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At daybreak on 27th February, the Loyalists,
led by Colonel Donald Macleod and Captain John Campbell,
rushed the bridge, but could only pick their way across
slowly. Many fell from the bridge into the water. Those
who managed to cross were gunned down by the Patriots.
Nearly all the advance party including Colonel Macleod
and John Campbell, were killed, and the whole force
soon retreated. It was all over in a few minutes. The
Loyalists lost about thirty men. Another forty were
wounded. Their leaders were imprisoned or banished from
the colony. The battle was small, but significant. It
showed the Patriots what could be achieved, spurring
revolutionary feeling throughout the colony, and it
discouraged the growth of Loyalist sentiment.
After the terrible defeat, the Scots lived relatively
quietly for four years until Lord Cornwallis, a Loyalist
General invaded North Carolina in early 1781. Donald's
son-in-law, Alexander MacLeod, now released from prison
took up the cause once more, but the loyalist forces
were again defeated. Alexander suffered great hardships
and died at Charlestown in 1782. The years between the
two phases of the War were years of adversity and division.
Atrocities were committed on both sides. One old man
was murdered for sheltering Flora MacDonald after her
husband was killed. Alexander MacLeod's plantation was
ruthlessly plundered, his family cruelly ill-treated
and in danger of losing their lives. Many survivors
of the war had to leave the new republic, but Donald
Campbell had been too old to fight, and was able to
remain. He had in fact bought land even after his son
was killed, so he must have decided to stay in any event.
He was compelled to take the Oath of Loyalty to the
new republic to safeguard his property and that of his
family, who were left near destitute.
Donald died 1784, an old man, far from his native shores.
The move to America had fulfilled none of their hopes
of a prosperous and settled life, only trouble and tragedy.
He must have bitterly rued the day he left Scalpay.
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