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Local figure

David Caldwell

David Caldwell, Presbyterian minister of the Buffalo and Alamance congregations, visited Governor Tryon's camp on May 15, 1771, with Alexander Martin to urge mild measures against the Regulators. On the morning of the Battle of Alamance he was riding along the Regulator lines urging the men to go home when the order to fire was given.

Source: Documenting the American South: William Henry Foote, Sketches of North Carolina (1846)

1725–1824 as the Library of Congress records it · Library of Congress authority record ↗

Orange County Indexed has not yet linked an indexed work directly to David Caldwell. The biography and the dated events on this page provide sources about David Caldwell’s life and work.

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 6 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Presbyterian ministers, among them Henry Pattillo of Orange, write against the Regulation While Tryon toured Rowan and Mecklenburg to raise troops, Presbyterian ministers Hugh McAden, James Creswell, Henry Pattillo and David Caldwell sent him a letter of loyalty condemning the Regulators, and the pastors also wrote to the colony's Presbyterians telling them to keep out of the movement. The letter was read to the Rowan militia and helped raise volunteers for the march on Hillsborough. People: Henry Pattillo, David Caldwell, William TryonInternet Archive: Bassett, The Regulators of North Carolina (1765-1771) (1896), p. 176
  2. Orange Presbytery forms as North Carolina's first presbytery The pastors of the early Orange County Presbyterian churches and other ministers formed Orange Presbytery, the first presbytery in North Carolina. People: Henry Pattillo, David CaldwellSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 294
  3. David Caldwell goes between Tryon's camp and the Regulators before the Battle of Alamance At the request of his parishioners, some of them Regulators, Caldwell visited Governor Tryon's camp on May 15 with Alexander Martin to urge mild measures. On the morning of the battle he was riding along the Regulator lines urging the men to go home when the order to fire was given. People: William Tryon, Alexander MartinSearch the index · Documenting the American South: William Henry Foote, Sketches of North Carolina (1846)
  4. Hillsborough gets its first regular Presbyterian services After years of occasional preaching in the courthouse by David Caldwell, John DeBow and others, the Rev. Alexander McMillan began regular services there in 1777, shared with Little River and New Hope. Presbytery deposed him in September 1778, and the town had no organized Presbyterian church for many years. People: David CaldwellSearch the index · Nash, Hillsboro, Colonial and Revolutionary (1903), p. 70
  5. The convention resolves itself into a committee of the whole with Elisha Battle in the chair After David Caldwell's attempt to fix governing maxims for the debate was set aside, the delegates went into committee of the whole, Elisha Battle presiding, and began reading the proposed Constitution clause by clause. The committee sat each day through July 31 except Sunday, July 27. People: James Iredell, Willie Jones, David CaldwellDocumenting the American South: Proceedings and Debates of the Convention of North-Carolina, 1788
  6. The university makes David Caldwell of Guilford a Doctor of Divinity At the 1810 commencement the university gave honorary doctorates of divinity to David Caldwell, James Hall and James McRee. Caldwell's Latin diploma, dated in Person Hall, calls Chapel Hill Sacrarii Mons, the hill of the chapel. People: Joseph CaldwellSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 186

Places in this person’s story

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows them all.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.

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Background on Battle of Alamance, May 1771 (site now in Alamance County)

These works give background on Battle of Alamance, May 1771 (site now in Alamance County), the wider story this person is part of. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it.

Farming Dissenters: The Regulator Movement in Piedmont North Carolina

Troxler, Carole Watterson · 2011

Carole Watterson Troxler's history of the Regulator movement in Piedmont North Carolina, from land speculation and backcountry resentment through Herman Husband and the Sandy Creek network to the petitions, court proceedings and rioting in Hillsborough and Salisbury, the Battle of Alamance in 1771 and the movement's afterlife in the Revolution. An appendix compiles names in a Regulator context. Published by the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources in 2011, 221 pages with illustrations, maps and an index.

The War of the Regulation and the Battle of Alamance, May 16, 1771

Powell, William S. · 1976 · State Dept. of Archives and History

William S. Powell's short account of the War of the Regulation and its end at the Battle of Alamance on May 16, 1771, when Governor Tryon's militia defeated the backcountry Regulators. The fighting took place in what was then Orange County, and Hillsborough, the county seat, had been the center of the Regulators' grievances and riots. Issued by the State Department of Archives and History, 32 pages with illustrations, facsimiles, a portrait and a folding map; this printing is dated 1976.

Some Neglected History of North Carolina: Being an Account of the Revolution of the Regulators

Fitch, William Edward · 1905 · Neale Pub. Co.

