Bowman And The Loyalists Of America

Sufferings Of The U.E. Loyalists....(265  Bowman):

...dated February 15, 1875. "To the Editor of the Christian Guardian. " My Dear Sir — " At the request of the family, I have prepared, and I send you herewith, a brief obituary notice of Mrs. Elizabeth Bowman Spohn, only child of the honoured and widely-known late Peter and Elizabeth Bowman, near the village of Ancaster, in the county of Wentworth.

The delicate state of my grandmother obliged him to remain at home, while nearly all that remained lirm to their allegiance left for the British army. He was surprised at night, while his wife was sick, by a party of rebels, and with his eldest son, a lad of sixteen years of age, was taken prisoner; his house pillaged of every article except the bed on which his sick wife lay, and that they stripped of all but one blanket. Half an hour after my grandfather was marched off, his youngest child was born. This was in November. There my grandmother was, with an infant babe and six children, at the commencement of winter, without any provisions, and only one blanket in the house. Their cattle and grain were all taken away.  My father, Peter Bowman, the eldest son at home, was only eleven years old. As the pillage was at night, he had neither coat nor shoes; he had to cut and draw his firewood half a mile on a hand-sleigh to keep his sick mother from freezing; this he did barefooted. The whole family would have perished had it not been for some friendly Indians that brought them provisions.

Captain Sam. Handly

The home journal., October 21, 1858, Image 2:

Capt. Sam. Handley

Cameron and White-Cherokee Ties

Walker County Messenger - Aug 29, 1990:

"...Alexander Cameron, who lived on his Lochaber estate in South Carolina with a mixed-blood wife...".

Alexander Cameron

The American historical magazine:

Alexander Cameron

William Kennedy Of Maryland And New Brunswick

 

Audit Office : AO 12. Claims, American Loyalists - Series I : C-12903:

Wm. Kennedy

Enemies Of The Pennsylvania Government

Washington County, Pennsylvania (LOC)

Source

Primcipal Battles Of The Revolutionary War

Source

Ephraim Leonard

HeritageQuest

Service: Conti / Mass
Leonard, Ephraim
Number: S32992
Enlisted: Roxbury, Massachusetts
Certificate #3194

Letter to Lois Badger of Rochester, New York mentioned ...two sons of my wife: Giles Wilcox, age 15 in 1820; Thurston Wilcox, age 14.  Name of wife not included.

Died: 4 December 1834
Only soldier of that name found in the records.
8 months in Captain Moses Soule's company, Colonel John Fellows' Massachusetts regiment, and was in the Battle of Bunker Hill...continued to serve in Captain Noah Allen's company, Colonel Wigglesworth's Massachusetts regiment...was at the battles of Stillwater, Saratoga and Monmouth

27 April 1818 soldier lived in Sheffield, Berkshire, Massachusetts, age 62

During The Storm Of Revolution

See more about Lieutenant-General John Maunsell (1724-1795) here

"Twelve years passed, during which the storm of the Revolution was gathering, which burst at Lexington and Concord. As a soldier, Lieutenant-Colonel Maunsell felt himself bound to the service of the king, although his affections were strongly fixed on the home which he had adopted. He sailed for England in May, 1775, in company with the Hon. John Watts, Colonel Roger Morris, Isaac Wilkins, Esq., the Rev. Dr. Chandler, and other royalists, with introductions from Liutenant-Governor Colden warmly commending him to the prime minister and Lord Dartmouth. He had returned from a visit there only two years before. He left Mrs. Maunsell in their home in Greenwich, and returned for her the next year, having received an appointment in Ireland which relieved him from serving against his friends in America, to which he was greatly averse. He was given a post at Kinsale, where they remained till peace enabled them to retrace their way across the Atlantic to their home."

"Life in such a post could not have been an eventful one. He was promoted to a colonelcy on half-pay August 29, 1777. Mrs. Maunsell gives some glimpses of their life and of manners and customs among the gentry of the south of Ireland."

