"At Eutau Springs He Received Three Wounds ": Black Soldiers in Southern Continental Regiments

“At Eutau Springs he received three wounds …”
Black Soldiers in Southern Continental Regiments

John U. Rees
___________________________
A soldier of Lt. Col. Thomas Gaskin's Virginia Battalion, during the unit’s summer and
autumn 1781 service with the Marquis de Lafayette against Maj. Gen. Charles Earl
Cornwallis’s forces. Like the two Virginia Continental regiments commanded by Colonels
John Green and Samuel Hawes, and fighting under Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene, Gaskins’
unit contained some numbers of African-Americans. Artwork by Don Troiani (Courtesy of
the artist, www.historicalimagebank.com)
Pardon the interruption, the entire article will be found below. This is to inform the reader that this
work has been expanded into a book and will be available in May or June 2019 via Helion & Company
in the U.K., and in the U.S. through their American distributor Casemate Publishing.
https://www.casematepublishers.com/distributed-publishers/helion-and-company/they-were-good-
soldiers.html#.XHgNjIhKiM8
https://www.amazon.com/They-Were-Good-Soldiers-African-Americans/dp/1911628542
The book’s table of contents and Preface is appended. Cheers, John Rees
“They were good soldiers.”

African Americans Serving in the Continental Army, 1775-1783
John U. Rees
1. Introduction
2. ‘I do promise to every Negroe … full security … within these Lines …’:
Black Americans in Service to the Crown.
3. ‘Numbers of Free Negroes are desirous of inlisting,’:
An Overview of African Americans in the Continental Army
4. Analysis: ‘Return of the Negroes in the Army,’ August 1778
5. ‘At Eutau Springs he received three wounds …’
Regimental Service and Soldier Narratives
a. Unit Lineage and Why it Matters.
b. 1775 Regiments of Foot and the 1777 Additional Regiments.
c. Commentary: Veterans’ Pension Accounts.
d. Massachusetts: ‘The Person of this … Negro Centers a Brave & gallant
Soldier.’
e. Connecticut: ‘He … entered the service upon condition of receiving his
freedom …’
f. New Hampshire: ‘I was in the battles of Harlem-heights & Monmouth.’
g. Rhode Island: ‘Very much crippled in one arm … [by] a wound received …
[at] Monmouth’
h. New York: ‘The Enemy made a stand and threw up a b[r]east work’
i. New Jersey: ‘Enlisted … for nine months … was in the Battles of Crosswick
& monmouth’
j. Pennsylvania: ‘Wounded in the right thigh, at Brandywine …’
h. Georgia: ‘He served as a drummer in this company …’
k. South Carolina: ‘A Ball … passed through his left side, killing the
Drummer immediately behind’
l. Maryland: ‘He will never forget the roaring of Cannon …’
m. Delaware: ‘Discharged … 1782, being a slave for life & claimed.’
n. Virginia: ‘Served for two years … in the light infantry commanded by Colo
Harry Lee’
o. North Carolina: ‘The men sent on Board of Prison Ships – myself among
them …’
6. ‘They had a great frollick … with Fiddling & dancing.’: Small Things Forgotten
7. ‘Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness …’: Post-War Societal Attitudes,
the Black Experience, and Slavery
8. Afterword: “They were good soldiers.”
Appendices
A. ‘Being a coloured man he was taken as a waiter’: Overview of Officers’
Servants
B. ‘Lately apprehended in the first Maryland regiment, …’
African American Women with the Army
C. ‘Peters is an East-India Indian …’: Compendium of Deserter Notices for
Soldiers of Color
D. African American Veterans Featured in the Narrative
__________________
Preface
My first in-depth exposure to African Americans’ contributions in the War for

Independence was some thirty years ago, when I first read Benjamin Quarles’ 1961 classic
The Negro in the American Revolution. Professor Quarles introduced me to one of the
conflict’s many interesting facets, black Revolutionary soldiers and their military service,
joined with the conundrum of slavery and American independence. As I continued my own
research into the armies of the Revolution, I turned up additional references to soldiers of
color, and increasingly realized what a complex and little-known aspect of the war their
service was. Having written two articles on the subject, when approached to do a book, I
almost immediately decided to further examine black Continental soldiers’ capacities and
experiences during the war.
The story of African American soldiers in the cause for American Independence is tied to
the complicated history of English and American enslavement of Africans, the genesis and
growth of the abolition movement, and, despite efforts to the contrary, post-war
entrenchment of black slavery in the United States. White society’s attitude towards
African Americans, free and enslaved, is also part and parcel of the soldiers’ history. As
will be seen, black Americans participated early-on in the militia and New England Army
of Observation and, despite some backlash, continued to be accepted as soldiers to the
war’s end. By and large, commanders treated them as they did other enlisted men and
their white fellow-soldiers appreciated their contributions to the cause, and many, perhaps
most, valued them as human beings. Despite the waning of Northern slavery, with the
ratification of the 1789 United States Constitution, and boosted by the 1794 cotton gin
patent, black bondage was cemented as a political and economic fact, and detrimental
racial attitudes hardened before, but more especially after, 1800. In the first quarter of the
19th century many citizens either did not know or willfully forgot that African Americans
had served as soldiers. This societal amnesia was so ingrained that when southern
Congressmen questioned black citizenship during the 1820 Missouri debates, northerners had
to remind them with ready evidence of African American participation in the Continental
Army and militia. Thirty-five years after the war black Revolutionary veterans, along with
their white comrades, were eligible for service pensions, but even in that system, they
experienced the effect of increasing bias. When all is said and done, African American
military service was a direct challenge to slavery and the racial construct.
Before proceeding to the narrative, some discussion of methodology is in order. Having used
African American veterans’ pension accounts for an earlier work, two attributes led me to rely on
them again. First, they are the best way to hear the men’s stories in as close to their own words as is
possible - to almost hear them speak. And, second, personal details, available nowhere else, are
revealed by the veterans themselves or people close to them. In essence, my wish is to present their
experiences as soldiers, as citizens, and as individuals, and pension narratives are the best way to
accomplish that. 1
Two other factors are crucial in studying African American Continental Army service. A
discussion of numbers is a must, though the only reliable figures are from the 1778 ‘Return of the
Negroes’ in Gen. George Washington’s main army. Similar information is available for a few small
units, but data on total numbers of black soldiers who served the ‘Rebel’ cause is lacking, and any
statistics are based on educated assumptions rather than hard facts. It is also important we delve
into the lineage of the military units black soldiers served in. Men who signed on for more than one
year periodically experienced changes in company and regimental organization, even being
reassigned en masse to another newly forming unit with an unfamiliar officer corps. These
transformations and transferals were integral to the Continental Army’s organizational churn and
affected most soldiers at some point during their career. Soldier numbers and black wartime free
and slave populations are covered in a dedicated chapter, while unit lineage is included in the
chapters covering individual states.
There is more, much more, to be discovered and written on this subject, but this is my
small contribution, a supplement to the canon of better historians than myself concerning
the African American experience and their contributions to our nation.
John U. Rees
March 2019
Solebury, Pennsylvania
http://tinyurl.com/jureesarticles
1
Using pensions as the foundation of my work was a leap of faith. While their narratives can be compelling
and eye-opening, many are limited to simple facts, and there was no way of knowing how many informative,
usable accounts I would find. To increase the difficulty, my search was narrowed to a subset of a subset, black
veterans with some Continental Army service. From the outset quickly locating pension files belonging to
black veterans was a large hurdle. The online Southern Campaigns Revolutionary War Pension website
contains thousands of transcribed pensions, is fully searchable, and an invaluable resource. Unfortunately, it
covers only veterans with southern service and not yet even all of those. After several false starts and dead-
ends, I stumbled across Eric Grundset’s Forgotten Patriots: African American and American Indian Patriots in
the Revolutionary War (National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, 2008), a fully searchable
digital resource. Though the ability to search Grundset’s collection was useful, to ensure accuracy I examined
each entry, state by state, to glean all the men listed with pension numbers. Along the way I discovered some
few errors and probable duplicates. I also found men I knew had pension files, but were not listed as such.
While Forgotten Patriots was crucial to my work, undoubtedly some African American veterans and pension
accounts were missed.
____________________
Walt Whitman could easily have been referring to the Brother Jonathans, those “Continental
Devil[s],” of our eight-year long founding conflict (1775 to 1783), when wrote of the war and
soldiers of 1861-65:
Future years will never know the seething hell and the black infernal background of
countless minor scenes and interiors, (not the official surface courteousness of the
Generals, not the few great battles) of the … war; and it is best they should not—the real
war will never get in the books … It was not a quadrille in a ball-room. Its interior history
will not only never be written – its practicality, minutiae of deeds and passions, will never even
be suggested. The actual soldier … with all his ways, his incredible dauntlessness, habits,
practices, tastes, language, his fierce friendship, his appetite, rankness, his superb strength and
animality, lawless gait, and a hundred unnamed lights and shades of camp, I say, will never be
written – perhaps must not and should not be.1
Whitman’s sentiments are compelling, especially, for me, when thinking of the thousands of
men who served with the Continental Army. Considering the extent of their service and 24/7
nature of their military lives, there is so much of their reality we will never truly know. Consider
the banter and other interactions among messmates, soldiers’ thoughts while on nighttime sentry
duty, or what went through their minds standing in formation, waiting, with the prospect of
advancing on the enemy or receiving their charge. These and countless other moments are, for
the most part, irretrievable.
For the subject at hand, southern black Continental soldiers, there are other questions, some
we may get an inkling of, others are, perhaps, unknowable. Several questions in particular
interest me, and pertain to all black soldiers during the war. What was their experience of
military service? Were they treated more or less as equals by their white comrades? And, did
black soldiers serve as non-commissioned officers in any units, Continental or militia? Let us
consider these queries one by one, leaving the first for last.
Daniel M. Popek, author of a groundbreaking study of the Rhode Island regiments during the
war, notes that he “found no evidence of racial incidents in the [integrated 1781-83] Rhode
Island Regiment. Although [black and white soldiers] were segregated into companies, they
basically had the same duties. Fatigue and Guard duty was the same [no matter a soldier’s
ethnicity] … [and] Detachments from the R.I.R. were usually integrated.” This agrees with my
take on the generality of relations between white and black soldiers, based on the evidence seen
to date. That said, this question is by no means considered to be settled.2
Concerning blacks serving as non-commissioned officers we have, first, a September 1779
return of "Colo. Greene's [1st Rhode Island] Reg." bearing this note,
This from its Numbers can hardly be called a Regiment consisting only of 147 Negroes in very
bad Order. The Non Commiss[ioned] Officers are very bad which must always be the case as
they being white Men cannot be reduced or their places supplied from the Ranks – It were to be
desired that the state would keep this Regiment with them & replace it in the Line with one of
their state Regiments.3
Mr. Popek follows this up with information from his study of the same regiment:
Three men of color were made Corporals in early 1780 in the "Black Regiment" [1st Rhode
Island], however, they were demoted to Privates by July 1780 because basically the "Black
Regiment" failed as a segregated battalion. … I have found no evidence that any [black] soldier
ever made Sergeant in either the "Black Regiment" or in the [1781-83] Rhode Island Regiment
(or in any Rhode Island State or Militia Regiment that I have looked at to date…). [In their book
on the battle of Guilford Courthouse, Lawrence Babits and Joshua Howard note that one
Virginia African-American soldier, Isaac Brown, was a sergeant, a likely position to give orders
to white soldiers.] 4
To gain additional insight into their service and experiences, this study makes use of black
veterans’ pension narratives. These pension accounts can be invaluable, and are often the only
way we get to "hear" these now voiceless men and women speak to us in their own words.5 That
said, a caveat is in order; some depositions illustrate the pitfalls of old age recollections, and
inexact recall can plague even those with a strong memory. Jane Austen’s heroine Fanny Price
summed up the problem nicely,
If any one faculty of our nature may be called more wonderful than the rest, I do think it is memory.
There seems something more speakingly incomprehensible in the powers, the failures, the
inequalities of memory, than in any other of our intelligences. The memory is sometimes so
retentive, so serviceable, so obedient: at others again so bewildered, and so weak; and at others again,
so tyrannic, so beyond control! We are, to be sure, a miracle in every way; but our powers of
recollecting and of forgetting, do seem particularly past finding out.6
Despite the vicissitudes of memory it is remarkable how much some of these veterans did
recollect, and when verifiable, the proportion of events and details recalled quite accurately.
___________________
“… one of the largest oral history projects ever undertaken”

John C. Dann, editor of The Revolution Remembered: Eyewitness Accounts of the War for
Independence (1980), noted, “To qualify for a pension under the 1832 act, a soldier had to
indicate in his application the time and place of service, the names of units and officers, and
engagements in which he had participated. The narrative was presented and sworn to in a
court of law, and it had to be supported by the statements of two or more character
witnesses … The regulations governing applications under the 1832 act urged that veterans
lacking strong documentary evidence or the testimony of contemporary witnesses submit `a
very full account’ of their service.
A relatively small percentage of the applicants wrote out narratives themselves. In many
cases the soldier would go to the courthouse and tell his story to a clerk or court reporter.
Some of them seem to have presented their stories in open court … Many others went to a
lawyer, related their experiences, and attested to the narratives in court. The 1832 act also
encouraged the multiplication of pension agents who sought out veterans, took down
narratives, and filled out applications as a regular business. In reality, then, the pension
application process was one of the largest oral history projects ever undertaken, with
thousands of veterans being interviewed.”6
___________________
(Further discussion of the pensions used for this study can be found in the ensuing narrative.)
Contents
Overview of Numbers
Gleaning Veterans’ Pensions
Georgia
South Carolina
Maryland
Delaware
Virginia
Analysis: William Ranney’s Painting “Battle of Cowpens”
and Black Cavalry Soldiers
Analysis: Officers’ Servants
North Carolina
Post-War Comments on Unit Integration, Slavery, and
Societal Attitudes towards Blacks
Appendices
A. "Return of the Negroes in the Army," 24 August 1778, White Plains, New York
B. Estimated Populations of the American Colonies, 1700-1780
C. Synopsis of African-American veterans’ pensions found on Southern Campaign Revolutionary War
Pension Statements & Rosters (with links to pension transcriptions)
D. Analysis of average number of African Americans in all the brigades listed in the 24 August 1778 “Return
of the Negroes in the Army” showing 755 black soldiers in fifteen brigades of Gen. George Washington’s main
army at White Plains, New York.
E. A Study in Complexity: Comparison of Virginia Continental regiment lineage with that of the
Pennsylvania and Massachusetts Lines
F. Synopsis of the Chesterfield List (Virginia, 1780-1781) (Including, “Numbers of African-Americans on the
Chesterfield List.”)
Pension Accounts Used for this Study:

A. Delaware and Georgia Pensions Gleaned from “Southern Campaign Revolutionary War Pension
Statements & Rosters,”
https://www.academia.edu/18409677/Delaware_and_Georgia_Pensions_Gleaned_from_Southern_C
ampaign_Revolutionary_War_Pension_Statements_and_Rosters_as_of_14_April_2011_http_www.
southerncampaign.org_pen_
B. South Carolina Pensions Gleaned from SCRWP,
https://www.academia.edu/18409708/South_Carolina_Pensions_Gleaned_from_Southern_Campaig
n_Revolutionary_War_Pension_Statements_and_Rosters_as_of_14_April_2011_http_www.souther
ncampaign.org_pen_
C. Maryland Pensions Gleaned from SCRWP,
https://www.academia.edu/18409828/Maryland_Pensions_Gleaned_from_Southern_Campaign_Rev
olutionary_War_Pension_Statements_and_Rosters_as_of_14_April_2011_http_www.southerncamp
aign.org_pen_
D. Virginia Pensions Gleaned from SCRWP (Including a Synopsis of the 1780 Chesterfield Roll),
https://www.academia.edu/18409884/Virginia_Pensions_Gleaned_from_Southern_Campaign_Revol
utionary_War_Pension_Statements_and_Rosters_as_of_14_April_2011_http_www.southerncampai
gn.org_pen_
E. North Carolina Pensions Gleaned from SCRWP,
https://www.academia.edu/18409910/North_Carolina_Pensions_Gleaned_from_Southern_Campaig
n_Revolutionary_War_Pension_Statements_and_Rosters_as_of_14_April_2011_http_www.souther
ncampaign.org_pen_
F. Examples of African-Americans Serving in the North Carolina Militia Gleaned from SCRWP,
https://www.academia.edu/18409926/Examples_of_African-
Americans_Serving_in_the_North_Carolina_Militia
Four Whig soldiers drawn in 1781 by French Sublieutenant Jean-Baptiste-Antoine de Verger, Royal Deux-
Ponts Regiment. The soldier on the left has long been thought to be from the Rhode Island Regiment of 1781,
to his right from Hazen’s Canadian Regiment. (Another version, found in French officer Baron Ludwig von
Closen’s journal, is headed “Costumer de l’Armé Américaine en 1782.” Closen’s copy notes that the left-
hand soldier belongs to a Massachusetts Continental regiment, the brown-coated on from a New Jersey
regiment.) The figure wearing the hunting shirt and plumed hat is a Virginia militia rifleman, and on the far
right a Continental artilleryman. Howard C. Rice and Anne S.K. Brown, eds. and trans., The American
Campaigns of Rochambeau's Army 1780, 1781, 1782, 1783, vol. I (Princeton, N.J. and Providence, R.I.,: Princeton
University Press, 1972), between pages 142-143 (description on page xxi). Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection,
Brown University. Sidney Kaplan, The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution, 1770-1800
(Greenwich, Ct.: New York Graphic Society, Ltd. in Association with the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1973),
42.
Overview of Numbers. Given the fact of slavery in Revolutionary America, the status of
American blacks, free and slave, in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, and, of course, their
segregation into separate military units from the 1860’s to July 1948, the service of African-
American soldiers in integrated southern Continental regiments may be surprising to modern
Americans. Soldiers’ pension narratives provide invaluable insights concerning service and
wartime experiences, but first let us examine numbers at the brigade level.
The 24 August 1778 “Return of the Negroes in the Army” numbered the black soldiers in six
southern brigades at White Plains, New York:7 (See complete return in Appendix A.)
Sick On Percentage of Brigade
Brigades Present Present Command Total Strength
North Carolina 42 10 6 58 4.8 % of rank and file
Woodford 36 3 1 40 (Virginia) 3.2 % “ “
Muhlenberg 64 26 8 98 (Virginia) 6.8 % “ “
Scott 20 3 1 24 (five regiments from Virginia, 1.6 % “ “
and one from Delaware)
Smallwood 43 15 2 60 (Maryland) 4% “ “
2d Maryland 33 1 1 35 (three regiments from Maryland, 2.0 % “ “
and German Regt.)
For comparison, the estimate of blacks, free and slave, in 1775 was seventeen percent of the
Lower South’s population, and thirty-one percent for the Upper South (see below). Total
population for those regions in 1780, the closest year for which I have information, is as follows:
Lower South, 506,204; Upper South, 828,863. If the 1775 percentages held true, the number of
blacks in 1780 would have been 86,055 for the Lower South, for the Upper South 256,948. (See
“Estimated Populations of the American Colonies, 1700-1780” in Appendix B.)
Comparison of White and Black Population by Region, 1700 and 1775 (in percentages)
1700 1775
Percentage Percentage
of total of total
White Black population White Black population
Lower South 81 19 6 59 41 17
Upper South 77 23 35 63 37 31
Mid-Atlantic 92 8 21 94 6 24
New England 98 2 37 97 3 26
West — \ — — 83 17 1
Total population 89% 11% 100% 79% 21% 100%
(Population in
millions) 0.22 0.03 0.25 1.94 0.52 2.46
Lower South: Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina.
Upper South: Virginia, Maryland, Delaware.
Mid-Atlantic: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York.
New England: Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, (Vermont).
West: Kentucky, Tennessee.
Note: 1775 interpolated from 1770 and 1780 figures. Percentages do not add to 100 because of
rounding.
James T. Lemon, “Colonial America in the Eighteenth Century.” In North America: The
Historical Geography of a Changing Continent, edited by Robert D. Mitchell and Paul
A. Groves, 121-146. Totowa, New Jersey: Rowman and Littlefield, 1987.
Comparison with the northern brigades provide additional insights on numbers of African-
Americans in the ranks. Two southern brigades ranked among the top four with the highest
average numbers of African-Americans per regiment (see above). Of the six brigades (of fifteen)
reporting the highest proportions of black soldiers, three were from southern states:8
Parsons’ (Connecticut) 8.6 % of rank and file
Muhlenberg’s (Virginia) 6.8 %
Patterson’s (Massachusetts) 5.7 %
North Carolina 4.8 %
Huntingdon (Connecticut) 4.7 %
Smallwood (Maryland) 4%
The New England brigades had a higher number of black soldiers per regiment, but three of
the southern brigades had similar averages.9
Average Number of Black Soldiers Per Regiment Within Each Southern Brigade
(24 August 1778 army return)
North Carolina (1st and 2d Regts.)
average of 29 black soldiers per regiment
Woodford (2d/6th, 3d/7th, 11th/15th Regts.) Va.
average of 13 black soldiers per regiment or battalion
Muhlenberg (1st/5th/9th, 14th Regts., Grayson’s Additional, and 1st & 2d State Regts.) Va.
average of 19.5 black soldiers per regiment or battalion
Smallwood (1st, 3d, 5th, and 7th Regts.), Md.
Scott (4th/8th/12th, 10th Va. and Delaware Regts.)
(Note: At this time 8 companies per regiment)
Northern and Southern Brigades With Greatest Numbers of Black Soldiers Per Regiment
(24 August 1778 army return)
1. Parsons (3d, 4th, 6th, 8th Regts.) Ct.
2. North Carolina (1st and 2d Regts.)
3. Patterson (10th, 11th, 12th, 14th) Ma.
average of 22.25 black soldiers per regiment
4. Muhlenberg (1st/5th/9th, 14th Regts., Grayson’s Additional, and 1st & 2d State Regts.) Va.
5. Huntingdon (1st, 2d, 5th, 7th Regts.) Ct.
6. Late Learned (2d, 8th, 9th) Ma.
7. Smallwood (1st, 3d, 5th, and 7th Regts.), Md.
One resource is lacking; unlike eyewitness accounts available for Gen. George Washington’s
main army (see below), to date none have been found specifically commenting on the presence
of black soldiers in southern regiments at any period of the war. Luckily, we know that sizeable
numbers did serve thanks to the August 1778 return of brigades, muster rolls, and pension
accounts. In the years after 1778, we have no certain idea of numbers for black Continentals,
north or south, but several suppositions can be made based on information at hand. From known
trends and available sources it seems likely the number and/or proportion of black citizens, and
perhaps higher numbers of slaves or former slaves, serving in Continental regiments grew as the
war went on. Manpower shortfalls became more troublesome, and many states increasingly
relied on the draft of short-term soldiers, serving terms from as low as six to as high as eighteen
months. Similarly, due to poor responses to recruiting efforts, made worse by yearly attrition,
and, in the south, heavy losses when Charleston fell to Crown forces, from 1778 on each state’s
official allotment of regiments fell. With fewer regiments in the field, and those often created by
consolidating two or more older units, in the later war years the proportion of black soldiers in
each regiment was likely higher in relation to white soldiers, whether numbers of African-
American Continentals remained stable or increased.10
___________________________
The presence of black Continental troops in the northern and main armies was noted,
often favorably, by foreign observers. In December 1777 a German officer wrote of the
American Revolutionary forces, “The negro can take the field in his master's place;
hence you never see a regiment in which there are not a lot of negroes, and there are
well–built, strong, husky fellows among them."4 The situation had not changed by
1781 when Sub–Lieut. Comte Jean–Francois–Louis de Clermont–Crevecoeur, French
Auxonne Royal Artillery Regiment, noted,
On 8 July General Washington reviewed the two armies. I went to the American camp,
which contained approximately 4,000 men. In beholding this army I was struck, not by its
smart appearance, but by its destitution: the men were without uniforms and covered with
rags; most of them were barefoot. They were of all sizes, down to children who could not
have been over fourteen. There were many Negroes, mulattoes, etc.11
___________________________
Many southern regiments enlisted blacks early on with little compunction, and African-
Americans were a common sight in Continental, state, and militia units from Maryland to
Georgia, with some differences between the states. In her work “Claiming Their Due: African
Americans in the Revolutionary War and Its Aftermath,” Judith L. Van Buskirk writes, “the state
government of North Carolina certainly supported a black man’s sanguine expectation of full
citizenship by stipulating that all men between the ages of sixteen and fifty had to serve in the
militia. Unlike its neighbors to the north and south, North Carolina did not distinguish between
white and black men when it came to militia service.” Regarding Virginia, Michael A.
McDonnell, in his article “’Fit for Common Service?’: Class, Race, and Recruitment in
Revolutionary Virginia,” notes that while indentured servants and slaves were initially barred
from enlisting, “at some point between 1775 and early 1777 … desperate recruiters began
allowing free blacks into the Virginia line.” This practice led some enslaved blacks to pass
themselves off as free and join the military, with varied success. Admittedly, numbers of black
soldiers remained relatively small, but, unlike many northern units, it seems most southern black
Continentals were free rather than slave. John Roe, “a free man of colour,” joined the 2nd
Virginia Regiment in early 1778, and was discharged at the war’s end. In one instance an
intoxicated Virginia farmer, Rolling Jones, was induced to enlist; regretting his action when
sober, he sent his slave Tim in his place. Tim Jones (taking his master’s last name) served with
the 3rd Virginia Regiment, seeing action at the battle of Camden and the Yorktown siege, where
he “lost his leg by a musket ball.” He “was given his freedom by the Country for the faithful
discharge of his duty as a soldier.”12
Gleaning Veterans’ Pensions. Besides the aforementioned lack of eyewitness descriptions of
black soldiers in the ranks of southern military units, few studies have been done on their
numbers and duties within single regiments, or the companies within a regiment. Were blacks
assigned disproportionately to non-combatant roles within their parent units, or, similar to one or
two known instances in the north, gathered into a single company for service? How were they
treated by their officers and the white soldiers serving alongside them in the ranks? The veterans
themselves allude to these and other issues in their 19th century pension depositions.
At the time the research for this study was done, the online resource “Southern Campaigns of
the American Revolution” contained nearly eleven thousand fully-searchable transcribed
soldier’s pensions. The search terms “free black,” “black,” “color,” “colour,” “molatto,”
“mulatto,” and “Negro,” delivered up 105 African-American veterans’ depositions for men
serving in the state lines of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and
Georgia (plus one Massachusetts veteran). Others were added via separate resources and all
winnowed for this study. In this way, the men themselves are allowed to tell their story in their
own words, and to some extent fill gaps in the historiography. (For a breakdown of pensions
by state see Appendix C.)
____________________
Note: This study is centered on transcribed, annotated, and searchable pension depositions made
available by Will Graves and C. Leon Harris on Southern Campaign Revolutionary War Pension
Statements & Rosters (World Wide Web, http://www.southerncampaign.org/pen/ ). As of 14 April
2011, the date the initial study was concluded and all pensions gathered, the SCRW Pension website
had 10,788 pension applications and 73 roster transcriptions posted.
As of 3 March 2015 had expanded to 20,360 pension applications or bounty land claim
transcriptions. The total on 25 October 2015 was 20,786 pensions or land claims. Besides showing
the laudable increase in posted transcribed pension application, we can also gain some idea of the
numbers of black soldiers’ records that have been added since April 2011.
Transcribed pensions as of April 2011, 10,788

105 black soldiers pensions found
less than one percent of the total (107.88)
Transcribed pensions as of March 2015, 20,360

Rough estimation of black soldiers pensions 203 (one percent of total)
Transcribed pensions as of October 2015, 20,786

