Please join us as we celebrate the 250^th Anniversary of the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge, the 1^st Patriot victory during the War for Independence.  Activities will include musket and cannon demonstrations, as well as demonstrations of colonial trades such as blacksmithing, candle dipping, spinning, cooking, gardening, powder horn making, colonial toys and games, live music, and much more.  For up-to-date information, please follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/moorescreeknps.

The combined North Carolina SAR Color Guard and North Carolina DAR, C.A.R., and SR chapters will commence a memorial walk on Friday, February 27, starting at the Visitor Center at 10:00 AM.  There will be wreaths displayed at the Women’s Monument, at the Moore Monument, at the Loyalist Monument, and finally at the Patriot John Grady Monument.  Senior representatives of the SAR and DAR will present wreaths for their respective chapters.  The event is FREE and additional activities will continue on Saturday and Sunday, February 28-Mar 1, 2026 from 10:00 AM-4:00 PM.

RSVP to get your wreath properly recognized in the program.  Deadline February 1, 2026
Please plan to drop off your wreath early; parking will be at a premium.  Overflow parking will be in the parking lot of the Moores Creek Missionary Baptist Church.

Holiday Inn Express & Suites Wilmington – University Center
160 Van Campen Blvd, Wilmington, NC 28403-1621  877-859-5095

Wingate by Wyndham Wilmington
5126 Market St, Wilmington, NC 28405-3445  800-337-0070

Vendors will be available for lunch at the Battleground.

The Battle of Moores Creek Bridge — February 27, 1776

The Battle of Moores Creek Bridge, fought between North Carolina Patriot and Loyalist militia forces, demonstrates the bitter internal divisions that marked the American Revolution.  The Loyalists, mostly Scottish Highlanders wielding broadswords, charged across a partially dismantled Moores Creek Bridge, as nearly a thousand North Carolina Patriots waited quietly with cannons and muskets poised to fire.  Expecting to find only a small Patriot force, the Loyalists advanced across the bridge.  Shots rang out and 30 to 70 Loyalists lay wounded or dead, including Lt. Col. Donald McLeod, who led the charge.  Stunned, outgunned, and leaderless, some of the Loyalists surrendered, while others retreated in confusion.

Moores Creek is the site of the first Patriot victory in the American Revolution and the site of the last Scottish Highland broadsword charge.  The victory ended British authority in the Colony and stalled a full-scale British invasion of the South for nearly four years.   The resulting Halifax Resolves of April 12, 1776, instructed North Carolina’s delegates to the Continental Congress to vote for independence; it was the first American Colony to take such action in writing.