The Virginia Gazette

NEW BERN, May 24.

On Wednesday last an express arrived in town from his Excellency the Governor, with an account of his having had a battle with the Regulators, and gaining a most signal and complete victory; the particulars of which, as near as we can collect from the several accounts of this decisive stroke, are as follows.

His Excellency having reached Hillsborough, with about one thousand three hundred of the troops, and finding the Regulators were at about forty miles distance above him, embodied and in arms, to oppose the provincial forces under his command, immediately marched from thence to attack them, in case they should refuse to comply with the terms he offered them; which were, to give up their principals, lay down their arms, and swear allegiance to his Majesty.

On the 16th instant, being within a mile of them, his Excellency received a messenger from them, with terms of an accommodation; but they, being wholly inadmissible, he marched to within a small distance of them and formed, in one line about half his men, the other half forming a second line, at about two hundred yards distance, by way of reserve. The Regulators, to the number of at least two thousand five hundred, immediately formed within twenty or thirty paces distance, and behaved in a most daring and desperate manner. His Excellency again proposed terms to them, which they spurned at, and cried out for battle. His Excellency then immediately ordered the signal of battle to be given, which was a discharge of the artillery, when instantly ensued a very heavy and dreadful firing on both sides, for near two hours and a half; when the Regulators, being hard pressed by our men, and sorely galled by the artillery, which played incessantly on them with grape shot, gave way on all sides, and were pursued to the distance of a mile through the woods and bushes, our troops making great slaughter among them, as they did not make a regular retreat, but ran in great confusion to all quarters from whence they apprehended the least danger.

The killed and wounded on our side, in this battle, through the immediate interposition of divine Providence, are very inconsiderable; the killed not exceeding ten, and the wounded about sixty, among which is the Honourable Samuel Cornell, Esquire, of this town, who received a slight wound in his thigh. But of the Regulators three hundred were found dead on the field next morning, and a very great number wounded. About twenty or thirty were made prisoners; and chief of their ammunition and baggage, consisting of hunting shirts, wallets of dumplings, jackets, breeches, powder horns, shot bags, &c. were taken, with a number of horses.

The glorious and signal victory of this day, gained over a very formidable body of lawless desperadoes, under divine Providence, is much to be attributed to the cool, intrepid, and soldier-like behaviour of his Excellency the Governor, who was in the centre of the line during the whole engagement, and in the most imminent danger, having had his bayonet shot away with a musket ball. Nothing could equal the firmness and intrepidity with which our troops behaved, the Craven and Beaufort detachments, on the right wing, sustaining a very heavy fire for near half an hour, and the Carteret and Orange detachments, on the left wing, performing wonders, for raw and unexperienced militia, who scarce have had time since their enlisting to learn the exercise.

We have the greatest probability to think that this signal victory will cool the regulating spirit, and put a final end to the most formidable and dangerous rebellion that ever arose in America; but if they are still infatuated, and will rush on to their destruction, his Excellency is now joined by the Wake, Johnston, and Cumberland detachments, also by Colonel Waddell from Salisbury, and in a much better condition to reduce them to obedience.

The following is a copy of what the Governor gave in public orders, the 17th of May, the day after the battle of Alamance.

The Governor, impressed with the most affectionate sense of gratitude, gives thanks to both officers and soldiers of the army for the vigorous, and generous support they afforded him yesterday, in the battle near Alamance. It was to their valour and steady conduct that he owes, under the Providence of God, the signal victory obtained over obstinate and infatuated rebels.

His Excellency sympathises with the loyalists, for the brave men that fell and suffered in the action; but when he reflects that the fate of the constitution depended on the success of the day, and the important services thereby rendered their King and country, he considers this loss (though at present the cause of affliction to their relations and friends) as a monument of lasting glory and honour to themselves.

The dead to be interred at five o'clock this evening, in the front of the park of artillery. Funeral service to be performed, with military honours to the deceased.

After the ceremony, prayers and thanksgiving for the signal victory it has pleased Providence yesterday to grant the army over the insurgents.

Yesterday divine service was performed in the church in this town, by the Reverend James Reed, minister of this parish, to offer up our prayers and thanksgivings to the Almighty for the very signal and glorious victory obtained by his Excellency the Governor, over obstinate and desperate rebels, near the great Alamance River, in Orange County, on the 16th of this instant; a day that ought to be had in perpetual remembrance, by every loyal subject of this province, for their very great deliverance and rescue from the hands of a lawless and furious mob.