History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 22

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2 Idem.

FROM COL. ATLEE'S JOURNAL, Penn. Archives, N. S., vol. i., p. 515 : "I fully expected, as did my officers, that the strength of the British army was advancing in this quarter with intention to have taken this Rout to our Lines, but how greatly were we deceived when intelligence was received that the Centre, composed of the Hessians and the Right wing, were rapidly advancing by our Rear, and that we were nearly surrounded,

" This we were soon convinced of by an exceeding heavy Fire about a mile in our Rear, no Troops being in that Quarter to oppose the march of this Grand Body of the British Army but Col. Miles' 2 Battalions of Riffe men, Col. Willis' Regt. of Connecticut, aud a part of Lutz's Bat- talion of Penna. Flying Camp."

See also Col Miles' Journal, Penn, Arch., N. S., pp. 1-522.

3 Many marked in some of the old lists as deserters were long after drawing pensions .- See Penn. Arch., New Series, 111. P. 197, et seq.

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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

service. This regiment was thereafter known as " The Pennsylvania State Regiment of Foot."

On the 25th of October, Capt. Erwin's company, which remained in the State establishment, was con- solidated under an arrangement then made with other companies, and some of the officers of that company were promoted and transferred to other regiments. Those promoted mostly went into the Continental establishment. But the remains of these battalions thus consolidated followed the fortunes of the Conti- Dental army. They served in nearly all the battles of the campaign of 1777.

STATE REGIMENT OF FOOT.

In April, 1777, the Pennsylvania State Regiment of Foot, founded upon the remains of Miles' and Atlee's battalions as a nucleus, was supplied with field- and staff-officers.

The remains of Capt. Erwin's company, under James Carnahan, who had been promoted captain from first lieutenant, was connected with this regi- ment until the campaign of 1777 was over and the army entered Valley Forge. Erwin had been pro- moted to a captaincy in the Ninth Pennsylvania in the regular line.

We give the roll of Capt. Carnahan's company as it was mustered at Red Bank, May 9, 1777.1

Of this regiment John Bull was appointed colonel, Lewis Farmer lieutenant-colonel, and John Murray first major, on May 2, 1777. On the 2d of June, 1777, the regiment was stationed at Fort Mercer.

On the 6th the Supreme Executive Council pre- sented a memorial to the Assembly stating that-

" As Congress had allotted twelve regiments to be raised in Pennsyl- vania, and has called for a return of the regimenta, it was their opinion that it would be imprudent to put into the Continental service and jmy the battalion now called 'The State Battalion,' which has been raised chiefly out of the remains of the battalions lately under the command of Col. Proctor, and the company under the command of Capt. Pugh, raised for guarding the Powder Mill."

In compliance with this memorial the Assembly, on the 10th of June, 1777, transferred this regiment, with the artillery company and regiment and company mentioned, to the Continental Congress.

When Col. Bull was appointed adjutant-general of the State, June 17, 1777, Col. Stewart succeeded him in command of the regiment.

Capt. Carnahan's company was the tenth in a re- turn of the regiment on the 20th of June.

Col. Walter Stewart took command on the 6th of July, 1777, and commanded the regiment at Brandy- wine and at Germantown, where its loss was 16 killed and 22 wounded.

By resolution of Congress, Nov. 12, 1777, Col. Stewart's regiment was to be annexed to the Penn- sylvania line and form the Thirteenth Regiment, The Thirteenth in the Continental line was under Col. Stewart from Nov. 12, 1777, to July 1, 1778 ; but

it was known as early as July 6, 1777, as the Thir- teenth Pennsylvania Regiment. Although the regi- meat was incorporated into the Second Pennsylvania on the &d of April, 1778, the arrangement did not go into effect until July 1, 1778.

Capt. James Carnahan was then transferred to the Eighth Pennsylvania.'

As there were some Westmorelanders in Capt. Scott's company in this regiment, we give the com- pany roll.'

THE SECOND PENNSYLVANIA REGIMENT.

The Second Pennsylvania Regiment was in the Continental service from October, 1776, to Nov. 8, 1788. The names of those Westmorelanders who were of this regiment appear on its returns during the latter part of the war, they being transferred on enlisting for the war to that regiment. Most of the Westmorelanders who fought and fell as privates in the latter and closing campaigns of the war were with this regiment, and the list, imperfect as it is, contains many names familiar to the last generation, who passed their last days here. They were under Wayne and Greene in the South, and took part in the en- gagements in North and South Carolina, at Guilford Court-House, at Ninety-Six, and at Yorktown. There are no complete lists of this regiment; those which were in existence were destroyed by the fire at the city of Washington, and by the burning of the public buildings, when the city was captured by the British in 1814.

