During the Battle of Alamance, Royal Governor William Tryon and his North Carolina militia held this advantageous position. The men serving Tryon were not British Redcoats but citizen soldiers from the colony of North Carolina, as colonial militia law required all able-bodied free men between the ages of 16 and 60 to serve. The battle line extended across the Hillsborough-Salisbury Road, present-day N.C. Highway 62, and Tryon's camp lay about five miles northeast on the banks of Great Alamance Creek. At the time of the battle, Tryon Palace in New Bern, constructed by English architect John Hawkes between 1767 and 1770 and serving as the colonial capital, had helped stir backcountry resentment because taxes levied to pay for it energized the Regulator Movement. On June 9, 1771, Tryon issued a proclamation offering a reward of one hundred pounds and one thousand acres of land for outlawed Regulator leaders brought in dead or alive. Records indicate his militia possessed two 3-pounders and six swivel guns.