RALEIGH – Genealogy scrapbooks and Internet sites are full of fantastic legends about Robert McCall, my 4th great-grandfather and a prominent resident of what became the community of Hoodsville in Burke County, North Carolina. As I completed the research for my new book To Know Such Liberty: An American Family History, I found that separating fact from fiction about McCall was a bit of a challenge, and no small amount of fun.
Here’s what I think is pretty well established. Robert McCall was born in County Cork, Ireland around 1752. He immigrated to Pennsylvania by the mid-1770s, spent some time in Virginia, and then moved to Burke County. He was a Methodist class leader in both Ireland and America, and was an active member of Littlejohn Methodist Church in Burke County.
In 1810 his daughter Jennie McCall married Benedict Bristol, a peddler from Connecticut whose story I have previously related. Benedict and Jennie had seven children together, including my great-great grandmother Eudocia Bristol. After Jennie died, Benedict Bristol then married one of Robert McCall’s granddaughters, Elizabeth McCall, and had 13 more children with her. Obviously, Robert and Benedict were well acquainted.
Beyond these basic facts, there are many colorful stories about Robert McCall and his exploits. Here’s a widely repeated example:
“In 1773 Robert McCall married Elizabeth Aiken in Ireland. It is said that she was from royal descent. Her family disapproved of her marrying a commoner so Robert stole her out a window one night and married her anyway.”
Another story involves the King of England himself:
“Robert was a weaver by trade and could design anything. He designed a very fine linen tablecloth with the American Eagle on it and presented it to the king. The king took it as an insult, charged Robert with treason and ordered him arrested and beheaded. With the aid of some friends Robert managed to escape with his wife and six-month old baby. Some say they put him on a ship and labeled him as “potatoes.”
It’s an entertaining story. But no matter how sympathetic Robert McCall may have been to the American side of the ongoing colonial dispute with Britain, why would he have put an eagle on the tablecloth? It would have had no significance to King George III or anyone else in the 1770s. The bald eagle did not become a symbol of American independence until the 1780s, when it was included in the final design of the Great Seal of the United States.
The story also goes that upon arriving in America, Robert McCall “enlisted in the Continental Army as a colonel,” which would have been quite a feat for someone lacking any military experience or training, and particularly for a poor weaver just off the boat from Ireland. Some also claim that this “Colonel” McCall fought at the battles of Saratoga and Yorktown under the famous General Daniel Morgan, who just happened to be one of my heroes as a child.
That last part about serving under Dan Morgan – though not at Saratoga or Yorktown – might actually be true. Morgan commanded the American forces at the Battle of Cowpens on January 17, 1781. The battle, which occurred near the border between the two Carolinas, is considered one of the turning points of the war in the South.
There were some 300 North Carolina militiamen and state troops at Cowpens, including a battalion of Burke County militia under the command of Colonel Joseph McDowell, a Burke County native.
Setting aside the tall tales spread across the Internet, there is a reputable source – a book entitled Roster of Revolutionary Soldiers in Georgia and Other States – that lists my ancestor Robert McCall as having served as “a soldier of Western North Carolina” in a unit “on the frontier.” If he was a member of or attached to McDowell’s unit of Burke County troops, then it is possible Robert McCall fought not only at Cowpens but also at the prior Patriot victory of Kings Mountain.
If, as I suspect, the original source of these tall tales happened to be the man himself – if, in other words, Robert McCall had a bit of the blarney in him – then perhaps these particular skills came in handy at Cowpens. You see, part of Dan Morgan’s brilliant strategy at Cowpens was to accept the limitations of his unsteady militiamen. He knew that they would probably break if the seasoned British veterans of Colonel Banastre Tarleton’s legion charged them.
Before the battle, Morgan decided to plan for his militia to retreat. That is, rather than asking them to do something he knew they couldn’t do, Morgan asked the militia to fire a couple of volleys at the British and then withdraw. If the British pursued, they would suddenly run into a line of more-experienced American troops waiting outside their field of vision. “The whole idea,” Morgan said, “is to lead Benny [Tarleton] into a trap.” It worked.
Who better to help fool the first-class troops of a dangerous enemy than a first-class storyteller?
Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation.