Gifts from Mill Prong

Redcoats on the Cape Fear

Suggested Donation: $30

A good introduction to the struggles between Patriots and Loyalists in the Cape Fear River Valley from 1775-1783. This is a very readable book, coving all of the major engagements in North Carolina during the War of Independence, aka the Revolutionary War.

Keepers of the Hearth

Suggested Donation: $15

This book is a fitting memorial to women such as Margaret McEachern. By developing their talents as keepers of the hearth, and creating a warm, inviting home where family members could gather around, these women contributed greatly to our American way of life. Their clipped recipes, handwritten notes and newsy letters give us a private glimpse into the past. Every family needs an Aunt Margaret.

Information Concerning the Province of North Carolina

Suggested Donation:

$15 Paperback

$15 Leather-Bound

Addressed to Emigrants from the Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland, (1773, 2013). A book written anonymously by an author claiming to be from the Isle of Skye, painting a wonderful picture of life in North Carolina prior to the War of Independence. This short book (32 pgs.) prompted many emigrants to leave the high rents, crop failures and high food prices in Scotland to come to the Promised Land. 

Col. David Fanning's Narratives

Suggested Donation:

$30 Paperback

$50 Leather-Bound

Col. Thomas Fletchall, of Fairforest, ordered the different Captains to call musters, and present two papers for all inhabitants to sign.nnOne was to see who were friend to the King and government, and the other was to see who would join the rebellion.

A History of the Campaigns of 1780 & 1781

Suggested Donation: $35

Tarleton was the legendary British cavalryman whose Loyalist dragoons struck fear into the hearts of Patriots in the South. His notorious butchery of surrendering Patriots at the Waxhaws gave rise to the term “Tarleton’s Quarter”. Fans of Mel Gibson’s The Patriot will recognize the Tarleston as the person upon whom the character Colonel Tavington is based. He also commanded the British forces who lost to Daniel Moran at Cowpens, which he addresses in the book.

Narrative of Military Operations

Suggested Donation: $30

The history of Johnston’s command of the Army of Tennessee and the Georgia and Carolina Campaigns. A very detailed account of operations by the commander who was replaced, before Atlanta, by John B. Hood, and then recalled to rebuild and lead the army after Hood nearly destroyed it at Atlanta and in Tennessee. Johnston is justifiably critical of the Davis Administration, Bragg and Hood, but loses the moral high ground. 

New Information Concering the Province of North Carolina

Suggested Donation: 

$15 Paperback

$15 Leather-bound

Addressed to Emigrants from the Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland, (1773, 2013). A book written anonymously by an author claiming to be from the Isle of Skye, painting a wonderful picture of life in North Carolina prior to the War of Independence. This short book (32 pgs.) prompted many emigrants to leave the high rents, crop failures and high food prices in Scotland to come to the Promised Land.

Col. David Fanning's New Narratives

Col. Thomas Fletchall, of Fairforest, ordered the different Captains to call musters, and present two papers for all inhabitants to sign. One was to see who were friend to the King and government, and the other was to see who would join the rebellion. I was made prisoner again on the 11th, by a Cape. Smith, bound hand and foot … [and ] after twelve miles, the company halted for the evening … .

New Revolutionary Incidents

Suggested Donation: $50

Reverend Caruthers, in the first history of the War of Independance in North Carolina, interviewed participants and gathered personal details on notable individuals of the time. The 1854 book covers both conventional and irregular warfare in the Old North State in detail, where as the 1856 boon contains more information on the regular warfare (e.g., Greene’s Campaign) in the State, along … .

Memoirs of General William T. Sherman

Suggested Donation: $40

Sherman’s memoirs of his experiences in the war, from start to finish. He is sometimes critical of his subordinates, but provides details of the campaigns one can get nowhere else. Sherman opposed Johnston, directly, for much of the war, so other books together make for an interesting comparison. Sherman’s men marched right past the Mill Prong House on their march from Cheraw to Fayetteville, as the damaged piano in the house demonstrates.

Lumber River Scots & Their Descendants

Suggested Donation: $125

This history follows the families of the McLeans, the Torreys, the Purcells, the McIntyres and the Gilchrist from Scotland or England to the Lumber River area of North carolina. Read about how these families and their decendants live and adapted to the new land. This book is a collection of original files of the families and interviews with existing famly members.

Carolina Scots

Suggested Donation: $35

Douglas Kelly has woven together the story of two cultures: Scottish Highland and Eastern Carolina. He combines colorful strands of cultural, linguistic, educational, political and religious history, with a careful genealogy of the first four or five generations of some sixty-five different family groups, who emigrated from the Scottish Highlands and Islands to the Cape Fear Valley of North Carolina and the neighboring Pee Dee Valley of South Carolina, from 1739 to the early 1840s.