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Odin - the Wise Woman- Ragnarok - the Final Destiny of the Gods

11/14/2014

 
"The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands,
to fight the horde, singing and crying: Valhalla, I am coming!" ~Robert Plant


What a better way to end Phyllis's three part series on here than with the final destiny of Odin, Ragnaro, the Wise Woman and the Gods.

Phyllis, we thank you. Her fantastic site can be accessed at http://phyllisdoyle.hubpages.com

Odin - the Wise Woman- Ragnarok - the Final Destiny of the Gods by Phyllis Doyle

Norse mythology-

Odin,  father of all gods in Norse mythology, calls upon the Wise Woman, to find out about Ragnarok, the final destiny of the gods in this final battle, there will be the demise of many heroes and gods as foretold in the poem  ( The Wise Woman's Prophecy), the most famous of all the poems in the Poetic Edda.
Picture Odin the Wanderer (1896) by Georg von Rosen Source: Wikipedia Public Domain - Odin
The Poetic Edda, often referred to as the Elder Edda, is the most important extant source of Norse mythology.  It is a collection of ancient Old Norse poems contained in the Codex Regius, an Icelandic manuscript which was written int eh 1270's.  Many of the stanzas of the Voluspa are also in the Prose Edda of the 13th century, by the Icelandic historian and poet Snorri  Sturluson.

Odin, the Allfather

Odin is the powerful god of the EEsir (Nose pantheon), the father of all gods, in the Voluspa Odin visits a volva,m a shamanic seeress adept in sorcery and prophecy.  A volva was highly esteemed and possessed power that surpassed even those of Odin.

Odin wishes to gain the Widsom of the Ages with the help of the Volva, whom he bids to rise from her grave.  He is always very aware of  impending disasters and continually seeks more knowledge.  He calls upon the Volva and she demands a hearing wherein she relates all of the past from Creation forward.  All the stanzas herein of the poem come from Volumn 1 of  The Poetic Edds, Lays of the Gods, Voluspa.

Picture Odin the Wanderer (1896) by Georg von Rosen Source: Wikipedia Public Domain - Odin
The first disaster for the gods-

Before going further, the Volva recalls the death of Baldr.

The first great disaster to the gods defines Loki as an enemy and outcast of the gods in AEsir.  This disaster was the death of
  Baldr,  the son of  Odin and Frigg.  Baldr was the god of light, The Shining One.  He had a dream of his own death by an arrow and sought Frigg to tell her.  She had the same dream on same night.  She loved Baldr beyond all, so called upon all the trees and plants of the woods.  She made them swear that no part of them would ever harm Baldr.  All the plants made an oath to her, all except the mistletoe.  Frigg thought the mistletoe too yundgand fragile to swear an oath.

 It had become a great game for the young gods to shoot arrows at Baddr and watch them bounce off, not harming him.  Loki, the troublemaker, found out about the mistletoe and made an arrow from it  He gave the arrow to Hoth, the blind younger brother of Baldr.  Happy to be a part ot the game, Hoth hurled  the arrow which struck and killed Baldr.

the Volva relates this event to Odin

32. 
I  saw for Baldr, the bleeding god,
The Son of Othin, his destiny set
Famous and fair in the lofty fields,
Full grown in strength the mistletoe stood.


Another of Odin's Vali, slew Hoth.  Great was the sorrow of Odin and Frigg.  The gods then took Loki and bound him to a tree with a serpent fastened to the tree just above Loki's head.  Venom of the serpent constantly dripped down.  Loki's wife, Sigyn, stays beside him with a bowl to catch the venom.  When the bowl is full, she has to leave to empty it and the venom drips over Loki's face.  Earth shook from the struggles of Loki. 

Picture
`Odin and the Völva (1895) by Lorenz Frølich - Source: Wikipedia Public Domain - Odin
The Volva

The Volva was once called Gullveig by all who knew her.  It is uncertain if Gullveig was a goddess or a sorceress.  The AEsir had executed her by spearing then burning her.  Three times they did this and three times she came back.  After the third time she was called by the name Heior, meaning "fame" in Old Norse.

