Robert Howe, born in Brunswick County, North Carolina, in 1732, was of English descent. He married young, took his wife to England, and lived for two years with some relatives. Returning to this country, he was appointed in 1766 commander at Fort Johnson in North Carolina. At the beginning of the Revolution, he was a member of the Committee of Safety for his native county, and with General Woodford was in command of Norfolk when that place was attacked and destroyed by Lord Dunmore, on the 1st of January, 1776. Prosecuting the war with vigor, Howe drove Dunmore out of Virginia. The Assemblies of North Carolina and Virginia recognized his services by a vote of thanks; Congress appointed him brigadier-general in the Continental army on the 1st of March, 1776; and on the 5th of May following, General Clinton excepted him when offering pardon in the king’s name to all Carolinians who would lay down their arms and return to their allegiance. The next year he was ordered to join the Southern army; and on the 20th of October, 1777, he was raised to the rank of major-general, and intrusted with an expedition against St. Augustine. After some successes, the destruction of one fourth of his army by an epidemic compelled him to abandon this project, and he was afterward assigned to duty in Georgia. Being defeated here, he joined Washington on the Hudson, and remained in active service at the North until the close of the war. In 1785, he was appointed a commissioner to treat with the Western Indians, and upon returning to his native State, was received with public honors and shortly after elected to the Legislature. Before the time arrived for him to take his seat, he died of fever on the 12th of November, 1785.