“Says Frohock to Fanning, to tell the plain truth,
     When I came to this country, I was but a youth;
     My father sent for me; I wasn’t worth a cross,
     And then my first study was stealing a horse,
     I quickly got credit, and then ran away,
     And haven’t paid for him to this very day. 
     Says Fanning to Frohock, ’tis folly to lie,
     I rode an old mare that was blind of one eye;
     Five shillings in money I had in my purse,
     My coat was all patched, but not much the worse;
     But now we’ve got rich, and its very well known. 
     That we’ll do very well, if they’ll let us alone.”

The truthful sentiment conveyed in the last line will find many fit illustrations in our own times.

The power of the Royal government was called into requisition to put down this “Regulation” movement.  The military spirit of Tryon resolved to appeal to the sword.  On the 24th of April, 1771, he left Newbern at the head of three hundred men, a small train of artillery, and with a considerable number of his adherents.  General Waddell was sent forward to Salisbury to raise troops, munitions of war having been previously ordered from Charleston.  While he was in Salisbury waiting for the arrival of this supply of warlike munitions, the “Black Boys” of what is now Cabarrus county, under the lead of “Black Bill Alexander,” seized the convoy of wagons, and completely destroyed the “King’s powder,” well knowing it was intended to obey the behest of a tyrannical Governor.  When Waddell advanced his troops from Salisbury to join Tryon, the bold sons of Rowan rose in arms and ordered him back.  On the 10th of May, 1771, at Potts’ Creek, he held a council of his officers, and they, believing “prudence to be the better part of valor,” fell back, and recrossed the Yadkin.  Waddell soon found that many of his own men sympathised with the cause of the Regulators.  He promptly sent a message to Tryon, then encamped on Eno, informing him of his critical situation.  Tryon hastened on with his forces, crossed Haw river on the 13th of May, and, on the next evening, pitched his camp on the bank of the Alamance.  On the 16th of May, 1771, the unfortunate battle of Alamance was fought in which was shed the first blood of the American Revolution.  After that disastrous event, in which, for want of skilful leaders, and concert among their men, the Regulators were subdued, the bloody “Wolf of North Carolina,” as Tryon was called by the Cherokee Indians, advanced in all “the pomp and circumstance” of official station, and joined Waddell on the 4th of June, near Salisbury, about eight miles east of the Yadkin river.  He then marched by a circuitous route to Hillsboro, where he had court held to try the Regulators, by his pliant tool, Judge Howard.  On the 20th he left Hillsboro, and reached Newbern on the 24th; and on the 30th left North Carolina for the colony of New York, over which he had just been appointed Governor.  Thus was our State rid of one who had acted the part of an oppressive ruler and a blood-thirsty tyrant.