Steven Butler's Family History Website

Return to VETERANS in OUR FAMILY

LIST OF KNOWN REVOLUTIONARY WAR VETERANS in OUR FAMILY
2nd REVISION
Compiled by Steven R. Butler, Ph.D.
July 4, 2021

row of soldiers

PATERNAL SIDE of MY FAMILY (6)

CARY COX: N. C Line, Pension certificate 33083 of son, William Cox, Georgia, Nov. 27, 1845, 85 at the time of application. States he (William Cox) enlisted as a substitute on April 15 or 16 in 1776, in the village of Halifax, N. C., in Captain Caswell's Company of the 5th Regiment. and was discharged Oct. or Nov. 1778. William said his father (Cary Cox) was wounded and returned home. Another source says Cary Cox had a finger shot off. Cary Cox's Revolutionary War service was also mentioned in Memoirs of Georgia, Vol. 1 (Atlanta: The Southern Historical Association, 1895).

JESSE HOLDER: During the American Revolution, following the fall of Charleston in 1780, Jesse Holder, age about thirty and married with children, enlisted as a private in Colonel Benjamin Roebuck's Regiment of South Carolina militia, a unit that took part in several important battles, including:

  1. Musgrove's Mill, Aug. 18, 1780
  2. Fishing Creek, Aug. 18, 1780
  3. Kings Mountain, Oct. 7, 1780
  4. Enoree River, Nov. 1780
  5. Blackstocks, Nov. 20, 1780
  6. Williams's Plantation, Dec. 30, 1780
  7. Cowpens, Jan. 17, 1781
  8. Watkins, Feb. 1781
  9. Fort Watson, Feb. 24, 1781
  10. Mud Lick Creek, Mar. 2, 1781
  11. Fair Forest Creek, Mar. 2, 1781
  12. Lynches Creek, Mar. 6, 1781
  13. Siege of Augusta (GA), Apr. - Jun. 1781
  14. Bush Rive,r May 1, 1781
  15. Siege of Ninety-Six, May 21 - Jun. 19, 1781
  16. Saluda River, May 22, 1781
  17. Cunningham's Raid, Aug. 1, 1781
  18. Eutaw Springs, Sep. 8, 1781
  19. Gowen's Fort, Nov. 6, 1781
  20. Duncan's Creek, Nov. 8, 1781
  21. Edisto River, Dec. 20, 1781
  22. Farrow's Station, Apr. 1, 1782

Unfortunately, because Jesse Holder did not live long enough to apply for a Revolutionary War old age pension in the 1830s, the length of his service and the precise nature of it, to which he would have testified in writing, have been lost to history. All we can be sure of is that he did serve and that in 1786, three years after the treaty of peace that ended the war, he received a South Carolina state treasury warrant worth £3 and 4 shillings, apparently as back pay.

SOLOMON LANGSTON: Lt., Spartan Regiment under Captain Wofford, South Carolina troops. See Account Audited (File No. 4431) Of Claims Growing Out Of The American Revolution. Daughter "Daring Dicey" Langston aided patriots as a spy. See Noble Deeds of American Women (Buffalo, New York: Geo. H. Derby & Co., 1851). Son Jesse killed in the war.

JAMES MITCHELL, Lt., Capt. James Tate's Third Virginia Infantry. Born in Augusta County, Virginia, Tate led a company of militia that supported Lt. Col. Henry “Lighthorse Harry” Lee’s infantry. Capt. Tate was killed at the Battle of Guildord Courthouse, in fighting near the New Garden Friends Meeting House on March 15, 1781.

THOMAS W. MILES, SR.: Served with Captains Green, McFarland and Foley and Colonel Moore. Thomas Miles started out as a private, then worked his way up to Ensign and ended his career as a Lieutenant. It is stated in his pension application that there is no record of his birth but he believed himself to be 80 years old in 1832. He further stated that as a boy he moved with his father to Cumberland County on the James River. At the commencement of the Revolutionary War he moved to North Carolina. He married before the war began. He moved to Caswell County where he remained until 1798. He then moved to Davidson County, TN, and then to Williamson County in 1804, where he lived for ten years. He then moved to Wilson County, TN, where he lived at the time of his application. He volunteered several times, once under General Rutherford, Col. William Moore (who died in Carthage, Tennessee in 1823) and Captain David McFarland. NOT SURE IF WE ARE RELATED TO THIS VETEAN

JAMES MOORE: From James Moore's Revolutionary War pension application:

State of North Carolina}
New Hanover County }

On this the 12th day of September A. D. 1835 before me, Washington Collins, a Justice of the Peace in and for said county, personally appeared James Moore Senr., a resident of New Hanover County in the State of North Carolina aged eighty four years, who being first duly sworn according to law doth on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the act of Congress passed June 7, 1832.

That he entered the service of the United States under the following named officers and served as herein stated.