Several scholars have proposed that Gullveig may have been the goddess Freyja.  If she had been Freyja, it could have been the cause, or at least one, of the AEsir-Vanir War, the first war of the world.  Freyja was a member of the Vanir.  As a VAnir goddess, she was adept in witchcraft.  Her husband was Oor, a member of the AEsir.  Oor often went on long journeys, leaving Freyja alone.  She traveled in disguise under many different names searching for Oor.  The Vanir would have been furious  if  Freyja was in face Gullveig, executed by the AEsir, and would have sought  revenge.

1.  Hearing I ask from the holy races,
From Heimdall's sons, both high and low,
Thou wild, Valfather, that well I relate
Old tales I remember of men long ago.

2.  I remember yet the giants of yore,
Who gave me bread in the days gone by,
Nine worlds I knew, the nine in the tree
With mightly roots beneath the mold

Heimdall is the watchman of the gods.  His sons (brethren of  kin) both high and low are the gods and  mankind in general.  She refers to Odin as "Valfather", because all the brave and good stain warriors in battles are brought to him  in Valhalla (Hall of the Stain) where they are given immortality till they are to fight in Ragnarok.  The nine worlds of the tree are the non worlds (levels) of the gods in Yggdrasil, the World Tree.  It s roots reach far down in Earth and its branches reach to Heaven.   Its arms spread out over all the world.

PictureThe Æsir lift Gullveig on spears over fire as illustrated by Lorenz Frølich (1895)
The Volva recounts events far into the past, including things only Odin knows, and far into the future she tell fo things Odin wishes to know.

The Voluspa

When Odin first begins talking with the Volva, there is a formality wherein they each must test each other.  She must present proof of the abilities as a Wise Woman and seeress.  Odin muse therefore listen to her tales of the past and acknowledge her wisdom as truth.  The Volva tell Odin she know where the horn of Heimdall, watchman of the gods, is hidden under Yggdrasil.  This is the horn that Heimdall will blow to summon the gods to counsel before the final battle.

27.  I know of the horn of Heimdall, hidden
Under the high-reaching holy tree;
On it there pours from Valfather's pledge
A mighty stream would you know yet more?


The Volva changes directions here and addresses Odin directly.  Although Odin has not told her why he called her up, she knows what he wants and how much he has endured in his constanbt search for knowledge of his own doom, in an earlier journey for knowledge.  Odin had gone to the well of Mimir, The Well  of Wisdom.  The well was named after Mimir, a man who had counseled other wisely.  Mimir  asked for sacrifice if Odin wanted to see future events.  He told Odin that if he wanted to be a seer he must put one of his eyes in the well, so Odin sacrificed one eye.  He also pledged to bring mead to Mimir each morn for more knowledge. 

Mimir had been a counselor to Hoenir, a chieftain the gods thought was very wise.  When the gods found out that it was Mimir who gave the the wisdom to Hoenir, they beheaded Mimir and sent the head to Odin in Asgard.  Odin embalmed the head and spoke charms over it so the head could counsel
Odin the secrets and many things.  Odin carried the head with him everywhere.  The body of Mimir had been thrown in a  well where Odin found it.

Picture The Ash Yggdrasil, by Wilhelm Wagner, 1896 - Source: Wikipedia Public Domain - Yggdrasil
The Volva asks Odin (the Old One) , "What questions do you have? Why have you come here?  She proceeds to tell Odin she knows where his eye is.

28.  Alone I sat when the Old One sought me,
The terror of gods, and gazed in mine eyes:
"What hast thou to ask? why com est thou hither?
Odin, I know where thine eye is hidden."

29.  I know where Odin's eye is hidden,
Deep in the wide-famed well of Mimir,
Mead from the pledge of Odin each mom
Does Mirmir drink: would you know yet more?

30.  Necklaces had I and rings from Heerfather,
Wise was my speech and my magic wisdom,
Widely I saw over all the worlds.


When she asks, "would you know yet more?" she is relating to Odin that she has proved her knowledge of the past and of the secrets  he holds.  Odin in turn acknowledges her wisdom and had rewarded her with jewelry, which is an indication to tell him more.  She refers to Odin as "Heerfather" (father of the Host). Line 30 brings Odin and the Volva to the point where they both accept that the past she relates to is true and she will now transition to the future and the real reason Odin has come to here.

