Images:
Setting to the left |
Setting to the right |
Plaque inscription |
Detail of plaques |
Rider engraving
On the top part of the stone slab: "PYLE'S DEFEAT"
Below the engraving of a horse and its rider: "FEBRUARY 1781"
On the very bottom of the stone slab: "ALAMANCE/FOUNDERS, NSSAR/ 1996"
On front of bronze tablet: "NEAR THIS LOCATION, MOUNTED LOYALISTS FROM CAHTHAM AND SOUTHERN/ORANGE COUNTIES LED BY COL. JOHN PYLE, AND ON THEIR WAY TO/JOIN GEN. CORNWALLIS IN HILLSBOROUGH, WERE DEFEATED BY UNITS/OF GEN. GREENE'S AMERICAN ARMY LED BY COL. HENRY "LIGHT/HORSE HARRY" LEE AND GEN. ANDREW PICKENS. AS THE TWO/FORCES CONVERGED ON A NARROW ROAD, HOLTS RACE PATH, THE LOYALISTS/MISTOOK LEE'S TROOPERS FOR BRITISH CALVARLY. MORE THAN 90/LOYALISTS WERE KILLED IN A BRIEF BATTLE FOUGHT PRIMARILY WITH/SABERS AND SWORDS. THIS DEFEAT OF COL. PYLE AND THE SUBSEQUENT/BATTELE OF GUILFORD COURTHOUSE HASTENED THE BRITISH ARMY'S/ WITHDRAWAL FROM NORTH CAROLINA AND THEIR DEFEAT AT YORKTOWN, / VIRGINIA."
Every year there is a commemorative ceremony at Alamance Battlegrounds to honor the men who fought during Pyle's Defeat, Battle of Clapp's Mill, and Battle of Lindley's Mill on Patriots' Day (annual event on the third Monday of April).
The highway marker was built before the actual landmark memorial was constructed. The road marker sign was created in 1967 by the Archives and Highway Department. Currently the memorial (built in 1996) location marks Holt's Race Path, where the battle between the Tories and units of General Greene's American Revolutionary Army took place.
11 July 2014 | Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina