New Bern, North Carolina

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New Bern, North Carolina

NEW BERN, NORTH CAROLINA. August 1781. On 1 August, Major James Craig led 250 British regulars and 80 Loyalists north from Wilmington on a punitive expedition. Reinforced en route by another three hundred Loyalists, he destroyed rebel plantations along his seventy-five-mile march to New Bern; entered that town on 19 August; destroyed property; and returned to Wilmington, meanwhile burning additional Whig plantations. Craig also liberated several scores of slaves along the way.

SEE ALSO Wilmington, North Carolina.

                     revised by Michael Bellesiles

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