Battle of Alamance Monument

Battle of Alamance Monument. . Alamance County citizens took the first steps to mark the site of the Battle of Alamance in 1879. On July 4, Rev. D. A. Long delivered a speech here, urging area residents to form an association with the charge of erecting a monument. Less than a year later, on May 29, 1880, the challenge came to fruition. Following a three-mile procession from the Alamance County Courthouse in Graham, a crowd of 3,000 to 4,000 viewed the unveiling of the marker. , The inscription on the monument refers to the Battle of Alamance as the "first battle of the American Revolution." Such a statement indicates the importance to the community of placing one of its most significant events in a broader and national historic context, even though many of the Regulators actually remained loyal to Great Britain during the Revolution. , The monument, constructed of granite from a county quarry, remained at the corner of modern day NC. Highway and Clapp Mill road until it was moved to its current location around 1952. Alamance Battlefield officially opened as a state historic site on May 16, 1961 marking the 190th anniversary of the Battle of Alamance. , (captions) , Grace Thompson of Alamance County visiting the monument in 1932. , Members of the North Carolina National Guard attempted to portray Governor Tryon's militia at the 1880 monument during Alamance County's Centennial Celebration in 1949. , Background: This plat was drawn by an Alamance County surveyor in 1926, showing the original parcel purchased for the monument. , Organizers presented this Regulator Bell, supposedly used by the Regulators at the Battle of Alamance, to Reverend Long at the monument's dedication. They referred to it as "the first Liberty Bell in America." It would later be exhibited at the Tennessee Centennial in 1896 and the Jamestown Exposition in 1907. The bell is now at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh. , The monument in the early 1900s. , Workers reinstalling the monument at its current location in the 1950s. , This June 2, 1880, Alamance Gleaner article describes the festivities surrounding the monument dedication. , This display was made possible by the Alamance Battlefield Friends and the Alamance Long Rifles.