RALEIGH — It was 250 years ago this week that North Carolinians fought in their first formal battle for American independence. But they didn’t fight it in North Carolina — and they didn’t fight British redcoats.

As of late 1775, the Continental Army under George Washington was still besieging the primary British army up in Boston. Other American troops had invaded Canada, entering Montreal on Nov. 13 and moving on to the main prize of Quebec City.

Here in North Carolina, Patriot leaders were still organizing their militia and preparing for a rumored British invasion of the Southern colonies. Loyalists were doing the same. Indeed, the British strategy depended on it. The idea was for General Henry Clinton to abandon Boston in early 1776 and sail south to Wilmington, where he’d be joined b

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