"Her [Mrs. Maunsell's] acquaintance with court and camp had not affected her stern integrity; in reproving one whom she thought extravagant and who had incurred a debt, she writes: "I think were I thus situated I would endeavour by every effort to extricate myself, and rather fare on dry bread, and be attired in the meanest apparel than accessory to lessen the substance of others." Husband and wife were of one mind in this high sense of honesty, for it is handed down that having been relieved of his post, which had required large transactions in supplies for the army, his superior greeted him with the jocose remark, as to a comrade who could not be ignorant of the secrets of official perquisites, "Well, General Maunsell, I suppose you have not neglected your opportunities to feather your nest," but was met with the indignant reply, "Sir, I would as soon defraud you as I would my king.'He left with "clean hands and a pure heart.'" [Source]

John Pershing, A Member Of The Lost Battalion

*Frederick Pershing (1724-1794) was a Huguenot from Alsace and immigrated to America in 1749. He moved to Western Pennsylvania in 1769 and settled on land in what is now Westmoreland County. *Ancestor of General John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing

An Area Of Western Pennsylvania

His [Frederick's] younger brother John joined him in shortly after he moved to Westmoreland. John was a member of Captain Stokely's Company during the Revolutionary War and was killed during the Lochry Expedition in 1781.   [Indiana Library/Archives, Pershing family papers S0842]

The article by another Pershing descendant, **Edgar J. Pershing, in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, Vol. XVI, Sept., 1928, No. 3, told the story of Lochry's Expedition in the Lost Battalion of the Revolutionary War, PA.  **Edgar J. Pershing also wrote The Pershing Family In America... .

John Pershing perished in the ambush of Lochry and his soldiers; he left no descendants. 

Loughrey's Defeat

Source

Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Map (LOC)
...rendezvoused at Carnahan's Blockhouse, eleven miles west of Hannastown....

John Bonell's Claim

Audit Office : AO 12. Claims, American Loyalists - Series I : C-12903 (Image 496):

Halifax, 27th July 1786 - Evidence of John Bonell's Claim (formerly of Georgia)

• Claimant says he was in Georgia, about 80 miles from Savannah
• In 1784 he went to St. Augustine
• He now lives in Colequid in this Province
• Father lived upon Ogetchie Georg(ia) (and Briar Creek)
• Claimant was taken by the Rebels and taken prisoner

Source

"Says he joined the Militia under Col. Brown at St. Marys...".

John Backus Of Hancock, Massachusetts

Revolutionary War Pension Application:

 Declaration of John Backus: When I first entered the service I resided in Hancock in the Bay state.

Hancock, Berkshire, Massachusets (LOC)

Says the militia were called for to go to Ticonderoga…

Plan Of Carillon Or Ticonderoga (LOC)

. ...the orderly sergeants name was Bacon and heard he was afterwards killed at the battle of Bennington. Col. [Benjamin] Simons of Williams Town commanded the regt. He was an old man, understood he has been taken prisoner in the French war… The regt marched to Albany and was there at Christmas and New Years day and then went from there to Ticonderoga has been then but a short time when he was placed in a redout a short distance from the main fort as an artillerist together with others of the same regiment.

See a reference to Colonel Simons below:

Source

Send Down All The Rebel Prisoners

General Frederick Haldimand To Brigadier General Henry Watson Powell

Quebec   21 June 1782

I last night received a dispatch from Sir Guy Carleton, dated New York, 21st May. He informs me
that when he left England, it was the determination of the Ministry and the sense of the nation at
large to pursue all possible means consistent with honour to bring about an accommodation with
America.

You will please, therefore, to give such orders in the district of your command as will prevent any offensive operations being undertaken until you shall hear further from me, but in such a measure as not to occasion a belief of a report prevailing in the colonies that there is a Cessation of Arms, which is by no means the case. You will do your utmost to prevent depredations and cruelties upon the frontiers by the Indians.

To save time, I shall communicate the above immediately to Oswego and Carleton Island.

You will please to send down all the rebel prisoners from your post by the first opportunity.

British Library. Sloane and Additional Manuscripts, Add MSS 21753, Register of Warrants Issued for the Extraordinary Service of the Army, 1782-1784; National Archives of Canada, Haldimand Collection, microfilm reel number A-678.

O Wicked Doctor Connolly!

Source

Source

Held The Whole British Army At Bay

 Early on the 26th [September] his [William Richardson Davie's] patrols were driven in by the enemy's light troops, and in a few moments the legion and light infantry were seen advancing, followed by the whole army. Davie was reinforced in the night by a few volunteers under Major Joseph Graham. Charlotte was then a village of about twenty houses, built on two streets, which crossed each other at right angles. At their intersection stood the court-house.