Picture Loki and Sigyn (1863) by Mårten Eskil Winge Source: Wikipedia Public Domain - Loki

In the Prose Edda, Loki is introduced formally in chapter 34 of the book Gylfaginning.  He is referred to as the "originator of deceits" and " the disgrace of all gods and men".  Odin and Loki had once been friends and there was a time when Odin said he would not drink mead unless Loki was with him.  All the deceits of Lori, all the sorrow he caused had broken the friendship. 

Future destiny of the gods-

T
hen the Volva comes to the heart of the knowledge Odin seeks: the events of the future where he asks her many questions.  Among many other things, the Volva sees the final destiny of the gods and Odin's doom during Ragnarok.

The seeress tells Odin of how floods will overwhelm Earth and fires so fierce the flames will leap as high as Heaven while the gods fight to their
death with their enemies.  She says the Valkyries will bring the slain warriors in AEsir of all past battles to aid Odin and other gods.
Loki, now free of his bindings, will lead the evil gods and the wicked slain ones from Hell's domain.
Will there be survivors?

Odin asks if there will be any survivors of Ragnarok and will Earth itself survive.  She says there will be two survivors, Lif and Liftharasir, who will survive by living in a cave and eventually they will repopulate Earth.

The Volva sees Earth rising again, in all its glory.  What was beautiful before will be even more so.   Fields that once were barren and unsewn will bear fruit. Lush areas of green will spawn new growth and the seas will be abundant with fish and all manner of sea life.


59. 
Now do I see the earth anew
Rise all green from the waves again,
The cataracts fall, and the eagle flies,
And fish he catches beneath the cliffs.

Picture Walkyrien (c. 1905) by Emil Doepler Source: Wikipedia Public Domain - Valkyries
How fare the gods?

Odin asks "How fare the gods?"  Some of the AEsir, gods, will return and tell of the deeds of Odin, his sons and others who fought bravely and honorably.  They will tell how the fires destroyed  Earth and how she was claimed by the sea.  Baldr, Odin's beloved son who was slain long before Ragnarok because of the deceitful god Loki, will return.

Ragnarok-

In stanzas 40 through 42, the Volva foretells how the freat battle begins.

40.  The giantess old in Ironwood sat,
In the east, and bore the brood of Fenrir:
Among these one in monster's guise
Was soon to steal the sun from the sky.


41. 
There he feeds full on the flesh of the dead,
And the home of the gods he reddens with gore,m
Dark grows the sun, and in summer soon
Come mighty storms: would you know yet more?

42.  On al hill there sat,m and smote on his harp,
Eggther the joyous, the giants' warder:
Above him the cock in the bird-wood crowned,
Fair and red did Fjalar stand.

The giantess was married to Fenrir, a wold.  The brood of Fenrir are their sons, the wolves
Skoll and Hati.  Skoll steals the sun and Hati steals the moon.  Eggther is the watchmnan of the giants.  Fjalar is the cock whose crowing screech awakens the giants for the battle, Gollinkambi is the cock who awakens the gods of AEsir.

43.  Then to the gods crowed Gollinkambi,
He wakes the heroes in Othin's hall,
And beneath the earth does another crow,
The rust-red bird ath the bars of Hel.

44.  Now Garm howls loud before Gripahellir,
The fetters will burst, and the wolf run free,
Much do I know, and more can see
Of the fate of the gods, the might in light.

Gripahellir is the entrance to Hel's world of the dead.  Garm is the dog, in some stanzas referred to as a wold, thatr guards the gate of Hel.

45  -Brothers shall fight and fell each other,

And sister's sons shall kinship stain,
Hard is it on earth, with mighty wwhoredom,
Axe-time, sword-time, shields are sundered,
Wind-time, wolf-time, ere the world falls,
Nor ever shall men each other spare.

The Volva tells of how brothers will turn against each other and how nephews (sisters sons) will turn against their uncles (kindship).  The relationship between men and their nephews was often closer than fathers and sons.

46.  Fast move the sons of Mirn, and fate
Is heard in the note of the Gjallarhom,
Loud blows Heimdall, the horn is alot,
In fear quake all who on Hel-roads are.

The sons of Mirn are spirits of the water.  Mirm was the one who asked Odin for his eye at Mimer's well.  Gjallarhorn the horn shrieks as Hiemdall blows it hard with all his mnight, rendering fear in the warriors of Hel.

