The Revolution comes alive, 236 years later to the day!

The Cape Fear River Basin is home to so much American history, boasting a menagarie of Revolutionary sites, all within walking distance around Elizabethtown, marked with stone signs on pillars, stating events that shaped our nation. The great part is that it is all accessible by foot, with plenty of shade trees and Magnolias  the way, the air filled with the pleasure of summer blossoms.

In 1781, the  Battle of Elizabethtown was fought at ToryHole (now Tory Hole Park on the banks of the Cape Fear River)

      “On August 27, 1781, the Revolutionary War Battle of Elizabethtown was fought.

Two weeks earlier, Loyalist forces under Colonel John Slingsby captured several Whig—that is Patriot—supporters in what’s now Fayetteville. Slingsby brought his prisoners to Elizabethtown, in Bladen County.

The day before the battle, a local resident named Sallie Salter entered the Tory camp to sell eggs. Unbeknownst to them, she was a Patriot spy. She reported to Colonels Thomas Robeson, Jr., and Thomas Brown, commanders of a band of Bladen County militiamen that had withdrawn to Duplin County. Her information led to a decision to attack Slingsby.

This was a considerable gamble, as the Patriot command numbered between 60 and 70 men, while Slingsby’s forces totaled between 300 and 400.

After a night march, the militiamen launched a surprise attack on Slingsby’s camp. The resulting confusion was amplified by the successful efforts of the Whigs to make the Tories think that there were far more Patriots present than there actually were.

With Slingsby dead, the Tories retreated to a ravine, afterwards called “Tory Hole.” There they were fired upon until they surrendered. The Patriot victory permanently weakened Tory power in the Cape Fear region.”

 (Courtesy of 

https://www.ncdcr.gov/blog/2016/08/27/battle-of-elizabethtown-culminated-at-the-tcory-hole)