Rough estimation of black soldiers pensions 207 (one percent of total)
____________________
Unit Lineage. One other deficiency in the history of the Continental Army will also be
addressed in order to further clarify the southern black soldier’s experience. The number and
composition of regiments allotted to each state changed as the war progressed. In 1775 and 1776
the initial Continental regiments were raised, usually enlisted for a single year. With the
prospective dissolution of most states’ regiments at the turn of the new year, Congress enacted
legislation in autumn 1776 calling for the raising of eighty-eight battalions. Beginning in January
1777 most states’ existing units were reorganized and reenlisted, others formed anew. Each state
had a unit quota, apportioned according to population (see below). All enlistments spanned three
years or the war’s duration, in what became known as the Continental Army Second
Establishment. There were several exceptions, including six North Carolina and nine Virginia
regiments, all formed in 1776 with enlistments expiring in 1778 or early 1779. Besides these
units there were organizations like the 1st and 2nd Canadian Regiments, and the German Battalion,
the latter formed in 1776 of three-year soldiers in companies enlisted in either Maryland or
Pennsylvania. Also included in the eighty-eight battalion resolve were sixteen Additional regiments,
only thirteen of which were actually formed, with varying success.13
1777 Southern State Quotas
(Infantry Regiments Actually Raised)
Regular Additional (not included in state quota)
Delaware 1 0
Maryland 7 (quota was 8) (half of German Battalion)
Virginia 15 3
North Carolina 9 1
South Carolina 5 0
Georgia 4 0
Following the formation (or reformation) of the 1777 regiments, most of which were never
fully recruited at the outset, unit strengths gradually began to fall, due to sickness, accident,
desertion, and combat losses. By 1778 some state’s Continental regiments were so small they
were dissolved and the men incorporated into the units remaining. In other state lines smaller
single regiments were retained but combined with another understrength unit for field service. As
will be seen in the ensuing pages, all the state lines were reduced year by year. By 1781 some
state regiments existed on paper, while the enlisted men and officers were apportioned to
provisional field battalions. For many southern states the 1780 capture of Charleston and other
disasters shattered their Continental lines, leaving them to be rebuilt from scratch. For example, a
veteran (black or white) who noted service with the 1st Virginia Regiment in 1780, was in an
organization bearing little resemblance to the 1777 1st Virginia Regiment. Sometimes early and
late-war units with the same regimental number retained some of the same field and company
officers, as well as a shared lineage in company personnel. However, such a shared connection
cannot be taken for granted; knowing how and why a unit was formed, its field officers, where it
served, and whether the enlisted men were wholly or in part formed from short-term levies or
long-term soldiers, tells us much about the experience of the soldiers who served with it. The
following mini-studies first lay out the organization of each southern state’s Continental
regiments from early to the later war years, then focus on the soldiers’ stories in their own words.
Georgia. The regiments of the two southernmost states never served with Washington’s main
army or, indeed, much beyond their own borders. Authorized to form one regiment and four
battalions beginning in 1776, due largely to sparse population Georgia’s recruiting efforts were
lackluster at best. Able only to raise a single regiment, the state stipulated the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th
Georgia Battalions be recruited in Virginia and the Carolinas, a decision that caused some
friction. In late 1779 the four existing understrength units were combined into a single battalion
of under 200 men. With the capture of the state’s six remaining Continental officers at
Charleston, the Georgia line ceased to exist. In 1782 a single Georgia Battalion was raised, with
only 150 men enlisted by year’s end. They were furloughed home sometime in 1783.19 One
Georgia soldier with a varied career was among those found.14
United States of America District of Virginia
Nathan Fry a colored man, an inhabitant of the City of Richmond appeared before me John
Marshall Chief Justice of the United States this first day of January in the year 1824 and being
first duly sworn deposes … That he enlisted in the town of Savannah in the year 1775 for the war
in the company commanded by Capt. Mosby [John or Littlebury Mosby] and Col. [Samuel]
Elbert's [2nd Georgia] Regiment … He served as a drummer in this company until he was taken
out of that to wait on Major Duval [probably Maj. Peter De Veaux] who was aid-de-camp or
Brigade Major to [Brigadier]General [Lachlan] McIntosh. He attended the Major Duval in the
capacity of a waiter until he accompanied General McIntosh to the Army under General
Washington [McIntosh joined the army at Valley Forge in December 1777, and took command of
the North Carolina brigade] and remained with him until he was taken into the service of the
Baron Steuben with whom he remained as a waiter or Batman until after the siege of York in
Virginia. He was then transferred to General [Arthur] St. Clair by whom he was discharged in the
course of the winter. His discharge is lost. He says that during the whole of this service he
remained a soldier under his first enlistment in 1775 and that he continued a soldier and was
uninterruptedly in service from the time of his enlistment to the time of his discharge as herein
before mentioned. S/ Nathan Fry, X his mark 15
An earlier account provided several more details:

Richmond, Virginia, 21st of December 1822 … In conformity with and Act of Congress of 18th
of March 1818, I, Nathan Fry, a man of Color, and native of Virginia, in order to receive the
benefit of said act as a private Soldier of the Revolution, do now make this my declaration
accordingly; and, in obedience also of another act of Congress of the first of May 1820 … I was
born free in the County of Westmorland -- enlisted in the minute Service under Dennis Duval of
Henrico County in the year 1775 -- went to Savannah in Georgia and served under Col. Elbert
against the Creek Indians in the capacity of a Drummer and return from Savannah and joined the
Army at Valley Forge -- was in the action at Monmouth -- afterwards joined the Baron Steuben,
and served under him as Bat man till after the Siege of Yorktown and the surrender of Lord
Cornwallis -- was then transferred by the Baron to the service of General St. Clair, by whom I
was discharged in Winter of 1781 & 1782. I lost my discharge … 16
His service with Maj. Gen. Friedrich Wilhelm de Steuben was corroborated by a supporting
deposition.
I do hereby certify that I was well acquainted, and had the honor to be very intimate with the Late
Baron Steuben, and his several aids, Major North [William North], Major Fairby [James Fairlie],
and Col. Benjamin Walker, for several years; and, particularly from January 1781 … to the close
of the War; and am certain that Nathan Fry, the Black man in question was the greater part, if not
the whole of that time in the service of the Family aforesaid: I am positive that Nathan Fry was
attached to the family more than 9 months, and that on the Continental establishment.
Given under my hand this 31st of October 1827
S/ D. M. Randolph 17
Georgia Pensions Gleaned from

Southern Campaign Revolutionary War Pension Statements & Rosters
(as of 14 April 2011)
https://www.academia.edu/18409677/Delaware_and_Georgia_Pensions_Gleaned_from_Southern_Campaign_
Revolutionary_War_Pension_Statements_and_Rosters_as_of_14_April_2011_http_www.southerncampaign.
org_pen_
______________
South Carolina. By the time of the 1780 Charleston siege South Carolina’s Continental
contingent, originally six regiments (one of those, the 4th Regiment, being artillery), had been
reduced to three foot battalions (1st, 2nd, and 3rd South Carolina) and the artillery regiment. All
were captured and interned when the city fell. No serious attempt was made by the state
afterwards to form new Continental regiments, though mention is made in several sources. More
likely any late-war South Carolina regiments referred to were state units organized after
Charleston by state Brigadier Generals Francis Marion, Andrew Pickens, and Thomas Sumter.18
Pension files for six South Carolina veterans were found, several with interesting narratives.
Jim Capers, “a man of Color,” stated
that he entered as a Volunteer and was Regularly Mustered into service, according to the
best of his recollection about the 15th day of June AD 1775. and served in the 4th Regiment
of the South Carolina line State Troops as Regular Drum Major under Gen’l Marion [possibly
served with Marion’s Partisan Brigade later in the war], with the following named officers
to wit, Col John Brown [possibly Lt. John Brown, 3rd Regiment, killed at Stono Ferry, 20 June
1779] in the Company of Capt John White. (The Declarant here being very deaf and an
Illiterant man, is unable to distinguish the Rank of a Coln. from that of Lieutenant Coln. or
Major) (But says) that he was with Major John Pearcey and Lieutenant John Jeffry Also
mentions the names of Major Wm Sabb, and Colo. Wm. Capers [lieutenant, 2nd South
Carolina Regiment, 1777-1781; promoted captain in 1781] as Two of his Officers. When he
entered the service he resided in Christ Church Parish Oposite Bull’s Island in the State of
South Carolina and served until the 1st day of October AD 1782, a Period of seven years 5
months and about 15 days; Declarant further states that he was mustered into service by
Competent Authority and served with an Embodied Corps, and was engaged with the
Enemy in the following places, at Savanah Ga, St. Helena, Port Royal, Camden, Biggins
Church, was garrisoned at Charleston some time, (does not know how long) and performed
military duty nearly all the time that he was in the Battle of Eutaw Springs, at last said
mentioned Battle he received four Wounds, Two cuts upon the face, one on the head with a
sword & one with a Ball which passed through his left side, killing the Drummer
immediately behind him, whose name was Paul, Ram Lee; after the Battle of the Eutaw
Springs, Declarant marched to State of Virginia, and was present at the Surrender of Lord
Corn Wallace & was one of the principle Drummers when the Captive Army surrendered
and that Gen’l. OHarry, or OHara [Brig. Gen. Charles O’Hara] Represented the British
Commander Cornwallace on that occasion. After said surrender, he took shipping for
Philadelphia, does not recollect how long he remained there. But from thence he sailed to
Charleston, South Carolina and in six months thereafter was discharged. These were the
only Engagements and placed he was in, and the only Country through which he marched.
During his service in the Army, Drum Major was the only Rank he held, and that he held all
the time.19
Free black South Carolinian Allen Jeffers detailed his military experience in an October 1832
deposition:
He enlisted May the twelfth 1778 under Captain Brown [probably John or Richard,
lieutenants in the 3d Regiment] in Col. [William] Thomson’s regiment third Regiment
Continentals … he enlisted for three years. They went down to Charleston immediately
upon being enlisted and joined the corps and lay in Charleston nearly a year. They were
stationed in the barracks out upon the green. The Regiment then marched out of Charleston
to Savannah, at Savannah he was in a brush before the first Battle, and afterward was in the
first Battle of Savannah when the French came in to assist there and often saw [Count
Casimir] Pulaski, who was wounded at this battle and his thigh cut off he died & was carried
to Charleston afterward & was buried there [actually buried at sea]. Before this battle he
was placed under the command of Capt. Geo. Little who commanded the company for a
while & there it was put under the command of Capt. Felix Worley [Warley]. They were then
marched up Savannah River to Purisburgh [Purysburgh S.C.[. Does not remember the date
of the Battle of Savannah, but it was some time before the Fall of Charleston. Gen. Isaac
Huger commanded the attacking forces on Savannah. Lay at Purisburgh awhile & marched
on from there to Charleston & was stationed there until the Fall of the city. He was there
taken prisoner & parolled. Charleston was taken in 1780, he believes it was in May, but it
has been so long. It was any how in the Spring of the year. He rec’d a discharge, but it has
been worn out or lost long ago. The applicant was born in North Carolina, but brought to
South Carolina when a child … He was living … on the Fork of Congaree & Wateree, where
he has lived ever since the war & where he now resides. He was drafted in ‘78 … His
discharge was given to him by Col. [William] Henderson [3d South Carolina].20
South Carolina Pensions Gleaned from
https://www.academia.edu/18409708/South_Carolina_Pensions_Gleaned_from_Southern_Campaign_Revolut
ionary_War_Pension_Statements_and_Rosters_as_of_14_April_2011_http_www.southerncampaign.org_pen
_
_____________________
Maryland. Following the one-year service of Smallwood’s Maryland Regiment in 1776,

beginning in 1777 that state’s contribution increased to seven Continental regiments. By July
1780 losses in personnel led to those units, plus the Delaware regiment, being consolidated into
four. Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates reversed that decision soon after, and it was under the old
organization the Maryland and Delaware troops fought at the Battle of Camden in August. In the
meantime, an additional Maryland regiment, called the Regiment Extra, was authorized in spring
1780 and raised during the summer under a new contingent of officers. Following the Battle of
Camden, the remnants of the 1st through 7th Maryland Regiments, plus the Delaware Regiment,
were formed into a single Maryland regiment, with two battalions of four companies each. While
the Regiment Extra headed for Hillsborough, North Carolina, to join Greene, he led his small
army into South Carolina. Due to a squabble among the supernumerary veteran Maryland
officers, settled by their replacing the new officers who raised and trained the Regiment Extra,
that unit, did not immediately join General Greene’s forces. Re-officered and renamed the 2nd
Maryland Regiment on or about March 10 1781, its men fought their first battle at Guilford
Courthouse less than a week after. The 3rd and 4th Maryland were present at the Yorktown Siege,
brigaded under Brig. Gen. Mordecai Gist. Expiring enlistments led to the demise of the 3rd and
4th Regiments, and with all remaining men sent south to the 1st and 2nd Regiments. In October
1782 a reformed, but severely undermanned, 3rd Maryland, marching to join Washington’s army,
was ordered to halt and take post at Pompton, New Jersey. By 1783 the only remaining
organization was the Maryland battalion, serving with the main army.21 Fifteen Maryland
soldiers of color were found via the transcribed pensions and resources. Former private Frederick
Hall (a “Free Colored Person”) stated in 1832,
he enlisted on the eighth day of May in the year 1777 in the 3d Regiment of the Maryland line
commanded by [Lieutenant] Colonel Ramsay [Nathaniel Ramsey] and in the Company of Capt.
[Joseph] Marbury on the Continental establishment for three years, that after the battle of
Germantown [4 Oct 1777] while on a scouting party near the Rising Sun within a mile of the
Philadelphia market he was taken prisoner by a reconnoitering party of British Soldiers, when he
was sent to Philadelphia, from thence he was sent to New York, and placed on board the prison
ship Jersey, & from thence he was sent to London (first to Newcastle & then to London where he
thinks he remained near a twelve month awaiting an exchange of prisoners, but where he with a
number of men as follows all prisoners with him – Henry Meed, Richard Coons, Robert
Hackenson, John Hope, Samuel Henson, Henry Hines, and John Adams – he undermined his way
out of prison, and went to Holland from whence he came to Philadelphia and re-joined his
Regiment in which he continued to serve until the summer of 1783 at which time he was
(conditionally) discharged from service at Charleston, South Carolina. – That, including the time
he was a prisoner of war he served from the 8th May 1777 until the summer 1783 – a period of
six years … he was engaged in the battles of Germantown, Brandywine [11 Sep 1777] &
Whiteplain [Whitemarsh, December 1777] was never wounded. That he marched from Port
Tobacco to Annapolis and from thence to Baltimore where he with a number of others were
inoculated by Dr. Lavington & from thence to Philadelphia.… That he was living in Borge’s hole
in Virginia when he enlisted – he has lived principally in Fairfax County, Virginia, since the
Revolutionary war and that he now lives in Washington City, in the District of Columbia. That he
does not remember of any of the regular officers excepting Col. Forest [Uriah Forrest; major 3d
Maryland; lieutenant colonel, 1st Maryland, 10 April 1777, wounded, lost a leg at Germantown;
transferred to 7th Maryland, 1 August 1779; resigned February 1781], Col. Ramsay & Capt.
Marbury. That he received a written discharge, purporting that should peace not be ratified, he
was still to consider himself in service, but that he has since lost it …22
Henry Dorton served with one of the two Maryland levy regiments sent to reinforce the troops
surrounding Maj. Gen. Charles Earl Cornwallis’s forces at Yorktown in autumn 1781. Dorton
(head of a household of “free colored persons”) had seen some early and harrowing service with the
Virginia militia,
he was drafted in the fall of the year 1777 at Red-stone [Redstone] settlement near Brownsville,
Pennsylvania [Fayette County, then claimed by Virginia], in a company of militia commanded by
Capt. Foard, and immediately marched to Fort Pitt, where Foard’s company was placed under the
command of Col. John Gibson of Virginia, who he believes was a Regular officer … while at
Fort Pitt, he was transfered to a company … from the South Branch of the Potomac river,
commanded by Capt. Foreman – that Foreman was soon ordered to a fort at Grave creek, on the
Ohio river, twelve miles below Wheeling — upon arriving there we found the fort burnt, and …
commenced a march back to Wheeling along the bank of the river — in the narrows of Grave
creek, we were attackted by about seventy indians, and Capt. Foreman and twenty of his men
were killed, twenty two were saved — that he made good his escape back to Wheeling, and in ten
days after, he went with others to bury the dead, putting fourteen in one hole and seven in another
… he then returned to Fort Pitt, where at the end of a month, the term for which he was drafted,
he was discharged by Capt. Foard, which discharge he has preserved, and is hereto annexed. [The
action at Grave Creek, Virginia (now West Virginia) was fought on 27 September 1777.
Virginia militia Capt. William Foreman and 46 men were ambushed, with 21 killed and 4
wounded.]23
He went on for another six months tour in 1778, helping to build Forts McIntosh and Laurens.
Dorton recalled,
from the western country, he removed back to the place of his birth, and in the month of May
1781 he was again drafted near Bladensburg in Maryland in Capt Cross company [probably
Joseph Cross, lieutenant, 2nd Maryland, served also in the 1783 Maryland Battalion] … that
in June we marched to Annapolis where we were reviewed and remained a week, that we had
seventy five men in our company, marched to Falmouth — other troops were marching the same
direction, but taking different roads on account of provisions — from Falmouth we continued our
march thro’ Virginia to a place called the Savannah below Yorktown, and was there stationed
with five other companies under Gen’l. [William] Smallwood, to keep the enemy from retreating
from York town — that after the surrender of Lord Cornwallis [19 October 1781] we were all
discharged … 24
Another Maryland Continental, Philip Savoy, had a varied career but missed the hard-fought
southern battles:
He enlisted at the Rising Sun tavern [Anne Arundel County] … in Capt. James Peale’s
Company first Maryland Regiment on the 20th of May 1778 and served in said Company
until he was taken prisoner at Elizabeth Town. That he was in the battles of Monmouth,
White Plains and Elizabeth Town where he was taken prisoner and sent to New York. On his
return to Annapolis he was then drafted into Capt. Ball’s Company [possibly Lt. Samuel
Beall, 4th Maryland, 1781], and was at the taking of Cornwallis and on his return to
Annapolis was honorably discharged after peace was declared.25
Savoy’s capture is corroborated by a “List of Rebel Prisoners taken at Eliza. Town 25th Jany.
1780,” which gives the names and regiments of forty-six men captured in the 14-15 January
attack on British-held Staten Island. Phillip Savoy is listed as a “Negro” private in the 1st
Maryland Regiment.26
One black soldier is known to have served with the German Regiment, though his enlistment
date and company affiliation are unknown. Henry J. Retzer notes in his book on the unit,
“German Regiment men who cannot be placed in specific companies … Veach, Abraham;
deserted, disch[arged] 22 November 1780.” British Lt. General Sir Henry Clinton’s 1780-
81book of “Information of Deserters and Others” provides more details, “25th November 1780
Wm. Mansell of the German Battalion left West Point last Monday on command to Dobbs’s
ferry left that place last night … [also deserted was] Abraham Veetch a Negroe of the same
Regt.”27
Maryland Pensions Gleaned from
https://www.academia.edu/18409828/Maryland_Pensions_Gleaned_from_Southern_Campaign_Revolutionar
y_War_Pension_Statements_and_Rosters_as_of_14_April_2011_http_www.southerncampaign.org_pen_
__________________
Delaware. Delaware contributed a single regiment to the Continental Army. The 1776 Delaware
Regiment was enlisted for one year; re-formed and re-manned in 1777, the regiment was
shattered at the Battle of Camden. The two remaining Delaware companies were consolidated
with the Maryland troops, one company serving in the post-Camden 1st Maryland, the other
assigned to a combined Delaware-Maryland-Virginia Light Infantry Battalion. Later augmented
by recruits to four companies, the Delaware Continentals were furloughed home at the end of
1782.28 A single Delaware African-American soldier, leaving a matter-of-fact narrative, surfaced
in the SCAR online pensions:
Be it remembered that on this twentieth day of April in the year of our Lord one thousand eight
hundred and eighteen, Edward Harmon a soldier of the revolution, aged about sixty … did depose
and say that in the year seventeen hundred and seventy seven he enlisted under Captain [Robert]
Kirkwood of the first Company of the Delaware Regiment, and continued in the service from that
time as a common soldier until the conclusion of the war, when he was discharged by general
proclamation, and that from the time of his enlistment to his discharge he served in the southern
states in the Army under the command of Generals Gates and Green. And the said Edward
Harmon did further depose and say that from his reduced circumstances in life he needs the
assistance of his country. Edward his X mark Harmon 29
Harmon’s application was supported by Mitchell Kershaw, a Delaware militia colonel.

Kershaw stated
that he knows Edward Harmon … an inhabitant of Sussex County, and has known him from the
years seventeen hundred and seventy eight or nine … that he was at that time a soldier in the
Delaware Regiment and continued in the said regiment to the knowledge of this deponent until
the sixteenth of August seventeen hundred and eighty when this deponent [Kershaw] who
belonged to the said Regiment was taken prisoner at Gates defeat [and … was taken on board the
prison ship at Charleston.30
A local man, Hezekiah Lacey, testified that

Edward Harmon was a boy in the neighbourhood where he lived, that he worked much of his time
before he inlisted with this Deponents Father, that about the year seventeen hundred and seventy
seven he the said Harmon inlisted under Captain Kirkwood, and marched off with the Delaware
Regiment, that this Deponent never see said Harmon from the time he marched off aforesaid
untill the year seventeen hundred and eighty three, when he see him with others of the Delaware
Regiment, with uniforms and equipment just as they returned from the Army – at the same time
he heard People say to Harmon he was a fool to spend so much time in the army without pay –
that Harmon replied he was willing to go again and that he hoped he should get pay at some
time.31
In an 1819 deposition supporting another Delaware veteran, Daniel Rodney noted, “the only
[other] applicant (that I know of) belonging to the Del Reg’t within 20 miles of this place
[Lewes] … [is] one Edw’d Harman, a coloured man, who rec’d his certificate for a pension
some time last year.”32
Delaware Pensions Gleaned from
org_pen_
___________________________
Virginia. Having inaugurated two Virginia battalions for home defense in July 1775, seven other
battalions were authorized in December. By February 1776 all nine had been added to the
Continental establishment. By 1777 Virginia had fifteen Continental regiments in the field.
Manpower shortfalls due to campaign losses and battle casualties, plus enlistment expirations,
led to reductions in the state line in 1778 and again in 1779. In spring 1779 supernumerary
officers had been sent south to recruit three Virginia detachments under Brig. Gen. Charles Scott.
The 1st Detachment commanded by Col. Richard Parker marched into Georgia with Maj. Gen.
Benjamin Lincoln and took part in the siege of Savannah that September. The levies of the 2nd
Detachment under Col. William Heath marched in December 1779 to join Lincoln at Charleston,
South Carolina. Both these units were in the Charleston garrison when the city was captured in
May 1780. A third detachment, under Col. Abraham Buford, was delayed and missed the city’s
capitulation. Buford’s detachment was destroyed at the Waxhaws May 29th.33
On 8 December 1779 Brig. Gen. William Woodford’s Virginia Brigade, serving with
Washington’s army in New Jersey, marched towards its ultimate destination, Charleston, South
Carolina. Bad weather and other difficulties impeded the movement; Woodford’s troops finally
entered the city on 7 April 1780. With him were three more Virginia Detachments, Col. Charles
Russell’s 1st (formed from the old 1st, 5th, 7th, 10th, and 11th Regiments), the 2nd commanded by
Col. John Neville (comprising companies of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Regiments), and the 3rd under
Col. Nathaniel Gist (from companies of the 6th, 8th, and Gist’s Additional Regiments).
Woodford’s Brigade was also captured at Charleston.34
The late-war Virginia regiments, and methods used to recruit them, are an interesting study.
With the loss of Charleston, South Carolina on 12 May 1780, and further disasters in the months
following (Waxhaws, 29 May 1780, and Camden, 16 August 1780), Virginia’s Continental
contingent was decimated, and that state was desperate for men to fill new or reorganized units.
In North Carolina and Virginia the answer was to draft men from the state’s militia to serve for
eighteen months to fill the 1781 regiments (drafted and volunteer levies had been used as early as
1777 by Virginia and other states to fill their Continental regiments). Virginia funneled the men
into three units. The earliest levy (autumn 1780) is generally known as the Chesterfield
Supplement after the rendezvous point for the new men at Chesterfield Court House, twelve
miles south of Richmond. These men were destined for the newly constituted 1st Virginia
Regiment, commanded by Col. John Green, and 2nd Virginia Regiment, Lt. Col. Samuel Hawes,
both of which served in Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene’s army in the Carolinas, seeing action at
Guilford Courthouse and later battles. A third organization, called in one instance by General
Washington, the “2d. Regmt. of Levies,” eventually known as Lt. Col. Thomas Gaskins’
Virginia Battalion, served under Maj. Gen. Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier,
Marquis de Lafayette in their home state that summer and autumn, through the Yorktown
Siege.35 Maj. Gen Friedrich Wilhelm de Steuben described how the drafts were forwarded to the
1st and 2nd Virginia, as well as a second round of drafting slated to fill Gaskins’ unit:
the state passed a Law to raise 3000 Men some for 8 Months some for 18 [months] – not more
than one half of this number ever came into the field … The Enemy under General Leslie leaving
the state the beginning of December, I immediately ordered the 900 Men, who had been
employed against him to Petersburg in order if possible to equip & send them immediately to the
Southward - But I found them so intirely destitute of every necessary that it was with the utmost
difficulty I could fit out 400 which I sent off under Colonel Green about the middle of December
[1780]. The remainder I ordered to the Barracks at Chesterfield Court house and exerted myself
all in my power to collect sufficient articles to fit them out – I had however hardly entered into
the Business when the state was again invaded by the enemy under Arnold, the few articles that
were collected, were then either taken or dispersed, & this caused such a delay that it was the 25th
of March before I could equip the second detachment of 400 Men who marched that day under
Lieut. Colo. Campbell … By a Law of the state, while any part of the Militia of a County are in
the field that County is not obliged to Draft and a large number of Militia being called out for this
Expedition, the [second] Draft was put off till the 10th: of April[1781] – the reinforcement
afterward brought by General Phillips, still obliging Government to keep those Militia in the
field, it was agreed to relieve them by Counties in [order] that the Counties might Draft as they
were relieved – in consequence of which only the upper counties on the north side James River,
have sent in any Drafts and in the whole only 450 are yet assembled [all destined to serve in
Gaskins’ Battalion] … 36
The nine hundred and thirteen Chesterfield Supplement levies included (conservatively) fifty-
eight free African-Americans (6.4 percent of the whole), and the two detachments from the
Supplement sent south to Greene’s army in December 1780 and late March 1781 had some
proportion of them. Similarly, the drafts that joined Gaskin also included some African-
Americans; while full numbers are not known, five black veterans’ pension narratives show
service under Gaskin in 1781 (Francis Bundy, John Chavers, William Jackson, Bennett McKey,
and William Wedgbare). After Yorktown, in 1782, a single Virginia regiment, commanded by
Col. Thomas Posey, was formed of veteran soldiers and levies. During the war’s last two years
Posey’s men served under Brig. Gen. Anthony Wayne in South Carolina and Georgia.37
Fifty-six Virginia black soldier’s pensions were located; several of those provided interesting
narratives or insights. Thomas Campbell (“a black man“) served three years in the 4th Virginia.
He testified
about the month of September 1776 as near as this applicant can recollect he enlisted for
three years under one Captain Wilson [John Wilson, ensign 4th Va. 1776, lieutenant, April
1778, killed at Eutaw Springs, or Willis Wilson, ensign 1st Va. 1776] of the County of
Culpepper [sic: Culpeper] in State of Virginia where this applicant then resided believes the
enlisting orders were presented to him by the said Captain Wilson of the Fourth Virginia
regiment. The Colonel name as near as this applicant can recollect was Naval [sic: John
Neville], of the said Fourth Virginia Regiment, General [Charles] Scotts Brigade. That about
six days after he enlisted they were mustered and marched Immediately to a place called
Whitemarsh in the state of Pennsylvania that they there joined the main Army under
General Washington that they were there some time five or six months as near as this
applicant can recollect. that from White Marsh they were marched to a Place called Valley
forge Forge [sic] in the State of Pennsylvania where he remained with the Army at Valley
forge, from sometime in December 1777. through the Winter until June 1778 when the
army was marched to Monmuth where he was engaged in the Battle which was there fought
[Battle of Monmouth NJ, 28 June 1778] and there in consequence of being over heated and
worn out with fatigue he was taken sick and was put in the hospital where he remained
some weeks very sick that after he recovered so that he could walk / the Doctor who took
care of him let him go to live in a family near that place and the army was marched from
there he does not know to what place.38
Campbell’s 1833 application recounted,

That at the time I enlisted … I was a slave to Col. Martin Picket of Virginia who gave me my
Choice Either to remain a slave as I was or to go into the Army and I chose the latter and
entered as stated in my said Declaration. In the Battle at Monmouth I was with the Artillery
and Drove the horses. that from & after the Battle of Monmouth in consequence of being
over heated and fatigued I was sick and for not less than six months was unable to perform
any service whatever and that he has never entirely recovered from said sickness
occasioned by being over heated.39
In 1818 Shadrach Battles (“a man of color “), 10th Regiment, recalled
That he … enlisted in Amherst County in the State of Virginia for the term of three years in
the Company commanded by Capt James Franklin of the 10th Reg’t of the Virg’a. line on
Continental Establishment. that Clough Shelton was his Lieut. who afterwards was
advanced to a Captaincy, that he continued to serve in the said corps or in the service of the
United States untill the end of three years when he was honorably discharged from service
in Augusta in the State of Georgia, that he was in the Battles of Brandy Wine [sic:
Brandywine, 11 Sep 1777] Monmouth [28 June 1778], Germantown [4 Oct 1777], and at
storming the fort at Savannah in Georgia [9 Oct 1779] … 40
Isaac Brown (“free colored person“)was one of the 1780 levies who participated in the
1781 campaign in the Carolinas:
[He] enlisted for the term of eighteen months in the Fall of the year 1780, in the State of Virginia
kunder Captain Wm. G Mumford at Charles City Courthouse. That he was from thence carried to
Chesterfield Courthouse with other recruits by Captain Stith Hardyman and was there mustered in
the Company Commanded by Captain Sandford[?] in the Regiment under the Command of Colo.
[Richard] Campbell in the line of Virginia on the United States Continental establishment. That
he continued to serve in the said Corps until the expiration of the said term of eighteen months,
when he was discharged from the said Service at the round O [in Colleton County], in the state of
South Carolina. that he was in the battles of Guilford Courthouse [in North Carolina, 15 March
1781], of 96 [Siege of Ninety- Six SC, 22 May - 19 June 1781], and of Eutaw [Eutaw Springs SC,
8 Sep 1781], when the gallant Commander of the Regiment (Colo. Campbell) was Killed, and
Colo. [William] Washington of the Cavalry was made prisoner.41
Of all the black Virginia Continentals found for this study, Andrew Pebbles had perhaps the
most varied career.
he enlisted the year … (the year precisely he does not recollect as being a poor unlearned
Mulatto) under Captain George Lee Turberville [15th Virginia] of Westmoreland County
who was a recruiting Captain, that he joined the Camp at Valley Forge and was placed under
the Command of Captain Lewis Booker, that he belonged to the 15th Virginia Regiment on
continental establishment that he was under the command of Captain Lewis Booker for two
years. That at Trenton he was detailed to serve in the artilery. that he was commanded by a
Capt Dandridge [1st Continental Artillery: John Dandridge was a captain from Feb. 1777-83,
captured at Charleston in 1780: Robert was a lieutenant from Oct. 1777-83] and served one
year in the Artilory for a part of the said year he was under the command of a Captain
Carler, that a Captain [William] Miller commanded the gun with 12 men to which he
belonged, that he served for two years under Capt Michael Rudolph [of Maryland, captain as
of Nov. 1779] in the light infantry commanded by Colo Harry [Henry] Lee whose command
was composed of infantry & Cavalry [Lee’s Legion, authorized by Congress in April 1778,
near full strength by November the same year], that he was in three general actions, at
Monmouth [28 June 1778], Gilford Courthouse [15 March 1781] & at Eutau Springs [8
September 1781]; that at Eutau Springs he received three wounds he was wounded in the
shoulder slightly lost the thumb of the left hand and was bayonetted in the belly. that he
was discharged on Combahee River honorably that the day before he was discharged he
was in a battle in which Colo Lawrence [John Laurens] who commanded in the absence of
Colo Lee was killed [27 August 1782], that Colo Lee had gone home to be marryed [in April
1782, to Matilda Ludwell Lee]: that at Petersburg in Virginia he had his knee much injured
by the wheel of a field piece.42
Pebbles provided additional details in an 1820 deposition: “ he served in the Revolutionary