William Edward Fitch's account of the Regulator movement and the Battle of Alamance of 1771, which his subtitle calls the first battle of the American Revolution, published by Neale in 1905 in a second edition. Hillsborough, the Orange County seat, was the scene of the Regulators' 1770 courthouse riot and of the hangings that followed Alamance. 307 pages with nine leaves of plates, folding maps and a portrait.

Commemorative souvenir program, May 9-16, 1971.

Battle of Alamance Bi-Centennial Commission · 1971 · Battle of Alamance Bi-Centennial

Souvenir program for the week of events, May 9 to 16, 1971, marking two hundred years since the Battle of Alamance, the engagement that ended the Regulator insurrection in the North Carolina backcountry. Issued at Burlington with illustrations, a map and portraits, and including the program for the historical drama First for Freedom by Joseph Cole Simmons. Alamance County was separated from Orange County in 1849.

UNC

Governor Tryon's letter to the Earl of Hillsborough regarding the battle of Alamance, enclosing two maps of Alamance Camp and orders given out to the provincials raised to march against the insurgents

1771

Governor William Tryon reported to the Earl of Hillsborough in 1771 on the battle of Alamance, the defeat of the Regulators that May, enclosing two maps of Alamance Camp and the orders issued to the provincial troops raised against the insurgents. Surveying, troop movements, casualties, supplies and quartering are mentioned. The battlefield lay within Orange County as its bounds then stood.

A Plan of the Camp and Battle of Alamance, the 16th May 1771. Between the Provincials of North Carolina, Commanded by His Excellency Governor Tryon. and Rebels who styled themselves Regulators. Survey'd and Drawn by C. J. Sauthier.

Sauthier, Claude Joseph · 1771 · North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources

Claude Joseph Sauthier's survey plan of the camp and battlefield at Alamance, where Governor William Tryon's provincial militia met the Regulators on 16 May 1771. Sauthier drew it to accompany Tryon's letter of 2 August 1771. The battle was fought in what was then Orange County. Part of the Map Collection.

Show 4 more

A Plan of the Camp and Battle of Alamance the 16 May 1771. Between the Provincials of Nth. Carolina, Commanded by His Excellency Governor Tryon. and Rebels who styled themselves Regulators. Surveyed and Drawn by C. J. Sauthier.

Sauthier, Claude Joseph · 1771

Claude Joseph Sauthier's plan of the camp and Battle of Alamance on 16 May 1771, where Governor William Tryon's provincial militia met and defeated the Regulators. It maps the battle ground topographically. This version differs only in small details from the one in the British Public Record Office. The battlefield lay in Orange County at the time and is now a state historic site.

A Plan of the Camp at Alamance from the 14th to the 19th of May 1771. Composed of the Provincials of North Carolina, Comanded by His Excellency Governor Tryon. On an Expedition against Rebels who styled themselves Regulators. Surveyed and Drawn by C. J. Sauthier. geor.

Sauthier, Claude Joseph · 1771

Plan by the surveyor Claude Joseph Sauthier (1736 to 1802) of Governor William Tryon's militia camp at Alamance, 14 to 19 May 1771, during the campaign against the Regulators. Sent with a letter from Tryon dated 2 August 1771, it maps troop positions and the lay of the ground before the Battle of Alamance, fought in what was then Orange County.

A Plan of the Camp at Alamance from the 14th to the 19th of May 1771. Composed of the Provincials of North Carolina, Commanded by His Excellency Governor Tryon. On an Expedition against Rebels who styled themselves Regulators. Surveyed and Drawn by C. J. Sauthier. geor.

Sauthier, Claude Joseph · 1771

Claude Joseph Sauthier's topographic plan of the North Carolina provincial militia encamped at Alamance from 14 to 19 May 1771, under Governor Tryon's command in the expedition against the Regulators. It went with Tryon's letter of 2 August 1771 and shows where the troops stood before the battle. Alamance Creek then lay in Orange County.

Letters from William Tryon (Aug 1771) outlining the victory over the Regulators at the Battle of Alamance, North Carolina

1771

Governor William Tryon's letters of August 1771 setting out his victory over the Regulators at the Battle of Alamance, fought in May of that year. Topics include the militia, the raising of troops, artillery, pardons, punishment and destruction of property, with Hillsborough and Orange County named. From Colonial Office volume CO 5/328, North Carolina letters to the Secretary of State, 1766 to 1771.

Start at OCPL

Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this person. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled.

  • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 285 ARN David Caldwell Arnett, Ethel Stephens · 1976

    Ethel Stephens Arnett's life of David Caldwell (1725 to 1824), pastor of the Buffalo and Alamance Presbyterian churches in Guilford County, who opened a log college in 1767 and practiced medicine he had taught himself. He was present at the Battle of Alamance in 1771, represented Guilford at the Halifax congress that adopted the state constitution in 1776, and sat in the Hillsborough convention of 1788. Greensboro, 1976, 106 pages with an index.

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