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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Minutes of the North Carolina Council of State
North Carolina. Council of State
September 09, 1779
Volume 22, Pages 956-957


At a Council held at Kinston, the 9th September, 1779.

Present—The Honorables Joseph Leech, Robert Bignall, John Simpson and Isaac Guion, Esquires.

The Governor laid before the Board a resolve of Congress of the 10th ult., requesting him to forward the troops from this State to South Carolina, with all possible dispatch. The Board taking the same into consideration, do

Resolve, That (as there does not appear to be any immediate occasion for the troops at this time to the southward) the Governor be advised to delay the sending of the militia to the southward for the present.

Resolved, The Governor be advised to appoint Henry Hart, Esq., Colonel of the company of Edgecombe, in the room of Colonel Johnston, deceased; Isaac Sessoms, Lieutenant-Colonel; Henry Horne, First Major, and Amos Johnston, Second Major.

Captain Simon Edwards, of the State regiment, appearing before the Council and informing that he had, in pursuance of orders received, been with a party after sundry deserters from the militia belonging to Captain Thomas Lier’s company of the Craven regiment; that he had apprehended several of them, and the general complaint was against the conduct of the said Captain and Thomas Heath, his Ensign, who appear to have discouraged service on several occasions and intimidated the friends to the present government.

Resolved, That the Governor be advised to order a court martial to be held on the said Captain Lier and Ensign Heath, and that Captain

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Edwards be required to furnish a list of the witnesses necessary to be called on, on that occasion.

Resolved, The Governor be advised to grant a warrant on the Treasury in favor of Benjamin Hawkins, Esq., Commercial Agent, for ten thousand dollars, he to account with the General Assembly for the same.

JOSEPH LEECH, President,
R. BIGNALL,
JOHN SIMPSON,
I. GUION.