The Patriot Leaders in North Carolina




The American Revolution in North Carolina

Alexander McAllister

Lt. Colonel in the Cumberland County Regiment of Militia - 1775-1776
Colonel/Commandant over the Cumberland County Regiment of Militia - 1776

On 9/9/1775, Alexander McAllister was commissioned as a Lt. Colonel under Col. Thomas Rutherford in the Cumberland County Regiment of Militia.

On 4/22/1776, Alexander McAllister was commissioned as Colonel/Commandant over the Cumberland County Regiment of Militia. He resigned within two weeks thereafter because he was a Loyalist at heart.

Alexander McAllister (also McAlester) came to Wilmington, N.C., from Scotland in 1736, returned to Scotland in 1739, and came back to North Carolina in 1740, settling near present-day Fayetteville. He served in the Cumberland County militia, in the provincial congresses of 1775 and 1776, and in the state senate, 1787-1789. He had three wives: Mary McNeil (died 1740); Flora McNeil; and Jean Colvin, whom he married in 1763. McAllister's siblings were Hector, who lived in Scotland; Mary, who married Hector McNeil; Isabella, who married Farquard Campbell in North Carolina; and Grisella. McAllister's son Alexander (1766-1823), married Rachel Smith in 1799.

Click Here for a photo of his son's burial headstone located in the Old Bluff Presbyterian Church cemetery in Cumberland County, NC.

Click Here for a photo and description of a memorial marker near the afore-mentioned cemetery, the transcription of which follows:

"Near this spot at Old Bluff Church is buried Colonel Alexander McAllister; Patriot and Revolutionary Hero; Colonel of Cumberland County Militia; Representative First Assembly in Newbern, December 1773; Representative Second Assembly in Newbern, March 1774; Member of Provincial Congress Held at Hillsboro, Aug. 1775; Member of Provincial Congress Held at Halifax, April 1776; Member of Committee of Safety for Wilmington District; Member of Committee appointed by Provincial Congress August 23, 1775, to interview the Highlanders and explain to them the nature of the controversy with Great Britain; Member of North Carolina Senate 1787, 1788, and 1789. This memorial was erected by his descendants under the auspices of the Daughters of the American Revolution."

Click Here for a free Google eBook, entitled "Genealogical record of the descendants of Col. Alexander McAllister, of Cumberland County, N. C."