War as follows, for a part of the time of service in the 15th Va Regiment in a Company
commanded by Captain Booker a part of his time in the 5th Virginia Regiment under the same
Captain and for one year he served in the Artilery commanded by Captain Dandridge and that he
served two years in the light infantry under the command of Colo Henry Lee that Michael
ODolph [Rudolph] was then his Captain that he served five years and some months altogether
…”43
Virginia Pensions Gleaned from
(Including a Synopsis of the 1780 Chesterfield Roll)
https://www.academia.edu/18409884/Virginia_Pensions_Gleaned_from_Southern_Campaign_Revolutionary_W
ar_Pension_Statements_and_Rosters_as_of_14_April_2011_http_www.southerncampaign.org_pen_
_____________________
Analysis: William Ranney’s Painting “Battle of Cowpens” and Black Cavalry Soldiers. This 1845
painting (at the South Carolina State House) by William Ranney shows Col. William Washington,
3d Continental Light Dragoons, being saved at the Battle of Cowpens by one of his men, here
pictured as a bugler. Two nineteenth century accounts referred to him as a “boy” and waiter. In
actuality none of the descriptions note the trooper as being black, though later accounts say he was
an African-American named William Collin or Collins (see Bobby G. Moss and Michael C
Scoggins, African-American Patriots in the Southern Campaign of the American Revolution
(Blacksburg, S.C.: Scotia-Hibernia Press, 2004), 62-63. Maryland Col. John Eager Howard
witnessed the incident and recounted it to William Johnson in 1822: “The three advanced a breast
and one of them aimed a blow the effect of which was prevented by Sergeant Perry who coming up
at the instant disabled this officer. On the other side another had his sword raised when the boy
came up and with a discharge of his pistol disabled him. The one in center who it is believed was
Tarleton himself made a lunge which Washington parried & perhaps broke his sword. Two of the
three being thus disabled the third then wheeled off and retreated ten or twelve paces when he
again wheeled, about & fired his pistol which wounded Washington’s horse - By this time
Washington’s men had got up and & Tarleton’s horse moved off at a quick step. Thus, the affair
ended. Washington had given orders not to fire a pistol and when the boy was questioned for
disobeying the order he said he was obliged to do it to save the life of his Colonel. The excuse was
admitted.” (Quoted letter from, Daniel Murphy, “The Cavalry at Cowpens: Thinking Inside the
Box,” http://www.schistory.net/3CLD/Articles/insidethebox.pdf Source: John Eager Howard to
William Johnson, 1822. (Courtesy of Dr. Lawrence Babits and Sam Fore.) See also John Eager
Howard, Letters to John Marshall, 1804, excerpts held at the Cowpens National Battlefield,
courtesy of the Army Command and General Staff College. Original held in the Bayard collection,
Maryland Historical Society.)
John Marshall, an officer in the Virginia Continental line from 1776 to early 1781, and later
Chief Justice of the Supreme of the United States, corresponded with John Eager Howard, and
wrote this account in his Life of Washington: “In the eagerness of pursuit, Washington advanced
near thirty yards in front of his regiment. Three British officers, observing this, wheeled about, and
made a charge upon him. The officer on his right aimed a blow to cut him down as an American
sergeant came up, who intercepted the blow by disabling his sword arm. The officer on his left was
about to make a stroke at him at the same instant, when a waiter, too small to wield a sword, saved
him by wounding the officer with a ball from a pistol. At this moment, the officer in the centre, who
was believed to be Tarlton, made a thrust at him which he parried; upon which the officer
retreated a few paces, and then discharged a pistol at him, which wounded his horse.” The story
behind Ranney’s “Battle of Cowpens” is discussed online at several sites, often with some
misinformation. The National Park Service web post “Unsung Patriots: African-Americans at the
Battle of Cowpens” is one the better examples, stating that the “William Ranney painting shows the
famous William Washington-Banastre Tarleton sword fight in which Washington’s servant rode
up, fired his pistol at a British officer, and saved Washington’s life. Since most waiters were
African-American, Ranney painted him as such. Apparently the servant did not file a pension, and
Washington did not leave behind written papers of his own role or of anyone else’s role in the
American Revolution. Therefore, the National Park Service cannot document his complete role in
the battle and even his name (most likely either Ball/Collins/Collin).” The only detail to question is
the contention that “most waiters were African-American.” While this claim may be true for
southern units, officers’ waiters in regiments from the middle states and New England were just as
likely to be white. (See discussion of officers’ waiters further on in this monograph. See also,
http://www.nps.gov/cowp/forteachers/unit-7-the-battle-the-human-element.htm )
Other African-Americans served with light horse units, but to date only a few have been
identified. Some, like John Banks (head of a household of “Free Colored Persons.”) and Reuben
Bird (“a mulatto boy“) of the 1st Continental Light Dragoons (Pensions W5763 and S37776), were
non-combatant waiters, while others did indeed serve as troopers. Michael C. Scoggins writes of
seven black South Carolinians who enlisted with that state’s 3d Regiment on the Continental
establishment. The 3d South Carolina was a dragoon regiment in the strictest definition of the term,
in that they were intended to operate as mounted infantry. Mr. Scoggins notes, “Drury Harris and
Edward Harris and several of their neighbors: the brothers Gideon Griffin and Morgan Griffin
and the brothers Allen Jeffers, Berry Jeffers and Osborne Jeffers. These men all enlisted in the
Third South Carolina Continental Regiment (also known as Thomson’s Rangers) in 1778 and
participated in several important engagements, including the Battle of Stono Ferry near
Charleston, South Carolina in June 1779 and the unsuccessful attack on British-held Savannah,
Georgia in October 1779. In May 1780 they were stationed at Charleston when the British army
and navy captured the city and the American troops defending it. With the exception of Osborne
Jeffers, who was killed in the battle for Charleston, these men were all taken prisoner by the British
and held as prisoners-of-war on the islands off the coast of Charleston until January 1781, when
they were either paroled or exchanged for British soldiers held by the American army. In the
spring of 1781 all but one of these soldiers reenlisted in the newly raised regiments of state troops
organized by Brigadier General Thomas Sumter, and served enlistments of ten months as state
dragoons or cavalrymen, during which time they participated in several additional military actions
including the Battle of Eutaw Springs in September 1781.” (Michael C. Scoggins, “’Voluntarily
Enlisted as a Soldier in the Revolution’: A Case Study of Free African-Americans in the South
Carolina Continental and State Troops during the Revolutionary War” (Unpublished research
paper, Southern Revolutionary War Institute, York, SC, February 2015)).
Private, 1st Continental Light Dragoon Regiment, 1780-1781

Artwork by Don Troiani (Courtesy of the artist, www.historicalimagebank.com)
_______________________
Analysis: Officers’ Servants. The largest portion of pensions found for this study were for
soldiers from Virginia and North Carolina. Because of those large cohorts, some interesting
trends can be seen. For the fifty-six Virginia veterans, based on their 19th century depositions,
one man enlisted in 1775, seven in 1776, fifteen 1777, eleven in 1778, two in 1779, fifteen in
1780, one in 1781, and two in 1782. (Enlistment dates were not given for two veterans.) Of the
men who gave (or provided clues for) an original enlistment date, nine reenlisted after their first
term expired (all of those first enlisted in 1778 or earlier), and two of those served for eighteen
months beginning in 1780 or 1781. Of the sixteen who served in 1780 and 1781, eleven were
drafted or volunteered for eighteen months; nine were also listed on the Chesterfield descriptive
list. (See Appendix C and
Virginia Pensions Gleaned from SCRWP,
https://www.academia.edu/18409884/Virginia_Pensions_Gleaned_from_Southern_Campaign_Revolutionary
_War_Pension_Statements_and_Rosters_as_of_14_April_2011_http_www.southerncampaign.org_pen_
North Carolina Pensions Gleaned from SCRWP,
https://www.academia.edu/18409910/North_Carolina_Pensions_Gleaned_from_Southern_Campaign_Revolu
tionary_War_Pension_Statements_and_Rosters_as_of_14_April_2011_http_www.southerncampaign.org_pe
n_ )
Nine of the fifty-six Virginians told of serving as an officer’s waiter or batman (three said they
served as a “Bowman,” likely a colloquial pronunciation of batman). Both were terms for a
servant, but the batman’s role also involved having care of the pack or “bat” horses used for
carrying baggage. Several men recorded the officers they served, including James Harris’s time
as servant to James Monroe (“then Major of horse & Aid de Camp to [Maj. Gen, William
Alexander] Lord Stirling,”), mulatto James Cooper’s 1780 service as waiter to Col. Abraham
Buford (11th Virginia Regiment, later the 3rd Virginia Detachment of 1780), and James Wallace
as cook for Lt. Col. Charles Porterfield of the Virginia State Regiment, before the colonel’s death
at the Battle of Camden. While the proportion of black soldiers serving as officers’ waiters may
have been higher in southern regiments, throughout the army most waiters were white. This was a
fait accompli given the relatively small numbers of black soldiers in Continental regiments, and that
even captains and lieutenants often had waiters, either individually or for their mess group. (For
more information on officers’ servants, waiters, and batmen, see, Rees, “’Was not in the
battles ... being a Waiter.’ Enlisted Men and Civilians as Officers’ Servants during the War
for American Independence,” part 1, “Our boys bring down something to eat ...”: Overview:
Field and Company Officers’ Servants
https://www.scribd.com/doc/260955648/Was-not-in-the-battles-being-a-Waiter-Enlisted-Men-and-Civilians-
as-Officers-Servants-during-the-War-for-American-
Independence?secret_password=OJ0XV4DLMfjssaEcdU34
See also http://allthingsliberty.com/2015/04/war-as-a-waiter-soldier-servants/ )
Black Soldiers in the Studied Cohorts Who Served in Specialized Roles
Georgia: Col. Samuel Elbert’s 2d Regt. 1775-79

Nathan Fry (“a free man of Colour “), drummer and officers’ waiter (batman) including
Generals Steuben and St. Clair
South Carolina Soldiers

Jim Capers (“a man of Color“), drum major, 4th Artillery Regt. 1775-82
Isham Carter (“a free man of colour descended from an Indian woman and a negroe man”), waiter
and matross, 4th Artillery Regt. 12 months 1779-83
North Carolina Soldiers

Isaac Hammonds ( a “Free Colored Person“), musician, North Carolina 10th Regt. 1781
Solomon Bibbie (Bibby) (“a free man of Colour“), “attended most of his time to the care of the
horses & as protector & guard to the baggage wagons,” North Carolina 10th Regt. 12 months
1781
Arthur Toney (“man of colour”), “he was in no battles in Consequence of his being Kept with the
baggage Wagons – generally, “North Carolina 3d Regt. 1779 -83?
William Casey (Kersey) (head of a “Free Colored” household), waiter to Brig. Gen. Jethro Sumner,
1st NC Regt. 1782 (formerly Virginia 4th Regt. 1777- 81)
Virginia Soldiers
Shadrach Shavers (head of a household of “Free Colored Persons”), bowman (i.e., batman), 2nd
Virginia Regt. 3 years 1778
James Cooper (“a Molatto Free Man”), waiter for Colonel Buford, Virginia 3d Regt. 1776?-79? 3
years; then 1780-81?, 18 months
John Harris (“a free man of Colour”), waiter to James Monroe, 15th Virginia Regt., 1777-78; 2d
Regt. 1782
James Hawkins (“being a coloured man he was taken as a waiter”), waiter to Col. Croghan, 1st
Continental Artillery Regt. 1780-? (Virginia)
William Jackson (“a free man of colour”), waiter for several weeks, Gaskins’/ Posey’s/Febiger’s
Virginia Regt. 1780-83
Francis Pearce (Pierce) (“a free man of colour”), waiter to Colonel Hawes, Lt. Col. Samuel Hawes’
2nd Virginia Regt. 1782
Lewis Smith (“a free man of colour”), “Bowman,” 4th or 9th Virginia Regt. 1779-?
James Wallace (“a free man of colour”), cook for Col. Porterfield, Lt. Col. Charles Porterfield’s
Virginia State Regt. 1777?-81?
Reuben Bird (“a mulatto boy”), bowman, Col. Anthony Walton White’s 1st Continental Dragoon
Regt. 1780-83 (Virginia)
Mason Collins (“an illiterate Mulatto”), bowman, 7th or 11th Virginia Regt. 1777-80 (reenlisted in ?)
Samuel Stewart (“a Free Negroe”), drummer in Virginia militia at Yorktown, 4th Virginia Regt.
1778-79 18 months
10 (of 56) Virginia men noted serving as a waiter, servant, cook, or “Bowman” (batman, a servant
in charge of pack horses).
(See Appendix C and Contents page for links to pensions by state.)

_______________________
North Carolina. At its greatest, North Carolina’s contribution to the Continental Army consisted of
ten foot regiments, all of them understrength for most of their service. By 1778 the units were so
reduced that the remaining men were concentrated in the 1st and 2nd North Carolina, while officers
were sent home to recruit and form four new regiments, with mixed success. Supernumerary
officers were sent back to North Carolina to raise a new regiment of nine-months levies. That unit,
the 3d North Carolina was sent north to work on the West Point fortifications, and was mustered out
in the spring of 1779. Following the loss of Charleston, South Carolina on 12 May 1780, including
North Carolina’s three remaining Continental regiments, the state struggled to raise new units to
replace their loss. The British occupation of North Carolina hampered the effort, and the lack of
commissioned officers only exacerbated the situation. In April 1781 Maj. Pinkethan Eaton, formerly
of the 3rd and 5th North Carolina Regiments, led an ad hoc Continental unit of 170 drafted men,
enlisted for twelve months, to join Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene’s forces in South Carolina. Twenty-
five men were detached for service with Lee’s Legion, and that unit, along with Eaton’s North
Carolinians, plus a force under Lt. Col. Francis Marion took part in the capture of Fort Motte, Fort
Granby, and Augusta, as well as the siege of Ninety-Six, South Carolina. With Maj. Gen. Charles
Earl Cornwallis’s army in Virginia, by mid-June 1781 Brig. Gen. Jethro Sumner had organized one
North Carolina regiment with the volunteers and drafts funneled to High Rock Ford, on the Haw
River. With a second regiment in progress but still unformed, and having only 200 of his 500 troops
on hand armed (those consisting of “delinquents & old Continental Soldiers”), Sumner moved on
July 1st to join Greene’s army in South Carolina. On the 14th the command, now at Salisbury under
Col. John Baptiste Ashe, received 300 muskets and cartridge pouches, but no bayonets. Ashe’s 1st
Regiment continued their march south on July 14th, while Sumner remained at Salisbury to form the
gathering levies into a second regiment (Colonel Ashe incorporated into his regiment a group of
draftees from the Salisbury district, and those men remaining from Major Eaton’s command). By
early August General Sumner with the 2nd Regiment joined General Greene and Lt. Col. John
Armstrong was given command of that regiment. Both regiments (possibly combined into one unit)
participated in the Eutaw Springs action on 8 September. The day before that battle a small force of
North Carolina Continentals under Maj. Reading Blount had joined the army; a leavening of
experienced men was added to Blount’s levies and formed into a 3rd Regiment. In spring 1782
expiring enlistments and scant numbers of new enlistees led to a reduction of the North Carolina
line to two regiments, then in winter 1783, to a single regiment.44
Thirty-two North Carolina veterans’ pensions were used in this study. William Casey (aka
Kersey) (head of a “Free Colored” household) spent most of his military service (1777-81) in
the 4th Virginia Regiment, spending the winter at Valley Forge and taking part in the June
1778 action at Monmouth Courthouse. Casey recalled,
After being some months in the north, we were marched back to the South – and passed all
the streams on the ice – untill we reached James River at Richmond, where after waiting a
few days for a thaw, we crossed in Boats. We were then by a hurried march carried through
Petersburg and Hix’s ford in Virginia to Halifax N.C. where we crossed the Roanoke – thence
by the most direct Rout to cross Creek, now the site of Fayetteville N.C. – thence through
Camden and Geo. Town [Georgetown] So. Carolina to Charleston, which place we entered
the 11th April as well as I recollect in 1780 – and were there besieged by the British under
the command of Gen’l. [Henry] Clinton – Lord Cornwallis & Col. [Banastre] Tarleton – which
was continued untill, I think, 12th May – when the American forces surrendered. I recollect
at this place [Brig.] Gen’l. [Lachlan] McIntosh & [Lt.] Col. Wm. Henderson [3rd South Carolina
Regiment] – also [Brig.] Gen’ls.[Charles] Scott and [William] Woodford & [Lt.] Col. [John]
Nevill [4th Virginia]. The officers taken Prisoners were paroled and the men sent on Board of
Prison Ships – myself among them – we were detained on Board I think more than a year –
when we were carried Round by water to the James River, and up the River to James Town
in the latter part of the summer 1781, where they were released – having been exchanged
as he understood for Burgoyne’s men — we were then march’d to Williamsburg where,
having performed my full term of four years, I was discharged – my discharge was signed by
Col. John Nevill – but is lost or mislaid so that I cannot produce it. At the time I was
discharged I understood Cornwallis & his troops were surrounded at little York in Virginia
[28 September to 19 October 1781]. After my discharge I came home to Southampton &
remained but a short time, when I moved and settled in No. Carolina in the County of Bute
[sic] in that part of it which now constitutes the County of Warren. I was again enlisted by
Capt. Dixon Marshall of the [1st NC] Reg’t. commanded by Gen’l. Jethro Sumner and was
shortly after taken by Gen’l. Sumner to wait upon him – in which capacity I served thirteen
months and eight days when I was discharged by Gen’l. Sumner. This discharge is also lost
or mislaid. For this latter service I received from No. Carolina a Land warrant for 640 acres
– 45
In an 1845 affidavit William Chavers provided a nice insight into civilian celebrations,
stating “that he was at William Casey’s Weding, when he intermarried with Mary Evans in
Seventeen hundred and Eighty Six in the month of December, at the house of Thomas Evans
in the County of Mecklenburg, Virginia, & he thinks that the Parson that Married them was
John Marshall, the reason that he recollects all about the wedding, because they had a great
frollick on the day with Fiddling & dancing &c.”46
John Womble (household listed as “free colored persons”) served with Lt. Col. Robert
Mebane’s 3rd North Carolina Regiment for one eventful year:
on or about the first of June in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred & seventy
nine, at the town of Halifax in the County of Halifax, State aforesaid, he enlisted as a private
soldier under Major [Thomas] Hogg of the 10th [actually 3rd]Regiment of the North Carolina
Line … From Halifax he marched with Major Hogg’s recruits to Kinston (N.C.); at which place
he was put under the command of Capt [Michael?] Quinn of the … [3rd] Regiment
commanded by the field officers Col. Robt. Mebane & Major Hogg – From Kinston he
marched to Cross Creek (now Fayetteville N.C.) as a place of Rendezvouz, thence he
marched in the summer of the said year to Charleston S.C. where soon after his arrival he
was transferred to the company under the command of Capt [John] Campbell of the said …
Regiment … He remained in Charleston under the same officers till some time in August in
the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred & seventy nine when the American Forces
under the command of [Maj.] Gen’l. [Benjamin] Lincoln were called to make an attack on
Savannah [besieged 24 September to 19 October 1779]; he then left Charleston & marched
to assist in the said attack; but Gen’l. Lincoln being unsuccessful in his attempt on Savannah,
the army returned to Charleston – soon after his return to Charleston he was placed under
the command of Capt. Maun [?] of the said … Regiment … sometime in May in the year of our
Lord one thousand seven hundred & eighty, he assisted in the defence of Charleston, when
attacked by the British Forces under Sir Henry Clinton; & in the unfortunate capture of that
City [12 May 1780] he was taken prisoner & sent to Haddrell’s Point. He further maketh
oath that he well recollects that Capt Singles [?], then acting Brigade Major & Doctor Lumus
[Jonathan Lumos, 3rd North Carolina] Surgeon were among the captured & paroled officers.
The battle, he remembers from circumstances that will never be effaced from his memory–
according to the articles of capitulation, the officers & their servants were to be paroled &
their persons & property held sacred; he embraced the opportunity as to avoid going on
board the Prison Ships, immediately became Doctor Lumus servant & was with the Doctor
dismissed on parole. He attended the Doctor to Washington (N.C.) & there remained some
time, the residue of the time till the end of the War, he passed on the Banks of the Tar River
on his Parole having never been exchanged & therefore not regularly discharged … 47
Given the status of African-Americans in the United States Drewry Tann’s (“a Free man of
Colour”) account is perhaps not as odd as it first appears,
… he inlisted under Capt. [Joshua] Hadley [1st North Carolina Regiment] … and states the
manner he came in the service as follows, that being born free in the county of Wake he was
stolen from his parents when a small boy by persons unknown to him, who were carrying
him off to sell him into Slavery, and had gotten with him, and other stolen property, as far as
the mountains on their way, that his parents made complaint to a Mr. Tanner Alford who
was then a magistrate in the county of Wake state of N. Carolina to get me back from those
who had stolen me, and he did pursue the Rogues & overtook them at the mountains and
took me from them & my parents agreed that I should serve him (Tanner Alford) untill I was
twenty one years old, when he had served Alford several years (six years) it came Alfords
time to go in the army (or he told me so) and told me if I would go in the army he would set
me free on which condition I readily listed under Capt. Hadley for eighteen months as he
was told and marched to Charleston & thence to James’s Island where he served out his tour
of inlistment that he had a discharge and was about returning home when a Capt. Benjamin
Coleman [2nd North Carolina] who told me he lived in Bladen County N. Carolina took his
discharge from him and tryed to compell him to remain in the service & be his waiting man
…he listed volluntarily in the army under Capt Hadley. he served as before stated on James
island near Charleston S. Carolina where there was some English prisoners & he was
sometimes stationed as a guard over them … 48
In 1834 North Carolina Secretary of State William Hill noted that, “Drury Tan a private
in Capt. Hadley’s Company of the 10th Regiment, enlisted on the 1st day of August 1782 for 18
months and that nothing more is said of him on said rolls.”49
Most states enacted a levy from the militia to fill their Continental regiments on a short-term
basis, some a number of times. The service of the drafted men ranged from as low as six months
to a high of eighteen (the latter term in the war’s later years). In 1778 North Carolina drafted
men for nine months. A portion of these levies served with Col. James Hogun’s reformed 3rd
North Carolina Regiment at West Point, New York, and Philadelphia. The service of many was
delayed until late 1778 or early 1779; they fought in several actions against British forces in
South Carolina and Georgia.50
Descriptive rolls for sixty-seven Granville County, North Carolina levies revealed that fifty-
four were white, five black (one with no trade), four mulattoes (three with no trade), and one half-
Indian. Their descriptions were as follows:
“Lewis Simms a black man 33 years of Age 5 feet 10 inches high well made a Planter.”
“William Pettiford a black man slim made 5 feet 6 inches high 17 years old thin visage”
“Gibson Harris 17 years of age 5 feet 6 inches high a black man a Planter”
“Jeffrey Garns 20 years old 5 feet 9 inches high a black man, a Planter by Trade in the room of
William Edwards Cook”
“Joseph Allan a well made Molatto 22 years of age 5 feet 6 inches high short hair & dark
Eyes a Planter”
“Abraham Jones a Molatto about 44 years of age 5 feet 6 Inches high”
“Jonathan Jones a Molatto 17 years of age 5 feet 8 or 9 inches high”
“Jenkins Gowan a Molatto about 17 years of age 5 feet 5 or 6 inches high”
“David Hunt a black man 30 years of age 5 feet 7 inches high a Planter”51
The service record is certainly known for only one of these men. William Pettiford (described
in a September 1820 deposition as “a man of colour”) testified when applying for a pension in
1819,
he … enlisted, in June 1781, in Granville County in the State of North Carolina, in the Company
Commanded by Captain [Thomas] Donoho of the second regiment, as he understood, in the North
Carolina line … for the term of twelve months; that he continued to serve in said Company, & in
Captain Walton’s Company, to which he was afterwards transferred, until the end of his said
enlistment, when he was discharged from service at Salisbury … 52
An addendum to above noted, “the said Wm. Pettiford … on this 19th. day of April 1819,
further declares on oath, that he had forgotten & mistook the company to which he was
transferred from Donoho’s – That it was Captain [William] Saunders’s company & not Capt.
Walton’s – That he served nine months in the Continental service … in the North Carolina line,
previous to the said twelve months service as an enlisted soldier under Captain Farrar, & part of
the time under Capt. Walton – that he was regularly discharged from his nine months service on
Stony Creek, near Salisbury, in North Carolina.” Another note stated his late war one-year
service began on 14 June 1781.53
Another pension was found for David Hunt, but whether the man is our Granville County levy
is uncertain. Moss and Scoggins seem to indicate they are one and the same, and the service
recounted by the pensioner fits with events.54 In May 1819 the veteran noted,
he … enlisted for the term of Nine Months sometime in the Year 1778 in the County of
Edgecombe … in the Company commanded by Capt John Baker of the third Redgiment
commanded by Colonel Hogan in the line of North Carolina … he was discharged from service in
Hallifax North Carolina by order of Lt. Colonel commd. Robert Mebane of the third Regt. – That
he was marched during the said period to the state of New York and stationed for some time at
Westpoint … was in no Battle during his service … 55
The pension papers contain no mention of Hunt’s race.

Post-War Comments on Unit Integration, Slavery, and Societal Attitudes towards Blacks.
One North Carolina veteran’s 19th century pension papers provide an interesting comment on
that state’s integrated units. A white veteran’s testimony supporting former militia solder
Holiday Hethcock’s claim noted,
Johnston County }
Personally appeared before me one of the Justices of the peace in and for said County
William Bryan of said county and state and having been duly Sworn doth on his oath
declare … that in the times of our Revolutionary War free negroes and mulattoes mustered
in the ranks with white men in said State – at least in that part of the State in which he then
resided – and in which Holiday Hethcock then resided – to wit in the County of Johnston.
This affiant has frequently mustered in company with said free negroes and mulattoes …
That class of persons were equally liable to draft – and frequently volunteered in the public
service. ~ This affiant was in the army a short time at Wilmington at the time Craig was near
that place [Col. James Henry Craig, January 1781to January 1782] and remembers that one
mulatto was in his company as a common soldier whose name Archibald Artis — This
affiant has always known the said Holiday Hethcock – and has always understood that he
was in the army of the Revolution
Sworn to and subscribed this 21st day of November 1834
D. H. Bryan JP [signed] William Bryan 56
African-American militia private. Many black men served in southern militia companies.
(Image courtesy of Marvin-Alonzo Greer)
Examples of African-Americans Serving in the North Carolina Militia
Gleaned from
https://www.academia.edu/18409926/Examples_of_African-
Americans_Serving_in_the_North_Carolina_Militia
Black pension claims also show evidence of growing racism. James Harris, who served as a
North Carolina Continental in 1776 and 1780, had his pension award was questioned after the
fact, leading to an interesting written discussion:
Patrick C. House February 13 1836

Dr Sir Is A Free Negro entitled to a Pension [?] if they are not, There has been an
imposition put on you, for there is one James Harris of this County who has Just rec’d his
Warrant, who I understand receiving thirty dollars per year, he is as Black as half of the
Negroes in this county nothing promps me to make this inquiry but to know if that class of
the community is entitled to pensions and to detect fraud if there should be any I inquired
of the Gentleman who drew his declaration if he stated it that he was a free negro and his
answer was no therefor think something is rong Yours respectfully James M. Redd
State of Virginia County of Patrick

This day personally appeared before the undersigned justice of the peace in and for the
County aforesaid Anthony Foster aged seventy eight years and made oath that he himself
was a soldier of the revolution is knowing that free men of Color was at the commencement
of the revolution in the State of North carolina compelled to serve in the war. at some period
after that a law was passed that free men of Color shoud not be compelled to bear arms but
at what time that law was passed this deponant does not know I further certify that this
witness (Anthony Foster) is a man highly respectable and entirely worthy of Credit
sworn under my hand this 19th day of December 1836. Anthony Foster
Martin Cloud JP
I Thomas Hale of the county of Franklin and state of Virginia do swear that it is my opinion
that free men of Colour did serve in the Revolution in the state of North Carolina and believe
that & know that free men of colour were regularly enrolled in the state of South Carolina
[signed] Thos Hale
Sir In answer to your letter of this day – I have to inform you that from the information of
members of Congress – I have no doubt that until since [sic] 1814 free people of colour
served in the militia and had the right of suffrage in the state of North Carolina I infer from
the act of assembly of North Carolina passed in 1814 – which you will see in the 2nd Vol
Rec’d book of Laws of that state pages 1290 & 1291. that no distinction was made before as
to militia service performed or to be performed – but you will see that after the passage of
that Law the Captains and other returning officers in making their returns – were to put in
seperate columns the white & coloured militia men. The book is in the library and the case
is clear – and I consider the information I have received and the inference I draw from the
Law of 1814 that people of colour before had allways in N Carolina been subject to Militia
Service is conclusive and I hope that you will see this matter on looking at the Law ref’d to
as I do
I am Sir yr mo obt
Washington 4th Feby 1837 N H Claiborne [Member of Congress] 57
In November 1832 North Carolinian John Ferrell applied for a pension, but had only one
witness, who he thought would be considered unreliable. Ferrell noted, “he has no documentary
evidence that he can prove his service by & that he knows no man now living who was with him but old
Arthur Toney [pension W4835] a Coloured man & whose evidence (being a Colored man) would not be
good Testimony.”58
Even early on black citizens needed to take precautions when travelling out of their
community. This note was found in Virginian James Cooper’s pension file:
The State of Virginia Octob’r 1787
The Bearer James Cooper, a Molatto Free Man, Being Desirous to Travel in the No. States
Carolina and Georgia, its Recommended that he doe pass unmolisted so long as he Behaves
himself well, he being an old Soldier in bluforts defeat he served fathful[page torn; signature
illegible] 59
And slavery personally affected the lives of many free black veterans. Philip Savoy, “a man of
Collour,” who had served in the 4th Maryland Regiment, noted in his 1818 pension application,
“I have a family but they are all slaves. I am myself free and ever have been.” Another former
Maryland Continental, Michael Curtis, testified in 1821, “I have no wife and the children born by
my wife dec’d. are slaves.”60 Several other old soldiers told similar tales:
Thomas Mahorney (Pension S38166), 2d Virginia Regt. 1777-78/79, “Thomas Mahorney
declares that he is a planter on a little farm not his, and is rendered unable to pursue it by reason
of his age and infirmity and that his family residing with him are as follows: Viz: his wife
Maima[?] and his son Jack both of which are slaves, he the said Thomas Mahorney being a free
man of colour who served in the war of the Revolution, and is unassisted by the labour of his
family” (1820 deposition)61
Drury Scott (Pension S35644), 10th Virginia Regt. 1777-83(?), “My occupation is that of a rough
carpenter, but I can get but little work and if I had more I could not do it my wife is all my family,
but being a slave can render me no assistance” (1820 deposition)62
Andrew Pebbles (Pension S38297), 15th Virginia Regt. 1778-82, “… by Occupation I am a
Miller, that from the infirmities of old age increased by the wounds received in the revolutionary
War I am not able to render much service to my employer that I am a free Mulatto, that my wife
and child who live at the Mill where I do are Slaves, that my wife’s name is Rachel aged between
50 & 60 years and my Child’s name is Ursula aged 11 years …” (1820 deposition)63
Undoubtedly, other black Revolutionary veterans shared these men’s experiences.

