Location: SR 1001 (Shallowford Road) at Yadkin River bridge
County: Forsyth
Original Date Cast: 1938
The Shallow Ford of the Yadkin River, on the boundary that divides Forsyth County from Yadkin County, is a geographical landmark rich in history. The ford, a flat-bottomed section of the river used in the eighteenth century as a wagon crossing route, was the site of skirmishes during the Anglo-Cherokee War, Revolutionary War, and Civil War. It was also the place where Lord Charles Cornwallis led his troops across the Yadkin River during the 1781 Race to the Dan.
In the mid-1700s, immigrants to western North Carolina began using the Shallow Ford as a crossing point. The ford was rock-bottomed and safe for travelers under normal water levels. It was an integral part of the Great Wagon Road, which linked backcountry North Carolina with colonies along the eastern seaboard. The route, which retraced an ancient Indian path, eventually extended from Pennsylvania to Georgia and contributed significantly to the settling of the Piedmont.
In April and May 1759, Cherokee warriors struck settlements along the Catawba and Yadkin Rivers in retaliation for dozens of Cherokee murdered by Virginians and South Carolinians in 1758. On May 9, the Moravians in nearby Bethabara learned that Justice Edward Hughes’ home on the east bank of the river was surrounded by Cherokee warriors. A rescue party was sent, and the Cherokee fled.
On March 8, 1760, William Fisher, his son, and an unnamed man travelled to Fisher’s home to retrieve supplies for families gathered for protection near the Yadkin River. On the banks of the Yadkin, Cherokee warriors fired at them, killing Fisher and his son. The man was wounded but managed to escape. He made it to the Moravian settlement Bethabara and was saved by Dr. Bonn. Two days later, the militia went to bury Fisher and his son, but could not due to the large number of Cherokee warriors in the area.
On the morning of October 14, 1780, approximately 450 Patriot militia from North Carolina and Virginia ambushed about 300 Loyalists one half of a mile west of the ford. Local Loyalists under Col. Gideon Wright began conducting raids to reclaim property which had been stolen from them in early October. They were traveling northwest along Mulberry Fields Road on horseback toward the mountains for refuge. Before the whole force crossed the river, the men at the front were ambushed. They quickly dismounted and formed a firing line to allow the others to escape back across the river.
During the fighting, the Patriots sustained one man killed and four wounded, while the Loyalists lost fifteen men killed, as well as about forty wounded and taken prisoner. The Patriots began murdering the wounded prisoners until Patriot Col. Joseph Williams put a stop to the slaughter. Notably, a Black Loyalist named Ball Turner continued to fire at the Patriots from a concealed position until nearly a dozen musket balls took him down.
Surry and Wilkes County Patriot Militia began hunting down Loyalists, murdering all they could find, and burning their homes. About a week later, Continental Army Maj. Gen. William Smallwood arrived. He ordered an end to the campaign of terror, threatening to hang any Patriot who harmed a Loyalist man or woman. He further offered immunity to all Loyalists who turned themselves in and signed an oath of allegiance to the United States. The Patriots continued hunting Loyalists, murdering many before they could receive amnesty. Colonel Wright’s brother, Capt. Hezekiah Wright, was among those who fell victim to the continued violence. The defeat at Shallow Ford and the treatment that followed suppressed the Loyalists in the upper Yadkin Valley for the remainder of the war.
Four months later, Shallow Ford played a significant role in the Race to the Dan. Lord Charles Cornwallis chased Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Greene’s army across North Carolina’s Piedmont, attempting to bring them to battle. Maj. General Greene’s force of nearly 4,000 men managed to cross the rain-swollen Yadkin River at the Trading Ford just north of Salisbury on February 3rd. All the local boats had been brought to the east bank, preventing the British from crossing. Lord Cornwallis was forced to march north to the Shallow Ford. The British crossed the Shallow Ford on the evening of February 7th, 1781.
Maj. Joseph Graham shadowed the British Army with his force of North Carolina state cavalry. He believed the British would camp on the west bank of the river on the night of the 7th. He intended to attack the rear guard as the army crossed in the morning. When Major Graham arrived on the bluffs of the west bank the next morning, he witnessed the 2,200-strong British Army marching east on the Great Wagon Road toward the Moravian town of Bethania.
Eighty-four years later, the Shallow Ford was the site of a Civil War skirmish during Stoneman’s Raid in April 1865. In the closing months of the war, Major General George Stoneman led about 6,000 US troops through western North Carolina in hopes of expediting the end of the conflict. On April 11, 1865, part of Stoneman’s force, under the command of Colonel William J. Palmer, split from the main force and engaged in a skirmish with Confederate forces at Shallow Ford. The Confederate militia, outmatched and fearing defeat, quickly fled. Leaving more than 100 brand new muskets in their trenches, the Confederate Home Guard gave the Union Army control of the crossing of the Yadkin.
The ford, approximately 1,000 yards south of the Shallow Ford Road Bridge, was used first by herds of deer, elk, and bison. Native American hunters following game trails used the ford for more than ten thousand years. The first documented use of the Shallow Ford by Europeans occurred in 1747. Initially, it was the primary crossing point for settlers traveling in wagons as they pushed North Carolina’s frontier further west. It was used to move wagons full of grains and produce to eastern markets, and enslaved people to the west. Armies crossed it, and eventually even automobiles used it. The Shallow Ford of the Yadkin River was heavily used until about 1921, when a bridge was built just a few yards upriver from the modern bridge.
References:
Joseph Graham, General Joseph Graham and his Papers on North Carolina Revolutionary History. (1904)
Ian Saberton, ed., The Papers of Lord Cornwallis: Vol III. (2010)
William S. Powell, ed., Encyclopedia of North Carolina (2006)
Adelaide Fries, Stuart Thurman Wright, and J. Edwin Hendricks, Forsyth: The History of a County on the March (1949)
Adelaide Fries, ed., Records of the Moravians in North Carolina: Volume I. (1922)
John G. Barrett, The Civil War in North Carolina (1960)