Lieut. Col. John Moore, from Lincoln County, Royal North Carolina Regiment

Moore was a lieutenant colonel in the Royal North Carolina Regiment, and was second in charge of the
loyalists at Kettle Creek in February 1779. Not long after he took command, Cornwallis sent Moore out 
from Charleston to help organize the loyalists in his home area of Tryon (also Lincoln) County in 
southwestern North Carolina. Unfortunately, he either misunderstood or disobeyed his orders and called 
out his men prematurely. As a result, he was completely defeated at Ramseur’s Mill in June 1780, and 
the loyalist cause in that region, as a result, utterly vanquished and annihilated. He managed to escape 
to Camden with about 30 men. Although court-martialed, Moore was acquitted, probably so as not to 
offend or frighten other potential loyalist leaders in Mills is said to have lived near the Green River, which 
runs through both Rutherford and Polk counties. 





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