47.  Yggdrasil shakes, and shiver on high
The ancient limbs, and the giant is loose,
To the head of Mirn does Othin give heed,
But the kinsman of Surt shall slay him soon.

Odin leads the gods of AEsir to the battle, Loki, now free of his bindings, leads the evil ones.  Just as the most brave and good of the slain warriors were taken to Odin for the final battle, the most evil were taken to the goddess Hel to aid in the battle against Odin.  Hel had sent the evil ones to Loki.


Picture
Líf and Lífthrasir, by Lorenz Frølich, 1895 Source: Wikipedia Public Domain - Ragnarok
Picture Then the Awful Fight Began by George Wright, 1908 - Source: Wikipedia Public Domain -
The  mighty gods fight against the enemy, the creatures of the evil, like the giant serpent, and those gods who lead the evil ones.  Many die as the venomous serpent twists and turns in his wrath.  The tawny eagle, as it gnaws on the dead screams.  Thor, Odin's powerful  son and second in command, advances and strikes a death blow to the serpent.  The venom from the serpent suffocates Thor, he staggers nine paces then falls dead.

Garm the wolf who guards Griiipahellir, at the gates of Hel breaks free of his chains and Odin fights him.  The battle is fierce, the Allfather strong and might, but Garm and slays Odin.

Sigfather is Odin. Vithar is Odin's son who fights the wolf.  The Garm is a son of a great Vithar thrust his sword deep in the heart of the wolf and kills him, thereby aventging his father'd death.

52.  Surt fares from the south with the scourge of branches,
The sun of the battle-gods shone from his sword,
The crags are sundered, the giant-women sink.,
The dead throng Hel-way, and heaven is cloven.

Surt is the ruler of the fire-world.  He came from the sough with branches of fire, the sun shining brightly off his sword.

53.  Now comes to Hlin yet another hurt,
When Othin fares to fight with the wolf,
And Beli's fair slayer seeks out Surt,
For there must fall the joy of Frigg.

In horror Frigg (Hlin) had watched the death of Odin, her love, her joy.  With the loss of Baldr and now Odin, she is alone in deep sorrow.  Beli's fair slayer if the god Freyr, brother of Freyja.  He had killed the giant Beli with just his fist.

Vithar, Odin's son avenges his father's death, as the Volva relates:

54.  Then comes Sigfather's mighty son,
Vithar, to fight with the foaming wolf,
In the giant's son does he thrust his sword,
Full to the heart:  his father is avenged.


The battle rages in fury never before seen and the mighty will fall.  Fire will engulf Earth and black will be the day from its smoke.

57. 
The sun turns black, Earth sinks in the sea,
The hot stars down from heaven are whirled;
Fierce grows the steam and the life-feeding flame,
Till fire leaps high about heaven itself.


With stanza 57, we have the account of the horrible destruction of mighty gods  and Earth.  In the rest of the stanzas she speaks of the new world and those who inhabit it.

The New World-
Picture
After Ragnarok, 1905, by Emil Doepler (1855 - 1922) Source: Wikipedia Public Domain - Voluspa

Battle of the Widow Moore's Creek Bridge

11/5/2014

 
Picture
Dedicated to Veterans Day ~ November 11th 2014

And if this is your army, why does it go? ~ William Wallace


Driving some parts of Coastal North Carolina are almost like the long, level, and straight stretches of the Great Plains. The main difference of course being the latter place has roads that are much longer and the former has ones that are often through swampy areas, thick woods and other flora.

Indeed, even today near the park, in a car on some of the back roads leading to the site, the isolation can make one feel a part of that time now almost two hundred and forty years ago. Yes, sometimes one can ride several miles in the middle of the day and see nary another vehicle, home, building or person.

As we know through the suffering and death of loved ones, whether they be humans or any other mammal on this earth capable of giving and receiving affection, it is often a more painful experience to experience their travails than our own sufferings. The thought of early demises and deep sorrow must certainly have been on the minds of many friends and family members come the night of February 26th 1776 in the Scottish camps and their communities along and near the upper Cape Fear River.

The next mourning was to bring these forebodings to reality in spades.

