Governor Tryon to the Regulators at Alamance: “Surrender up the outlawed ringleaders”

Great Alamance Camp May 16, 1771

In answer to your Petition, I am to acquaint you that I have ever been attentive to the true Interest of this Country, and to that of every Individual residing within it. I lament the fatal Necessity to which you have now reduced me, by withdrawing yourselves from the Mercy of the Crown, and the Laws of your Country, to require you who are Assembled as Regulators, to lay down your Arms, Surrender up the outlawed Ringleaders, and Submit yourselves to the Laws of your Country, and then, rest on the lenity and Mercy of Government. By accepting these Terms in one Hour from the delivery of this Dispatch you will prevent an effusion of Blood, as you are at this time in a state of War and Rebellion against your King, your Country, and your Laws.

–Governor William Tryon to “the People now Assembled in Arms who Style themselves Regulators.”

When the Regulators refused to lay down their arms and surrender, Tryon ordered his colonial militia to fire on them. The two-hour engagement came to be known as the Battle of Alamance. The Regulators, largely untrained frontiersmen, were no match for the well-supplied militia and they were defeated. There is no reliable count of the Regulators losses. Nine members of the militia were killed and 61 were wounded. Tryon’s men took 15 prisoners and seven were later hanged. Some Regulators left North Carolina. Those who remained were offered pardons if they pledged allegiance to the royal government.