Some veterans, or their families, only belatedly received what was due them. Holiday
Hethcock’s application for a pension was rejected in the 1830s. Twenty years later his son David
Hathcock reopened the case. The following letter was included in Hethcock’s file:
Washington D.C. April 5th 1854
Hon. L. P. Waldo Comr,. of Pensions
Sir On examining the case of Holliday Hethcock, of N. C. for pension under act of June 7th
1832, we find that his services and identity are fully proven by three witnesses, and that his case
has been suspended merely because he was a free man of color. As we understand that several
cases of this sort have been admitted you will oblige us by having it admitted.
Respectfully &c. Thompson J[?] Venable 64
North Carolina Pensions Gleaned from
n_
____________________
Conclusion. Given the dearth of other records, Revolutionary veterans’ pension papers are
invaluable sources and add to our store of information on African American Continentals. The
old soldiers, and those who supported their claims, not only recounted their service, but often
added details found in no other sources. The accounts used for this study have shown that black
soldiers served in a variety of roles, from non-combatant waiters to cavalryman. They also
confirm that, like their northern counterparts, the largest number of southern black Continentals
served in the ranks, bearing a musket, and integrated with their white brethren. Finally, pension
records also show the burdens slavery imposed on free blacks, and the advent of increased
hostility towards people of color in the first third of the 19th century. There is still more to learn,
and additional details may lie hidden in those pension narratives yet to be gleaned. When all is
said and done, the service of America’s African-American Continental soldiers, as well as the
injustices some experienced then and later, have never been covered sufficiently in a single
work. This monograph has tried, in some small part, to rectify that deficiency.
_______________________
In 1824 and 1825 former Continental Army general Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier,
Marquis de Lafayette returned to the United States. At New Orleans, Louisiana he met with a group of
African American War of 1812 veterans who fought at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. The following
is from the Courier of New Orleans, 19 April 1825:
The men of Color had solicited the favor to present themselves to the General, and at the hour he
had appointed to receive them, they came preceded by their commander Mr. John Mercier, who
addressed the General as follows: “The command of the Corps of men of Colour who so
eminently contributed to the defense of this Country, has been just entrusted to me; and its
officers, scattered until now, and before reorganizing themselves, felt that they should first offer
to one of the Heroes of the American Independence, their tribute of respect and admiration. The
brave men that I command in whatever situation they may have been placed, would have
purchased at the price of their blood, the honor of being presented to you, they felt an ardent
desire to tell you, that they have arms always ready to defend their Country, and hearts devoted to
you; deign General, to accept this sincere tribute of respect and admiration.”
The General received the men of colour with demonstrations of esteem and affection, and said
to them: “Gentlemen, I have often during the War of Independence, seen African blood shed
with honor in our ranks for the cause of the United States. I have learnt with the liveliest
interest, how you answered to the appeal of General Jackson; what a glorious use you made of
your arms for the defense of Louisiana. I cherish the sentiments of gratitude for your services,
and of admiration for your valor. Accept those also of my personal friendship, and of the
pleasure I shall always experience in meeting with you again.” The General then kindly shook
hands with them all, and thanked the Governor for the opportunity he had given him to become
acquainted with them.65
______________
My thanks to Don N. Hagist, Eric Schnitzer, Saratoga National Historic Park, Todd W.
Braisted (On-Line Institute for Advanced Loyalist Studies), Daniel M. Popek, Todd Post,
Michael C. Scoggins, Robert A. Selig, and Don Troiani for contributing to this work. I am
especially grateful to Larry Babits and Josh Howard for sharing their transcription and
analysis of the Chesterfield Supplement manuscript.
For Further Reading
“’They were good soldiers.’: African–Americans Serving in the Continental Army,”
http://www.scribd.com/doc/123231213/%E2%80%9CThey-were-good-soldiers-
African%E2%80%93Americans-Serving-in-the-Continental-Army
Daniel M. Popek, They “... fought bravely, but were unfortunate:”: The True Story of Rhode Island’s
“Black Regiment” and the Failure of Segregation in Rhode Island’s Continental Line, 1777-
1783(Authorhouse, 2015) (Online Preview)
https://books.google.com/books?id=HMnyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PP2&lpg=PP2&dq=daniel+M.+popek
+They+%E2%80%9C...+fought+bravely,+but+were+unfortunate:%E2%80%9D&source=bl&ots=
1sm6RJmN6e&sig=zX1Q4PaYkmA5bdNp-
cjdNJntXW0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwimkOiJwNzKAhUMaT4KHV1kCyMQ6AEIIzAB#v=
onepage&q=daniel%20M.%20popek%20They%20%E2%80%9C...%20fought%20bravely%2C%
20but%20were%20unfortunate%3A%E2%80%9D&f=false
Douglas R. Egerton, Death or Liberty: African Americans and Revolutionary America (New York:
Oxford University Press, 2009)
Benjamin Quarles, The Negro in the American Revolution (New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company,
1973)
Bobby Gilmer Moss and Michael C. Scoggins, African-American Patriots in the Southern Campaign of
the American Revolution (Blacksburg, S.C.: Scotia-Hibernia Press, 2004)
Judith L. Van Buskirk, “Claiming Their Due: African Americans in the Revolutionary War and Its
Aftermath,” John Resch and Walter Sargent, eds., War & Society in the American Revolution:
Mobilization and Home Fronts (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2007), 132-160.
Michael C. Scoggins, “To Assist His Countrymen in Arms: Motivations and Incentives in African-
American Revolutionary War Service,” American Revolution Magazine, vol. 1, no. 2 (May 2009), 47-52.
(Image courtesy of Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.)
Appendices
A. August 24 1778 "Return of the Negroes in the Army," listing 755 black soldiers in fifteen
brigades of Gen. George Washington’s main army at White Plains, New York:
Sick On Percentage of Brigade
Brigades Present Present Command Total Strength
North Carolina 42 10 6 58 4.8 % of rank and file
Woodford 36 3 1 40 (Virginia) 3.2 % “ “
Muhlenberg 64 26 8 98 (Virginia) 6.8 % “ “
Scott 20 3 1 24 (five regiments from Virginia, 1.6 % “ “
and one from Delaware)
Smallwood 43 15 2 60 (Maryland) 4% “ “
2d Maryland 33 1 1 35 (three regiments from Maryland, 2.0 % “ “
and German Regt.)
Wayne 2 2 (Pennsylvania) 0.15 % “ “
2d Pennsylvania 0% “ “
Clinton 33 2 4 39 (New York) 2.8 % “ “
Parsons 117 12 19 148 (Connecticut) 8.6 % “ “
Huntington 56 2 4 62 (Connecticut) 4.7 % “ “
Nixon 26 1 27 (Massachusetts, 1.6 % “ “
including one militia levy regiment)
Patterson 64 13 12 89 (Massachusetts) 5.7 % “ “
Late Learned 34 4 8 46 (Massachusetts) 3.9 % “ “
Poor 16 7 4 27 (three New Hampshire regiments, 1.8 % “ “
and 2d Canadian Regt.)
Total 586 98 71 755
21,209 rank and file in fifteen brigades (above)

755 black soldiers = 3.56 % of rank and file in the listed brigades
__________________
B. Estimated Populations of the American Colonies, 1700-1780
Colony 1700 1720 1740 1760 1780
(Maine)a — — — 20,000 49,133
(Vermont)a — — — — 47,620
New Hampshire 4,958 9,375 23,256 39,093 87,802
Massachusetts 55,941 91,008 151,613 202,600 268,627
Rhode Island 5,894 11,680 25,255 45,471 52,946
Connecticut 25,970 58,830 89,580 142,470 206,701
New York 19,107 36,919 63,665 117,138 210,541
New Jersey 14,010 29,818 51,373 93,813 139,627
Pennsylvania 17,950 30,962 85,637 183,703 327,305
Delaware 2,470 5,385 19,870 33,250 45,385
Maryland 29,604 66,133 116,093 162,267 245,474
Virginia 58,560 87,757 180,440 339,726 538,004
North Carolina 10,720 21,270 51,760 110,442 270,133
South Carolina 5,704 17,048 45,000 94,074 180,000
Georgia — — 2,021 9,578 56,071
(Kentucky )a — — — — 45,000
(Tennessee)a — — — — 10,000
Total 250,888 466,185 905,563 1,593,625 2,780,369
a. Not organized as provinces or states by 1780. Maine part of Massachusetts; Vermont part
of New York (disputed); Kentucky originally an extension of Virginia, and Tennessee of
North Carolina. Lemon, James T. “Colonial America in the Eighteenth Century.” In North America:
The Historical Geography of a Changing Continent, edited by Robert D. Mitchell and Paul
A. Groves, 121-146. Totowa, New Jersey: Rowman and Littlefield, 1987.
__________________
C. Synopsis of African-American veterans’ pensions from Southern Campaign Revolutionary
War Pension Statements & Rosters:
(World Wide Web) http://www.southerncampaign.org/pen/ (as of 4/14/2011, 10,788 pension applications
and 73 roster transcriptions posted). John R. Van Atta, “Conscription in Revolutionary Virginia: The Case
of Culpeper County, 1780-1781,” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 92, no. 3 (July
1984), 263-281.
105 African-American veterans’ pensions found using the search terms “a free black,”
“black,” “color,” “colour,” “molatto,” “mulatto,” and “Negro.” Breakdown is as follows:
1 Delaware; 10 Maryland; 56 Virginia, 32 North Carolina, 5 South Carolina; 1 Georgia.
Delaware (1)
Service According to Pension Accounts
Delaware Regt. 1777-80
Delaware Regt. 1776-83 (white soldier) the only applicant (that I know of) belonging to the Del Reg’t within
20 miles of this place, except one Edw’d Harman, a coloured man, who rec’d his certificate for a pension some time last
year.
Results of searches made on the terms “black,” “a free black,” “color,” “colour,” “mulatto,”
“molatto,” and “Negro.”
“color” – Edward Harmon, S36000; “colour” – “the only applicant (that I know of) belonging to the Del Reg’t within 20
miles of this place, except one Edw’d Harman, a coloured man, who rec’d his certificate for a pension some time last
year.” (pension deposition of Whittenton Clifton, S35842);
Delaware Pension used for this work may be viewed online at:
org_pen_
Maryland (10)
Re-ordered Chronologically, by unit
Maryland 2d Regt. 1776-83
Maryland 4th Regt. 1777-1782?

Maryland 1st Regt. 1777-83
Maryland 3rd Regt. 1777-83
Maryland 5th Regt. 1778-83

Maryland 5th Regt. (1778, nine months) 1778-83
Maryland 5th/4th Regt. (1778?, nine months) 1778-83
Maryland 7th Regt. 1778-1783
Maryland 4th Regt. 1781 9 months
Maryland 4th Regt. (“Joseph Carroll a mulatto”)

Veterans’ Names:
“black” or “free black” - William Anderson, R203; Adam Adams (Addams), S34623; “color” - George Buley (Bewley),
W27576; Frederick Hall, R7569; “colour” - George Dias (Dice), S42161; Francis Freeman, S35951; Saladdy Stanley,
R10057; David Wilson, S35119; “mulatto” – “In the same Company were Hugh Gill, Isaac Isaacs and Joseph Carroll a
mulatto.” (pension deposition of Richard Harris, R4671); Thomas Carney (William L. Calderhead, “Thomas Carney:
Unsung Soldier of the American Revolution,” Maryland Historical Magazine, vol. 84 (Winter 1989), 319-326.)
Maryland pensions used for this work may be viewed online at:
https://www.academia.edu/18409828/Maryland_Pensions_Gleaned_from_Southern_Campaign_Revolutionar
y_War_Pension_Statements_and_Rosters_as_of_14_April_2011_http_www.southerncampaign.org_pen_
Virginia (56)
11 good pension narratives
Gaskins:
Francis Bundy (1820 census, a “free colored person” )
John Chavers (pension, a “free black” )
Bennett McKey (1820 census, a a “Free Colored Person”)
William Jackson (pension, “a free man of colour)
William Wedgbare (Wigebare/Widgebarre/Wedgroof) aka Underwood (W2292) (“a Free Mulatto”)

Virginia 3rd Regt. 1775-78
Virginia 2d Regt. 1776-1777; 1st Regt. 1778-83

Virginia 3d Regt. 1776?-79? 3 years; then 1780-81? 18 months
Virginia 4th Regt. 1776-1778
Virginia 2d Regt. 1777-78/79 (39)

Virginia 4th Regt. 1777- 81 (also 1st NC Regt. 1782)
Virginia 7th Regt. 1777-1780?
Virginia 7th or 11th Regt. 1777-80 (reenlisted in ?)
Virginia 10th Regt. 1777-83?
Virginia 14th/10th Regt. 1777-82
Virginia 14th/ 10th Regt. 1777-83
Virginia 15th Regt. 1777-78; 2d Regt. 1782 CumberlandRoll
Virginia Col. Lt. Col. Gaskins’ 15th Regt. 1777-79 (reenlisted, till 1782)
Virginia Gaskins’ Regt. 1777- 80
Virginia Lt. Col. Charles Porterfield’s State Regt. 1777?-81?
Virginia ? Regt. 1777-81
Virginia 1st Regt. 1778-79 / Virginia Lt. Col. Samuel Hawes’ 2nd Regt. 18 months 1780
ChestRoll
Virginia 2nd Regt. 1778-?
Virginia 2nd Regt. 1778 3 years
Virginia 2nd Regt. 1778-81
Virginia 2d Regt. 1778-83
Virginia 3d Regt. 1778-79 18 months; State Artillery, 1780?-83
Virginia 4th Regt. 1778-79 18 months
Virginia Col. William Davies’ 14th/10th Regt. 1778-81? 3 years ChestRoll
Virginia 15th Regt. 1778 18 months
Virginia 15th Regt. 1778-82 (on command with 1st Continental Artillery, either as a driver or
matross, etc.) also Lee’s Legion
Virginia 4th or 9th Regt. 1779-?

Virginia Lt. Col. Charles Porterfield’s State Regt. 1779-81 18 months
Virginia Col. John Green’s (Lt. Col. Richard Campbell) 1st Regt. 1780 18 months ChestRoll
Virginia Col. John Green’s (Lt. Col. Richard Campbell) 1st Regt. 1780 18 months
Virginia Col. John Green’s (Lt. Col. Richard Campbell) 1st Regt. 1780 18 months
Virginia Col. John Green’s (Lt. Col. Richard Campbell) 1st Regt. 1780 ChestRoll
Virginia Lt. Col. Samuel Hawes’ 2nd Regt. 18 months 1780 ChestRoll
Virginia Lt. Col. Oliver Towles’ 5th Regt. 1780-81 18 months
Virginia 7th Regt. 1780 18 months ChestRoll
Virginia Lt. Col. Thomas Gaskins’ Regt. 1780
Virginia Gaskins’/ Posey’s/Febiger’s Regt. 1780-83
Virginia Col. Anthony Walton White’s 1st Continental Dragoon Regt. 1780 -83
Virginia 1st Continental Artillery Regt. 1780-?
Virginia Col. Charles Dabney’s State Regt. 1780-82 18 months
Virginia Lt. Col. Thomas Gaskins’ Regt. 1781-82 ChestRoll

Virginia Lt. Col. Thomas Gaskins’/Posey’s Regt. 1781-82
Virginia Col. William Davies’ 1st Regt. 1782? ChestRoll

Virginia Lt. Col. Samuel Hawes’ 2nd Regt. 1782
Virginia 10th Regt./Lt. Col. Thomas Posey’s Regt. ?-83
Virginia ? Regt.
Va.
Pension deposition information: 1 enlisted in 1775, 7 in 1776, 15 in 1777, 11 in 1778, 2 in 1779, 15 in
1780, 1 in 1781, and 2 in 1782. Enlistment dates were not given for three veterans. Of the men who
gave (or provided clues for) an original enlistment date, 9 reenlisted after their first term expired
(all enlisted 1778 or earlier), and 2 of those served for 18 months beginning in 1780 or 1781. Of the
16 who served in 1780 and 1781, 11 were drafted or volunteered for 18 months; 9 were also listed
on the Chesterfield descriptive list.
Common soldier (bowman)
Common soldier (waiter for Col. Buford)
Common soldier (servant to James Monroe)
Common soldier (waiter to Col. Croghan)
Common soldier (waiter for several weeks)
Common soldier (servant to Col. Hawes)
Common soldier (served as a batman, “Bowman”)
Common soldier (cook for Col. Porterfield)
Common soldier (drummer in Va. militia at Yorktown)
10 (of 56) men noted serving as a waiter, servant, cook, or “Bowman” (batman, a servant in charge
of pack horses).
Veterans’ Names:
“black” - Thomas Campbell, R1609; John Chavers, S36753; “color” - Charles Barnett, S8048; Shadrach Battles,
S37713; Aaron Brister, W17341; James Bowser, BLWt2001-100; Isaac Brown, S39214; Francis Bundy,
S37799; William Casey (Kersey), W29906; Anthony Chavers, R1889½; William Clarke, W6687; Daniel Goff,
S15586; Abraham Goff, S39596; Sherard Going, W7545; Bennett McKey, S38197; Wilmore Mail, S38171; Jesse
Peters, R8146; Drury Pettiford, S41954; John Pipsico, S36230; Richard Redman, S38327; Peter Rouse, S23880; George
Russel, S39059; John Scott, S46522; Shadrach Shavers, S38368; Joseph Sidebottom, W8727; William Thomas, S38435;
Jacob Teague, S41235; George Tyler, S41276; “colour” - William Coff (Cuff, Cuffy), S39347; Stephen Freeman, BLWt2393-
100; John Harris, S37997; James Hawkins,: S37991; Ephraim Hearn, S38020; William Jackson, W7877; Thomas Lively,
S38144; Thomas Mahorney, S38166; Francis Pearce (Pierce), R8235; John Roe, S39045; John Rolls (Rawls), S39056;
Drury Scott, S35644; Lewis Smith, S6112; Buckner Thomas, S41248; Benjamin Viers, S6313; James Wallace, S7834;
Matthew Williams, S6414; Jesse Wood, S7962; Robert Wood, S39909; “mulatto,” “molatto” - Reuben Bird, S37776; Mason
Collins, S39355; James Cooper, S39362; Andrew Pebbles, S38297; John Sidebottom (Sydebothom), W8775; Edward
Sorrel (Sorrell),W26493; “Negro” - Evans Archer, S41415; Zachariah Goff, W2730; Samuel Stewart, W7220; William
Wedgbare (Wigebare/Widgebarre/Wedgroof) aka Underwood (W2292).
Virginia Pensions used for this work may be viewed online at:
https://www.academia.edu/18409884/Virginia_Pensions_Gleaned_from_Southern_Campaign_Revolutionary
_War_Pension_Statements_and_Rosters_as_of_14_April_2011_http_www.southerncampaign.org_pen_
(Includes a Synopsis of the 1780 Chesterfield Roll)
North Carolina (32)
North Carolina 3d Regt. 1776-78

North Carolina Danger’s 10th/4th Regt. 1776-81
North Carolina 10th Regt. 1776-83
North Carolina 3rd Regt. 1776; Col. Archibald Lytle’s Regt. 1780
North Carolina 7th Regt. 1777, transferred to 1st Regt. in 1778 (for the war)
North Carolina 10th then 2nd Regt. 1777-1780
North Carolina 1778 9 months

North Carolina 4th Regt. 1778 9 months
North Carolina Col. Wiliam Lee Davidson 3d Regt. 1778-79 9 months
North Carolina Col. James Hogun’s 3rd (Levy) Regt. 1778-79 9 months
North Carolina Col. Archibald Lytle’s Levy Regt. 1779 9 months

North Carolina 2d Regt. 17?-80
North Carolina Lt. Col. Robert Mebane’s 3rd Regt. 1779-80?

North Carolina 3d Regt. 1779 -83?
North Carolina Col. James Armstrong’s State Regt. 1779
North Carolina 4th Regt. 1780-81 18 months

North Carolina 4th or 6th Regt. 1780 -83
North Carolina Lt. Col. John B. Ashe’s 1st Regt. 1781 12 months
North Carolina 1st or 2d Regt. 1781 12 months
North Carolina Col. Archibald Lytle’s 6th Regt. 1781 12 months
North Carolina 10th Regt. 1781
North Carolina: Naval service and Lt. Col. Robert Mebane’s 3rd Regt. 1781-82
North Carolina 1st Regt. 1782 18 months

North Carolina 1st Regt. 1782-83
North Carolina 1st Regt. 1782 (also Virginia 4th Regt. 1777- 81)
North Carolina Lt. Col. Hardee Murfree 1st Regt. 1782-83 18 months
1 Musician
Common soldier (“attended most of his time to the care of the horses & as protector & guard
to the baggage waggons”)
Common soldier (“he was in no battles in Consequence of his being Kept with the baggage Wagons
– generally – “)
Veterans’ Names:
“color” - Joshua Brewington, S8091; William Casey (Kersey), W29906; Anthony Garns, S38723; Isaac Hammonds,
W7654; Jesse Harris, W1277; James Harris, W11223; William Hood, W25781; Primus Jacobs, S41688; Moses Manley
(Manly), S41796; Nicholas Manuel, R6887; Jesse Martin, R6949; Patrick Mason, S41810; Absalom Martin, S41800; Isaac
Perkins, S41953; Israel Pearce, S3660; Charles Roe, S7416; Asa Spelmore (Spelman), S42022; Joel Taburn (Taborn),
S42037; John Womble, S42083; Arthur Wiggins, S7952; “colour” - Solomon Bibbie (Bibby), S6644; John Carter, R1749;
Moses Carter, S41470; Charles Hood, S41659; Elisha Hunt, S13486; Valentine Locus, W20497; Samuel Overton, S41928;
Dempsey Stewart, W3734; Drewry Tann, S19484; Arthur Toney, W4835; John Toney, W9859; “mulatto” - George
Pettiford, W9223.
North Carolina Pensions used for this work may be viewed online at:
n_
South Carolina (6)

South Carolina, 4th Artillery Regt. 1775-82
South Carolina 3rd Regt. 1777-80
South Carolina 3rd Regt. 1777-80 3 years
South Carolina 3rd Regt. 1777-80 3 years
South Carolina 3rd Regt. 1777?-80
South Carolina 4th Artillery Regt. 12 months 1779-83

Drum Major
Common soldier (also waiter and matross)
Veterans’ Names:
“black” or “a free black” - Allen Jeffers, S1770; “color” - Jim Capers, R1669; Morgan Griffin, S18844; Gideon Griffin,
W8877; Edward Harris, R4649; “colour” - Isham Carter, S39293;
South Carolina Pensions used for this work may be viewed online at:
https://www.academia.edu/18409708/South_Carolina_Pensions_Gleaned_from_Southern_Campaign_Revolut
ionary_War_Pension_Statements_and_Rosters_as_of_14_April_2011_http_www.southerncampaign.org_pen
_
Georgia (1)
Georgia Col. Samuel Elbert’s 2d Regt. 1775-79
Drummer and officers’ waiter (batman) including Steuben and St. Clair
“color” - Nathan Fry, S39545
Georgia Pension used for this work may be viewed online at:
org_pen_
__________________
D. Analysis of average number of African Americans in all the brigades listed in the 24 August 1778
“Return of the Negroes in the Army” showing 755 black soldiers in fifteen brigades of Gen. George
Washington’s main army at White Plains, New York.
Average Number of Black Soldiers Per Regiment Within Each Brigade

North Carolina (1st and 2d Regts.)
Woodford (2d/6th, 3d/7th, 11th/15th Regts.) Va.
Muhlenberg (1st/5th/9th, 14th Regts., Grayson’s Additional, and 1st & 2d State Regts.) Va.
Scott (4th/8th/12th, 10th Va. and Delaware Regts.)
Smallwood (1st, 3d, 5th, and 7th Regts.), Md.
2d Maryland (2d, 4th, 6th Md. and German Regt.)
Clinton (1st, 2d, 4th, and 5th Regts.), N.Y.
Parsons (3d, 4th, 6th, 8th Regts.) Ct.
Huntington (1st, 2d, 5th, 7th Regts.) Ct.
Nixon ((3d, 5th, 6th Mass. and Wood’s Mass. Militia Levy Regt.)
Patterson (10th, 11th, 12th, 14th) Ma.
Late Learned (2d, 8th, 9th) Ma.
Poor (1st, 2d, 3d N.H. and 2d Canadian Regt.)
(Note: At this time 8 companies per regiment)
New Jersey and Rhode Island are the only states that had units serving with Washington’s army
not represented. The number of blacks serving in New Jersey’s four Continental regiments is
uncertain, but likely no more than 40, possibly as few as 20. Rhode Island had just reconstituted
one of its regiments, filling it with approximately 180 black soldiers, former slaves.
__________________
E. A Study in Complexity: Comparison of Virginia Continental regiment lineage with that of the
Pennsylvania and Massachusetts Lines.
(Online study: “Examples of the Complexity of Continental Army Unit Lineage: (The Virginia,
Pennsylvania and Massachusetts Continental Lines)”
https://www.scribd.com/doc/307784931/Examples-of-the-Complexity-of-Continental-Army-Unit-
Lineage-The-Virginia-Pennsylvania-and-Massachusetts-Continental-Lines
__________________
F. Synopsis of the Chesterfield List (Virginia, 1780-1781)

