James Hogun

James Hogun
Born	Ireland
Died	January 4, 1781 Haddrel's Point, South Carolina
Allegiance	Continental Congress United States of America
Service/branch	Continental Army
Years of service	1776–81
Rank	Brigadier General
Commands held	7th North Carolina Regiment (1776 – November 1778) Philadelphia (March 1779 – November 1779) North Carolina Brigade (November 1779 – May 1780)
Battles/wars	American Revolutionary War: Battle of Brandywine Battle of Germantown Siege of Charleston

A portion of John Collet's 1770 map of North Carolina depicting the environs of Halifax and the Roanoke River

James Hogun (died January 4, 1781) was one of only five Continental Army generals from North Carolina in the American Revolutionary War. Initially a major in the 7th North Carolina Regiment, Hogun advanced quickly in rank to become the commander of that unit months later in 1776. He participated in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown in 1777. The Continental Congress promoted Hogun to the rank of brigadier general in 1779, even though several congressmen and the North Carolina General Assembly wished to see Thomas Clark of North Carolina promoted instead.

Hogun was in command of North Carolina's line brigade during the Siege of Charleston in the spring of 1780, which ended in the surrender of all but one of North Carolina's regiments of regular infantry as well as more than 5,000 Patriot soldiers under Major General Benjamin Lincoln. Hogun was the highest-ranking officer from North Carolina to be captured and imprisoned after the surrender of Charleston. Despite being offered the opportunity to leave internment under a parole that was generally extended to other captured Continental officers, Hogun remained in a British prisoner of war camp near Charleston, perhaps in order to prevent the British Army from recruiting Continental soldiers for the British campaign in the West Indies. He became ill, and died in the prison on Haddrel's Point on January 4, 1781.

Early life

Much of Hogun's early life remains unknown, due to his relative obscurity until the American Revolutionary War. It is known that Hogun immigrated to North Carolina from Ireland, his place of birth, in 1751, and that on October 3, 1751, he married Ruth Norfleet. The two had a son, Lemuel, who survived him.

Political involvement

In 1774, Hogun became a member of the Halifax County Committee of Safety, a fact that indicated Hogun's relative rise in prominence since arriving in the colony 23 years prior. Between August, 1775, and November, 1776, Hogun represented Halifax County in the Third, Fourth, and Fifth North Carolina Provincial Congresses, demonstrating an interest in military matters. As a delegate, Hogun assisted in drafting the first Constitution of North Carolina.

American Revolutionary War

Initial command

Hogun was named a major in the 7th North Carolina Regiment in April of 1776, and was given command of that regiment on November 26, 1776. Initially, the regiment had some difficulty organizing after several of the officers delayed their military work in order to take care of their personal affairs. Hogun was forced to reprimand his officers sharply, threatening them with a loss of their commissions. At the same time, currents of doubt ran throughout North Carolina, as Loyalists attempted to hinder enlistment of Patriots by spreading rumors about the imminent demise of the Patriot army in the north, and disease that was allegedly ravaging that force.

While commanding the regiment, Hogun fought against the British Army in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, and was present at Valley Forge in the winter of 1777–78. In 1778, Hogun was given orders to assist in recruiting the so-called "additional regiments" requested by the Continental Congress from North Carolina, and thereafter returned to West Point with the first regiment so recruited. Throughout the late fall and winter of 1778–79, Hogun's regiment served on a work detail tasked with building up the fortifications at West Point. Hogun found the task distasteful, but his men lacked sufficient weapons to allow them to serve as a combat unit until approximately 400 muskets were requisitioned for them.

Promotion and Philadelphia

In early 1779, Major General Benedict Arnold, then Commandant of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, requested that General George Washington send him an additional regiment of Continental soldiers to guard the Patriot stores in Philadelphia. Hogun was sent to Arnold with his newly recruited regiment, arriving on or before January 19, 1779.

On January 9, 1779, while on route to Philadelphia, Hogun was promoted to the rank of brigadier general by the Continental Congress. His promotion came in part as a result of the "distinguished intrepidity" he had exhibited at Germantown. This caused some controversy, as the North Carolina General Assembly, which was customarily consulted for the promotion of generals from that state, had nominated Thomas Clark and Jethro Sumner for promotion to the rank of brigadier general. Sumner was promoted, but Clark was passed over in favor of Hogun, who received the support of nine of the thirteen states (as each state delegation voted as one). Hogun's surprising victory was due in large part to the lobbying of Thomas Burke, a delegate to the Continental Congress from North Carolina, and a fellow Irishman. On March 19, 1779, Hogun was appointed as Arnold's successor as Commandant of Philadelphia, serving until November 22 of that same year.

Charleston campaign

A black and white print of Alonzo Chappel's Siege of Charleston, depicting the engagement from the British perspective. Hogun's position would have been on the left of the Patriot lines from this vantage point.

A copy of General Henry Clinton's 1780 map of the Siege of Charleston, showing the location of Haddrell's Point, where Hogun died

In November of 1779, Hogun took command of the North Carolina Brigade, composed of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th North Carolina Regiments of the North Carolina Line. Through the winter of 1779–80, Hogun led the brigade of about 700 men from Philadelphia to Charleston, South Carolina, where he was to be placed under the command of Major General Benjamin Lincoln. The march was arduous, and Hogun's brigade endured one of the coldest, harshest winters in years.

