The Battle of Colson’s Mill occurred just outside Norwood on July 21, 1780. William Davidson, after whom Davidson County was named, led a large force of Patriots against Loyalists at the fork of the Pee Dee and Rocky Rivers, where Colson’s Mill was located. To identify themselves, the Patriots wore small white pieces of cloth on their hats.
The Loyalists were so severely defeated that they fled, abandoning their property in what is now Stanly County. As a result of these losses, General Cornwallis did not send British troops through Stanly County. Approximately 3,000 British troops and Loyalists lost their lives in the battles of Colson’s Mill, Ramseur’s Mill, and Guilford Courthouse. These confrontations ultimately contributed to the British surrender at Yorktown.
According to historian Lewis Bramlett, Stanly County historian Mrs. G.D.B. Reynolds led the effort to have the first state-recognized historic marker placed in Stanly County to commemorate the battle. The marker, titled “Fight at Colson’s,” is located on the east side of Highway 52, just north of the bridge across the Rocky River.
Mrs. Reynolds became interested in the Battle of Colson’s Mill in 1919 after reading a research paper written by Charles Reap in 1917. Over the years, she gathered evidence from a variety of sources until she could prove without question the time and place of the battle. She corresponded with numerous individuals, including Lt. Col. Jeffery Stanback, William S. Powell, Edwin A. Miles (researchers for the Department of Archives and History), David Gaddy, Mrs. Effie Turner Ingram, and Dr. Chalmers G. Davidson—author of Piedmont Partisan, a biography of General William Lee Davidson, who was wounded in the Battle of Colson’s Mill.
The “Fight at Colson’s” marker was dedicated on a damp, cold Friday afternoon, October 10, 1952. According to several Stanly News & Press articles from early October 1952, members of the newly formed Stanly County Historical Society, along with the Yadkin River Patriots Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, played a key role in the event.
In 2025, as part of Stanly County’s America 250 celebrations, the Williams Brothers, artists from Albemarle, were commissioned to design a mural commemorating the Battle of Colson’s Mill. The artists described the mural this way:
“The mural is an abstract interpretation of the Battle of Colson’s Mill. Our inspiration came from the cubist art style…using sharp angles, broken shapes, and bold color block to capture the chaos, speed, and intensity of the battle…feeling loud and full of motion. The blue forms with white marks represent the Patriot militia; the reds and oranges symbolize the Loyalists. The mill sits at center. The flowing shapes along the bottom represent the meeting point of the Pee Dee River and Rocky River.”
The mural was unveiled in a ceremony on April 25, 2026, in a celebration which included special music by the Stanly County Chorale and Concert Band.