THE CHESTERFIELD SIZE ROLL: SOLDIERS WHO ENTERED THE CONTINENTAL LINE
OF VIRGINIA AT CHESTERFIELD COURTHOUSE AFTER 1 SEPTEMBER 1780
Transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris
http://southerncampaign.org/pen/b69.pdf
Library of Virginia citation: Joseph Scott. Roll of troops who joined at Chesterfield
Courthouse since 1780.
State government records collection. Transcribed from bound photocopies, accession 23816.
INTRODUCTION
“Size rolls” are lists of soldiers recording their heights and appearances, as well as
occupations and places of birth and residence. The original purpose of aiding in the capture
of deserters has long since expired, but size rolls are of enduring value to genealogists and
students of military and social history.
The size rolls transcribed here are for revolutionary soldiers who were processed into the
Continental Line of Virginia at Chesterfield Courthouse during Sep 1780 and afterward.
Some were already Continental soldiers who had served in the North, but most were drafted
under a Virginia law enacted in May 1780, which required each county whose militia was not
already engaged to recruit or draft one militiaman out of each 15 over age 18 to serve in the
Continental army until the end of 1781. This law was necessitated by the almost total
destruction of the Virginia Continental Line with the surrender of Charleston SC on 12 May
1780 and the defeat of Col. Abraham Buford at Waxhaws SC on the following May 29. Those
enlisted under the May 1780 act were commonly referred to as “18-months men.”
The recruits rendezvoused at Fredericksburg, the city of Richmond, Winchester, Accomack
courthouse, Alexandria, or Staunton, then continued on to Chesterfield Courthouse, where
they were transferred into the Continental line. In the process of being sized probably each
man would have announced his name, age, occupation, and places of birth and residence
while having his height measured and color of hair, eyes, and complexion recorded. These
records would then have been compiled and entered into the book transcribed here. Errors
undoubtedly occurred in each step of this process, as can be seen by comparing duplicate
entries and by comparing the spellings of names on the size roll with signatures on pension
applications. Other discrepancies appear in comparing these data with data for the same
soldiers in the size roll referenced below as “Register & Description of Noncommissioned
Officers & Privates.” For example, James Harris is recorded as 5’ 3¾” tall with brown hair in
the Chesterfield size roll but as 5’ 4¼” tall with black hair in the latter size roll.
The history of the size roll after the Revolutionary War is somewhat obscure. A sheet
inserted into the book has the following two notes in different handwritings:
“Size-Roll of Troops join’d at Chesterfield Ct. House since Sept. 1 1780 Capt’n. Joseph
Scott,” “This book is a Supplement to ‘Papers concerning the Army of the Revolution’ Vol 1,
Executive Depart. and in order, preceeds Benjamin Harrison’s Mission to Philadelphia by the
Assembly. 1781”
STATISTICAL SUMMARY [excerpt]
Number of Soldiers Listed (excluding duplicates): .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 916
Average Age (N = 876): . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 years
Standard deviation = 7.7 years. Range = 13 - 60. Mode = 18. Median = 21.
Average Height (N = 873): . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5’ 6.7”
SD= 3.0”. Range = 4’ 6½” - 6’ 3”
Average height of the 386 white soldiers aged 20-29 . . . . . . . . . 5’ 7.8” + 2.8” (SD)
(Significantly below the present average of 5’ 10.0” for white American males age 20-29.)
Average height of the 20 with African ancestry aged 20-29 . . . 5’ 6.2” + 2.0” (SD)
(Significantly shorter than the average for whites.)
Number with African Ancestry: .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 (5.8%)
Black (19 ) Negro (2 ) Mulatto (3) Yellow (29)
HOW THEY SERVED
After the eighteen-months men had been sized they were assigned to different regiments,
which were later reorganized. I will not attempt a detailed account of these arrangements,
but will sketch the services of the 18-month men based primarily on pension applications.
The 18-month soldiers had expected to spend the winter of 1780-81 at Chesterfield
Courthouse, and under the command of Col. William Davies they set about building
barracks “consisting of about one hundred & sixty Cabins.” Two events soon changed this
plan. First, in November Gen. Nathanael Greene was sent to replace Gen. Horatio Gates as
commander of the Southern Department after Gates’s disastrous defeat at Camden SC (16
Aug 1780). Greene sent his Aide-de-Camp, Gen. Baron Friedrich von Steuben, ahead to
Chesterfield Courthouse to raise men for his shattered army. The second event was the raid
by Gen. Benedict Arnold in early January 1781, which resulted in many of the 18-months
men being deployed to various places along the James River.
After Greene replaced Gates in early December, Steuben, having succeeded Davis as
Inspector
General at Chesterfield Courthouse, ordered 400 of the 18-months men to join Greene. One
regiment commanded by Col. John Green [1st Virginia Regt., 1781] joined Gen. Greene at his
winter bivouac near Cheraw SC in January. In a short time, however, they and the rest of
Greene’s army rushed to join Gen. Daniel Morgan, who had captured 600 British at Cowpens
SC on 17 Jan 1781 and was being pursued through North Carolina by Cornwallis. Greene’s
army reached the safety of Virginia on February 14, then returned to North Carolina and
played cat-and-mouse with Cornwallis for the next month. A second regiment of 18-months
men under Col. Richard Campbell joined Greene near Guilford Courthouse a few days
before the battle there on March 15. Most of the 18-months men in the two regiments were in
the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, and many subsequently fought under Greene at the Battle
of Hobkirk Hill near Camden SC (25 Apr 1781),
the Siege of Ninety Six SC (22 May - 19 Jun 1781), and the Battle of Eutaw Springs SC (8 Sep
1781).
Col. Green resigned soon after the Battle of Guilford Courthouse and was replaced by Lt.
Col. Samuel Hawes, who resigned at Ninety Six. Command of the regiment then fell to Maj.
Smith Snead, who discharged his 18-months men after their terms expired at the end of 1781.
Col. Richard Campbell was mortally wounded at Eutaw Springs. His regiment had suffered
so many casualties, and the survivors were so close to the end of their 18 months, that Greene
did not replace Campbell.
Pension declarations refer to the following most consistently as captains in the two
regiments:
Regiment of Green/Hawes/Snead: John Anderson, Thomas Armistead, Thomas Barbee, William
Bentley(captured at Ninety Six), Valentine Harrison, Benjamin Lawson (died and was replaced
by Sigismund Stribling), Samuel Selden, Tarpley White.
Regiment of Campbell: Archibald Denholm, Philip Kirkpatrick, John Marks, Simon Morgan,
Conway
Oldham (killed at Eutaw Springs and replaced by Robert Jouett), Philip Sansum.
After recovering from his costly victory at Guilford Courthouse, Cornwallis marched his
army northward. Virginia militias were mobilized to meet the invasion, thereby putting
them beyond reach of the May 1780 law. Unable to draft any more 18-month men, Steuben
planned to take what men he could muster and equip to join Greene in North Carolina,
attack Cornwallis there, and perhaps lure the British already in Virginia out of that state.
Although Steuben refers only to militia in a letter to Gen. Washington dated 15 Apr 1781,
pension declarations indicate that some of the 18-month men from Chesterfield Courthouse
were on this expedition. Steuben got as far as the Roanoke River before turning back, or
possibly being ordered back by the Virginia legislature, which wanted the army for the
immediate defense of the state. Back in Virginia the 18-month men were detailed to a variety
of places under various commands, including the regiments of colonels Christian Febiger,
Thomas Gaskins, and Peter Muhlenberg. After a summer of shadowing and occasionally
skirmishing with the British, most ended up at Yorktown during the siege (28 Sep - 19 Oct).
After the surrender of Cornwallis and his army many served out the remainder of their time
escorting prisoners to Winchester Barracks, while others were dismissed before the
expiration of their time at the end of 1781.
(The appended information is from Endnote 37):
Numbers of African-Americans on the Chesterfield List: Lawrence Babits and Joshua
Howard, in their book Long, Obstinate, and Bloody: The Battle of Guilford Courthouse discuss
the make-up of the 1781 Virginia regiments with Major General Greene, including African-
American soldiers. They note the possibility of as many as 110 blacks among the Chesterfield
drafts, more than 12 percent of the total. C. Leon Harris in his online study and transcription of
the Chesterfield roll puts the number of black soldiers at 53. This author, using criteria supplied
by Messrs. Babits and Howard, totaled a possible high of 92 black men among the drafts, then
narrowed that down using information available for individual soldier and came up with a more
conservative total of 58. Problems of identification remain; Evans Archer, described as having
red hair, grey eyes, and a yellow complexion, was listed in the 1790 census as a “free Negro.”
His pension papers give no indication of his race. Due to that and other identified men, all
Chesterfield levies noted as having a “yellow” complexion have been included as African-
American.
There are other minor discrepancies. In their article “Revolutionary Ranks: An Analysis of
the Chesterfield Supplement” (The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 87, no. 2
(April 1979), 182-189.), authors Joseph A. Goldenberg, Eddie D. Nelson, and Rita Y. Fletcher
totaled the number of men on the Chesterfield at 917. Lawrence Babits and Joshua Howard put
the Chesterfield levy data on an Excel spreadsheet, resulting in a total of 913 men.
For the purpose of this study 913 has been taken as the accurate figure.
Chesterfield Supplement total: 913 men (Babits and Howard)

Babits and Howard total of African-American levies: 110 = 12% of total
Rees study, initial total: 92 = slightly over 10%
Rees study, final total: 58 = 6.4%
As noted above, my initial number of black men listed on the Chesterfield list was 92. That
was pared down substantially when I examined 37 men described as having black hair, black
eyes, and dark complexion. Several men on the list under that description applied for pension,
but none left any record they were of African-American extraction. Furthermore, of the men
under that description, 2 were born in France, 2 in Ireland, 1 in Italy, and 1 in England, further
indication they were likely Caucasian. The proportion of blacks on the Chesterfield list also
argues for the more conservative number. Taking 92 as the correct Chesterfield number would
mean blacks were slightly over 10 percent of the whole. Considering that of the Virginia
brigades listed in the August 1778 return, Muhlenberg’s had the highest proportion of black
troops, with 6.8 percent of the brigade. (Woodford’s and Scott’s were considerably lower, at 3.2
percent and 1.6 percent respectively), the proportion of 6.4% (58 African-Americans) is still a
relatively high number. (See tables in Appendix A.)
Miscellaneous Personal Information for Black Chesterfield Levies.
Pension application of Evans Archer1 (S41415 )
Virginia Col. John Green’s (Lt. Col. Richard Campbell) 1st Regt. 1780 18 months (Chesterfield Roll)
1 Veteran is listed in the Chesterfield County, Virginia size roll as follows: Evan Archer/ age 25/ height 5
4-1/4 / farmer/ born in Hertford County NC/ residing in Norfolk County VA/ red hair/ grey eyes/ yellow
complexion/ enlisted 23 Sep 1780/ "Marched to join Col. Green." [John Green]. Veteran is also listed in
Bobby Gilmer Moss and Michael C. Scoggins. African-American Patriots in the Southern Campaign of
the American Revolution. Blacksburg, SC: Scotia-Hibernia Press, 2004. His inclusion in Moss/Scoggins
is based on his having been listed in the 1790 Census as a ‘free Negro’ living in Hertford County, NC.
There is no evidence in his pension file indicating that he was a Negro or ‘person of color.’
William Wedgbare (Widgebarre, Wedgroof, a.k.a. Underwood) Culpeper County Levy, 1780
From John R. Van Atta’s article “Conscription in Revolutionary Virginia: The Case of Culpeper
County, 1780-1781,” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography , vol. 92, no. 3 (July, 1984),
263-281:
William Wedgroof, “5 ½ feet high, a Free Mulatto, 19 yrs. of age”
William Wedgbare’s pension (W2292) does not refer to his race [later in the document October
1824, “William Wigebare alias William Underwood aged 65 years … enlisted in the Virginia
Continental establishment for the war on the 19th of March or thereabouts 1780 [1781] … in the
County of Culpepper, that he was marched to Cumberland Courthouse & there Inspected &
received by Baron Stuben – that he continued to serve faithfully in the Army … serving
faithfully as a soldier on various Skirmishes under the command of Baron Stuben in the first
Regiment of Regulars [actually Lt. Col. Thomas Gaskins’ Battalion] … commanded by Colonel
Posey Major Finley Captain Shelton’s company … was at the Siege of Yorktown where Lord
Cornwallace surrendered after which he fell under the Command of General Wayne & was
marched south & was at the time of the Evacuation of Charleston before that city & about
Savanah …”
Other sources:
Lawrence E. Babits and Joshua B. Howard, Long, Obstinate, and Bloody: The Battle of Guilford
Courthouse (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009), 72-76.
Richard C. Bush III, “The End Of Col. Gaskin's War May-October 1781,” The Bulletin of the
Northumberland County Historical Society, vol. XXXIII (1996), 39-56.
Joseph A. Goldenberg, Eddie D. Nelson, and Rita Y. Fletcher, “Revolutionary Ranks: An Analysis of
the Chesterfield Supplement,” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 87, no. 2 (April
1979), 182-189. This article notes that the names of the men in the Chesterfield Supplement are
listed in “Some Revolutionary War Soldiers Who Enlisted at Chesterfield, Virginia, after 1
September 1780,” Virginia Genealogical Society Quarterly Bulletin, II (1964), III (1965), IV (1966), V
(1967), and VI (1968).
Paul Heinegg, Free African Americans in the Revolution: Virginia, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Maryland and Delaware (via http://www.freeafricanamericans.com ; also
http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/revolution.htm )
Michael A. McDonnell, “’Fit for Common Service?’: Class, Race, and Recruitment in Revolutionary
Virginia,” John Resch and Walter Sargent, eds., War & Society in the American Revolution:
Chesterfield Supplement: African-American Levies

Black hair, black eyes, black complexion – 22
(all but one born in Virginia)
Nathaniel Anderson, carpenter
Burrell Artist, planter
Gim Ash, farmer
Benjamin Branham, farmer
Trade Brown, farmer [Isaac Brown? “free colored person”]
Charles Charity, planter
Robert Clarke, farmer
Francis Cole, waggoner
William Cuffy, farmer “a free man of Colour”
Lewis Fortune, planter
Charles Freeman, planter
Anthony Furman, planter
Joseph Langdon, blacksmith
Berry Lewis, planter
Charles Morris, planter
Godfrey Rickinson, blacksmith
William Rowe, mason (born in Phila. Penna.)
Thomas Shall (Small), farmer
Randolph Sly, planter
Anthony Valentine, planter
James Wallace, planter
Charles Wiggans, farmer
Black hair, black eyes, yellow complexion - 22

Charles Barry, farmer [Charles Barnet? “free person of color”]
Jacob Boon, farmer
James Bowser, farmer his heirs “Thomas Bowser and Natt Bowser are heads of
households of “free colored persons.”
William Buster, farmer
William Carter, sawyer
[?] Collins. sailor
Francis Cypress, tailor
Solomon Duncan, blacksmith (born in NC)
Joseph Dunston, farmer
Dennis Garner, farmer
Caleb Hill, planter
William Holmes, planter
William Jackson, groom “a free man of colour”
Thomas James (deserted before serving)
Francis Morris, ship’s carpenter
Richard Redman, planter “Free Colored Person.”
William Scott, carpenter
Edward Steveand (Steven), planter
William Thomas, planter head of a household of three “free colored persons.”
George Tyler, waiter “Free Colored Person.”
Edward Watson, farmer
Jesse Wood, planter “a free man of Colour”
Black hair, black eyes, mulatto – 2

Godfrey Bartlett, farmer (born in Va.)
Joseph Pierce, planter (born in Va.)
Brown hair, gray eyes, yellow complexion (mulatto) – 1

Adderson Moore, planter (born in Va.)
“Negroe” - 1
[?] Hart, planter
Brown hair, hazel eyes, yellow complexion – 1

John Caine
Dark brown hair, grey eyes, yellow complexion – 1

Jeremiah Wealch
Red hair, grey eyes, yellow complexion – 1
Evans Archer, “Free Negroe” (see pension)
Black hair, hazel eyes, yellow complexion – 1

Isaac Needum (Needham), bricklayer (born Annapolis, Md.)
Black eyes, black hair, brown complexion - 1

Davis Jones, planter (born in Va.)
Black hair, black eyes, swarthy complexion – 5

(all but one born in Va.)
William Bowman, sawyer
John Chavers, planter “free black”
William Melions (Milions), farmer
William Parker, farmer (born in England)
Thomas Scott, farmer
(Men removed from list of African-American levies)

Black hair, black eyes, dark complexion – 37
Quincey Arnold, farmer
Melphiah Branham, farmer
John Brown, planter
Barrack Bryan, farmer
Richard Butt, farmer
Mills (Willis) Cammock, millwright
George Cammock, planter
Willis (William) Cardwell, farmer
Anderson Claybrook, planter
Joseph Carden (Corden), farmer
Edward Cosby, bricklayer
Luke Duncan, farmer
Thomas Duvall, weaver (born in France) 1
John Frazier, planter
Robert Harper, planter
William Heath, carpenter (born in Ireland) 1
John Hill, planter (born in Ireland) 2
Jesse Lock, hatter
[?] Manley, planter
Thomas Mayfair, planter
Charles Melton, planter
John Nequale, sailor (born in France) 2
William Nisbeth, farmer
Bartholomew Nowel, stonemason (born in Italy)
John Nundley, planter
Joseph Randolph, planter
Boaz Roberts, farmer
Thomas Rogers, planter
James Saller, farmer
James Settle (Saddle), farmer
James Smith (Smile), shoemaker (born in England)
Thomas Tutt (Tuft), farmer
Joseph Vernot, farmer
Benjamin Warburton, shoemaker
Reuben Williamson, farmer
Henry Wills (planter)
James Wright, tailor
Gray hair, Black eyes, Black complexion – 1 (however this man was from England (?))
Phillip Bugan, Blacksmith
Endnotes
1. Walt Whitman, Specimen Days & Collect (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1995;
originally published, Glasgow: Wilson &McCormick, 1883), 80-81. Full passage:
“AND so good-bye to the war. I know not how it may have been, or may be, to others—
to me the main interest I found, (and still, on recollection, find,) in the rank and file of
the armies, both sides, and in those specimens amid the hospitals, and even the dead
on the field. To me the points illustrating the latent personal character and eligibilities
of these States, in the two or three millions of American young and middle-aged men,
North and South, embodied in those armies—and especially the one-third or one-
fourth of their number, stricken by wounds or disease at some time in the course of
the contest—were of more significance even than the political interests involved. (As
so much of a race depends on how it faces death, and how it stands personal anguish
and sickness. As, in the glints of emotions under emergencies, and the indirect traits
and asides in Plutarch, we get far profounder clues to the antique world than all its
more formal history.)
Future years will never know the seething hell and the black infernal background of
countless minor scenes and interiors, (not the official surface courteousness of the
Generals, not the few great battles) of the Secession war; and it is best they should
not—the real war will never get in the books. In the mushy influences of current
times, too, the fervid atmosphere and typical events of those years are in danger of
being totally forgotten. I have at night watch’d by the side of a sick man in the
hospital, one who could not live many hours. I have seen his eyes flash and burn as he
raised himself and recurr’d to the cruelties on his surrender’d brother, and
mutilations of the corpse afterward. (See, in the preceding pages, the incident at
Upperville—the seventeen kill’d as in the description, were left there on the ground.
After they dropt dead, no one touch’d them—all were made sure of, however. The
carcasses were left for the citizens to bury or not, as they chose.)
Such was the war. It was not a quadrille in a ball-room. Its interior history will not
only never be written—its practicality, minutiæ of deeds and passions, will never be
even suggested. The actual soldier of 1862–’65, North and South, with all his ways, his
incredible dauntlessness, habits, practices, tastes, language, his fierce friendship, his
appetite, rankness, his superb strength and animality, lawless gait, and a hundred
unnamed lights and shades of camp, I say, will never be written—perhaps must not
and should not be.”
2. Daniel Popek to author, 15 October 2015, 10:31 PM (email). See also, Daniel M. Popek, They
“... fought bravely, but were unfortunate:”: The True Story of Rhode Island’s “Black Regiment”
and the Failure of Segregation in Rhode Island’s Continental Line, 1777-1783(Authorhouse,
2015) (Preview)
https://books.google.com/books?id=HMnyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PP2&lpg=PP2&dq=daniel+M.
+popek+They+%E2%80%9C...+fought+bravely,+but+were+unfortunate:%E2%80%9D&
source=bl&ots=1sm6RJmN6e&sig=zX1Q4PaYkmA5bdNp-
cjdNJntXW0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwimkOiJwNzKAhUMaT4KHV1kCyMQ6AEII
zAB#v=onepage&q=daniel%20M.%20popek%20They%20%E2%80%9C...%20fought%2
0bravely%2C%20but%20were%20unfortunate%3A%E2%80%9D&f=false
3. "Return of the Brigade of Foot Commanded by Brigadier General Stark ... Sept. 6 1779"
(miscellaneous records) (National Archives Microfilm Publication M246, roll 136).
4. Daniel Popek to author, 15 October 2015, 6:48 PM (email). Lawrence E. Babits and Joshua B.
Howard, Long, Obstinate, and Bloody: The Battle of Guilford Courthouse (Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 2009), 75.
5. Most of the pensions used were found at the fully searchable website, Southern Campaign
Revolutionary War Pension Statements & Rosters
(World Wide Web) http://www.southerncampaign.org/pen/ (as of 4/14/2011, the cut-off date
for the original gleaning. was 10,788 pension applications and 73 roster transcriptions posted).
Soldiers’ pension accounts may also be sought by name via Index of Revolutionary War Pension
Applications in the National Archives (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1976).
Copies of depositions and related materials are in National Archives Microfilm Publication M804
(2,670 reels), Record Group 15, National Archives Building, Washington, D.C. Microfilmed
copies are housed at the David Library of the American Revolution, Washington Crossing, Pa.,
or available online at https://www.fold3.com/
6. Jane Austen, “Mansfield Park,” Jane Austen: The Complete Novels (New York: Gramercy
Books, 1981), 458. The phenomenon of accurate recollection of long-ago events seared into a
person’s memory (also known as “flashbulb memory”) is a fascinating subject, and closely tied
to soldiers’ old-age testimony. An interesting finding concerning memory is that whenever an
event is recalled it can be altered, and that many recollections of a single event can result in
inaccurate recall. Charles Ferneyhough discusses this phenomenon in his book Pieces of Light:
How the New Science of Memory Illuminates the Stories We Tell About Our Pasts (New York,
N.Y.: HarperCollins Books, 2013). Don N. Hagist (http://redcoat76.blogspot.com)
contributed this article on the subject, providing substantiation for putting one’s faith in old-age
memoirs, still, of course, with a certain amount of healthy skepticism.
Bruce Bower, “Memories for Life: War Sparked Enduring Recollections,” Science News, vol. 167, no. 21
(Week of 21 May 2005), 326.
“World War II ended 60 years ago, but memories of that conflagration show surprising staying power.
Danes who lived through the Nazi occupation, which began in 1940, and the liberation in 1945 remember
information associated with those two events with considerable accuracy, a new study finds.
Vivid recollections of one's surroundings and other personal experiences at the time of momentous,
surprising events have been dubbed flashbulb memories. Earlier studies indicated that the accuracy of this
type of recall declines substantially for 3 years after such events take place. That led some researchers to
posit that after a decade or more, such memories become totally untrustworthy.However, a healthy
proportion of flashbulb memories related to World War II have stayed intact for more than half a century
in Danes, say Dorthe Berntsen and Dorthe K. Thomsen, psychologists at the University of Aarhus in
Denmark.
Their conclusion hinges on study participants remembering verifiable information related to the
wartime events, such as the time of day that the radio announced liberation. Berntsen and Thomsen argue
that the accuracy of verifiable information serves as a gauge of the veracity of personal recollections.
Their technique conservatively estimates flashbulb-memory accuracy, the researchers contend, since
people remember material better if they recount past events spontaneously rather than respond to
questions about those events, as in the study.
Berntsen and Thomsen administered questionnaires to 145 Danes, ages 72 to 89. None had been
diagnosed with a brain disease. Another 65 Danes born during or after World War II, ages 20 to 60, also
completed questionnaires. All the volunteers answered such questions as what the weather was like on
occupation and liberation days and whether those days fell on workdays or the weekend. Elderly
participants also reported what they were doing when they heard news of the occupation and liberation,
and their most negative and most positive personal memories from World War II.
Older Danes answered far more factual questions correctly than their younger counterparts did, the
scientists report in the May Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. For instance, 100 war
survivors, compared with only 3 of the younger participants, accurately described weather conditions on
the day the Germans invaded Denmark. Nearly all the older Danes cited personal memories related to the
two war events. About 80 percent related either a most-negative or a most-positive wartime memory.
Participants remember the liberation more clearly and with more details than they recall the invasion.
Individuals who reported having intense emotions at the time of occupation and liberation and who had
regularly thought about those events after the war revealed the most detailed personal memories. The 66
participants who reported ties to the Danish resistance movement displayed particularly accurate factual
recall and remembered personal experiences with great clarity. ‘Occupation and liberation during World
War II dramatically affected everyone in Denmark,’ comments psychologist David C. Rubin of Duke
University in Durham, N.C. ‘Danes now at advanced ages appear to have pretty accurate flashbulb
memories for those events.’ Liberation loomed large in the older Danes' memories because it's
often publicly commemorated in Denmark, the investigators say.”
6. John C. Dann, ed., The Revolution Remembered: Eyewitness Accounts of the War for Independence
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1980), Introduction, xvii.
7. "Return of the Negroes in the Army," 24 August 1778, George Washington Papers, Presidential
Papers Microfilm (Washington: Library of Congress, 1961), series 4, reel 51.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. For troop shortages and the draft see:
“`The pleasure of their number’: 1778, Crisis, Conscription, and Revolutionary Soldiers’
Recollections”
Part I. “’Filling the Regiments by drafts from the Militia.’: The 1778 Recruiting Acts”
Part II. "’Fine, likely, tractable men.’: Levy Statistics and New Jersey Service Narratives”
Part III. "He asked me if we had been discharged …”: New Jersey, Massachusetts, New
York, Maryland, and North Carolina Levy Narratives”
ALHFAM Bulletin, vol. XXXIII, no. 3 (Fall 2003), 23-34; no. 4 (Winter 2004),
23-34; vol. XXXIV, no. 1 (Spring 2004), 19-28.
Part 1. http://www.scribd.com/doc/126069484/First-Part-%E2%80%9CThe-
pleasure-of-their-number%E2%80%9D-1778-Crisis-Conscription-and-
Revolutionary-Soldiers%E2%80%99-Recollections-A-Preliminary-Study-Part-I-
%E2%80%9CFil
Part 2. http://www.scribd.com/doc/126069114/Second-Part-%E2%80%9CThe-
pleasure-of-their-number%E2%80%9D-Crisis-Conscription-and-Revolutionary-
Soldiers%E2%80%99-Recollections-A-Preliminary-Study-Part-II-Fine-l
Part 3. http://www.scribd.com/doc/126068332/Third-Part-%E2%80%9CThe-
pleasure-of-their-number%E2%80%9D-Crisis-Conscription-and-Revolutionary-
Soldiers%E2%80%99-Recollections-A-Preliminary-Study-Part-III-He-aske
Any long-term study of each state’s regiments on the Continental establishment during the war
must take into account the reduction of the number of regiments/battalions due to recruiting
shortfalls, as well as when units were combined, on a temporary or permanent basis, for the same
reason. For that reason, I have attempted to lay out the vagaries of each state’s Continental
contingent in order to better understand which organizations were in the field when the African-
American pensioners
11. Ray W. Pettengill, ed. and trans., Letters from America 1776–1779: Being Letters of
Brunswick, Hessian, and Waldeck Officers with the British Armies during the Revolution (Port
Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1964), 119. Journal of Jean–Francois–Louis, Comte de
Clermont–Crevecoeur (sublieutenant, Auxonne Regiment, Royal Artillery), Howard C. Rice
and Anne S.K. Brown, eds. and trans., The American Campaigns of Rochambeau's Army 1780,
1781, 1782, 1783, vol. I (Princeton, N.J. and Providence, R.I.,: Princeton University Press, 1972),
33. Excerpted from John U. Rees, “’They were good soldiers.’: African–Americans Serving in
the Continental Army,”
http://www.scribd.com/doc/123231213/%E2%80%9CThey-were-good-soldiers-
African%E2%80%93Americans-Serving-in-the-Continental-Army
12. Judith L. Van Buskirk, “Claiming Their Due: African Americans in the Revolutionary
War and Its Aftermath,” John Resch and Walter Sargent, eds., War & Society in the American
Revolution: Mobilization and Home Fronts (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press,
2007), 134, 135, 136-137; Michael A. McDonnell, “’Fit for Common Service?’: Class, Race,
and Recruitment in Revolutionary Virginia,” John Resch and Walter Sargent, eds., War &
Society in the American Revolution: Mobilization and Home Fronts (DeKalb: Northern Illinois
University Press, 2007), 108. See also, Michael A. McDonnell, The Politics of War: Race, Class,
& Conflict in Revolutionary Virginia (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007),
261, 282, 338, 417-418.
13. Robert K. Wright, Jr., The Continental Army (Washington: Government Printing Office,
1984), 93.
14. Georgia Continental Regiments. E.M. Sanchez-Saavedra, A Guide to Virginia Military
Organizations in the American Revolution, 1774-1787 (Richmond: Virginia State Library, 1978),
83-85 (2nd, 3rd, and 4th Georgia Battalions). Fred Anderson Berg, Encyclopedia of Continental
Army Units: Battalions, Regiments and Independent Corps (Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books,
1972), 45-46 (Georgia). Wright, The Continental Army, 107-109 (overview of southern states’
contribution of Continental regiments to 1777), 146-148 (1778 reduction and reorganization of
states’ regiments).
15. Nathan Fry, pension papers (S39545), transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris and
Will Graves, Southern Campaign Revolutionary War Pension Statements & Rosters
(World Wide Web) http://www.southerncampaign.org/pen/
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. South Carolina Continental Regiments. Berg, Encyclopedia of Continental Army Units,
1972), 109-112 (South Carolina). Wright, The Continental Army, 107-109 (overview of southern
states’ contribution of Continental regiments to 1777), 146-148 (1778 reduction and
reorganization of states’ regiments).
Historian Michael C. Scoggins provided important insights and information on the South
Carolina Continental contingent. His edited narrative and sources follow:
“On February 11, 1780, General Lincoln combined the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th South Carolina Regiments
into three regiments of foot, and these became the new 1st, 2nd, and 3rd SC Regiments. These new
regiments were sometimes referred to as battalions, and Fred Berg calls them the “Regiments of 1780” to
distinguish them from the original regiments of 1775-1776. The rangers of the 3rd Regiment had already
been dismounted and re-equipped with Charleville muskets in 1777-1778, so they were no longer
mounted riflemen, and the 5th and 6th Regiments, which had been infantry riflemen, were also re-equipped
with French muskets. The 4th SC Regiment (Artillery) was already in place defending Charleston and was
not part of the reorganization. All four SC regiments surrendered on May 12, 1780, and the officers and
men were interned on the sea islands off the coast, chiefly Haddrell’s Point. They were eventually
exchanged for British POWs after the Whig victories in the fall and winter of 1780-1781 (notably Kings
Mountain and Cowpens). Unlike NC and VA, SC never reorganized its Continental line, chiefly because
the state had no operational government until the General Assembly reconvened at Jacksonboro in 1782.
Beginning in the spring of 1781, Sumter, Marion and Pickens organized a number of regiments of state
troops from their militia brigades, and these men served as the state’s only complement of full-time
regular soldiers until the end of the war.”
Sources: Alexander S. Salley, Records of the Regiments of the South Carolina Line in the Revolutionary
War (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1977); Edward McCrady, History of South Carolina
in the Revolution 1775-1780 (New York: Macmillan, 1902); William Moultrie. Memoirs of the American
Revolution (2 vols.) (New York: D. Longworth, 1802).
19. Jim Capers, pension papers (R1669), transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris,
Southern Campaign Revolutionary War Pension Statements & Rosters (World Wide Web)
http://www.southerncampaign.org/pen/
20. Allen Jeffers, pension papers (S1770), ibid.
21. Maryland Continental Regiments. Wright, The Continental Army, 107-109 (overview of
southern states’ contribution of Continental regiments to 1777), 146-148 (1778 reduction and
reorganization of states’ regiments). Lawrence E. Babits, “The `Fifth’ Maryland at Guilford
Courthouse: An Exercise in Historical Accuracy,” Maryland Historical Magazine, vol. 84
(Winter 1989), 370-378. Babits and Howard, Long, Obstinate, and Bloody: The Battle of
Guilford Courthouse, 72-76.
Miscellaneous documentation of the Maryland Continental Line:
Washington to William Smallwood, 24 August 1781, John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of
George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources 1745-1799, vol. 23 (Washington, D.C.:
Government Printing Office, 1937), 44-45.
“Head Quarters, Kings Ferry, August 24, 1781.
Dear Sir: I have duly received your favor of the 9th Inst. together with the enclosure from the Marquis
de la Fayette of the 6th. Long before this time, I flatter myself the 3d [Maryland] Regt. and all the
Levies and Recruits which have been raised for the Maryland Line have marched to join the Army.
If by any accident they have been detained beyond your expectations, I must urge in the most pressing
Manner, that they should be ordered to march without a moments loss of time and join the Marquis in the
first instance, who has my directions respecting their future Movement.”
__________________________________
“Head Qrs Williamsburgh Sept 24th 1781
The Continental Troops composing the Army in Virginia are to be Brigaded as follows
Col Vose Regt }