Colonel Davie dismounted one company and stationed it under the courthouse, where they were protected by a stone wall. The other two companies were advanced about eighty yards and posted behind some houses and gardens. The legion formed at a distance of three hundred yards with a front to fill the street. On sounding the charge the enemy's cavalry advanced at full gallop, but at sixty yards from the courthouse the Americans opened fire and drove them back with great precipitation. A second and third charge had the same result. Yet, being outflanked by the legion infantry, Davie withdrew his companies in good order, successively covering each other, and retreated on the Salisbury road.

1770 Map Of North Carolina (LOC)
See Salisbury Road

The enemy followed with great caution and respect for some distance, when they at length ventured to charge the small rear guard. In this charge Lieutenant Locke and four privates were killed and Major Graham and five privates wounded. The coolness and skill of Davie in this ever memorable combat, in which, with a mere handful of men, he held the whole British army for hours at bay, and drove back repeatedly its best troops, and finally brought off his command unbroken and in good order, stamp him as a soldier of no ordinary capacity. [Source]

25th Of September In Charlotte

See earlier post from A biography of General Davie (1756 - 1820) which was found in the Magazine Of America here. 

On the evening and night of the 25th he [General William Davie] took a number of prisoners, and at midnight took up his position at Charlotte, seven miles from the spot where Earl Cornwallis had encamped.

Source

24th Of September

M. Fiffers (Top Center) and Rocky River (Lower Right) (Source of 1770 Map - LOC)

See earlier post from A biography of General Davie (1756 - 1820) which was found in the Magazine Of America here. 

On the 24th of September the American patrols gave notice that the force of the enemy was in motion on the Steele creek road, leading to Charlotte. Generals Sumner and Davidson retreated by *Phifers on the nearest road to Salisbury. Colonel [William] Davie, with one hundred and fifty mounted men and some volunteers under Major Joseph Graham, was left alone in front of the British army, and he was ordered to observe the enemy and skirmish with his advance.

*Phifer's beyond Rocky River and now in Cabarrus County [Source]

20th Of September

"...Colonel [William] Davie, with unprecedented boldness, with a command not exceeding one hundred and fifty men all told, on the 20th of September, turning the right flank of the British army by a circuitous march, fell upon three hundred or four hundred of the enemy at Wahab's plantation. The attack was made at daylight. The surprise was complete. 

Wikimedia Map (Location Of Wahab Plantation)

The enemy left fifteen or twenty dead on the field and had some forty wounded. Davie got off safely with the captured horses and had only one man wounded. The enemy at once caused the farm buildings which belonged to Captain Wahab, then a volunteer with Davie, to be laid in ashes. Davie brought off ninety-six horses and their furnishings, and one hundred and twenty stand of arms, and arrived in camp the same afternoon, having marched sixty miles in less than twenty-four hours, including the time employed in seeking and beating the enemy. That evening Generals Sumner and Davidson arrived at his camp with their force of one thousand badly equipped militia. 

See earlier post from A biography of General Davie (1756 - 1820) which was found in the Magazine Of America here.  

Colonel Davie After His Brillance At Charlotte

Source

See earlier post from A biography of General Davie (1756 - 1820) which was found in the Magazine Of America here.


Generals Sumner and Davidson continued their retreat across the Yadkin, while [Colonel William Richardson] Davie returned towards Charlotte, and he so vexed the British by cutting off the forage parties, and beating up their advanced posts, that Cornwallis began to feel great distress for want of forage and supplies.* [*Tarleton's Campaigns] 

When General Greene took command of the southern army in December, 1780, he met Colonel Davie for the first time. The commissary department became vacant by the resignation of Colonel Thomas Polk. The subsistence of the army had become very difficult, and Colonel Polk declared that it had become impossible. General Greene having formed a high estimate of Colonel Davie's abilities, earnestly and in most flattering terms solicited him to relinquish his hopes of brilliant service in the field, and accept the vacant office. At the call of patriotism he abandoned the tempting career which lay before him, and assumed the not less important but more unpleasant and arduous duties of a station which offered no distinctions. General Greene had himself set the example, having relinquished a brilliant career in the field to assume for years the duties of quartermaster-general of the army. Colonel Davie assumed the duties of his new post in January, 1781, and continued with the army for the next five months. Hardly any combination of circumstances could exist presenting greater difficulties to the commissary of an army than those under which he began.