Picture
Memorial Stone at Park
PictureCrossroads near the scene of action

 The Revolutionary War in America had been raging for almost a year before the Battle at Moore's Creek Bridge occurred in North Carolina, nearly twenty miles north of the colonial port town of Wilmington. So far, the southern portion of the thirteen colonies had mostly escaped any fighting. Whatever had happened in that vein, however, was to swiftly change into something a good bit more serious come the morning hours of February the 27th 1776.


A GATHERING Of SCOTS
It must have been magnificent, like something out of the movie Braveheart, with Mel Gibson as William Wallace
riding back and forth in front of his Scots army at the Battle of Stirling Bridge, inspiring them for the victory to come against King Edward I's overconfident earls and their army of heavy horse, footmen and archers..

A similar scene presented itself in the middle of February 1776 at Cross Creek, N.C., where the city of Fayetteville is now. The scene has a mature lass and mother named Flora McDonald, riding back and forth, on a great white charger, in front of some 1600 transplanted Highlanders, largely out-fitted in their bagpipes, trews and kilts,
urging them on to battle and to be faithful to king and country.

This action by the inspiring woman was certainly meant, as Flora and her husband Alan, had a new home on the upper reaches of the Cape Fear River that remained loyal to the British Empire. There were still many such insular communities at this time. She and Alan had emigrated out of Scotland to this area right after the war had begun, causing concern for members of the port town of New Bern, where they landed, by men of  the patriotic North Carolina's Committee of Safety.

Indeed, Flora and Alan were well known loyalist subjects of the British. After the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie's attempt to put the Stuart line back on the throne by besting King George ll's son the Duke of Cumberland at Culloden, Scotland, in 1746, the girl supposedly did something memorable. Flora hid the Bonnie Prince, who was dressed as a woman, amongst the rocks while dancing what later came to be called the Flora MacDonald's Fancy to divert those seeking his capture.

And even though the Duke was successful at Culloden, his brutal follow-up rampaging throughout Scotland, allowing his victorious but vicious army to rape and kill at will, forever dashed any chance he had of gaining the kingship himself, which was to go the son of his elder brother George lll in 1760.

However, well before the time of the Battle at Moore's Creek Bridge, Flora and her powerful clan had reconciled with the Hanoverian crown and whatever King George sat upon its thrown. In fact, it is doubtful any more faithful to the monarchy could be found in North Carolina at the time then than the MacDonalds and a few others in the Highland Scot communities residing in the eastern half of the state. However, the Scotch-Irish in the western half  of North Carolina and the Watuagan settlements of what later became the northeastern part of Tennessee , were often a different matter altogether.

The March of the Highlander

 As the Highlanders began their trek  from Cross Creek, led by Flora's husband and others, they planned on giving full attention to trouncing the rebels outside Wilmington or any other patriots in their path.  This small army certainly hoped for glory and to gain the accolades of the homefolk and Royalist governor, Josiah Martin.

Earlier in 1776, the N.C.  loyalist governor Martin commanded the loyalist militia to gather together in strength to put down any concentration of Patriot fighting forces. But so far as southeastern North Carolina went, the freedom-seeking fighters mobilized effectively enough to prevent those wanting to thwart their desires from concentrating against them in serious battle, at least through 1775, that is.
Picture
Highlander, Militiaman and NC Patriot
PictureScots Approach Bridge
Come February the 15th, patriot Colonel James Moore marched out of Wilmington with nearly 700 men of the 1st NC Continentals, a regular unit full of fight. Soon they were within seven miles or so of the main Highlander bivouac.

Over the next several days they were joined by a couple hundred militia, or minutemen as they were known then, several more regulars and basically, men straight off the farms and from the villages. A formidable and determined set of soldiers they were to be sure.

At this time the royal governor passed onto to Moore a proclamation imploring him to join the loyalists ranks. Colonel Moore replied back to Martin with a copy of the North Carolina Test Oath which advised avoiding any effusion of blood by joining the Patriot forces.

Unsurprisingly, neither accepted the others' proposal.

The Moore's Creek Bridge was a sturdy if ramshackle structure made of pinewood and centered in a swamp. The creek was an unusual one for the area, fast-moving on its way into the Black River, which was ten miles above its confluence with the mighty Cape Fear River. 