CONGRESS AND THE WESTERN INDIANS.

When the Revolution commenced the most appar- ent danger menacing our people was from the Indi- ans, although a perpetual menace was maintained by the intrigues of the British in Canada, they waiting for the most favorable opportunity to invade that part of the colony west of Laurel Hill. It was the daring ambition of Connolly to wrest from the colonies the western parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia. In an effort to do so the objective-point must be Pittsburgh. When it was seen that the inhabitants of these parts were not disloyally inclined, and that the plan itself was impracticable, the British resorted to control the Indians to their advantage, at the same time calling to mind the deep-seated enmity between them and the border settlers of Virginia. The most warful tribes at this time occupied the river borders of Ohio, and the hunting-grounds and fishing-places of the Northwestern Territory, having been driven thither by long wars, by specious treaties, and by their natural instincts.

Congress early perceived the necessity of securing the alliance of the tribes, or at least of effecting their neutrality. In April, 1776, Col. George Mor-

: Cupt. James Carnahan was drowned in the Allegheny River, 1786-47 ; he was father of the late Dr. Carnahan, president of Princeton College. " See Appendix " K."

1 See Appendix "I."

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WESTMORELAND IN THE REVOLUTION.

n was appointed Indian agent for the Middle. De- rtment of the United States, with headquarters ed at Pittsburgh. Trouble was apprehended, and the fall of 1776 a committee appointed by Congress, d stopping there for that purpose, came to the con- usion that an Indian war with the colonists was in- itable, tracing the immediate causes of it to the un- unded influence of the British Governor Hamilton er the Shawanese and Delawares. This committee commended that all the militia that could be spared into garrison at Fort Pitt, and that the line of forts ng before erected by the French, and after them ld by the English, be manned and armed.

EIGHTH PENNSYLVANIA REGIMENT.

The Eighth Pennsylvania was thereupon raised der authority of a resolution of Congress, dated July , 1776, for the defense of the western frontier, to rrison the ports of Presque Isle, Le Bœuf, and Kit- nning. It was to consist of seven companies from estmoreland and one from Bedford. On July 20, 76, the Convention of Pennsylvania, then sitting, ving recommended for field-officers Col. Æneas ackay (written McCoy), Lieut .- Col. George Wilson, d Maj. Richard Butler, they were elected by Con- ess. Congress having resolved that the committees the counties in which the companies were to be ised should name the company officers, and they ving named them, Congress, Sept. 14, 1776, ac- pted them, and ordered commissions. On the 23d September, Congress elected David McClure chap- in, and Ephraim Douglas quartermaster. Nov. 23, 76, Congress directed the Board of War to order the giment to march with all possible expedition, by e nearest route, to Brunswick, N. J., or to join Gen. ashington wherever he might be.

The regiment on being raised was mustered in at ittsburgh, and remained on duty along the frontier Pennsylvania during that summer and the early art of the fall. But when the American army under ashington, greatly diminished in numbers, prepared

face the large levies landed at New York from ngland, there was a wild cry to forward all troops at could be spared to the front.

When the orders from the Board of War were re- ived by Col. Mackay, the larger portion of the regi- ent was stationed at Kittanning. Under date "Kit- nning, the 5th December, 1776," Col. Mackay writes the President of the Board of War:

"Sim,-I last night received your order from the Honorable the Board War, in consequence of which I have this day issued the necessary ders, and shall march with all possible dispatch to the place directed. . I have ordered a general rendezvous on the 15th instant, at & oper place, and from thence shall proceed as ordered. As I would not oose that the battalion should labor under every disadvantage when Brunswick, being now in need of everything, I shall be obliged to k. Philadelphia my route in order to be supplied."

In the day-book of the company, which subse- ently fell into the hands of Judge Veech, under

date of Dec. 5, 1776, is this entry : "This day received intelligence for the battalion to march to Amboy."

The crotchety Scotch-Irishman, George Wilson, lieutenant-colonel of the regiment, of the same date, writes the following to Col. James Wilson.1 We preserve all the characteristics of the letter :

" KETANIAN, Decr. 5th, 1776. " DR. COLONALL: Last Evening we Recd Marching orders, Which I must say is not Disagreeable to me under y. Sircumstances of ye times, for when I enterd into y. Service I Jugded that if a necesity appeared to call us Below, it would be Don, therefore it Dont come on me By Surprise; But as Both ye officers aud men understood they Were Raised for y. Defence of ye Westeran frontiers, and their famellys and substance to be left in so Defenceless a situation in their abstence, seems to Give Sensable trouble, altho I Hope We Will Get over it, By leaving sum of ower trifeling Officers Behind who Pirtend to Have more Witt than seven men that can Render a Reason. We are ill Provided for a March at this season, But there is nothing hard under sum Sircumstances. We Hope Provision Will be made for us Below, Blankets, Campe Kittles, tents, arms, Regementals, etc., that we may not Cut a Dispisable figure, But may be Enabled to answer ye expectation of ower Countre.

