History

Peter Force

historian

historian who rediscovered Mecklenburg Resolves

In the record (4)

  1. 1780 · 1780-09-26

    On September 26, 1780, at the Battle of Charlotte, Colonel William R. Davie's roughly 150 mounted infantry and dragoons, reinforced by Captain Joseph Graham's volunteers, made a defensive stand around Charlotte's wooden courthouse against Lord Cornwallis's much larger British force, repelling several cavalry charges before withdrawing in an orderly retreat; Patriot losses were about five killed, while the British reportedly suffered around thirty casualties among privates plus wounded officers.

    Mecklenburg County CourthouseLord CornwallisWilliam R. DavieJoseph Graham

    Source · checked 2026-08-13

  2. 1838

    Historians, following the argument first advanced by Peter Force and later developed rigorously by William Henry Hoyt (1907), conclude that the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence was most likely a mistaken 19th-century conflation: elderly witnesses giving testimony decades after 1775, combined with a memory-reconstructed text prepared by John McKnitt Alexander after the alleged 1800 fire, blended the genuine, comparatively modest May 31, 1775 Mecklenburg Resolves with an imagined, more sweeping 'declaration of independence,' producing a spurious document that nonetheless became entrenched in North Carolina civic identity and state symbolism.

    Unverified — sourced but not confirmed against a primary record.

    George AlexanderAbraham AlexanderSamuel C. AlexanderRobert HenryPeterJohn McKnitt AlexanderWilliam Henry Hoyt

    Source · checked 2026-08-13

  3. 1838 · 1838-01-01

    The authentic text of the Mecklenburg Resolves, though printed in 1775 newspapers, had been lost to public memory after the Revolution and was not rediscovered by historians (notably Peter Force, in newspaper archives) until 1838 -- more than a decade after the disputed 1819 Declaration text had already gained wide circulation and become entangled in North Carolina's civic memory.

    Charlotte ObserverMiners' & Farmers' JournalPeter

    Source · checked 2026-08-13

  4. 2012

    For security at the 2012 DNC, Charlotte received a $50 million federal grant, spent roughly $25 million on its own police force, and paid $937,852 to bring in officers from neighboring police forces, with itemized costs including $303,596 for bicycles, $61,000 for software, and $704,795 for a command-center upgrade.

    Source · checked 2026-08-13