In the early morning hours of February 27, 1776, a violent, deadly struggle in this forest determined the fate of North Carolina and influenced the course of the American Revolution. The landscape of a winding country road, a narrow bridge across a creek, and a swampy tidal wetland became a place christened by combat and later commemorated by proud descendants as a national treasure. Associated with this history are patriot leaders Caswell, Moore, and Lillington, King George III, British and North Carolina loyalist soldiers, North Carolina patriot militiamen, and Benjamin Franklin’s 1754 “Join or Die” divided serpent image that appeared in the years leading up to the Revolution.