REVOLUTIONARY WAR PENSION STATEMENT OF JAMES DAVIS

Transcribed and submitted by Phebe Morgan

State of Tennessee, Hamilton County.  On this 28^th day of August 1832 personally appeared in open Court before the Worshipful Justices of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions for Hamilton County now sitting James Davis a resident of said County and state aforesaid, aged seventy one years, who being first duly sworn according to law, doth on this oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the act of Congress, passed June 7^th 1832.

 That he enter the service of the United Stated under the following named officers and served as herein stated that I to say, as a volunteer under Captain John Keys a militia Captain in Wilkes County North Carolina under whom he served three months in scouting, being at home a few days during said three months with leave of the Captain, he next entered the service under Capt. Smith as a ranger he believes in Burke County North Carolina and was posted except when ranging about five months, Capt. Smith was highest in command at this fort who discharged this applicant at the fort the name of the fort not recollected.  This applicant next entered the service under Capt. Gorden in Wilkes County NC as a drafted man, having been classed and served under said Capt. Gorden and Lieutenant Witherspoon who marched the Waxhaw Creek where Col. Malbury met us and took command of the Regiment and marched from Waxhaw Creek to the high hills of Santee where we joined headquarters under General Greene where the army lay some time and the British on the opposite side of the river.  This applicant then marched with the army to the Eutaw springs and was engaged in the battle at that place where General Greene commanded about the close of the battle this applicant recollects that he assisted in carrying out a Capt. Wolford who was shot through the thigh and who soon afterwards died.  This Capt. Woolford was of the Virginia line as this applicant understood.  He understood him to be a Captain in the regular service at any rate; this applicant after the battle of Eutaw springs was marched as one of the guard over the prisoners to Cambden (or Camden) and then to Salisbury in NC where this applicant was discharged by Col. Locke.  This applicant knows he served three months this term, and thinks he served six months but will not be certain.  This applicant soon after being discharged by Col. Locke volunteered under Capt. Pendleton Isbel and marched under him down the Adkin river to below the shallow ford sixty or seventy miles from whence we returned without effecting any thing this expedition lasted about six weeks and this applicant was dismissed by Capt. Isbel.

 This declarant further states that before the expedition to the Eutaw springs he volunteered under Col. Cleveland in Wilkes County NC and served an expedition under him to Cryders Old fort in Burke County NC and perhaps twenty five or thirty miles further to Catawba River and down it and then returned home destroying the property of the Tories in our route by order of Col. Cleveland.  He served this term about six weeks his Lieutenants name was Jesse Coffee, his Captains name he does not remember.  This applicant was in several scouting parties during the Revolution about which he has no distinct recollection.  He believes that during the Revolutionary War he actually served in all about thirteen or fourteen months, and was in but one general engagement at the Eutaw springs but was in several skirmishes at different times. 

 This applicant says he was born in Fauquier County in Virginia but has no record of his age.  From the best accounts by his father and mother at the time of his marriage and the time since will make him seventy one years of age at this time.  This applicant has stated where he was living when he entered the service, after the war he removed to Greene County in the state of Tennessee, where he resided about fourteen or fifteen years perhaps not so long – he moved from there to Knox County state aforesaid, where he resided between ten and fifteen years.  He removed from there to Campbell County Tennessee and resided there about two years.  He removed from there to White County Tennessee where he resided about twelve years.  He then removed to Jackson County Alabama and resided there two years, from there to Marion County Tennessee and resided there five years from there to Hamilton County Tennessee where he still resided and has resided for about the last nine years.

 He has stated all he recollects about the regular officers and all the general circumstances of his services.

 He has long since lost his discharges and has no documentary evidence to produce.  He hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension or annuity except the present and declares that his name is no on the pension roll of the Agency of any State in the United States.

We George McGwier and Asahel Rawlings resident of the County and state aforesaid hereby certify that we are well acquainted with James Davis who has subscribed and sworn to the above declaration, that we believe him to be seventy-one years of age.  That he is reputed and believed in the neighborhood where he resides to have been a soldier of the Revolution and that we concur in that opinion.

 And the said Court do hereby declare their opinion after the investigation of the matter and after putting the interrogatories prescribed by the War Department, that the above named applicant was a Revolutionary Soldier and served as he states.  And the Court further certifies that it appears to them that George McGwier and Asahel Rawlings who have signed in the preceeding certificate are residents in the said County of Hamilton and State of Tennessee and as credible persons and that their statements is entitled to credit.

                                                                                                 John Bradfield
                                                                                                  J. H. Jones
                                                                                                  Samuel Igou

©2010 by Phebe Morgan,  Nola Duffy, for the NCGenWeb Project.  No portion of  any document appearing on this site is to be used for other than personal research.  Any republication or reposting is expressly forbidden without the written consent of the owner. Last updated 04/29/2011