Before the Declaration of Independence was ratified in Philadelphia in June of 1776, the conflict had raged for over a year. Most of the fighting had been done in the North-- not in the lower half of the thirteen colonies. Prior to this date there had been a few minor dust-up's in the South between those seeking self-rule and those beholden to the Crown, including the larger contest at Moore's Creek. 

In that same month of June 1776, a British fleet was repulsed trying to enter Charleston's harbor by the stalwart defenders on Sullivan's Island. As a matter of fact, the first declaration concerning independence may had been signed in the village of Charlotte Town, North Carolina, declaring the county of Mecklenburg free on the 20th of 1775, some 13 months before the main one was in Pennsylvania.

There have been disputes on this actually taking place with that first declaration but the preponderance of evidence does seem to support it. In any case, when Cornwallis briefly fought for, and occupied the place, for a short period of time before falling back to Winnsboro, SC, to set up his main center of operations, he left calling the Charlotte village and its environs a "A Hornet's Nest of Rebellion". This statement by the general surely says something for the stiff and determined resistance he found there and about.

Come January the 10th, the state's Royal Governor, Martin, called upon the Royalists to rally up and defeat "the most horrid and unnatural rebellion that has been exerted in the ...Provence." Martin went on to call these patriots wicked, traitorous, and calculating. The Highlanders themselves weren't even sure what the Governor meant. Their enthusiasm, at least at first, was somewhat muted as many believed there was no direct threat to their new-found communities. After a while, though, all this changed and enlistments amongst the Scots rose.

After forming some miles from Cross Creek, they elected leader, Flora's husband , Alan, as he had fought at Culloden, albeit with little action in that fight. The real leaders, however, were two Donalds that had marched up Bunker Hill ( Breed's Hill in fact) almost a year earlier with the British. Eventually this band of loyalists gathered somewhere between 1,300 to 1,600 men,  including ex- Regulators. 

Flora's famous ride back and forth across their ranks must have been inspiring. They surely needed it with only "600 old bad firelocks and a few broadswords" as Flora later wrote. [actually, a count of captured weapons after the battle would show that somewhat more than this number were present.]
Picture
Overview of Rebel Trenches. Bridge in upper right-hand corner of painting
Two patriot officers named Ashe and Lillington got to the bridge on the night of the 25th. Next day they started to erect breastworks and dig trenches on the east side of the bridge, but later on Caswell came along with his two fieldpieces, and took command. Caswell started to throw up breastworks on the west side of the bridge, the side the Scots, still hidden on the forest road, were assumed to be approaching.

However, Caswell changed his mind after a little while, and ordered the entrenchment work on the west bank to be abandoned. He retired with all his men, over a thousand of them now, to the east bank, the side toward the sea, where he strengthened the defense works Ashe and Lillington had already built and where he mounted his two cannon, which were called , for no reason that endured, Old Mother Covington and Her Daughter.

As they crossed, they took up a large number of the boards near the middle of the bridge, leaving only the round string pieces, which they daubed with lye soap and wild animal grease. That night, a bleak one, the Scots came to the west bank. Caswell's soldiers could hear them over there, acting almost whimsical. With this lack of cautious preparation by probably a reconnaissance party, so near to the faces of their patriotic foes, they were  unaware of this concentration of fighters and in great danger.

But, for whatever reason, Caswell decided not to take them on.

Farther back in the near wilderness the Highlander's officers deliberated. The scouts, who must have been imbibing or blind to an important perception, reported that the entrenchments on the east bank had been left as they were and had not even been filled in, from which they deduced that the  patriots had largely retreated. They had heard nothing from the other bank, either, and had glimpsed no fires there. They did not say that a big portion of the bridge was missing in the middle, and apparently had not even noticed that fact.
Before all this, Colonel Richard Caswell with some 800 patriot Rangers from New Bern had reached the future battle scene after retreating from Rockfish Creek, where the colonel had temporarily blocked the Scots, until they had found another crossing point to the north. He then sent a message to Moore, reporting that the Scots had crossed  the river, going eastwards, and were nearing the Widow Moore's Creek Bridge. Moore then sent back off  Lillington and Ashe to Moore's Creek.
Back to the very early morning hours of the 27th: the loyalist officers were in disagreement. The older ones, the professionals, the Breed's Hill men, would have preferred to wait until daylight, in order to make sure that there were no heavily manned entrenchments on the far side of the creek, but the young bucks, with their blood up, were all for an immediate assault on the  rebellion men's position.