LCol Barbers } Light Infantry to form a
LCol Gimat } Brigade under BG Muhlenburgh
Col Scammell Regt }

LCol. Hamiltons Battn }BGenl Hazen
Hazens Regimt }
LCol Gaskins [Virginia] Regt } BGenl Wayne

the two Pensylvania [Battalions] }
two Jersay Regts } Col Dayton

Rhode Island }
3d & 4th Maryland Regts –– BGenl Gist

1 & 2d New York Regt –– BGenl Clinton”
(Frame 956), Lt. Col. Gimat's Light Infantry Battalion, (LaFayette's and Muhlenberg's Light
Infantry Brigade), 18 May 1781–30 Oct 1781, New Windsor, Albemarle, Williamsburg,
Yorktown, John Hart Orderly Book, 1781, vol. 6R, American Revolution Collection, microfilm
79956, reel 3, frames 939–end; reel 4 frames 4–10, Series 6, Journals and Order Books, 1775–
1782, US/CTH/AMREV/1776/VI–IX, at the Connecticut Historical Society. See also, General
orders, 24 September 1781, Fitzpatrick, Writings of Washington, 23 (1937), 134–135.
__________________________________
Washington to William Smallwood, 6 October 1781, Fitzpatrick, The Writings of George
Washington, 23 (1937),
“Head Quarters before York, October 6, 1781.
Dear Sir: I have received your Favor of 26th. of Septemr. I should have esteemed it a
fortunate Circumstance to have had the Pleasure to have fell in with you on my Rout to Virginia.
The 50 Men engaged for three Years and the War, of the Maryland Line which you mention,
I could wish should be moved on as soon as may be; equipped in the best manner you are able to
effect, The Nine Months Men are not so necessary perhaps to be sent on immediately. I wish
however they may be Equipped and held in constant Readiness to come on if needed. It is
impossible at this Moment to foresee all the Events which may render their Services of
Importance.
Genl Greene's little Army, having been so much reduced by frequent Battles and Losses, It is
of the utmost Importance to recruit the Troops assigned to him in the Speediest Manner and to
the fullest Complement possible. I must desire therefore that you will continue your Exertions in
Superintendg that Service, especially as were you to join me in the present Enterprise, the several
Commands are already so filled, that I should find it very difficult to dispose of you in such
manner as I could wish, and as your Merits deserve.”
__________________________________
Washington, Memorandum for Lt. Col. Lewis Morris, Jr., 6 October 1781, Fitzpatrick, The Writings of
George Washington, 23 (1937), 193-194.
“Camp before York, October 6, 1781.
To be communicated to no person but to Major General Greene.
General Greene to be informed fully, as he has been shortly by letter that there was no
alternative left. Count de Grasse's destination was fixed to the Chesapeak and therefore as Lord
Cornwallis was found there and in a most inviting situation, the operation against him took place
of necessity.
General Greene to be informed in the most confidential manner that the stay of Count de Grasse upon
this Coast is limited, and that should the present operation prove lengthy he will exceed the instructions of
his Court by staying to the end of it, which however he seems inclined to do at all hazards.
That when Count de Grasse goes off this Coast he cannot consistent with his orders leave more than 2
ships with Count de Barras. From the two foregoing Articles, it appears that we cannot flatter ourselves
with a combined operation against Charles town however the thing is to be wished.
Colo. Morris will inform General Greene that every aid independent of a naval one will be afforded
him the moment the operation in hand is finished, and that the Admiral will be requested, if he can do it
with convenience, to carry the intended reinforcement to Carolina by Water. The troops which will
certainly be sent will be the Virginia Regt. 2 Pennsylvania and 2 Maryland Regiments of Foot
amounting at present to 1500 fit for duty and as many of Whites, Moylan's and Baylor's Cavalry as
can be mounted, Cloathed and equipped. About 500 more Pennsylvanians are coming on and
another Maryland Regt. is forming, about 200 of which were at Annapolis, but they were mostly
Levies to serve 'till Decemr next and if they cannot be reinlisted it will not be worth while to march
them.”
__________________________________
Washington to William Smallwood, 25 October 1781, Fitzpatrick, The Writings of George Washington, 23
(1937), 263-264.
“Head Quarters near York, October 25, 1781.
Dear Sir: I have received your Favor of the 18th. The One Hundred and fifty Nine Months
Men, which you mention, will be of very little Use in the future Service Assigned to the
Maryland Line, unless they can be immediately sent forward. I should rather think they had
better (unless but little part of their Terms is elapsed) be retained in the State, for such Purposes
as the State may have Occasion for, than to incur a great Expense on a lengthy march which will
perhaps almost consume the Time of their Service, without any real Use or Advantage to the
public. such Part of the Number as can be immediately equipped and sent off, you will please to
order that they join their Regiments as soon as possible.”
__________________________________
Washington, Instructions to Capt. William Dent Beall, 4 November 1781, Fitzpatrick, The Writings of George
Washington, 23 (1937), 330-331. (Note: Captain of the Fifth Maryland Regiment; major of the
Second Maryland Regiment in November, 1781; retired in April, 1783.
“Head Qrs., November 4, 1781
Sir: The detachment which you command, and which from the short time they have to remain
in Service (according to the terms of their Enlistment) cannot with propriety be sent to the
Southern Army, is to be employed in guarding the British and German hospital at Gloucester,
and aiding their removal to Fredericksburg when means are providd. for this purpose.
As the Deputy Commy of Prisoners Mr. Duree, will have the direction of this business (under
the Authority of the Governor or Lt. Governor of the State) you will regulate your conduct by his
requests.
After this Service is performed you will March your detachment into the State of Maryland
and have it discharged by Genl. Smallwood or other proper authority taking especial care that the
Arms, accoutrements and every species of Public property is carefully surrendered.”
__________________________________
Washington to Benjamin Lincoln, Secretary at War, 1 April 1782, Fitzpatrick, The Writings of George
Washington, 24 (1938), 98-99.
“Head Quarters, Newburg, April 1, 1782.
Dr Sir: I have to reply to your favor of the 26th March which was handed me on my way to this place.
When the matter respecting the number of servants to be allowed to the Officers of the Army, was
taken up by the General Officers, If I am not mistaken, it was the general Sentiment that the indulgence
ought to be confined to the Officers of the Line, that as the Staff were in general allowed a pay superior to
them, they ought to provide themselves with Servants and receive therefor the allowance of Cloathing &c
regulated by Congress. It was upon this principle the regulation was made, and I cannot help thinking that
if we depart from it, instead of lessening the evil we have increased it, for if the indulgence is granted to
any one of the Staff Departments it must be granted to all and the object of the regulation is then entirely
lost. Whether necessity will oblige us to this, you Sir must Judge and make the necessary regulation
accordingly.
As I passed the Artillery at Burlington Colo Stevens informed me that the Men who were taken from
the Regiment and employed as Artificers had formerly been promised some compensation for their
extraordinary Services and that those promises having never been complied with, they grew dissatisfied
and it was with great reluctance that they continued to work: their services are very important and motives
of policy as well as Justice requires that some trifling compensation should be paid them to encourage
them to continue; their number is but small and I suppose a half Joe given to each of them would answer
the purpose.
Genl. Smallwood writes me that he has near two Hundred Men who want Cloathing and Equipment to
prepare them for Service and that it would favor the Recruiting Service greatly, if Cloathing could be
furnished the Recruits as they are raised. I would beg leave to recommend it to you to send on such a
supply as our circumstances will afford.”
__________________________________
Washington to William Smallwood, 15 April 1782, Fitzpatrick, The Writings of George Washington, 24
(1938)
“Head Quarters, Newburgh, April 15, 1782. … Immediately on my Arrival here, in a Letter I had
Occasion to write to the Secty of War, I took the Liberty to mention your Request for Cloathg
and Equipments for the Recruits of your Line, and desired him to send on such Supplies as our
Circumstances will admit; you may expect to hear from him on that Subject.
As soon as the Rendezvous at which the Recruits are to be assembled, shall be fixed upon,
you will be pleased to point out such active, intelligent Officer or Officers, as may be needed, for
the purpose of Musterg, receivg and forwardg them to the places of their Destination, agreable to
the Act of Congress of the 18th Decmbr and assign them to that particular Duty.”
__________________________________
Washington to Benjamin Lincoln, 1 September 1782, Fitzpatrick, The Writings of George Washington, 25
(1938), 98-99.
“Head Quarters, Verplanks Point, September 1, 1782 … The late New York papers announce
the evacuation of Charles town as a matter which would certainly take place soon after the 7th.
of August. I have upon this information written to Major Genl. [William] Smallwood and Colo.
[Richard] Butler to send forward to this Army the Recruits of Maryland and Pennsylvania which
are at Annapolis and Carlisle. I inclose the letters under flying seals to you, that you may take the
sense of Congress upon the matter before the orders are carried into execution.”
__________________________________
Washington to Maj. Thomas Lansdale or officer commanding the 3rd Maryland Regt., 21 October 1782,
Fitzpatrick, The Writings of George Washington, 25 (1938), 283-284. (Note: Major Lansdale was major
of the Third Maryland Regiment. He served to November, 1783.)
“Head Quarters, Verplanks Point, October 21, 1782.
Sir: You will halt the detachment under your command at Pompton as near what is called the
Yellow House (Curtis's) as possible. If you have not tents you must get your Men under cover in
as compact a manner as the nature of the neighbouring farm Houses will admit. You will detach
a Capt. and 50 Men to the Block House in the Clove a little beyond Sufferans, and give him
orders to relieve the party now there belonging to the New York Line, who are to join their Regt.
The relieving Officer will take the directions for his duty from the Officer relieved. Be pleased to
make me a return by the Bearer of the Strength of your detachment.”
__________________________________
General orders, 3 June 1783, Fitzpatrick, The Writings of George Washington, 26 (1938), 467-468.
“Head Quarters, Newburgh, Tuesday, June 3, 1783 … The Maryland Battalion is to march on
thursday next. Provision is to be drawn to last the corps to Pompton. and Major Lansdale will
receive Instructions at Head Quarters for his further Goverment.”
22. Frederick Hall, pension papers (R7569), transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris and
Will Graves, Southern Campaign Revolutionary War Pension Statements & Rosters
William L. Calderhead, “Thomas Carney: Unsung Soldier of the American Revolution,”
Maryland Historical Magazine, vol. 84 (Winter 1989), 319-326.
23. Henry Dorton, pension papers (S5362) (in 1830 he was head of a household of “free colored
persons.”), transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris, Southern Campaign Revolutionary War
Pension Statements & Rosters (World Wide Web) http://www.southerncampaign.org/pen/
Howard H. Peckham, ed, The Toll of Independence: Engagements & Battle Casualties of the
American Revolution (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1974), 41.
24. Frederick Hall, pension papers (R7569), transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris
and Will Graves, Southern Campaign Revolutionary War Pension Statements & Rosters
25. Philip Savoy, pension papers (S35057), ibid. (22 September 1820 deposition).
26. “List of Rebel Prisoners taken at Eliza. Town 25th Jany. 1780,” Frederick Mackenzie Papers,
University of Michigan, William L. Clements Library. (Courtesy of Todd Braisted.)
27. Sir Henry Clinton, “Information of Deserters and Others, Not Included in Private
Intelligence, From October 1780 to March 26, 1781 (Under the date 15 August 1780),” Thomas
Addis Emmett Collection, New York Public Library, Miscellaneous Manuscripts (Microfilm
Reel 11). (Courtesy of Todd W. Braisted); “German Regiment men who cannot be placed in
specific companies: … Veach, Abraham; deserted, disch 22 November 1780,” Henry J. Retzer,
The German Regiment of Maryland and Pennsylvania in the Continental Army, 1776-1781
(Westminster, Md.: Family Line Publications, 1991), 117.
28. Christopher L. Ward, The Delaware Continentals, 1776-1783 (Wilmington: The Historical
Society of Delaware, 1941), 3-10, 158-163, 350-351, 354, 356-358, 482. Babits and Howard,
Long, Obstinate, and Bloody: The Battle of Guilford Courthouse, 62-63.
29. Edward Harmon, pension papers (S36000), transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris
30. Ibid.
31. Ibid.
32. “one Edw’d Harman, a coloured man,” Whittenton Clifton, pension papers (S35842),
ibid.
33. Virginia Continental Regiments. The best single source on this subject is E.M. Sanchez-
Saavedra, A Guide: To Virginia Military Organizations in the American Revolution, 1774-1787
(Westminster, Md.: Heritage Books, 2007). While Sanchez-Saavedra’s work is comprehensive,
the connection between the pre-Charleston-surrender Virginia Continental regiments with their
late-war successors is not always clear. He also misses the 1st and 2d Virginia regiments of 1781.
I have appended my reworked version below:
1st Virginia Regt. (8 companies) (Provincial establishment) July 1775-February 1776

1st Va. Regt. (10 companies) (Continental establishment) February 1776-May 1780
(Soldiers enlisted for 3 years)
Note: In September 1778 the men remaining from the 9th Virginia Regiment (captured en
masse at Germantown) were absorbed by the 1st Virginia, which still was reduced to 6
companies.
Before marching to South Carolina in 1780, the 1st Virginia was combined with the 5th, 7th,
10th, and 11th Virginia Regiments, then sent south as part of the 1st Virginia Detachment
(Woodford’s).
(See Woodford’s Brigade, 1st, 2d, and 3d Virginia Detachments, 1780)
Entire regiment captured at Charleston in May 1780.
February 1781: 1st Virginia Regiment reconstituted, but only on paper. Posey’s Virginia
Battalion was formed in mid-summer 1781 from 1st Virginia officers and enlisted men
absent when Charleston surrendered. Posey’s Battalion marched south to South Carolina
in January 1781 under Maj. Gen. Arthur St. Clair.
May 1782: A board of Virginia field officers reformulated the Virginia line on paper, with
the exception of the 1st and 2d Regiments, filled with levies and a small number of veterans.
January 1783: Another board of officers met to consolidate the remaining units and troops
(7th Virginia at Fort Pitt, Posey’s Battalion, and a contingent of recruits at Winchester. The
result was two battalions, the 1st Virginia containing 7 companies, and the 2d Virginia with
2 companies.
2d Virginia Regt. (7 companies) (Provincial establishment) July 1775-December 1775
2d Va. Regt. (10 companies) (Continental establishment) February 1776-May 1780
Note: In September 1778 the men remaining from the reduced 6th Virginia Regiment was
absorbed by the 2d.
Late in 1779 the 2d Virginia was combined with the 3d and 4th Virginia Regiments, then
sent south as part of the 2d Virginia Detachment (Woodford’s).
The bulk of the regiment captured at Charleston in May 1780. Capt. Alexander Parker with
a small number of men escaped capture and in 1781 participated in the Yorktown
campaign.
February 1781 and May 1782: 2d Virginia Regiment reconstituted, but only on paper.
January 1783: A board of officers met to consolidate the remaining units and troops (7th
Virginia at Fort Pitt, Posey’s Battalion, and a contingent of recruits at Winchester. The
result was two battalions, the 1st Virginia containing 7 companies, and the 2d Virginia with
2 companies (one of veterans, the other of recruits).
3d Virginia Regt. (10 companies) (Continental establishment) December 1775-May 1780

absorbed by the 3d.
In May 1779 the 3d Virginia was temporarily subsumed the 4th Regiment.
Late in 1779 the 3d Virginia was combined with the 2d and 4th Virginia Regiments, and
marched south as the 2d Virginia Detachment (Woodford’s).
The regiment captured at Charleston in May 1780.
4th Virginia Regt. (10 companies) (Continental establishment) December 1775-May 1780
absorbed by the 4th Regiment.
In May 1779 the 4th Virginia was temporarily incorporated into the 3d Regiment.
Late in 1779 the 4th Virginia was combined with the 2d and 3d Virginia Regiments, and sent
south as the 2d Virginia Detachment (Woodford’s).
The regiment captured at Charleston in May 1780.
An attempt was made in 1781 to reorganize the 4th Regiment, but it remained largely a
paper organization.
Note: In September 1778 the reduced 5th Virginia was absorbed by the 3d Regiment and
formed part of the 1st Virginia Detachment (Woodford’s), captured at Charleston in May
1780.
The 7th Virginia Regiment was then renumbered and became the (new) 5th Regiment.
Note: In September 1778 the reduced 6th Virginia was absorbed by the 2d Regiment; the
officers and men of the (old) 6th were captured with the 2d Virginia Detachment
(Woodford’s) at Charleston in May 1780.
Note: In September 1778 the 7th Virginia was renumbered as the (new) 5th Regiment.
(The 11th Virginia Regiment was then renumbered and became the (new) 7th Regiment.)
The (new) 5th Virginia was consolidated with the 1st Virginia Regiment, and formed part of
the 1st Virginia Detachment (Weedon’s) for southern service in 1780.
That unit was captured at Charleston, South Carolina that May.
In February 1781 the (new) 9th Virginia (formerly the 13th Virginia), which had been
stationed at Fort Pitt and thus did not surrender at Charleston, was redesignated the 7th
Virginia Regiment.
Note: In September 1778 the reduced 8th Virginia was absorbed by the 4th Regiment.
The officers and men of the (old) 8th were sent to the Carolinas in 1780 as part of the 2d
Virginia Detachment (Woodford’s), and captured at Charleston.
The handful of veterans who escaped capture were furloughed in 1783.
At the Battle of Germantown the entire regiment was surrounded and captured, thus
ending its service. An interesting result was that to replace the loss to the Virginia line, the
1st and 2d Virginia State regiments were sent north to serve with Washington’s army.
Note: In September 1778 the 13th Virginia, serving at Fort Pitt, was redesignated the (new)
9th Virginia Regiment
10th Virginia Regt. (10 companies) (Continental establishment) November 1776-May
1780 (Soldiers enlisted for 3 years)
The (new) 6th Regiment was sent to the Carolinas in 1780 as part of the 3d Virginia
Detachment (Woodford’s), and captured at Charleston.
11th Virginia Regt. (10 companies) (Continental establishment) November 1776-May
1780 (Soldiers enlisted for 3 years)
The (new) 7th Regiment was sent to the Carolinas in 1780 as part of the 1st Virginia
12th Virginia Regt. (10 companies) (Continental establishment) November 1776-
September 1778 (Soldiers enlisted for 3 years)
The (new) 8th Regiment was sent to the Carolinas in 1780 as part of the 3d Virginia
There was no 12th Virginia Regiment after 1778.
Stationed at Fort Pitt, the (new) 9th Virginia escaped capture at Charleston in May 1780.
Scott’s Brigade, 1st, 2d, and 3d Virginia Detachments, 1779-1780, and a Timeline of Unit
Consolidations
(Copied from Sanchez-Saavedra, A Guide: To Virginia Military Organizations in the American
Revolution, 1774-1787, 177-181.)
“Virginia Troops at Charleston, South Carolina, 1779-1780 …
By 1777 most of the Virginia regiments could scarcely muster enough men fit for duty to
fill two companies. The problem of high attrition was overcome by several means,
principally by consolidating two or more units into a detachment. Some of these
reshufflings were made permanent by the White Plains arrangement of September 14,
1778, but the dwindling continued, and new detachments had to be created for the
southern campaigns of 1779-1781.
In July 1778 the 3d and 7th Virginia Continental regiments were temporarily consolidated
under Colonel William Heth and Major Charles West of the 3d and Lieutenant Colonel Holt
Richardson of the 7th. The White Plains arrangement merged the 5th Virginia … with the 3d
and renumbered the combined unit the 3d Virginia Regiment. By the spring of 1779,
however, the 3d Virginia Regiment had shrunk again and had to be combined with the 4th
Virginia Regiment. At the same time, the depleted 5th and 11th Virginia regiments were also
combined, as were the 1st, 6th, and 10th Virginia regiments. This last consolidation was
placed under Colonel Nathaniel Gist and incorporated with his additional Continental
regiment.
In May 1779 Virginia’s Continental units were rearranged again, this time by a board of
field officers meeting at Middlebrook, New Jersey. Three Virginia detachments were
created out of the remnants of the numbered Continental regiments [actually formed
from new levies and reenlisted veterans, see letters, George Washington to Charles
Scott, 6 March 1779, 5 May 1779, 25 May 1779, 28 June 1779, 8 July 1779, 27 July
1779, 17 August 1779, 19 October 1779; Charles Scott to George Washington, 22
March 1779, 24 April 1779, 28 April 1779, 12 May 1779, 18 May 1779, 10 June 1779,
20 July 1779] and formed into a brigade under General Charles Scott. [The “brigade” did
not come into being until late in 1779. Recruited and formed by Scott in Virginia, the
first detachments marched to South Carolina only when they were fully manned and
equipped. The 1st Detachment (Scott’s) marched for Charleston at the end of June
1779, while the 2d Detachment (Scott’s) did not march to join them until December
1779. The 3d Detachment was not completed until spring, and finally marched south
in May. Too late join the Charleston garrison, Col. Abraham Buford’s 3d Virginia
Detachment (Scott’s) was destroyed at the Waxhaws on 29 May 1780.]
The three official detachments that made up Scott’s Virginia brigade were organized by
the summer of 1779 [partially correct, see notes above], with the officers chosen by ballot.
As Lieutenant Colonel Gustavus Brown Wallace reported to Colonel John Cropper, the
officers for these units were:
1st Detachment (Scott’s)

Colonel Richard Parker, 1st Virginia Regiment
Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Hopkins, 10th Virginia Regiment
Major James Clough Anderson, 1st Virginia Regiment
2d Detachment (Scott’s)
Colonel William Heth, 3d Virginia Regiment
Lieutenant Colonel Gustavus Brown Wallace, 11th Virginia Regiment
Major James Lucas, 3d Virginia Regiment
3d Detachment (Scott’s)
Colonel Abraham Buford, 11th Virginia Regiment
Lieutenant Colonel Robert Ballard, 4th Virginia Regiment
Major Thomas Ridley, 6th Virginia Regiment
Woodford’s Brigade, 1st, 2d, and 3d Virginia Detachments, 1780

Revolution, 1774-1787, 179. Thanks also to Todd Post)
Another three Virginia detachments, brigaded under Brig. Gen. William Woodford, reached
Charleston, South Carolina in early April. The 1st Detachment (Woodford’s) contained
companies of the 1st, 5th, 7th, 10th, and 11th Virginia Regiments); the 2d (Woodford’s) had
companies from the 2d, 3d, and 4th Regiments, and the 3d (Woodford’s) was comprised of
companies from 6th, 8th, and Gist’s Additional Regiments).
1st Virginia Detachment (Woodford’s)

Colonel William Russell
Lieutenant Colonel Burgess Ball (?)
Major (unknown)
Captain Callohill Minnis, 1st Virginia Regiment
Captain Tarleton Payne, 1st Virginia Regiment
Captain Custis Kendall, 1st Virginia Regiment
Captain Thomas Holt, 1st Virginia Regiment
Captain Holman Minnis, 1st Virginia Regiment
Captain Thomas Buckner, 5th Virginia Regiment
Captain Mayo Carrington, 5th Virginia Regiment
Captain William Moseley, 5th Virginia Regiment
Captain William Bentley, 5th Virginia Regiment
Captain William Johnston, 7th Virginia Regiment
Captain James Wright, 7th Virginia Regiment
Captain Thomas Hunt, 10th Virginia Regiment
Captain Lawrence Butler, 11th Virginia Regiment
Captain Philip Mallory, 11th Virginia Regiment
2d Virginia Detachment (Woodford’s)

Colonel John Neville
Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas Cabell(?)
Major David Stephenson
Captain Benjamin Taliaferro, 2d Virginia Regiment
Captain Alexander Parker, 2d Virginia Regiment
Captain John Blackwell, 3d Virginia Regiment
Captain LeRoy Edwards, 3dVirginia Regiment
Captain Robert Beale, 3d Virginia Regiment
Captain James Curry, 4th Virginia Regiment
Captain John Stith, 4th Virginia Regiment
3d Virginia Detachment (Woodford’s)

Colonel Nathaniel Gist
Captain Joseph Blackwell, 6th Virginia Regiment
Captain John Gillison, 6th Virginia Regiment
Captain Clough Shelton, 6th Virginia Regiment
Captain Abraham Hite, 8th Virginia Regiment
Captain Alexander Breckinridge, Gist’s Regiment
Captain Francis Muir, Gist’s Regiment
Colonel John Green’s 1st Virginia Regiment of 1781

(Babits and Howard, Long, Obstinate, and Bloody: The Battle of Guilford Courthouse, 72-76.)
Field Officers
Col. John Green (in poor health after Guilford Courthouse, never returned to command)
Lt. Col. Richard Campbell (killed at Eutaw Springs)
Maj. Smith Snead
Company Officers
Capt. John Anderson
Capt. Thomas Armistead
Capt. Thomas Barbee
Capt. William Bentley (captured at Ninety Six)
Capt. Valentine Harrison, Benjamin Lawson (died and was replaced by Sigismund
Stribling), Capt. Samuel Selden
Capt. Tarpley White.
This regiment was filled with 18 months levies, as well as survivors of the Charleston
surrender and the Waxhaws defeat. The unit served at the Guilford Courthouse, Hobkirk’s
Hill, the siege of Ninety-Six, and Eutaw Springs actions.
Colonel Richard Campbell’s 2d Virginia Regiment of 1781

(Babits and Howard, Long, Obstinate, and Bloody: The Battle of Guilford Courthouse, 72-76.)
Field Officers
Lt. Col. Samuel Hawes
Company Officers
Capt. Archibald Denholm
Capt. Philip Kirkpatrick
Capt. John Marks
Capt. Simon Morgan
Capt. Conway Oldham (killed at Eutaw Springs and replaced by Robert Jouett)
Capt. Philip Sansum.
This regiment was filled with 18 months levies, as well as survivors of the Charleston
surrender and the Waxhaws defeat. The unit served at the Guilford Courthouse, Hobkirk’s
Hill, the siege of Ninety-Six, and Eutaw Springs actions.
Colonel Thomas Gaskins’s (3d) Virginia Regiment of 1781

Revolution, 1774-1787, 91, 183-184.)
Field Officers
Colonel Thomas Gaskin, formerly 3d Virginia Regiment
Major John Poulson, formerly 8th Virginia Regiment
Although contemporary accounts refer to this unit as a regiment, it was actually am four-
hundred-man detachment made up of eighteen-month recruits [actually drafted levies] and
a handful of [reenlisted] veterans [and others] who had escaped capture at Charleston. The
unit served [in the summer and autumn 1781 Virginia campaign and] at Yorktown … After
Yorktown most of its personnel were incorporated into Posey’s Virginia Battalion for
service in Georgia.
Companies
Captain Alexander Parker
Captain Thomas Warman
Captain William Lewis Lovely
Captain Andrew Lewis
Captain John Harris
In addition to the companies listed above, the detachment included four company-sized
units commanded by lieutenants and sergeants.
At Yorktown Gaskins’ detachment was in Brigadier General Anthony Wayne’s brigade,
serving in two battalions, one commanded by Gaskin, the other by Major Poulson.
Colonel Thomas Posey’s Virginia Battalion, 1782-1783

