Bugler Boy Historic Site

Location: 3118 Oak Ridge Road

Marker installed: Fall 2018

During the Revolutionary War, the Charles Bruce home was the birthplace and muster site for a group of patriots known as the “Friends of Liberty." Bruce acted as a recruiting officer and assisted the American, colonial effort against the British Tories. Several area skirmishes preceded the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in 1781.

James Gillies—“a beardless, unarmed youth”—was the bugler for American General "Light Horse" Harry Lee. During an impromptu reconnaissance mission, Gillies was killed by the British Army near the current-day Oak Ridge/Summerfield town limits on Oak Ridge Road. (The memorial site is easily visible and accessible today.) While different accounts exist, Lee was an eyewitness and his later memoir account is attached below. (See Chapter XXV, pages 140-144.)

The brief version is that a local farmer hurriedly reported to General Lee that Lord Cornwallis’ Tories were camped a few miles away (present-day Oak Ridge). A posse was sent on horseback to verify, Gillies ended up involved on a slower horse and was caught up in a resulting chase by the British dragoons. Defenseless, he was overtaken, wounded "by the sword," and died shortly after—news that wasn’t received well back at Lee’s camp. The skirmish and aftermath resulted in as many as 17 British dragoons killed. Shortly thereafter, troops marched north on the final leg of the “Race to the Dan” and Cornwallis eventually surrendered at Yorktown.

The Bugler Boy’s body was thought to have been moved and buried by either locals or Bruce himself (accounts differ) in the Bruce graveyard across from Summerfield Elementary School near Odyssey Dental. As an important part of the community’s history, the school later named its newspaper "The Bugler." When the town incorporated in 1996, the Bugler Boy was honored as a primary part of the town seal.

(Information gathered from Historical Committee member Bruce Peterson and others.)

The images below show a separate monument (top left image), monument wall (bottom image), and plaque (top right image) near the Bugler Boy site. On the northern side of Oak Ridge Road, opposite side of the historical marker, stands a monument that looks like a headstone in a residential yard. Sometime after Gillies death, a marker was placed on the spot where Gillies was killed, probably of soap stone, but it deteriorated. It was replaced with a permanent granite monument by Robert Oscar Hold in 1939 and directs people 25 yards southeast to the actual spot across the road where Gillies was slain by the British. The southern monument wall was erected in 1941 by the Joseph Kerner Chapter of the DAR. Included is a close-up of the plaque on the wall.

A second monument recognizes James Gillies and Charles Bruce, in Summerfield, where both are buried. A large granite monument can be found in front of Summerfield Elementary School and a historical marker just across the street tells about the family cemetery of Charles Bruce. The headstone of Charles Bruce is visible within the wrought iron fence. James Gillies is also buried there but without a headstone.

The memorial to Bruce and Gillies is a squat granite shaft on a stone and masonry base. It stands approximately six feet tall and holds three bronze tablets. The largest of the three, on the front, highlights Charles Bruce’s political career during the Revolution and early days of the Republic. A smaller plaque to Gillies is on the left side and the third plaque which recognizes the land donation for Bruce Park is on the right side. Joseph Hoskins donated nearly an acre of land in front of the school to the Guilford Battle Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). The memorial is dated 1922 but continual rains forced the dedication to be delayed several times until September 29, 1923. Bruce and Gillies are buried in a small cemetery across the street.

A restoration of the site in 2009 saw new cobblestone pavers laid around the monument, benches installed, shrubs planted, and 3 flag poles installed for the United States flag, North Carolina flag and a replica of the flag carried during the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in March 1781. This flag is referred to as the Guilford Courthouse flag. The memorial was rededicated on September 26, 2009, about 86 years after its original dedication.

Lee's Memoirs - Chapter XXV This chapter is linked to Henry Lee's Memoirs from the book Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United States.