1st In a company of New Hanover militia under Captain Thomas Bludworth in a regiment commanded by Col Lillington in the fall of the year 1775 and served five months as a private, his other officers he forgets; that he was a volunteer, that when he entered the service he resided in New Hanover County, N.C., that he was in the battle at Moore's Creek bridge in February 1776 between the tories and American, and saw Capt. McLeod killed; that his company embodied at Moore's Creek bridge and were stationed there guarding the bridge as it was apprehended the tories would aim to pass and join the enemy below on board their ships of war in Cape Fear; From Moore's creek bridge he marched into South Carolina , to Charleston, where he was taken sick and put into the hospital remained there about a fortnight and discharged; that he recollects no continental regiments or soldiers, nor any regular officers; that he has no documentary evidence now, but not long since a discharge given him at the hospital in Charleston, it is now lost or misplaced, and he knows of no person now alive by whom he can prove his service.

2.-In a company of New Hanover militia his captain nor any of his company's officers he cannot recollect as he is very aged and has consequently lost his memory, but he was in a regiment commanded by Col Thomas Bludworth and according to the best of his recollection he served three months as a private, that he was a volunteer, that it was in the first of the year 1781, that while he was in the service there was a skirmish near the Big Bridge in ? County on the East side, this declarant being stationed on the West or opposite side, that he did not march out of the county being stationed at the Big Bridge, that he has no documentary evidence and knows of no persons now alive by whom he can prove this service.

3. He again volunteered in a company of New Hanover militia in the summer of 1781 and served according to the best of his recollection two months as private in a regiment commanded by Col Thomas Bludworth his other officers he forgets, he recollects however that Col James Kenan was at Rockfish where he was stationed and where there was a skirmish with the enemy, that he has no documentary evidence and knows of no person now alive by whom he can prove this service.

Answers of James Moore the aforesaid applicant to the questions propounded to him by the Justice of the Peace aforesaid as proscribed by the War Department.

  1. I was born in New Hanover County, N.C. in February 1749.
  2. I have no record of my age
  3. I have always lived in this (New Hanover) County
  4. I always volunteered
  5. I recollect no regular officers, nor no continental regiments; the militia regiments I remember were Col Lillington's, Col Caswell's, Col Kenan's and Col Bludworth's; the general circumstances of my service as well as I can recollect them are related in my declaration.
  6. I never received but one discharge, that was given at the hospital in Charleston S.C. who gave it [to] me I don't recollect, and it is either lost or mislaid
  7. Nicholas Bowders, Anthony D. Boardean, Washington Collins, Esq., Jacob Wells, John Moore, James D. Crews, Daniel Boardean, Moses Boardean, Rev. William Armstrong and others I could name

He hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension or annuity except the present and declares that his name is not on the pension roll of the agency of any State.

Sworn to & subscribed the day & year aforesaid.

JAMES MOORE

Test. Wm. Collins, J.P.

RICHARDSON ROUNTREE: Richardson Rountree was a Revolutionary War soldier who served as one of Francis Marion's men (The Swamp Fox). See Account Audited (File No. 6634) Of Claims Growing Out Of The American Revolution, South Carolina Stub Entries to Indents, Book X, Part I, page 178 and also Part II, p. 104, which covers payment for duty in Brandon's Regiment. Book Y-Z, page 258. In addition, he is listed as a Captain of Commissaries in Col Brandon's Regiment.

Richardson Rountree served as a Captain in the Militia in Brandon's Regiment in the Revolution Army, serving out of Edgefield Co., South Carolina, before and after the fall of Charleston. He died In Edgefield Co., South Carolina. During the war he was captured and brutally treated, left bound in a swamp to die. He was released by a faithful slave. His name is recorded in the list of "Persons Receiving payments for Duty Done in Colonel Brandon's Regiment" in "A History of Union County Chapter II, page 20-22." Published by Union Co. Historical Foundation 1977. Notes by GSW "00. (AA 66334, X3098; McCall, II, 55)

During the war, and while on a furlough home, Richardson Rountree's premises were raided by a roving band of Tories, many of who were his neighbors and acquaintances. They were after plunder, and in their search for valuables and money ripped open the bedding and scattered the feathers over the floor, besides destroying the household goods. Captain Rountree refused to tell them where his valuables were hidden, whereupon they tied him and threatened to hang him in the presence of his family. Finding they could not gain their object, they tied his hands behind his back, and disregarding the entreaties of his wife and daughters, they marched him away from his home asserting that they would kill any member of the family who dared to follow. Some distance from his home, in a deep forest, he was made to embrace a small tree (you see he was a round tree then), while his hands were made fast with hickory withes, and he was left to perish. After a painful struggle of many hours he at last succeeded in liberating himself by biting away the withes with his teeth. He returned to his command at Charleston, S.C., and was in the service until mustered out at the close of the war.

MATERNAL SIDE of MY FAMILY (11)

GREGORY "GRIGG" CLARK: Private, Sargent's Company, North Carolina Militia unit called the "Old Blue Hen's Chicks," commanded by Gen. Nathaniel Greene, ten months, mustered out at Hilton's Head, South Carolina. Sargent was a captain of Rangers under command of Col. William Moore. From Random Recollections of a Long Life, 1806 to 1876, by Edwin J. Scott (Columbia, South Carolina: Charles A. Calvo, Jr., Printers, 1884), p.133.

