James Moore was born in New Hanover County in 1737. A soldier and politician, he first served in the French and Indian War and also served as a representative in the North Carolina Colonial Assembly from 1864-1771 and in 1773. A colonel during the War of the Regulation, he later supported the independence movement and commanded the Patriots to victory at Moore's Creek Bridge in February 1776. Appointed a brigadier general, he commanded troops in the southern United States, but died in Wilmington, North Carolina of disease on January 15, 1777.