Revolution, 1774-1787, 92-93.)
Field Officers
Colonel Thomas Posey, February(?) 1782-June 1783
[Major Samuel Finley, as per Pension File of William Wedgbare
(Wigebare/Widgebarre/Wedgroof) aka Underwood (W2292) (“a Free Mulatto”)]
Following the capture of the Virginia Continental line at Charleston in May 1780,
desperate efforts were made to raise a new army through militia conscription. Although
Virginia failed to enroll the required 5,000 men, two small battalions were created for
service with Nathanael Greene’s forces in the South. Meanwhile, recruiting stations were
established at Richmond, Chesterfield Court House, Winchester Barracks, and Cumberland
Old Court House.
Colonel Christian Febiger, 2d Virginia Continental Regiment, was nominally in charge of
recruiting reinforcements for Greene, but he became so embroiled with supply problems in
Philadelphia that he could not take the field. Major Thomas Posey, who had served with
Febiger at Stony Point, became his proxy in Virginia. Working under [Maj. Gen. Wilhelm
Friedrich de Steuben], the senior Continental officer in the state, Posey began collecting
recruits at Cumberland Old Court House in late 1780.
Recruiting came to a virtual halt during the two British invasions under Benedict Arnold
in January and April 1781. [By late autumn 1781, Posey had raised a unit for service under
Major General Nathanael Greene.]
Companies
1st Company: Captain Nathan Reid
2d Company: Captain Thomas Thweatt
3d Company: Captain John Overton
4th Company: Captain Thomas Holt
5th Company: Captain Archibald Denholm
6th Company: Captain Nathaniel Terry
7th Company: Captain Francis Minnis
8th Company: Captain Joseph Scott, Jr.
9th Company: Captain John Boswell Johnston
With Cornwallis’s army out of action, the American forces under Nathanael Greene stood a good
chance of recapturing Charleston and Savannah, but they would succeed only if reinforcements
were sent. Congress organized an expedition under General Arthur St. Clair to go to Greene’s
assistance: Wayne’s Pennsylvanians, Posey’s battalion, the remnants of Gaskins’s regiment, and a
detachment of the 2d Virginia from Philadelphia. By late October 1782 Posey’s battalion was on the
march home. The battalion seems to have been disbanded early in 1783.
______________________
Below is some of the correspondence cited above regarding the three Virginia detachments
raised by Charles Scott in the summer and autumn of 1779.
__________________________________
Washington to Brig. Gen. Charles Scott, 6 March 1779, Fitzpatrick, The Writings of George Washington, 14
(1936), 203-204.
“Head Quarters, Middlebrook, March 6, 1779. Dear Sir: His Excellency Governor Henry
having requested that a General Officer might be sent to the State of Virginia to superintend the
recruiting service and that some of inferior Rank might also be sent to take charge of the Recruits
when collected and march them to Camp, I have appointed you to that service and inclose you a
list of such Officers as are already in Virginia upon command and Furlough as are to be detained
for the purposes above mentioned. You are immediately upon the Receipt hereof to send to the
different Officers or signify it to them in the public prints informing them of the duty to which
they are appointed and repair yourself to Williamsburg and take your future orders from His
Excellency the Governor. Be pleased to exert yourself to get as many of the Recruits as possible
here by the 1st. of May and if you can put the Business in such a train that you yourself can join
your Brigade by that time, it will be very agreeable to me, as I wish to assemble our force by that
time if possible.”
__________________________________
Washington to Brig. Gen. Charles Scott, 10 April 1779, Fitzpatrick, The Writings of George Washington, 14
(1936), 359.
“Head Quarters, Middlebrook, April 10, 1779. Dear Sir: I have recd. your favr. of the 22nd.
March, I hope the difficulty respecting the Cloathing which is to be furnished to the Recruits
before they leave the State will be got over, as I understand that a quantity has been sent from
Philada. for that purpose. I make not the least doubt but that you will exert yourself in having the
men collected and marched off for the Army with as much expedition as possible. I have nothing
more to recommend particularly to you.”
Note: Scott's letter stated: "I cannot but Observe to You That I am fearfull it will not be in my power to git them to
Camp So Soon as Your Excy. Expects, Owing to the inattention respecting the Clothing without which (by an Act of
Assembly) they are not to march out of the State." Scott's letter is in the Washington Papers.
__________________________________
Washington to Brig. Gen. Charles Scott, 5 May 1779, Fitzpatrick, The Writings of George Washington, 14
(1936), 498-499.
“Head Quarters, Middle Brook, May 5, 1779. Dear Sir: I have been favoured with your Letter of
the 24th. Ulto. and was sorry to receive such unfavourable accounts respecting the Levies. The
exigency of the service requires they should be in the field as soon as possible.
I am now to inform you that the original intention of bringing those levies to reinforce the
Army here is changed and that they are destined, as a reinforcement to the Southern army. Our
affairs in Georgia grow dayly more alarming, and unless a force of more permanent troops than
militia can be collected sufficient to stop the progress of the enemy in that quarter we shall have
a great deal to apprehend. South Carolina considers herself in imminent danger [see appended
Note] and fears she will share the fate of her neighbour, if some effectual succour is not
afforded. This has dictated the necessity of sending the Virginia levies, however ill we can
dispense with their service here.
I am therefore to desire, considering the pressing importance of the occasion, you will exert
yourself to collect them, with the utmost expedition at such places as you judge most convenient
and to have them equipped and marched to join the Southern army, as soon as circumstances will
possibly permit. There is not a moment's time to be lost, and I am convinced you will not lose
any that it is in your power to improve.
By the levies I mean such of the 2000 men voted by the late act of Assembly as have been
raised in Virginia. The men who reinlisted with their regiments here and were furloughed, are
not comprehended; but are to come on to join their corps. The levies are to be thrown into three
regiments, as I do not imagine you will have more than will complete this number. I shall
immediately send you a detachment of officers from the Virginia line, as mentioned in the
inclosed list who will be sufficient to officer the three batalions; Part of these are already in
Virginia to whom you will give notice. I have written to The Committee of Congress on
Southern affairs, on the subject of arms. They I doubt not will take measures to have you
supplied as speedily as possible. You will be pleased to march with these troops.
I would recommend for the facility of the march that the batalions move one after another.
This will render subsistence easier and conduce to expedition. You will make previous
arrangements, with the Quarter Master and Commissary, that you may suffer no delay or
difficulty in your route for want of anything in either of their departments.
You will observe in the list that one of the batalions is without Ensigns. I shall endeavour to
supply the deficiency, or give some further directions about it. I shall wish to hear of the progress
you make in assembling and equipping the men; of the time you march &c.”
Note: At this point the following (in Hamilton's writing) is crossed off: "and has made a very affecting
representation to Congress of its situation. This has been transmitted to me by a Committee, accompanied with an
application for the Virginia levies. Though we can ill dispense with their services here; yet the necessity calls so
loud to the Southward, that I could not but concur with the wish of the"
__________________________________
Washington to Col. Richard Parker, 7 May 1779, Fitzpatrick, The Writings of George Washington, 15
(1936), 17-18.
“Head Quarters at Middle Brook, May 7, 1779. Sir: You will proceed immediately with the
Officers mentioned in the List herewith delivered to Philadelphia. As soon as you arrive there,
you will wait upon the Honble Richard Henry Lee, Henry Laurens and Thomas Burke Esquires
Members of Congress and inform them, that you are going with sundry Other Officers to take
charge of the Virginia Levies, and enquire whether they have any particular commands for you.
After you have done this, if you do not receive contrary orders from them, you will proceed with
the officers, by the most expeditious route to Alexandria or to Fredericksburg as circumstances
may require, at one of which places it is expected, you will meet Brigadier General Scott, under
whose command you will put yourselves and receive his Instruction for your future conduct. If
General Scott should not be at either of these places, of which you will probably hear when you
reach the first, you will advise him of your arrival in Virginia by Express, and request his
directions.
As there are Other Officers to be employed in the service on which you are going, besides
those who proceed immediately with you from hence, as you will perceive by the List; It will be
expedient for you to send One or two Officers from Philadelphia by the way of Lancaster, York,
Frederick Town and Winchester, that they may fall in with them in case they should be returning
on this route to Camp, and notify them of the command to which they are appointed and the
place at which they are to assemble.
The baggage of All the Officers mentioned in the List, ought to be carried, and for this
purpose, Waggons must be provided; but if these cannot be immediately ready, You will not
wait, but will proceed, leaving One or Two Officers to follow with them, with such directions as
you may deem necessary.
The necessary expences of the party to the place or places of Rendezvous for the Levies, will
be allowed and paid by the Public, and to this end exact and regular accounts of the same should
be kept. The prudence and discretion of the Officers will naturally suggest the propriety and
necessity of the strictest oeconomy and therefore I need not add on this head.
As the service requires that the Levies should be organized, and officered as soon as possible;
I am convinced that this consideration will prompt the whole to the greater dispatch. My best
wishes attend you all.”
__________________________________
Washington to Brig. Gen. Charles Scott, 19 October 1779, Fitzpatrick, The Writings of George Washington,
16 (1937), 490.
“Head Quarters, West point, October 19, 1779. Dear Sir: It gave me pleasure to hear by yours of
the 28th. Ulto. that 400 Men more were equipped and nearly ready to march to the Southward. I
hope as the sickly season is now declining that many of the remainder will be 'ere long fit for
duty. You will be pleased to send them on as they recover: for although we have the greatest
reason to flatter ourselves that the enemy will be crushed for the present in Georgia and Carolina,
yet it is not improbable but that they may renew their attack upon that, which is our weak
quarter, as soon as the French fleet returns to the West Indies, unless they find us sufficiently
guarded.
I have wrote to Docr. Shippen the Director General and have pressed him to endeavour to
send Surgeons from Philada. or procure them for you to the southward. We have them not here. I
hope the approaching Season will also help to repair your Health.
We are waiting most anxiously for news from the southward having recd. nothing official
since the arrival of the french fleet upon the Coast. By accounts from Rhode Island the enemy
are about evacuating that place; meaning, I imagine, to concentre their force at New York.”
34. Sanchez-Saavedra, A Guide: To Virginia Military Organizations in the American Revolution,
1774-1787, 177-181.
See also: Lee A. Wallace, ed., The Orderly book of Captain Benjamin Taliaferro, 2d Virginia
Detachment, Charleston, South Carolina, 1780 (Richmond, Va.: Virginia State Library, 1980);
Carl P. Borick, A Gallant Defense: The Siege of Charleston, 1780 (Columbia, S.C.: University of South
Carolina Press, 2003)
35. Babits and Howard, Long, Obstinate, and Bloody: The Battle of Guilford Courthouse,, 72-76.
36. Joseph A. Goldenberg, Eddie D. Nelson, and Rita Y. Fletcher, “Revolutionary Ranks: An
Analysis of the Chesterfield Supplement,” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol.
87, no. 2 (April 1979), 182-189. This article notes that the names of the men in the Chesterfield
Others are noted in “Some Revolutionary War Soldiers Who Enlisted at Chesterfield, Virginia,
after 1 September 1780,” Virginia Genealogical Society Quarterly Bulletin, II (1964), III (1965),
IV (1966), V (1967), and VI (1968). Maj. Gen. Friedrich Wilhelm de Steuben, commanding the
Virginia Continental line, had established his headquarters at Chesterfield following the
disastrous Battle of Camden, and called for the new recruits to join him there.
THE CHESTERFIELD SIZE ROLL: SOLDIERS WHO ENTERED THE CONTINENTAL LINE
OF VIRGINIA AT CHESTERFIELD COURTHOUSE AFTER 1 SEPTEMBER 1780
Transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris
http://southerncampaign.org/pen/b69.pdf
Library of Virginia citation: Joseph Scott. Roll of troops who joined at Chesterfield
Courthouse since 1780.
State government records collection. Transcribed from bound photocopies, accession 23816.
INTRODUCTION
“Size rolls” are lists of soldiers recording their heights and appearances, as well as
occupations and places of birth and residence. The original purpose of aiding in the capture
of deserters has long since expired, but size rolls are of enduring value to genealogists and
students of military and social history.
The size rolls transcribed here are for revolutionary soldiers who were processed into the
Continental Line of Virginia at Chesterfield Courthouse during Sep 1780 and afterward.
Some were already Continental soldiers who had served in the North, but most were drafted
under a Virginia law enacted in May 1780, which required each county whose militia was not
already engaged to recruit or draft one militiaman out of each 15 over age 18 to serve in the
Continental army until the end of 1781. This law was necessitated by the almost total
destruction of the Virginia Continental Line with the surrender of Charleston SC on 12 May
1780 and the defeat of Col. Abraham Buford at Waxhaws SC on the following May 29. Those
enlisted under the May 1780 act were commonly referred to as “18-months men.”
The recruits rendezvoused at Fredericksburg, the city of Richmond, Winchester, Accomack
courthouse, Alexandria, or Staunton, then continued on to Chesterfield Courthouse, where
they were transferred into the Continental line. In the process of being sized probably each
man would have announced his name, age, occupation, and places of birth and residence
while having his height measured and color of hair, eyes, and complexion recorded. These
records would then have been compiled and entered into the book transcribed here. Errors
undoubtedly occurred in each step of this process, as can be seen by comparing duplicate
entries and by comparing the spellings of names on the size roll with signatures on pension
applications. Other discrepancies appear in comparing these data with data for the same
soldiers in the size roll referenced below as “Register & Description of Noncommissioned
Officers & Privates.” For example, James Harris is recorded as 5’ 3¾” tall with brown hair in
the Chesterfield size roll but as 5’ 4¼” tall with black hair in the latter size roll.
The history of the size roll after the Revolutionary War is somewhat obscure. A sheet
inserted into the book has the following two notes in different handwritings:
“Size-Roll of Troops join’d at Chesterfield Ct. House since Sept. 1 1780 Capt’n. Joseph
Scott,” “This book is a Supplement to ‘Papers concerning the Army of the Revolution’ Vol 1,
Executive Depart. and in order, preceeds Benjamin Harrison’s Mission to Philadelphia by the
Assembly. 1781”
STATISTICAL SUMMARY [excerpt]
Number of Soldiers Listed (excluding duplicates): .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 916
Average Age (N = 876): . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 years
Standard deviation = 7.7 years. Range = 13 - 60. Mode = 18. Median = 21.
Average Height (N = 873): . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5’ 6.7”
SD= 3.0”. Range = 4’ 6½” - 6’ 3”
Average height of the 386 white soldiers aged 20-29 . . . . . . . . . 5’ 7.8” + 2.8” (SD)
(Significantly below the present average of 5’ 10.0” for white American males age 20-29.)
Average height of the 20 with African ancestry aged 20-29 . . . 5’ 6.2” + 2.0” (SD)
(Significantly shorter than the average for whites.)
Number with African Ancestry: .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 (5.8%)
Black (19 ) Negro (2 ) Mulatto (3) Yellow (29)
HOW THEY SERVED
After the eighteen-months men had been sized they were assigned to different regiments,
which were later reorganized. I will not attempt a detailed account of these arrangements,
but will sketch the services of the 18-month men based primarily on pension applications.
The 18-month soldiers had expected to spend the winter of 1780-81 at Chesterfield
Courthouse, and under the command of Col. William Davies they set about building
barracks “consisting of about one hundred & sixty Cabins.” Two events soon changed this
plan. First, in November Gen. Nathanael Greene was sent to replace Gen. Horatio Gates as
commander of the Southern Department after Gates’s disastrous defeat at Camden SC (16
Aug 1780). Greene sent his Aide-de-Camp, Gen. Baron Friedrich von Steuben, ahead to
Chesterfield Courthouse to raise men for his shattered army. The second event was the raid
by Gen. Benedict Arnold in early January 1781, which resulted in many of the 18-months
men being deployed to various places along the James River.
After Greene replaced Gates in early December, Steuben, having succeeded Davis as
Inspector
General at Chesterfield Courthouse, ordered 400 of the 18-months men to join Greene. One
regiment commanded by Col. John Green [1st Virginia Regt., 1781] joined Gen. Greene at his
winter bivouac near Cheraw SC in January. In a short time, however, they and the rest of
Greene’s army rushed to join Gen. Daniel Morgan, who had captured 600 British at Cowpens
SC on 17 Jan 1781 and was being pursued through North Carolina by Cornwallis. Greene’s
army reached the safety of Virginia on February 14, then returned to North Carolina and
played cat-and-mouse with Cornwallis for the next month. A second regiment of 18-months
men under Col. Richard Campbell joined Greene near Guilford Courthouse a few days
before the battle there on March 15. Most of the 18-months men in the two regiments were in
the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, and many subsequently fought under Greene at the Battle
of Hobkirk Hill near Camden SC (25 Apr 1781),
the Siege of Ninety Six SC (22 May - 19 Jun 1781), and the Battle of Eutaw Springs SC (8 Sep
1781).
Col. Green resigned soon after the Battle of Guilford Courthouse and was replaced by Lt.
Col. Samuel Hawes, who resigned at Ninety Six. Command of the regiment then fell to Maj.
Smith Snead, who discharged his 18-months men after their terms expired at the end of 1781.
Col. Richard Campbell was mortally wounded at Eutaw Springs. His regiment had suffered
so many casualties, and the survivors were so close to the end of their 18 months, that Greene
did not replace Campbell.
Pension declarations refer to the following most consistently as captains in the two
regiments:
Regiment of Green/Hawes/Snead: John Anderson, Thomas Armistead, Thomas Barbee, William
Bentley(captured at Ninety Six), Valentine Harrison, Benjamin Lawson (died and was replaced
by Sigismund Stribling), Samuel Selden, Tarpley White.
Regiment of Campbell: Archibald Denholm, Philip Kirkpatrick, John Marks, Simon Morgan,
Conway
Oldham (killed at Eutaw Springs and replaced by Robert Jouett), Philip Sansum.
After recovering from his costly victory at Guilford Courthouse, Cornwallis marched his
army northward. Virginia militias were mobilized to meet the invasion, thereby putting
them beyond reach of the May 1780 law. Unable to draft any more 18-month men, Steuben
planned to take what men he could muster and equip to join Greene in North Carolina,
attack Cornwallis there, and perhaps lure the British already in Virginia out of that state.
Although Steuben refers only to militia in a letter to Gen. Washington dated 15 Apr 1781,
pension declarations indicate that some of the 18-month men from Chesterfield Courthouse
were on this expedition. Steuben got as far as the Roanoke River before turning back, or
possibly being ordered back by the Virginia legislature, which wanted the army for the
immediate defense of the state. Back in Virginia the 18-month men were detailed to a variety
of places under various commands, including the regiments of colonels Christian Febiger,
Thomas Gaskins, and Peter Muhlenberg. After a summer of shadowing and occasionally
skirmishing with the British, most ended up at Yorktown during the siege (28 Sep - 19 Oct).
After the surrender of Cornwallis and his army many served out the remainder of their time
escorting prisoners to Winchester Barracks, while others were dismissed before the
expiration of their time at the end of 1781.
Miscellaneous Research on Late-War Virginia Regiments
Maj. Gen. Friedrich Wilhelm de Steuben describes the difficulties of providing manpower
for the new Virginia units and the apportionment of the Chesterfield levies.
“At the Forks of James River 23d May 81
Sir Being called by General Greene to the Southern Army, I have the honor to report to your
Excellency my proceedings whilst in this State.
The unfortunate Affair of Camden having intirely broke up the remains of the Virginia Line a few
Officers only remaining uncaptured the state passed a Law to raise 3000 Men some for 8 Months
some for 18 [months] – not more than one half of this number ever came into the field, and of these
only 500 were sent to the southward under Col. Buford, the remainder about 900 for want of
clothes remain’d at Petersburg till the invasion of the state by General Leslie when they were
employed against him.
This was nearly the state of the Virginia Line when I arrived in this state with Genl. Greene in
Novr. last the Assembly being then sitting. The General laid before them a state of the supplies
necessary for operating to the Southard and order’d me to remain in the state to accelerate their
being forwarded to him.
The quota fixed by Congress by this state agreeable to the new arrangement was 8 Regts of
Infantry, 2 of Cavalry & one of Artillery, the whole amounting 5,980 R & file, the Assembly however
after much Debate determined to raise only 3,000 men and these only for 18 Months the 10th of
February was fixed for the Draft
The Enemy under General Leslie leaving the state the beginning of December, I immediately
ordered the 900 Men, who had been employed against him to Petersburg in order if possible to
equip & send them immediately to the Southward - But I found them so intirely destitute of every
necessary that it was with the utmost difficulty I could fit out 400 which I sent off under Colonel
Green about the middle of December. The remainder I ordered to the Barracks at Chesterfield Court
house and exerted myself all in my power to collect sufficient articles to fit them out – I had
however hardly entered into the Business when the state was again invaded by the enemy under
Arnold, the few articles that were collected, were then either taken or dispersed, & this caused such
a delay that it was the 25th of March before I could equip the second detachment of 400 Men who
marched that day under Lieut. Colo. Campbell, nor would they have been ready at that time, but for
a Transport of Clothing from Philadelphia, from which I took the necessary Articles, which I
afterwards replaced with those the state had provided fir that Detachment
My whole attention was then taken up in forwarding supplies to General Greene and in collecting
the necessary arms & equipment for the new Levies
The preparations which took place about this time, for an Attack on Portsmouth gave a
considerable interruption to this business
By a Law of the state, while any part of the Militia of a County are in the field that County is not
obliged to Draft and a large number of Militia being called out for this Expedition, the Draft was put
off till the 10th: of April – the reinforcement afterward brought by General Phillips, still obliging
Government to keep those Militia in the field, it was agreed to relieve them by Counties in [order]
that the Counties might Draft as they were relieved – in consequence of which only the upper
counties on the north side James River, have sent in any Drafts and in the whole only 450 are yet
assembled – indeed if the Enemy continue to operate in this state, and are joined by Lord
Cornwallis as is expected, verry few more Drafts my be expected, the whole may perhaps amount to
6 or 700 Men & this I believe will be the utmost
By the Last accounts from General Greene it appears that by the Excessive Desertion the Virginia
Infantry there, is reduced to less than 600 – Colo. Washington’s Cavalry to 120 & Colo. White’s to
about 80, the Latter with the Marquis – the Artillery are about 50 Men, add to these 700 Recruits
and the whole Virginia Line will not amount to more than 1500 Men
The arrival of the Marquis to command here, has induced Greene to call me to the Southward
with all the recruits I can assemble fortunately the Arms are just arrived, so that without waiting for
any thing else I shall march the moment I get the recruits together, which will be in about 8 Days
I shall call Colo Mathews to command the next Detachment and if Colo. Febiger can hasten his
departure from Philadelphia he might succeed Colo. Davies in the Business of Collecting and
forwarding men & stores – Colo Davies having with the consent of General Greene undertaken the
Office of Commissioner of War in this State
I will be necessary that Congress should interfere, in remounting the Cavalry – the State will do
nothing in it & the Continental Quarter Master pretends he has neither the means no the authority
necessary for the purpose”
Friedrich Wilhelm de Steuben to George Washington, 23 May 1781, George Washington
Papers, Presidential Papers Microfilm (Washington: Library of Congress, 1961), series 4.
__________________________
Gaskins Regiment 1781:
Lafayette to George Washington, 18 June 1781.
“Allen’s Creek 22 miles from Richmond 18h. june 1781 … I Heartily wish, My dear General ,
our Movements may Meet with your approbation. In Spite of every obstacle thrown in our
Way I shall Collect our Forces to a point – 800 light infantry 700 Pennsylvanians, 50
dragoons, 900 Riflemen 2000 Militia and 400 [Gaskin’s Virginia Battalion of] New
levies (the Remainder Having deserted) will Be the Utmost Extent of forces we Can Expect.
But the Harvest time will Soon deprive us of the greatest part of the Militia.”
Lafayette to Nathanael Greene, 20 June 1781.
“Cll. Dandridge’s 23 miles from Richmond 20h. June 1781 … Since I wrote You the Ennemy
Have Remained at Richmond and I Have formed a junction With the Baron. The Evening
Before Last I Received Information that the Ennemy about 700 in Numbers were Within 12
miles of us. General Mullemberg with the Light Corps was Sent to Cut them off and to Make
Sure work of it. The Continental Line Moved down With Unloaded arms. The party proved
to Be Tarleton’s who I am told Intended to Surprise Mullemberg. But Some Rascals Having
given them Information of our movement they precipitately Retreated to Richmond. … [p.
200] [Writing after Steuben’s Point of Fork defeat, the Marquis noted,] Part of the Country
people Have Been Active Against us. Upon the whole our loss was not very Considerable
But will Show [a] great deal in the Newspapers. Had they attaked the Magazines at
Albemarle Old Court House the Stroke would Have Been Severe. A lucky March through a
Road little used Gave us a position to defend them. The delay of the pennsylvanians and
disappointments Arising from it Has Been Very Unfortunate. They do not Exceed 700. The
light infantry 800. Nothing from Maryland. The Virginia New levies 400. General Morgan
expected with Riflemen But not Arrived … 70 Horse of Moylan are on their way.”
Stanley J. Idzerda, ed., Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution – Selected Letters and
Papers, 1776–1790, vol. IV (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1981), 194-195, 197-198.
***************
Brig. Gen. Anthony Wayne’s Brigade
Gaskins’ Virginia Detachment
“Officers present fit for duty”: 1 lieutenant colonel, 1 major, 7 captains, 8 lieutenants, 5 ensigns
Staff: 1 adjutant, 1 paymaster, 1 quartermaster, 1 surgeon, 1 surgeon’s mate
“Non Commission’d”: 1 sergeant major, 1 quartermaster sergeant, 1 drum major, 1 fife major, 30
sergeants, 12 drum and fife
“Rank and File”: 302 fit for duty, 83 sick present, 126 sick absent, 78 on command, 39 on furlough
(TOTAL: 628)
Butler’s Pennsylvania Battalion
“Officers present fit for duty”: 1 lieutenant colonel, 1 major, 5 captains, 8 lieutenants, 2 ensigns
Staff: 1 adjutant, 1 quartermaster, 1 surgeon, 1 surgeon’s mate
“Non Commission’d”: 1 sergeant major, 1 quartermaster sergeant, 1 drum major, 1 fife major, 17
sergeants, 14 drum and fife
“Rank and File”: 254 fit for duty, 48 sick present, 47 sick absent, 8 on command, 31 “On Extra
service,”
2 on furlough
(TOTAL: 390)
Stewart’s Pennsylvania Battalion
“Officers present fit for duty”: 1colonel, 2 majors, 3 captains, 7 lieutenants, 3 ensigns
Staff: 1 adjutant, 1 quartermaster, 1 surgeon
“Non Commission’d”: 1 sergeant major, 1 quartermaster sergeant, 1 drum major, 23 sergeants, 10
drum and fife
“Rank and File”: 231 fit for duty, 59 sick present, 49 sick absent, 2 on command, 28 “On Extra
service” (TOTAL: 369)
Brigade Grand Total: 689 rank and file present fit for duty
“Return of the Continental and Virginia State Troops under the command of His Excellency General
Washington, Williamsburgh Septemr. 26 1781,” Revolutionary War Rolls, National Archives
Microfilm Publication M246, Record Group 93, reel 137, item 209.
***************
William White pension narrative (S1735) (Courtesy of Virginia Lynn (White) Keefer,
Keego Harbor, Michigan)
White was Caucasian, his account is included to show the breadth of former military
experience had by many of the Chesterfield levies, and for his recounting of the service of
Gaskins’ Regiment in 1781.
“William White of Lincoln County in the State of Tennessee who was a private in the
Company commanded by Captain Shelton of the Regiment commanded by Colonel Gaskin in
the Virginia Line for two years.
Inscribed in the roll of West Tennessee at the rate of $30.00 per annum to commence on the
4th day of March, 1831.
Certificate of Pension issued the 27th day of September, 1833, Davis Gartland, Fayetteville,
arrears to the 4th of September, $200.00, semi–annual allowance ending 4 March $40.00,
total $240.00, Revolutionary Claim Act, June 7, 1832, recorded by David Boyd, Clerk, Book E,
Volume 7, page 99.
State of Tennessee County Court
Lincoln County October term, 1832
On this 17th day of October, 1832, personally appeared before the justices of the County
Court of Lincoln County, Tennessee, William White, a resident of said county and state, aged
about 78 years the 10th of January next, who being duly sworn according to law, doth on his
oath, make the following declaration in order to attain the benefit of a provision made by act
of Congress passed June 7, 1832. That he entered the service of the United States under the
following officers and served as herein stated, viz.: That he volunteered in Colonel Stephen’s
Regiment of Minutemen in Fauquier County, Virginia some time in the month of September
in the year 1775 [as he thinks], Major Thomas Marshall also commanded in said regiment.
The company to which I belonged was commanded by Captain John Shelton who was
afterwards killed at the Battle of Brandywine or Germantown [ I now forget which] and also
by Lieutenant John Marshall, son of Major Thos. Marshall, and now Chief Justice of the United
States. In the same month we marched from our county to Culpepper Courthouse in Virginia,
where we commenced building barracks, but before we completed them an express arrived
for us to go to the lower country where Gov. Dunmore was raising a disturbance. We
immediately marched to Williamsburg, and were there stationed in the Capitol three or four
weeks during the time our regiment was stationed at Williamsburg. I volunteered and went
with a rifle company commanded by a Capt. Bluford to Hampton Road and at Hampton we
had an action with five small British vessels called “tenders” lying in a creek a small distance
away from the bay, one of which we took and drove the others off. From Hampton we
marched back to Williamsburg and I joined my regiment. We then started towards Norfolk,
where Gov. Dunmore had established himself, and came to a bridge about 14 or 15 miles
from Norfolk, called at that time “ the long bridge” at which place was a British fort about 5
miles below the bridge at a ferry which was guarded by some Tories and Negroes. Gen’l.
Scott, being with our army at his time, beat up for volunteers to storm the lower fort, and I
and several of my company besides others went and stormed the forts during the night. We
completely routed them and took several Negroes and one white man prisoner. We marched
back to the long bridge and raised breastworks against the fort where Fordyce commanded.
In 3 or 4 days afterwards, Fordyce marched out of the fort to storm our breastworks, and we
killed, wounded and took prisoner his whole company except one Ensign who made his
escape. Capt. Fordyce was shot through the body with ten balls. We then marched to Norfolk
against Dunmore who retreated to his vessels and set fire to the town. We lay at Norfolk a
few weeks and were then marched back home where we were discharged about the middle
of April, having been in service between 7 and 8 months. In the middle of May following, I
went to Alexandria, now in the District of Columbia, to see my brother, John White, who had
enlisted in a company commanded by the same Capt’ Shelton, and who was so unwell as to
be unable to do service. I then became a substitute for my brother for three months, after
which he returned and took his place. During the time I was a substitute, we lay the greater
part of that time at Alexandria, but 3 or 4 weeks before I left that service, we marched over
to the Washington side of the Potomac River, and after remaining there 2 or 3 weeks, we
started towards Philadelphia, but before we had gone far, my brother came and I returned
home.
Sometime in the latter part of 1780, I enlisted in the service of the United States for the term
of 18 months, in the company commanded by Capt. Warman [or some such name] attached
to the regiment of regulars commanded by Colonel Gaskins and Major John Willis, in
Fauquier County, Virginia.
Page two.
We assembled at Fredericksburg, where, as soon as the different companies arrived, they
were sent to Powhatan Courthouse to be disciplined by Gen’l. Steuben. As soon as I arrived at
Fredericksburg, I was appointed Orderly Sergeant in which capacity I continued to act
during the time I was in service. Part of the company to which I belonged, under Capt. Field,
and the other under a Lieu’t. whose name I now forget, were on our way to Powhatan
Courthouse for the purpose before stated. When we had proceeded some distance, an
express arrived, informing us that the British had burnt Manchester, and us to cut across the
country to Point of Forks in order to avoid them as we had not yet received any arms, and to
guard that place as our arms and public stores were there. Here we joined Gen’l. Steuben and
drew our arms. We remained there 3 or 3 days when an express arrived that they British,
under Col. Tarleton were marching upon us. Steuben became alarmed and ordered us cross
over James River and remove our stores, but before we had entirely succeeded, Tarleton
came up and took some of the stores, 2 of the baggage wagons, and made prisoners of the
guard. On that night Steuben ordered a large quantity of rails to be produced to make fires
and ordered the army to retreat leaving one Ensign and a small company to keep up the fires
in order to deceive the British. He had sent up and down the river 4 or 5 miles to destroy all
the boats to prevent the enemy from crossing to pursue us. We retreated to Halifax Old
Town, marching 3 days and nights without provision and without rest. We stayed there a few
days and nights and were ordered to return to James River and join Gen’l. Wayne and
Lafayette who were then pursuing Lord Cornwallis. We crossed the River at Carter’s Ferry
and joined Gen’l Wayne at headquarters and our regiment was attached to his forces as light
infantry. Cornwallis and his army retreated down the river and our army under Gen’l Wayne
continued to maneuver so as to harass them very much in their march, especially at Green
Springs where they crossed the river, we attacked their rear and did them considerable
injury. After crossing the river, which was near Old Jamestown, they marched to
Williamsburg and proceeded to Yorktown, and all which route we followed them and finally
besieged and took them all prisoner at that place. After the surrender of Lord Cornwallis,
our regiment was marched back to Powhatan Courthouse where we remained until the
latter part of the succeeding April, our regiment being then ordered to Savannah and I being
very unwell, I procured a substitute to go in my place and I returned home, and was not in
service any more during the war. I had a written discharge, but it is now lost. I think the term
of my service was from the time I enlisted until the time I left the service was about 14 or 15
months, during all which time I acted as Orderly Sergeant in our regiment. In addition to the
officers before mentioned, I was acquainted with Gen’l Washington, Col Hamilton, his aid,[
who commanded us at the time we were drawing in the entrenchments at the siege of
Yorktown] also with Gen’ls Wayne, Green, Lee, Scott, Woodford, Sumpter, Morgan and
others.
I was born in Fauquier County, Virginia on the 10th day of January, 1755. I have a record of
my age now in my possession. I lived there when I entered service. After the Reolutionary
War, I moved to Rowan County , North Carolina, where I lived about 30 years, then came to
this county where I now live. At the time I left the service, a new Colonel had just been
appointed to the command of our regiment from whom I secured my discharge, but whose
name I now forget.”
37. Numbers of African-Americans on the Chesterfield List: Lawrence Babits and Joshua
Howard, in their book Long, Obstinate, and Bloody: The Battle of Guilford Courthouse discuss
the make-up of the 1781 Virginia regiments with Major General Greene, including African-
American soldiers. They note the possibility of as many as 110 blacks among the Chesterfield
drafts, more than 12 percent of the total. C. Leon Harris in his online study and transcription of
the Chesterfield roll puts the number of black soldiers at 53. This author, using criteria supplied
by Messrs. Babits and Howard, totaled a possible high of 92 black men among the drafts, then
narrowed that down using information available for individual soldier and came up with a more
conservative total of 58. Problems of identification remain; Evans Archer, described as having
red hair, grey eyes, and a yellow complexion, was listed in the 1790 census as a “free Negro.”
His pension papers give no indication of his race. Due to that and other identified men, all
Chesterfield levies noted as having a “yellow” complexion have been included as African-
American.
There are other minor discrepancies. In their article “Revolutionary Ranks: An Analysis of
the Chesterfield Supplement” (The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 87, no. 2
(April 1979), 182-189.), authors Joseph A. Goldenberg, Eddie D. Nelson, and Rita Y. Fletcher
totaled the number of men on the Chesterfield at 917. Lawrence Babits and Joshua Howard put
the Chesterfield levy data on an Excel spreadsheet, resulting in a total of 913 men.
For the purpose of this study 913 has been taken as the accurate figure.
Chesterfield Supplement total: 913 men (Babits and Howard)
Babits and Howard total of African-American levies: 110 = 12% of total
Rees study, initial total: 92 = slightly over 10%
Rees study, final total: 58 = 6.4%
As noted above, my initial number of black men listed on the Chesterfield list was 92. That
was pared down substantially when I examined 37 men described as having black hair, black
eyes, and dark complexion. Several men on the list under that description applied for pension,
but none left any record they were of African-American extraction. Furthermore, of the men
under that description, 2 were born in France, 2 in Ireland, 1 in Italy, and 1 in England, further
indication they were likely Caucasian. The proportion of blacks on the Chesterfield list also
argues for the more conservative number. Taking 92 as the correct Chesterfield number would
mean blacks were slightly over 10 percent of the whole. Considering that of the Virginia
brigades listed in the August 1778 return, Muhlenberg’s had the highest proportion of black
troops, with 6.8 percent of the brigade. (Woodford’s and Scott’s were considerably lower, at 3.2
percent and 1.6 percent respectively), the proportion of 6.4% (58 African-Americans) is still a
relatively high number. (See tables in Appendix A.)
Miscellaneous Personal Information for Black Chesterfield Levies.
Pension application of Evans Archer1 (S41415 )
Virginia Col. John Green’s (Lt. Col. Richard Campbell) 1st Regt. 1780 18 months (Chesterfield Roll)
1 Veteran is listed in the Chesterfield County, Virginia size roll as follows: Evan Archer/ age 25/ height 5
4-1/4 / farmer/ born in Hertford County NC/ residing in Norfolk County VA/ red hair/ grey eyes/ yellow
complexion/ enlisted 23 Sep 1780/ "Marched to join Col. Green." [John Green]. Veteran is also listed in
Bobby Gilmer Moss and Michael C. Scoggins. African-American Patriots in the Southern Campaign of
the American Revolution. Blacksburg, SC: Scotia-Hibernia Press, 2004. His inclusion in Moss/Scoggins
is based on his having been listed in the 1790 Census as a ‘free Negro’ living in Hertford County, NC.
There is no evidence in his pension file indicating that he was a Negro or ‘person of color.’
William Wedgbare (Widgebarre, Wedgroof, a.k.a. Underwood) Culpeper County Levy, 1780
From John R. Van Atta’s article “Conscription in Revolutionary Virginia: The Case of Culpeper
County, 1780-1781,” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography , vol. 92, no. 3 (July, 1984),
263-281:
William Wedgroof, “5 ½ feet high, a Free Mulatto, 19 yrs. of age”
William Wedgbare’s pension (W2292) does not refer to his race [later in the document October
1824, “William Wigebare alias William Underwood aged 65 years … enlisted in the Virginia
Continental establishment for the war on the 19th of March or thereabouts 1780 [1781] … in the
County of Culpepper, that he was marched to Cumberland Courthouse & there Inspected &
received by Baron Stuben – that he continued to serve faithfully in the Army … serving
faithfully as a soldier on various Skirmishes under the command of Baron Stuben in the first
Regiment of Regulars [actually Lt. Col. Thomas Gaskins’ Battalion] … commanded by Colonel
Posey Major Finley Captain Shelton’s company … was at the Siege of Yorktown where Lord
Cornwallace surrendered after which he fell under the Command of General Wayne & was
marched south & was at the time of the Evacuation of Charleston before that city & about
Savanah …”
Other sources:
Lawrence E. Babits and Joshua B. Howard, Long, Obstinate, and Bloody: The Battle of Guilford
Courthouse (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009), 72-76.
Richard C. Bush III, “The End Of Col. Gaskin's War May-October 1781,” The Bulletin of the
Northumberland County Historical Society, vol. XXXIII (1996), 39-56.
Joseph A. Goldenberg, Eddie D. Nelson, and Rita Y. Fletcher, “Revolutionary Ranks: An Analysis of
the Chesterfield Supplement,” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 87, no. 2 (April
1979), 182-189. This article notes that the names of the men in the Chesterfield Supplement are
listed in “Some Revolutionary War Soldiers Who Enlisted at Chesterfield, Virginia, after 1
September 1780,” Virginia Genealogical Society Quarterly Bulletin, II (1964), III (1965), IV (1966), V
(1967), and VI (1968).
Paul Heinegg, “Free African Americans in the Revolution: Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Maryland and Delaware” (via http://www.freeafricanamericans.com ; also
http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/revolution.htm )
Michael A. McDonnell, “’Fit for Common Service?’: Class, Race, and Recruitment in Revolutionary
Virginia,” John Resch and Walter Sargent, eds., War & Society in the American Revolution:
Chesterfield Supplement: African-American Levies