One of the most determined of these young soldiers was Alexander McLeod, who only the other day had married the daughter of Allan and Flora Macdonald, a teenage girl whom he had literally left at the altar in order to go to war. He offered to lead the advance guard. Captain John Campbell made the same offer. They won their point after throwing out innuendos of cowardice between each other, and the more experienced officers , reluctantly, gave in to their desires.


A first strike force of eighty men was handpicked with great care, armed only with those old bad firelocks and broadswords Flora Macdonald had written about after the battle, along with their smaller dirks. Carrying these weapons of their ancestors, and proudly so, on they went to the sound of bagpipe players marching with them. It surely must have been stirring music for these young men as they proceeded into the unknown.


The bridge was only six miles away. They reached it right before dawn. They now drew their heavy claymore swords, yelled their slogans, or rather, sluagh-gairm war cries from the old country, and charged at speed over the bridge, slowed by the largely missing middle, upon the entrenched and rebellious defenders.

It was magnificent sight to behold but it wasn't war, the result more terrible than anything else in fact.
Picture
Picture
Cannon facing bridge
The rebellion men, perfectly prepared, let loose with smoothbore muskets, other kinds of firearms, and cannon. Several minutes is all it took to end the conflict. Some of the Scots got across, but not many. Some were  shot down on the bridge or slide into the creek seeking shelter. Those remaining broke and retreated against this impenetrable wall of patriots. Several of the skedaddlers demoralized those behind them by spreading the very wildest kind of rumors while running through their remaining ranks.

Two of the Scots leaders got across the bridge but were both felled. When only a few yards from the trenches, McLeod was riddled by at least two dozen birdshot and nine smoothbore balls. Flora Macdonald's husband was captured, and spent a miserable existence in jail until being released in a prisoner exchange at a much later date.

A pursuit by the Patriots after the running enemy might have availed them much, but, for whatever reason, none was attempted. The next morning, however, on arriving at the Moore's Creek Bridge, Colonel Moore did just that and was wildly successful. The Highlanders were, for the most part, rather new to Carolina, and so had bunched together in groups rather than take their chances on the unknown terrain, which included swamps and tangled-up woods. These men, when captured, were treated fairly and there were no acts of vengeance, with the rank and file, or non-officers, released after promising not to take up arms again.


The victors brought in over a dozen wagons with their teams, bags full of coin, close to a thousand firearms, and plenty of broadswords and dirks. This victory had a stimulating effect on their recruiting efforts and more tightly bound Patriot control of  North Carolina. This early action in the war also had a dampening effect on Highlander assistance for King George III's forces in the future, too; not to mention General Cornwallis, on his retreat from battle at Guilford Courthouse, later marching through their settlements expecting great numbers to arise under his standards.

It was not to be.

The casualties were very lopsided at Moore's Creek Bridge, with a few soldiers falling killed and wounded out of approximately 1,050 men present on the American side. The Scots suffered far more with perhaps as many as 50 killed, a greater number wounded of whatever fatalities were incurred, and about 850 seized as prisoners of war.

This triumph has often been underestimated in its effects of stifling and tamping down Highlander morale and their war making potential in Eastern North Carolina. After the contest, the Scots stronghold of Cross Creek and the port city of Wilmington, were pretty much all that was left to Britain for the duration of the conflict in the east of North Carolina.. Recruitment to His Majesty's forces certainly fell far short of what was hoped for after this defining early battle in the southern theatre of operations.

In the picture gallery below are some of the memorials in the park, with the one at far right dedicated to Polly Slocum, who rode a horse to the site 65 miles away from her cabin to aid any wounded or injured Patriots. Perhaps with the dearth of her sides injured men, she showed mercy and assisted the wounded Highlanders.

The park's walk is short, or rather, condensed, but beautiful​ and very interesting. It even has that new kind of walking material that makes it easy on the feet and ankles. But beware the pinecones and other tree attachments that might fall on the trail. A friend on the path with me twisted their ankle, albeit slightly, after stepping on a cone, but otherwise it is a very comfortable walk and of much enjoyment and reflection.

Here is a link for directions and such by the park service: ​
http://www.nps.gov/mocr/index.htm

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