COLONEL
EDWARD BUNCOMBE,
FIFTH NORTH CAROLINA
Continental Regiment.
HIS LIFE, MILITARY CAREER, AND DEATH WHILE A
WOUNDED PRISONER IN PHILADELPHIA DURING
THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.
ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE NORTH CAROLINA SOCIETY OF
THE CINCINNATI AT ITS MEETING HELD IN HILLSBOROUGH,
JULY 4, 1901.
BY
Marshall DeLancey Haywood.
PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY.
RALEIGH:
ALFORD, BYNUM & CHRISTOPHERS, PRINTERS,
1901.
Author
ADDRESS.
Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Society:
It is no small privilege which the North CarolinaSociety of the Cincinnati enjoys when it meets in thisancient Revolutionary capital, for here our organizationwas first brought into being. The year of grace1783, which is the date of its birth, was one of mingledjoy and depression to the people of America. Thewar, it is true, had been fought to a successful close;and, by a treaty wherein they were separately specified,King George had acknowledged the thirteen coloniesto be “free, sovereign, and independent States.”But how changed was the order of things! The desolationfollowing in the wake of war was scarcely lessterrible than war itself, and no State had made greatersacrifices for the cause of liberty than North Carolina.Under daring partisan leaders at home, under Washingtonin the north, and Greene in the south, her sonshad in countless fights lengthened the list of killedand wounded, while those who were spared came hometo prove that—
Yet many, so many, there were of the brave defendersof America who did not return, and their mortalremains still rest on and about the old battlefieldsmade memorable by their valor. To this class belongedthe good and gallant officer of whom I shallspeak today.
Colonel Edward Buncombe, of Buncombe Hall,in the Colony of North Carolina, was born in the year1742, on the Island of St. Christopher, sometimes[4]called St. Kitt’s, which is one of the Leeward groupin the West Indies. The register of St. Ann’s Parish,in the above island, shows that: “Edward, son ofThomas and Esther Buncombe,” was baptized on the23d of September in the above year.
Thomas Buncombe, the father of Edward, was agentleman of English birth and ancestry, and died inthe Fall of 1747. He had four children: John, Edward(of whom this sketch treats), Sarah, who married firsta Mr. Beach and then a Mr. Humbergen, and Ann,who married a Mr. Caines.
Joseph Buncombe, a brother of Tho