Black hair, black eyes, black complexion – 22
Nathaniel Anderson, carpenter
Burrell Artist, planter
Gim Ash, farmer
Benjamin Branham, farmer
Trade Brown, farmer [Isaac Brown? “free colored person”]
Charles Charity, planter
Robert Clarke, farmer
Francis Cole, waggoner
William Cuffy, farmer “a free man of Colour”
Lewis Fortune, planter
Charles Freeman, planter
Anthony Furman, planter
Joseph Langdon, blacksmith
Berry Lewis, planter
Charles Morris, planter
Godfrey Rickinson, blacksmith
William Rowe, mason (born in Phila. Penna.)
Thomas Shall (Small), farmer
Randolph Sly, planter
Anthony Valentine, planter
James Wallace, planter
Charles Wiggans, farmer
Black hair, black eyes, yellow complexion - 22

Charles Barry, farmer [Charles Barnet? “free person of color”]
Jacob Boon, farmer
James Bowser, farmer his heirs “Thomas Bowser and Natt Bowser are heads of
households of “free colored persons.”
William Buster, farmer
William Carter, sawyer
[?] Collins. sailor
Francis Cypress, tailor
Solomon Duncan, blacksmith (born in NC)
Joseph Dunston, farmer
Dennis Garner, farmer
Caleb Hill, planter
William Holmes, planter
William Jackson, groom “a free man of colour”
Thomas James (deserted before serving)
Francis Morris, ship’s carpenter
Richard Redman, planter “Free Colored Person.”
William Scott, carpenter
Edward Steveand (Steven), planter
William Thomas, planter head of a household of three “free colored persons.”
George Tyler, waiter “Free Colored Person.”
Edward Watson, farmer
Jesse Wood, planter “a free man of Colour”
Black hair, black eyes, mulatto – 2

Godfrey Bartlett, farmer (born in Va.)
Joseph Pierce, planter (born in Va.)
Brown hair, gray eyes, yellow complexion (mulatto) – 1

Adderson Moore, planter (born in Va.)
“Negroe” - 1
[?] Hart, planter
Brown hair, hazel eyes, yellow complexion – 1

John Caine
Dark brown hair, grey eyes, yellow complexion – 1

Jeremiah Wealch
Red hair, grey eyes, yellow complexion – 1

Evans Archer, “Free Negroe” (see pension)
Black hair, hazel eyes, yellow complexion – 1

Isaac Needum (Needham), bricklayer (born Annapolis, Md.)
Black eyes, black hair, brown complexion - 1

Davis Jones, planter (born in Va.)
Black hair, black eyes, swarthy complexion – 5

(all but one born in Va.)
William Bowman, sawyer
John Chavers, planter “free black”
William Melions (Milions), farmer
William Parker, farmer (born in England)
Thomas Scott, farmer
(Men removed from list of African-American levies)

Black hair, black eyes, dark complexion – 37
Quincey Arnold, farmer
Melphiah Branham, farmer
John Brown, planter
Barrack Bryan, farmer
Richard Butt, farmer
Mills (Willis) Cammock, millwright
George Cammock, planter
Willis (William) Cardwell, farmer
Anderson Claybrook, planter
Joseph Carden (Corden), farmer
Edward Cosby, bricklayer
Luke Duncan, farmer
Thomas Duvall, weaver (born in France) 1
John Frazier, planter
Robert Harper, planter
William Heath, carpenter (born in Ireland) 1
John Hill, planter (born in Ireland) 2
Jesse Lock, hatter
[?] Manley, planter
Thomas Mayfair, planter
Charles Melton, planter
John Nequale, sailor (born in France) 2
William Nisbeth, farmer
Bartholomew Nowel, stonemason (born in Italy)
John Nundley, planter
Joseph Randolph, planter
Boaz Roberts, farmer
Thomas Rogers, planter
James Saller, farmer
James Settle (Saddle), farmer
James Smith (Smile), shoemaker (born in England)
Thomas Tutt (Tuft), farmer
Joseph Vernot, farmer
Benjamin Warburton, shoemaker
Reuben Williamson, farmer
Henry Wills (planter)
James Wright, tailor
Gray hair, Black eyes, Black complexion – 1 (however this man was from England (?))
Phillip Bugan, Blacksmith
38. Thomas Campbell, pension papers (R1609), transcribed and annotated by C. Leon
Harris and Will Graves, Southern Campaign Revolutionary War Pension Statements & Rosters
39. Ibid.
40. Shadrach Battles, pension papers (S37713), ibid.
41. Isaac Brown, pension papers (S39214), ibid.
42. Andrew Pebbles, pension papers (S38297), ibid.
43. Ibid.
44. “The North Carolina draft also gathered large numbers of men, though the state’s Continental
regiments remaining in the north benefited little. North Carolina units serving in Pennsylvania
experienced such a lack of men that at Valley Forge in June 1778 eight regiments were disbanded
and the men dispersed to the two remaining regiments. At the same time large numbers of men were
being gathered in North Carolina, where the 14 April draft legislation had called for the raising of
2,648 new levies "to complete the continental Battalions belonging to this State." These new recruits
were not added to the existing Continental regiments but served in their own separate organizations.
The 3rd North Carolina Regiment, raised in 1776, had been disbanded in early June at Valley Forge,
and Colonels James Hogun and Thomas Polk sent south to recruit new regiments. In July Colonel
Hogun returned with a reconstituted 3rd North Carolina comprised solely of levies. After the men
were inoculated for smallpox at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, the regiment joined the main army in New
York in early autumn, and put to work on fortifications at West Point. In January 1779, after leaving
a small detachment at Trenton, New Jersey, the 3rd Regiment joined the Philadelphia garrison. They
remained in the city until 20 April 1779 when enlistments for most of the men expired.A
The October 1778 “Return of the Number of Men whose term of Service will expire between
this time and the Spring,” lists 733 North Carolina soldiers; besides numbers of two and a half,
and three year enlistees whose time was almost up, that total included 529 3rd Regiment nine-
month men.B
3rd North Carolina Regiment (Levies)C

(West Point, New York)
NCO’s, Rank and File Detached Duty,
Month Fit for Duty Sick, etc. Total Date of Return
September 1778 424 117 541 (1 October)
October 1778: 354 175 529 (1 November)
November 1778: 316 196 512
In early December 1778 about 200 nine-month levies remaining in North Carolina, ill-armed and
poorly equipped, marched south to join the army then commanded by Major-General Robert Howe
(later superseded by Major-General Benjamin Lincoln). The detachment was still some distance
from Savannah, Georgia, when they learned of its fall on 29 December. After this setback furloughs
for all levies remaining in North Carolina were cancelled, and the men assembled to reinforce
Lincoln's troops. By February 1779 the North Carolina New Levies commanded by Colonel John
Ashe had 438 men in camp at Purysburg, South Carolina. Late in February many men demanded
they be allowed to return home as their period of service was near termination. As a result, the
American force that moved into Georgia included only 200 levies serving as light infantry. After
some maneuvering the Americans were defeated on 3 March at Briar Creek, the levies taking no
part in the action. In late March Brigadier-General Jethro Sumner joined Lincoln's forces at Black
Swamp with 759 nine-month men returned from furlough. These men were organized into two
regiments, the 4th and 5th North Carolina, participating in efforts to oust the British from South
Carolina during summer 1779. At the indecisive Battle of Stono River on 20 June the North
Carolina levies suffered ten killed and thirty-one wounded. The remainder of their term was spent
harassing British forces in the area. On 3 July 1779 the first detachment of levies, comprised of 202
"sick and weak" men, left for home; the remaining nine-month men followed on July 10th.D
A. "Acts of Assembly of the State of North Carolina ...," held 14 April 1778, Jenkins, State
Records, Session Laws, vol. B2, 3-5. Agreeable to the 26 February 1778 Continental Congress
resolution the North Carolina levies were to be collected at two locations; those men raised "in the
Districts of Halifax, Edenton, Newbern, and Wilmington, shall march ... to Petersburg in Virginia,
and those who shall be raised in the Districts of Hillsborough and Salisbury, shall rendezvous at
Peytonsburg in Pittsylvania [Virginia]." Hugh F. Rankin, The North Carolina Continentals (Chapel
Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1971), 146-47, reduction in the North Carolina Line
Regiments; 162-163, 164-166, new levies; 178-181, 183-184; institution of the nine month draft.
Rankin’s work is invaluable in any study of the North Carolina regiments, but he incorrectly names
Hogun’s 1778 northern levy unit as the 7th North Carolina Regiment, when it was in fact the
reconstituted 3rd Regiment.
B. “Head Qrs. Fredericksb.g 27:th Octobr. 1778 Return of the Number of Men whose term of
Service will expire between this time and the Spring," The Papers of the Continental Congress
1774-1789, National Archives Microfilm Publications M247 (Washington, DC, 1958), reel 168,
p. 431.
C. Charles H. Lesser, Sinews of Independence: Monthly Strength Reports of the Continental Army
(Chicago, Il. and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1976), 84-86, 88-90, 92-94.
D. Hugh F. Rankin, The North Carolina Continentals (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina
Press, 1971), 186-209.
Excerpted from, John U. Rees, “`The pleasure of their number’: 1778, Crisis, Conscription, and
Revolutionary Soldiers’ Recollections”: Part I. “’Filling the Regiments by drafts from the
Militia.’: The 1778 Recruiting Acts” ALHFAM Bulletin, vol. XXXIII, no. 3 (Fall 2003), 23-34.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/126069484/First-Part-%E2%80%9CThe-pleasure-of-their-
number%E2%80%9D-1778-Crisis-Conscription-and-Revolutionary-
Soldiers%E2%80%99-Recollections-A-Preliminary-Study-Part-I-%E2%80%9CFil
For post-Charleston North Carolina regiments see, Rankin, North Carolina Continentals , 218-
220, 328-333, 341-351, 387-388.
45. William Casey (Kersey), pension papers (W29906.5), transcribed and annotated by C.
Leon Harris and Will Graves, Southern Campaign Revolutionary War Pension Statements &
Rosters
46. Ibid.
47. John Womble, pension papers (S42083), transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris
48. Drewry Tann, pension papers (S19484), transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris
49. Ibid.
50. John U. Rees, “’The pleasure of their number’: 1778, Crisis, Conscription, and Revolutionary
Soldiers’ Recollections”: Part I. “’Filling the Regiments by drafts from the Militia.’: The 1778
Recruiting Acts”
http://www.scribd.com/doc/126069484/First-Part-%E2%80%9CThe-pleasure-of-their-
number%E2%80%9D-1778-Crisis-Conscription-and-Revolutionary-
Soldiers%E2%80%99-Recollections-A-Preliminary-Study-Part-I-%E2%80%9CFil
51. “A Descriptive List of the … men raised under the Present Act of Assembly in … Company”
(fifteen sheets), Granville County, N.C., 25 May 1778, Military Collection, War of the Revolution,
North Carolina State Archives (Raleigh), Box 4, Continental Line, 1775-1778, Folder 40. See also,
Rees “`The pleasure of their number’: 1778, Crisis, Conscription, and Revolutionary Soldiers’
Recollections”: Part II. "’Fine, likely, tractable men.’: Levy Statistics and New Jersey Service
Narratives”
http://www.scribd.com/doc/126069114/Second-Part-%E2%80%9CThe-pleasure-of-their-
number%E2%80%9D-Crisis-Conscription-and-Revolutionary-Soldiers%E2%80%99-
Recollections-A-Preliminary-Study-Part-II-Fine-l
52. William Pettiford pension file (S41948), Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land
Warrant Application Files (National Archives Microfilm Publication M804), Records of the
Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15, National Archives at Washington, D.C.
“North Carolina line 10 Regmt Col Shepard 14 June 1781 [to] 14 June 1782”
19 February 1819 deposition: “he … enlisted, in June 1781, in Granville County in the State of
North Carolina, in the Company Commanded by Captain Donoho of the second regiment, as he
understood, in the North Carolina line … for the term of twelve months; that he continued to
serve in said Company, & in Captain Walton’s Company, to which he was afterwards
transferred, until the end of his said enlistment, when he was discharged from service at
Salisbury …”
Addendum to above: “And the said Wm. Pettiford … on this 19th. day of April 1819, further
declares on oath, that he had forgotten & mistook the company to which he was transferred from
Donoho’s – That it was Captain Saunders’s company & not Capt. Walton’s – That he served
nine months in the Continental service … in the North Carolina line, previous to the said twelve
months service as an enlisted soldier under Captain Farrar, & part of the time under Capt. Walton
– that he was regularly discharged from his nine months service on Stony Creek, near Salisbury,
in North Carolina.”
1 September 1820, “I do hereby certify that William Pettiford who made the within declaration
& schedule is a man of colour and is an inhabitant of Orange County N.C. J. Smith”
53. Ibid.
54. Bobby Gilmer Moss and Michael C. Scoggins, African-American Patriots in the Southern
Campaign of the American Revolution (Blacksburg, S.C.: Scotia-Hibernia Press, 2004), 126.
55. “David Hunt a black man 30 years of age 5 feet 7 inches high a Planter,” . “A Descriptive
List of the … men raised under the Present Act of Assembly in … Company” (fifteen sheets),
Granville County, N.C., 25 May 1778, Military Collection, War of the Revolution, North Carolina
State Archives (Raleigh), Box 4, Continental Line, 1775-1778, Folder 40.
David Hunt pension file (S41671), Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant
Application Files (National Archives Microfilm Publication M804), Records of the Department
of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15, National Archives at Washington, D.C.
(1778 nine months in Hogun’s 3rd NC at West Point)
May 1819 deposition: “he … enlisted for the term of Nine Months sometime in the Year 1778 in
the County of Edgecombe … in the Company commanded by Capt John Baker of the third
Redgiment commanded by Colonel Hogan in the line of North Carolina … he was discharged
from service in Hallifax North Carolina by order of Lt. Colonel commd. Robert Mebane of the
third Regt. – That he was marched during the said period to the state of New York and stationed
for some time at Westpoint … was in no Battle during his service …”
56. William Casey (Kersey), pension papers (W29906.5), and Holiday Hethcock (Hathcock),
pension papers (R4812), North Carolina, militia service only, transcribed and annotated by
C. Leon Harris and Will Graves, Southern Campaign Revolutionary War Pension Statements &
Rosters (World Wide Web) http://www.southerncampaign.org/pen/
57. James Harris, pension papers (W11223), ibid.
58. John Ferrell pension file (S6836), Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant
Application Files (National Archives Microfilm Publication M804), Records of the Department
of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15, National Archives at Washington, D.C.
59. James Cooper, pension papers (S39362, North Carolina, militia service only, transcribed
and annotated by C. Leon Harris and Will Graves, Southern Campaign Revolutionary War
Pension Statements & Rosters (World Wide Web) http://www.southerncampaign.org/pen/
60. Philip Savoy, pension papers (S35057), and Michael Curtis, pension papers (S39398),
transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris and Will Graves, Southern Campaign
Revolutionary War Pension Statements & Rosters (World Wide Web)
http://www.southerncampaign.org/pen/
61. Thomas Mahorney, pension papers (S38166), transcribed and annotated by C. Leon
Harris and Will Graves, Southern Campaign Revolutionary War Pension Statements & Rosters
62. Drury Scott, pension papers (S35644), transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris and
Will Graves, Southern Campaign Revolutionary War Pension Statements & Rosters (World
Wide Web) http://www.southerncampaign.org/pen/
63. Andrew Pebbles, pension papers (S38297), transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris
and Will Graves, Southern Campaign Revolutionary War Pension Statements & Rosters (World
Wide Web) http://www.southerncampaign.org/pen/
64. Holiday Hethcock (Hathcock), pension papers (R4812), transcribed and annotated by C.
Leon Harris and Will Graves, Southern Campaign Revolutionary War Pension Statements &
Rosters (World Wide Web) http://www.southerncampaign.org/pen/
65. Web exhibit drawn from the Spring 2001 Special Collections & College Archives exhibit
"Lafayette and Slavery," curated by Diane Windham Shaw, Lafayette College, Easton, Pa.
http://academicmuseum.lafayette.edu/special/specialexhibits/slaveryexhibit/onlineexhibit/m
eetings.htm ; see also, “The Almost Chosen People” (Blog),
https://almostchosenpeople.wordpress.com/2010/05/05/the-marquis-de-lafayette-and-the-
black-veterans-of-new-orleans/

"At Eutau Springs He Received Three Wounds ": Black Soldiers in Southern Continental Regiments

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"At Eutau Springs He Received Three Wounds ": Black Soldiers in Southern Continental Regiments

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“At Eutau Springs he received three wounds …”

Black Soldiers in Southern Continental Regiments

“They were good soldiers.”

My first in-depth exposure to African Americans’ contributions in the War for

“… one of the largest oral history projects ever undertaken”

Pension Accounts Used for this Study:

Transcribed pensions as of April 2011, 10,788

Transcribed pensions as of March 2015, 20,360

Transcribed pensions as of October 2015, 20,786

An earlier account provided several more details:

Georgia Pensions Gleaned from

Maryland. Following the one-year service of Smallwood’s Maryland Regiment in 1776,

Harmon’s application was supported by Mitchell Kershaw, a Delaware militia colonel.

A local man, Hezekiah Lacey, testified that

Campbell’s 1833 application recounted,

Pebbles provided additional details in an 1820 deposition: “ he served in the Revolutionary

Private, 1st Continental Light Dragoon Regiment, 1780-1781

Georgia: Col. Samuel Elbert’s 2d Regt. 1775-79

South Carolina Soldiers

North Carolina Soldiers

(See Appendix C and Contents page for links to pensions by state.)

The pension papers contain no mention of Hunt’s race.

Patrick C. House February 13 1836

State of Virginia County of Patrick

Undoubtedly, other black Revolutionary veterans shared these men’s experiences.

21,209 rank and file in fifteen brigades (above)

Maryland 4th Regt. 1777-1782?

Maryland 5th Regt. 1778-83

Maryland 4th Regt. (“Joseph Carroll a mulatto”)

Re-ordered Chronologically, by unit

Virginia 2d Regt. 1776-1777; 1st Regt. 1778-83

Virginia 2d Regt. 1777-78/79 (39)

Virginia 4th or 9th Regt. 1779-?

Virginia Lt. Col. Thomas Gaskins’ Regt. 1781-82 ChestRoll

Virginia Col. William Davies’ 1st Regt. 1782? ChestRoll

Virginia 10th Regt./Lt. Col. Thomas Posey’s Regt. ?-83

North Carolina 3d Regt. 1776-78

North Carolina 1778 9 months

North Carolina Col. Archibald Lytle’s Levy Regt. 1779 9 months

North Carolina Lt. Col. Robert Mebane’s 3rd Regt. 1779-80?

North Carolina 4th Regt. 1780-81 18 months

North Carolina 1st Regt. 1782 18 months

South Carolina (6)

South Carolina 4th Artillery Regt. 12 months 1779-83

Average Number of Black Soldiers Per Regiment Within Each Brigade

F. Synopsis of the Chesterfield List (Virginia, 1780-1781)

Chesterfield Supplement total: 913 men (Babits and Howard)

Chesterfield Supplement: African-American Levies

Black hair, black eyes, yellow complexion - 22

Black hair, black eyes, mulatto – 2

Brown hair, gray eyes, yellow complexion (mulatto) – 1

Brown hair, hazel eyes, yellow complexion – 1

Dark brown hair, grey eyes, yellow complexion – 1

Black hair, hazel eyes, yellow complexion – 1

Black eyes, black hair, brown complexion - 1

Black hair, black eyes, swarthy complexion – 5

(Men removed from list of African-American levies)

Col Vose Regt }

Col Scammell Regt }

LCol Gaskins [Virginia] Regt } BGenl Wayne

two Jersay Regts } Col Dayton

3d & 4th Maryland Regts –– BGenl Gist

1st Virginia Regt. (8 companies) (Provincial establishment) July 1775-February 1776