Finding Freedom: A Revolutionary Journey Through the Lower Cape Fear

As fireworks light up our skies and flags wave across the nation this July, it's a powerful moment to reflect on what freedom truly meant—and means—for all Americans. The Lower Cape Fear Region, with Bald Head Island at its maritime heart, offers a deeply layered and sometimes uncomfortable history of the pursuit of liberty. From Revolutionary redcoats to Union gunboats, the Cape Fear River bore witness to battles, escapes, and acts of courage that reshaped the lives of countless individuals. This Independence Month, we honor not just the famous figures of 1776, but also the freedom seekers whose bravery defines the American spirit. 

Revolutionary Winds Over Bald Head (1775–1776)

Josiah Martin (1737–1786), the last royal governor of North Carolina, whose loyalist stance marked the end of British colonial rule in the colony during the American Revolution.

The American War for Independence officially began on April 19, 1775, when colonial militiamen clashed with British troops outside Boston. Although the "shot heard around the world" echoed from New England, its impact reached all the way to North Carolina's coast. Bald Head Island—then uninhabited—suddenly found itself strategically important due to its placement at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, a critical artery for trade and military movement.

In response to rising unrest, North Carolina’s royal governor, Josiah Martin, fled New Bern in 1775 and took refuge aboard a British ship anchored near Battery Island.  From there, he pleaded with Parliament to send military goods, claiming that with proper arms and support, he could raise a Loyalist army to crush the Patriotic cause. England approved, and an armada of over 50 British ships set sail under Sir Peter Parker.

Sir Peter Parker's Attack against Fort Moultrie,” c. 1782–1791, by James Peale.

Meanwhile, in February 1776, 1,500 poorly armed Loyalists marching from Cross Creek (modern-day Fayetteville) towards Wilmington were soundly defeated at the Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge; a five-minute skirmish that thwarted any chance of a Loyalist-British reunion on the Cape Fear. As a trickle of British ships arrived in April, they were met not by allies, but by silence and defeat. British General Henry Clinton, who anchored off the mouth of the Cape Fear, recalled "casting an anxious Eye every day towards the Cape."

Approaching the scene of the Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge on February 27, 1776 — a pivotal early clash in the American Revolution. [Photo courtesy of Moore’s Creek National Battlefield]

The British eventually established Fort George on Bald Head Island, hoping to regain control. But their hold was short-lived. After failed raids on plantations along the Cape Fear River, American Continental soldiers attempted to take back Fort George in a surprise attack on September 6, 1776. Warned by gunfire, the British repelled the Patriots. One American Soldier was killed, another wounded. The British soon abandoned the fort, leaving only faint echoes of empire on the shores of Bald Head. 

The Other Battle for Freedom

The fight for liberty in Cape Fear was never fought by Patriots alone. For many enslaved individuals, the promise of freedom often came not from the Revolution itself, but from the war’s chaos.

In 1775, British Governor Lord Dunmore of Virginia issued a proclamation offering freedom to any enslaved person willing to join British forces. Though far from a perfect promise, for those enslaved, siding with the Crown was ironically the most “American” decision—to pursue liberty at all costs. Officers like James Moore, Richard Caswell, and Robert Howe each lost dozens of enslaved individuals who self-emancipated and joined the British cause as laborers, nurses, spies, guides, and sailors. 

The British Navy sometimes took in entire groups at once—one ship reported embarking twelve formerly enslaved women in a single day. This military-emancipation tactic would be echoed nearly a century later during the American Civil War.

Civil War Echoes: Rowing Toward Liberty

Benjamin Franklin Butler (1818–1893), Union general and Massachusetts politician.

Fast forward to May 23, 1861. As the Civil War began, three men—Frank Baker, Shepard Mallory, and James Townsend—escaped enslavement and sought refuge with the Union Army at Fort Monroe, Virginia. Their white enslaver, Charles Mallory, intended to send them south to build Confederate defenses, possibly on Bald Head Island itself at Fort Holmes. Union General Benjamin Butler faced a legal and moral question: What should be done with men the Confederacy considered property?

Butler made a bold move. If enslaved individuals were considered property used for rebellion, he argued, they could be seized as "contraband of war." This legal workaround opened the floodgates. Hundreds of thousands of enslaved people soon fled to Union lines.

The family of William Benjamin Gould Sr. (1837–1923), a formerly enslaved U.S. Navy Civil War veteran. His surviving diary is the only known Civil War account by a formerly enslaved sailor.

Among them was William B. Gould, born enslaved in Wilmington, NC, in 1837. A skilled plasterer—his work still visible at the Bellamy Mansion—Gould escaped by boat on the night of September 21, 1862, rowing 28 miles down the Cape Fear River past Confederate Fort Holmes on Bald Head Island. He reached the USS Cambridge and enlisted in the U.S. Navy.

Gould’s diary remains a rare and invaluable firsthand account. On March 8, 1863, off the coast near Fort Fisher, he wrote:

Sketch of the USS Cambridge, a Union Navy gunboat active during the Civil War, known for blockading Confederate ports and capturing enemy vessels.

"We got underway about 2 bell. Cruised until 1 O’clock. Came to anchor at 4 bells. Quarters and Servance. Read the Articles of War. Also the Proclamation of Emancipation. Very good."

Gould’s words reflect both the hardship and hope that defined the freedom journey for so many. He, like Frank Baker, Shepard Mallory, and Moses Caswell, joined a legacy of resistance that paralleled the nation’s fight for independence.

Liberty's “Electric Cord”

Abraham Lincoln, in his 1858 “Electric Cord” speech, reminded Americans that the true measure of belonging was not where one was born, but belief in the ideals of liberty. He declared that anyone who honored those ideals was:

“...blood of the blood, and flesh of the flesh of the men who wrote that Declaration... that electric cord... links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together. [T]hat will link those patriotic hearts as long as the love of freedom exists in the minds of men throughout the world ”

This Independence Day, as we honor the words “all men [people] are created equal,” we acknowledge this nation’s long and constant journey in achieving that American ideal. The Lower Cape Fear Region was shaped not just by redcoats and revolutionaries, but by freedom seekers whose courage continues to inspire.

From Bald Head to Beyond

As John Adams once predicted, the [fourth] day of July (when Congress voted for independence) would be remembered “with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations.” And indeed it is. But let us also remember the deeper stories—the bold escapes, the midnight rowboats, and the lives reclaimed along the Cape Fear.

Happy Independence Month from the Old Baldy Foundation!