The Drummer Boy's Pension

Site of Battle of Mooresville, NC

Scottish refugees, in the company of Flora and Alan Macdonald, left their home and sailing for America, lay off the North Carolina shore, waiting for the governor to grant their petition for land in   Moore County, North Carolina.  This was shortly before the Revolutionary War.  The Scots were inclined to join the fight for freedom and avoided conscription for either side.  One day, a young boy by the name of Hugh McDonald was out working in the fields of his home in Moore County, North Carolina. Suddenly, a patrol of American patriots were seen riding towards the farm.  His father, a Scotsman who'd come to America to escape British tyranny, ran off in the woods, leaving the boy to fend for himself.  The boy was persuaded to join the American Army as did so as a drummer.  Soon thereafter, British troops swarmed the neighborhood and the Battle of Moore's Mill was fought. It was but a small skirmish, but the American's won, and it was Hugh's first encounter with war.  After the war, Hugh received land grants in Georgia for his service.  Simultaneously, much of the Macdonald clan were considered traitors and took flight back to Scotland. The pension of Hugh revealed the story of how one little Scottish boy was a hero, and the North Carolina State Papers was the source of more facts of the clan.  I would have never known this story, had I not read the pension. Now, the Georgia deeds, wills, estates and marriages helped to complete the story.

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