taylor

Samuel Price Carson of Burke County

 John Litton

 Benjamin Thomas

William Clark, Jr.  

 Phillip Martin

 John W. Thomson

Francis Jarvis Cooke of Carteret County

 Willis A. Moore of Robeson County

 John Turner 

 Thomas Cooke of Beauford County

 James Clinton Neill of Rowan County

 Thomas C. Utley

 William Carrol Crawford of Cumberland County

 William Parks of Rowan County

John Wildinson of New Hanover  

 David Crockett of Tennesse Territory

George Washington Pleasants of Wake County

 Claiborne Wright of Duplin County

 Arter Crowover of Buncombe County

 Robert Potter of Granville County

 John Yancy of Wake County

 James Farmer

  Sterling Clack Robertson of Tennesse Territory

 Dolphin Ward Floyd of Nash County

William Turner Sadler

 John Graham of Sampson County

 Mial Scurlock of Chatham County

 Jesse B. Grimes of Duplin County

 John Sharp

 Robert Hamilton born Scotland but to TX from NC

 John Harvey Herron

 Jeremiah W. Simpson of Rowan County

 James Johnson born MO but to TX from NC

 Ahijah M. Highsmith

 James Monroe Smith

Patrick Usher born Ireland but to TX from NC

 

 

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4.22.2014