LEWIS DUVALL: From Laurens District or Little River District, South Carolian; Captain, South Carolina troops, 2nd Spartan Regiment, 1780-1782; participated in Battle of Cowpens (January 17, 1781 ) and Siege of Ninety-Six (May 21-Jun3 19, 1781). See Pension Application.

FRANCIS JENKINS: Enlisted July 24, 1776, Second Regiment South Carolina State Troops. See Roster of South Carolina Partriots in the Aemrican Revolution, Vol I (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1983).

THOMAS GILLILAND: Our first record of Thomas Gilliland as an individual dates from 1775, when he enlisted for service in Capt. Michael Creasup's company of Maryland militia, for service in the Revolutionary War. Here is what one modern-day historian has written about how this company of volunteers was raised and about their service in the patriot cause:

During the first few years of the Revolution the border controversy with Virginia was almost as important to the settlers [of the contested region] as the war with the British. It was also a convenient excuse for evading military service away from home. When Pennsylvania recruiting officers came down from Fort Pitt the inhabitants claimed Virginia allegiance, while if Virginia officers came into the district, they would claim allegiance to Pennsylvania. The same held true in the furnishing of supplies. Not wishing to take depreciated currency, the settlers would evade the foraging officers with the same excuse. It was bitterly complained of by the officers of the Continental line.

In spite of all this, patriotism was not lacking, and while was of a selfish type, in that the men sought only to protect their homes and loved ones, at a time when the new nation was unable to help, it nonetheless made possible the complete utilization of Washington's forces in the East. War had hardly been declared before companies were organized and men left to volunteer in the Eastern forces. Recruiting officers were here [in the southwestern part of Pennsylvania] as early as 1775. Captain Michael Creasup of Frederick County, Maryland, sent one of his lieutenants over the mountains to pick up as many frontiersmen as he could get, and it is reliably reported that some twenty or more from this section marched to Cumberland to join him, and then went on to Boston to join Washington there. [It was said] that Creasup's Rifle Company numbered some one hundred and thirty men, who were armed with tomahawks and rifles, painted like Indians, and dressed in hunting shirts and moccasins. [Historians] recall that the settlers of Cumberland and Frederick [counties] turned out to watch their skill with the rifle, when the men would hold a target in their hand for another to shoot at. An eye witness watching them at Boston also reports their skill at this game. When their term was out at Boston, these men returned home, but were saddened by the death of the Captain while at New York. Creasup was buried there in Trinity Church Yard, having died at that place in October 1775. When the men from the West of the mountains returned home they quickly took up the defense of the frontier, a number of them, because of their known experiences, being elected captains of the militia.

Above two paragraphs from The Ten-Mile Country and Its Pioneers by Howard L. Leckie (Waynesburg, Pennsylvania: Clearfiled Publishing Co., 1977).

SAMUEL HAYCRAFT, SR.: Private, Ninth Virginia Regiment, later Thirteenth Virginia Regiment, Continental Army. Enlisted 1777, discharged 1779. Served at Fort Pitt and Fort Laurens in Ohio Country, where he and comrades nearly starved to death by British and Indian allies. See Pension Application.

SAMUEL MAGILL: During the American Revolution, Samuel Magill's two brothers, James and Charles, as well as his cousin, William (son of John Magill), performed military service on behalf of the Patriot cause. There is evidence that Samuel himself participated in a 1776-77 "expedition against the Cherokees" under the command of either Capt. John Gilmore or Capt. William Christian. However, unlike his brothers, Samuel died before Congress passed a law providing for Revolutionary War pensions. This is unfortunate because the application and its accompanying documents would have provided us with the details of his service.

ABRAHAM SEAY: Served 92 days under Colonel Thomson, South Carolina troops. See Account Audited (File No. 6857A) Of Claims Growing Out Of The American Revolution.

MATTHEW WARD: Some researchers hold that Mathew Ward was born in Martin County, North Carolina, and that he is the same Mathew Ward who is listed as a private in a regiment of Revolutionary War volunteers from Martin County, a unit that also included a Captain Francis Ward. Although it is possible that Mathew Ward served in this capacity, in view of the fact that "our" Matthew was only about fifteen in 1780, the year that the British army's southern campaign began, I think more work needs to be done to ascertain whether the man named in the roster is the same Mathew Ward who resided in Duplin County after the war.

CONRAD WHEAT, SR: A roster or muster roll of "Soldiers who took the oath of allegiance to the Commonwealth of Virginia in Ohio County in 1777" further confirms Conrad Wheat's presence in Ohio County, as well as his status as a combatant in the American Revolution, Dated September 4, 1777, this roster was compiled by a neighbor named Andrew Caldwell. The name of Conrad Wheat, Jr. is found on a similar roll drawn up by one Silas Hedges on September 24, 1777. See The Ten-Mile Country and Its Pioneers by Howard L. Leckie (Waynesburg, Pennsylvania: Clearfiled Publishing Co., 1977).

EDWARD WILSON: Enlisted July 20, 1778 in North Carolina state troops for nine months. See The American Revolution in North Carolina.

Return to TOP


Copyright © 1996-2022 by Steven Butler, Ph.D. All rights reserved.