The Battle of Alamance and Captain Benjamin Merrell

Captain Benjamin Merrell, a plantation owner in the Jersey Settlement, near the Yadkin River, Salisbury, North Carolina, like most of his neighbors, had grown tired of the tyrannical practices of the British Provincial Governor Tryon. This dissatisfaction led to the formation of the Regulators, an organized group designed to fight the extortion and tyrannical policies of the governor. They tried to accomplish this through arbitration but their pleas fell on deaf ears.

Governor Tryon in May of 1771 set out with his military forces to put down the rebellious Regulators. This led to the "Battle of Alamance", which William Fitch in his book "Some Neglected History of North Carolina" (1905), described as the ". . .First battle of the American Revolution". Of course, the Regulators, without ammunition, not organized, and without military training, were soundly defeated by Governor Tryon's British soldiers. The bloodthirsty nature of Tryon was demonstrated when he ordered fire set to the woods on which the dead and wounded soldiers lay.

Unfortunately, Captain Merrill, who was on his way to join the Regulators at Alamance with a company of more than three hundred men, was within one day's march of reaching Alamance when he heard of the battle and the defeat of the Regulators by the Governor's army. On his way to Alamance he had intercepted General Hugh Waddell with his soldiers, forced him to flee and took most of the soldiers prisoner. Had he reached Alamance the day before the battle, it is likely that history may have recorded a totally different result. Upon hearing of the defeat at Alamance, he disbanded his men and returned home. A few days later, on Saturday, June 1, 1771, he was taken prisoner, and along with other prisoners, dragged off to Hillsborough.

The six prisoners were tried under a temporary act of the General Assembly which converted riot into treason, a act which was to expire in less than nine months from that time. The pronounced sentence for the six convicted followed a form prescribed by the laws of England in cases of treason.

"That the prisoner should be carried to the place from whence he came; that he should be drawn from thence to the place of execution and hanged by the neck; that he should be cut down while yet alive; that his bowels should be taken out and burned before his face; that his head should be cut off, and that his body should be divided into four quarters, which were to be placed at the King's disposal, and may the Lord have mercy on your soul." (Colonial Records of N.C., Vol. 8, p. 643).

It is not recorded as to whether his sentence was carried out in the gory manner described above, but one account states the following:

"We are not told whether the execution was carried out in all of its details according to the English form or not, but does the reader for one instant doubt that one of Tryon's bloodthirsty nature would let an opportunity pass to make the execution as horrifying as he possibly could to the miserable wretches; and thereby lose his first opportunity to carry into effect his newly created act, wherein riot was made treason. A general who would order fire set to the woods on a battle-field covered with dead and wounded soldiers, as Tryon did at Alamance, would not hesitate very long about carrying out the letter of the law governing the trial and exectution of prisoners indicted for high treason."