Hogun's command arrived at Charleston on March 13, 1780, which Lincoln noted inspired "great spirit to the Town, and confidence to the Army." The North Carolinians were immediately put to the task of defending the city, which was threatened with a siege by British General Henry Clinton in early March. Shortly after Hogun's arrival, many of North Carolina's militia present in the city, which were not under Hogun's direct command, began to return home due to their enlistment terms ending on or about March 24. Due to the fact that the militiamen had only agreed to serve limited terms, Hogun was powerless to stop their leaving.

Because of Charleston's location on a peninsula, Lincoln aligned his Continental units in defensive works such as redoubts, redans, and batteries, connected by a parapet that ran across the "neck" of the peninsula. At the center of the line of earthen and timber fortifications stood a tabby hornwork, that served as Lincoln's command post. In front of the fortifications, the Patriot forces dug an 18-foot-wide moat, and between the moat and parapet they constructed a line of abatis to stall any British assault. When the siege by the British Army began in earnest on April 1, Hogun and his men were positioned on the right of the Continental Army's lines, near the Cooper River.

Hogun participated in a council of war on April 20, 1780, at which several members of the South Carolina Privy Council, a part of the civilian government, threatened to block the Continental Army's attempts to withdraw from Charleston, should the council of war vote to do so. In part, Lincoln was concerned due to the fact that the defending army had only eight to ten days worth of provisions. Bowing to pressure from the civil authority, Lincoln chose to delay consideration of an evacuation, and by April 26, another council of war at which Hogun was present determined that the British presence on all sides of the city was by that time too great to effectuate an escape by the army. For the next two weeks, the British and Patriot forces exchanged artillery and rifle fire throughout the days and nights, with the British bombardment whittling down the American breastworks into a poor state.

On May 8, Lincoln called another council of war of all his army's general and field officers and ship captains to discuss terms of surrender that had been proposed by Clinton. Of the sixty-one officers in attendance at that council, 49, including Hogun, voted to negotiate terms of capitulation with the British commander. When these were rejected, hostilities continued, and Lincoln called another council of war on May 11 to further discuss terms of capitulation. The council voted to present further terms to Clinton, which were accepted. On May 12, 1780, Hogun was among the officers under Major General Benjamin Lincoln who formally surrendered to the British Army, along with approximately 5,000 Continental and militia soldiers. In one fell swoop, the surrender led to the loss of all but one of the regiments of the North Carolina Line then in existence, depriving that state of all regular, non-militia soldiers. As a brigadier general, Hogun held the highest rank of the approximately 814 Continental soldiers from North Carolina who capitulated at Charleston.

Imprisonment and death

Rather than allowing himself to be paroled, Hogun requested he be taken prisoner, and was interned at the British prison camp at Haddrel's Point on Point Pleasant, located in what is now Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, and situated across from Sullivan's Island. Hogun's decision was based, in part, on his desire to stifle the recruiting efforts of the British, who sought to enlist captured Continental soldiers to serve in the British West Indies. Despite his intent, the British held only the officers at Haddrel's Point, deciding to house the enlisted men in barracks in Charleston.

Officers at Haddrel's Point were subjected to harsh conditions, denied permission to fish for much-needed food, and threatened with deportation from South Carolina. Approximately 3,300 Patriot soldiers were confined in prison camps around Charleston like the one at Haddrel's Point, with many ultimately destined for cramped, unsanitary prison ships. Because of the conditions, many Continental soldiers agreed to join Loyalist regiments, but Hogun and other officers set up courts martial in the camps and attempted to maintain a dignified military structure. Hogun's health soon declined, and he died in the prison camp on January 4, 1781.

Legacy

Hogun was one of twenty-two Patriot generals who perished during the American Revolutionary War, and one of twelve who died from disease or other non-combat causes. North Carolina jurist and historian Walter Clark noted that while the careers of three of North Carolina's other generals—Brigadier Generals Francis Nash and James Moore, and Major General Robert Howe—were well-known to contemporary historians, the story of Hogun's career as well as that of Sumner had been neglected. Hogun's personal papers appear to have been destroyed while in the possession of his descendants in Alabama during the American Civil War, leaving virtually no surviving correspondence that would shed further light on his life. The North Carolina Highway Historical Marker Program, a division of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, erected a historical marker in Hogun's honor near his former home in Halifax County in 1954.

References

Bibliography

• Borick, Carl P. (2003). A Gallant Defense: The Siege of Charleston, 1780. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 1-57003-487-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Burrows, Edwin G. (2008). Forgotten Patriots: The Untold Story of American Prisoners During the Revolutionary War. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-00835-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Clark, Walter (1906). "James Hogun". In Ashe, Samuel A. (ed.). Biographical History of North Carolina from Colonial Times to the Present. Vol. Volume 4. Greensboro, NC: C.L. Van Noppen. pp. 196–202. OCLC 4243114. {{cite encyclopedia}}: |volume= has extra text (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Davis, Charles L.; Bellas, Henry H. (1896). A Brief History of the North Carolina Troops on the Continental Establishment in the War of the Revolution, With a Register of Officers of the Same, and A Sketch of the North Carolina Society of the Cincinnati, From its Organization in 1783 to its So-called Dissolution after 1790. Philadelphia, PA: [s.n.] OCLC 3170032. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Rankin, Hugh F. (1988). "Hogun, James". In Powell, William S (ed.). Dictionary of North Carolina Biography. Vol. Volume 3 (H-K). Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. pp. 163–164. ISBN 978-0-8078-1806-0. {{cite encyclopedia}}: |volume= has extra text (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Rankin, Hugh F. (1971). The North Carolina Continentals. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-1154-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Siry, Steven E. (2012). Liberty's Fallen Generals: Leadership and Sacrifice in the American War of Independence. Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, Inc. ISBN 978-1-59797-792-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)