Location: Near 2648 NC 22 (Coleridge Road) b/w Ramseur and Coleridge
County: Randolph
Original Date Cast: 1939
Cox’s Mill stood four and one-half miles south of the town of Ramseur, N.C on the Deep River. The mill served as Col. David Fanning’s headquarters from 1781 to 1782. Colonel Fanning was a notorious Loyalist officer active in North Carolina’s Eastern Piedmont. There were two Cox’s Mills, about one-half of a mile apart on the Deep River. This caused some confusion among historians over the years. Both were owned by brothers Thomas and Harmon Cox. The mills were on opposite banks of the Deep River, about a half of a mile apart. Harmon Cox’s Mill, on Millstone Creek on the east bank, was Colonel Fanning’s headquarters.
Colonel Fanning was born in Amelia County, Virginia, on October 25, 1755, and was orphaned at a young age. He was subsequently raised by his abusive guardian, Needham Bryan Jr. He likely suffered from eczema capitis, which caused the loss of his hair and scarring of the scalp.
By 1773, Colonel Fanning settled on Raeburn’s Creek in western South Carolina and worked as an Indian trader among the Cherokee. He served as Sergeant in Captain James Lindley’s Company of the Upper Saluda Militia Regiment in 1775. Given the choice to sign the Patriots’ Articles of Association in support of revolution, or a loyalty document expressing the desire to be left alone, most of the men chose the former.
When Patriot militia robbed Colonel Fanning’s trade goods in 1775, he was pushed to join the Loyalist cause. He participated in several raids and conducted Loyalists to Cherokee towns where they were given refuge. Between 1775 and 1779, Colonel Fanning was captured and jailed at least fourteen times. However, he managed to escape thirteen times. His final capture ended when South Carolina Governor John Rutledge commuted his sentence in exchange for serving in the Patriot militia.
Colonel Fanning remained peaceful until the British captured Charleston in May 1780. In response to Patriots murdering several Loyalists, he and other South Carolina Loyalists again took up arms and rededicated themselves to the British cause. In the fall of 1780, Colonel Fanning was active in the western parts of North and South Carolina and narrowly missed the British defeat at King’s Mountain.
In February 1781, as Lord Charles Cornwallis pursued Gen. Nathaniel Green across North Carolina, Colonel Fanning returned to the Deep River in North Carolina and began recruiting Loyalists. On July 5, 1781, he was commissioned colonel of Randolph and Chatham County Militia and began issuing officer commissions following a muster on July 12. Colonel Fanning recruited over one hundred and fifty men. However, only fifty-three were sufficiently armed. The remainder were sent home. He began a series of revenge raids across eastern North Carolina. For the next year, his militia forces dominated central North Carolina. At his high point, he commanded as many as 950 men. His actions included raids on the Chatham County Courthouse and Hillsborough, the battles of McPhaul’s Mill, Col. Phillip Alson’s house, and Lindley’s Mill. The Hillsborough raid resulted in the capture of more than two hundred Patriot leaders and politicians captured, including Governor Thomas Burke.
Colonel Fanning continued to lead his Loyalists against Patriot forces across eastern North Carolina. The British evacuation of Wilmington in November 1781 removed Colonel Fanning’s source of supplies and ammunition. His ability to conduct raids was significantly diminished. He began negotiating a pardon in January 1782. However, it was apparent that it would never be granted, and he fled to Charleston in April and ended a period known as the “Tory War.”
Following the British evacuations of Savannah and Charleston, Colonel Fanning fled to British-held East Florida. He eventually settled in New Brunswick, Canada. In 1801, he was convicted of rape and sentenced to death. While pardoned by the Royal Governor, he was banished and resettled in Nova Scotia. Colonel Fanning was one of three people specifically exempted from the round of pardons North Carolina offered in 1783.
References:
David Fanning, Thomas Wynne (ed), The Narrative of Colonel David Fanning (1861)
Harry Schenawolf, Loyalist David Fanning: Fierce, Ruthless Southern Partisan. Revolutionary War Journal (2022)
John Hairr, Colonel David Fanning the Adventures of a Carolina Loyalist (2000)
Lindley S. Butler, ed., The Narrative of Col. David Fanning (1981)
Marjolene Kars, Breaking Loose Together: The Regulator Rebellion in Pre-Revolutionary North Carolina (2002)
William S. Powell, ed., Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, II, 179-181—sketch of David Fanning by Lindley S. Butler