Waxhaw lands
During the American Revolution, under the command of militia Colonel William Davie the settlers in The Waxhaws fiercely resisted the British. In 1781, the British forces of General Cornwallis briefly occupied the town of Charlotte, already the largest town in the region, but his garrison was soon driven out by the local militia. Cornwallis later wrote that Charlotte was "a hornet's nest of rebellion", and Charlotte still is nicknamed, "The Hornet's Nest".