Enemy towns were fortified.
Roads were poor.
Forests and rivers favored defenders who knew the ground.
North Carolina leaders struggled to assemble a dependable force.
An attempt by Thomas Pollock to lead about 200 men in October failed when morale and discipline broke down.
Governor Hyde therefore appealed to other colonies.
Virginia gave some support.
South Carolina eventually provided the force that changed the military balance.
But South Carolina’s help came with another consequence.
Most of the soldiers it sent were Native.
The Tuscarora War was about to become a war in which Native nations fought other Native nations on behalf of competing political interests.
John Barnwell Came North
South Carolina organized an expedition under Colonel John Barnwell.
The exact strength changed during the march, but NCpedia records that Barnwell eventually advanced with roughly 366 Native soldiers and 30 white militia during the opening campaign.
They traveled more than 300 miles toward the Tuscarora country.
Many of Barnwell’s Native allies came from nations that had their own rivalries with the Tuscarora or saw advantages in joining the expedition.
This is one of the hardest features of the war for a modern reader.
There was no simple racial line.
European colonists fought Tuscarora and allied coastal peoples.
Native warriors from the South fought beside European colonists.
Some Tuscarora remained neutral.
Later some Tuscarora assisted the colonial side against other Tuscarora.
Political interest crossed ethnic lines.
That complexity was normal in the early eighteenth-century Southeast.
Narhantes
Barnwell’s force reached Tuscarora territory early in 1712.
One major target was the fortified town usually called Narhantes or Narhontes in colonial records.
It stood along the Neuse region roughly 20 miles from New Bern.
The defenders had built a palisaded position.
Barnwell attacked.
North Carolina historical sources say nearly 400 Native people were killed or captured in the fighting around the fort.
The expedition then moved toward Catechna.
This was the same region where Graffenried and Lawson had been held.
Now it was becoming a military target.
Hancock’s main fortified position there would be much harder to break.
Catechna Became Fort Hancock
Colonial accounts often refer to the stronghold at Catechna as Fort Hancock.
The Native village had been transformed into a defensive position.
Palisades protected it.
Warriors were well armed.
Colonial prisoners were inside.
Barnwell attempted attacks but could not easily take it.
The prisoners complicated everything.
If colonial troops stormed the fort, captives could be killed.
When the defenders threatened prisoners during the siege, Barnwell faced a terrible calculation.
A total assault might destroy the fort.
It might also kill the people he was supposed to rescue.
Eventually he accepted a truce.
Terms were negotiated.
Some prisoners were released.
Others were supposed to be delivered later.
A peace seemed possible.
It did not last.
The Peace Broke Apart
The breakdown of this peace is one of the darkest parts of the war.
North Carolina colonists accused the Tuscarora of failing to meet all terms.
Barnwell and his men also had reasons to be angry.
But Barnwell’s own force then committed an act that made future trust far more difficult.
North Carolina historical sources state that Barnwell’s men lured Native people under the appearance of peace, seized them, and carried captives toward South Carolina to be sold into slavery.
NCpedia places the number of Tuscarora women and children captured by Barnwell’s returning force at around 200.
This was not a side issue.
It struck directly at one of the grievances that had helped cause the war in the first place.
Native enslavement had helped create anger.
Now a peace expedition ended with more Native people being taken for sale.
War resumed.
Slavery Was Built Into the Conflict
The Tuscarora War cannot be understood without the slave trade.
Native prisoners had monetary value.
That changed military behavior.
A captured enemy was not only a defeated opponent.
He or she could become property.
Southern Native allies fighting with colonial forces also expected captives as part of the rewards of war.
Colonial leaders knew this.
Military expeditions therefore operated inside an economy of human captivity.
That economy encouraged violence beyond what might have been required for military victory alone.
It could make peace less profitable than capture.
It could turn children into war prizes.
And it ensured that defeat for a Native town might mean more than loss of land.
It could mean transportation and permanent separation from family.
NCpedia estimates that by the end of the wider war around 1,000 Tuscarora had been sold into slavery.
That number alone helps explain why the conflict became a struggle for survival.
Hancock Was Isolated
As the war continued, the split inside the Tuscarora world became more important.
Tom Blount and the northern towns had not joined Hancock’s uprising.
Colonial authorities increasingly treated Blount as a useful partner.
If he cooperated, his people might avoid the destruction aimed at the southern towns.
The arrangement also offered him political advantage.
Eventually Hancock was captured.
Accounts differ in detail, but North Carolina historical sources connect Blount’s cooperation with Hancock’s capture and delivery to colonial authorities.
Hancock was then executed.
The leader associated with the September uprising was gone.
The resistance was not.
A Second South Carolina Army Came North
North Carolina again appealed for help.
South Carolina sent another expedition.
This time the commander was Colonel James Moore.
His force was larger.
Once again, most of the troops were Native allies rather than white militia.
North Carolina sources describe Moore advancing with roughly 900 Native warriors and 33 white militiamen, later reinforced by North Carolina forces.
Their main target became the most important remaining fortified Tuscarora position.
Neoheroka.
Neoheroka Was Built for a Siege
Neoheroka was not a loose collection of cabins.
Archaeological work has shown a sophisticated defensive site.
It covered about 1.5 acres.
High palisades protected it.
There were trenches.
There were connected defensive spaces.