"I Have Warmley Recomended to ye officers to lay aside all Personall Resentments at this time, for that it Would be construed By y. Worald that they made use of that Sircumstance to Hide themselves under from ye cause & ye countrie, and I hope it Will have a Good Effect at this time. We have ishued y. Neceserey orders, aud appointed ye owt Parties to Randezvous at Hanowa Town, y. 15th instant, and to March Emeditly from there. We have Recomended it to ye Militia to Station One Hundred Men at this post untill further orders.

"I Hope to have y. Plesure of Seeing ye Soon, as we mean to take Philadelphia in ower Rout. In ye mean time, I am, With Esteem, your Harty Wellwisher and Hble Sert. G. WILSON."

Up until the 5th of December, 1779, the regiment is styled in the receipts "the Battalion commanded by Col. Eneas Mackay." In those of Dec. 5, 1776, it is first styled "The Eighth Battalion of Penna. troops in the Continental service."

The regiment marched from Kittanning on the 6th of January, 1777, and entered upon that wonderful march across the mountains of Pennsylvania, over the Delaware, into New Jersey in the depth of the win- ter. From this they suffered more terribly than from any battle. Some died on their march. When they came to Trenton Col. Mackay died, and at Quibble- town, N. J., their lieutenant-colonel, Wilson, died. Here the men were down with fevers and putrid sore throat, contracted from the exposure of their terrible march.2

In the "Life of Timothy Pickering," vol. i. p. 122, is the following reference to the Eighth Pennsyl- vania :

" MARCH 1, 1777, SATURDAY.

" Dr. Putnam brought me a billet, of which the following is a copy :

"' DEAR SIR,-Our Battalion is so unfortunate as not to have a Doctor, and, in my opinion, dying for want of medicine. I beg you will come down to-morrow morning and visit the sick of my company, for that favor you shall have sufficient satisfaction from your humble servant, James Pigott, Cupt. of 8 Batt. of Pa, Quibletown, feb. 28, 1777.'

" I desired the Dr. by all means to visit them. They were raised about the Ohio, and had travelled near five hundred miles, as one of the sol- diers who came for the Dr. informed me, for 150 miles over mountains, never entering a house, but building fires and encamping in the Snow. Considerable numbers unused to such hardships have since died. The Colonel and Lieutenant-Colonel among the dead. The Dr. informed me he found them quartered in cold shattered houses," etc.

Archives, Second Series x. p. 641. , See sketch of Col Buenas Mackay, infra.

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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Col. Mackay and Lieut .- Col. Wilson having died, under the arrangement of March 12, 1777, Daniel Brodhead became colonel, Richard Butler lieutenant- colonel, and Stephen Bayard major.'

When Morgan's rifle command was organized, Lieut .- Col. Butler was made lieutenant-colonel of it, and Maj. James Ross, of the First Pennsylvania Regiment, became lieutenant-colonel of the Eighth in place of Butler.

According to a return signed by the latter June 9, 1777, the number of men enlisted between the 9th of August and the 16th of December, 1776, was six hun- dred and thirty ; enlisted since the 16th of December, 1776, thirty-four; making a total of six hundred and eighty-four. The strength of the respective compa- nies then were:

Rank and

Bergta.

File.

Capt. David Kilgore

C'apt. Samuel Miller ...

('npt. Van Swenringeu.

Capt. James Pigutt

Cupt. Wendel Ourry

Capt. Andrew Maun

Capt. James Montgomery.

Capt. Lieut. John Finley.

Capt. Lieut. Basil Prutber

From the total thirty-six were deducted as prisoners of war, fourteen missing, fifty-one dead, fifteen dis- charged, one hundred and twenty-six deserted. Lieut. Matthew Jack, absent from April 13th, wounded; Ensign Gabriel Peterson, absent from April 17th, wounded; Capt. Moses Carson, deserted April 21st ; First Lieut. Richard Carson, deserted ; Aquilla White, ensign, deserted February 23d; Joseph McDolo, first

1 See Appendix "L."

BOARD OF WAR TO COL. DANIEL BRODHEAD.

" PENNA. BOARD OF WAR, PHILA., March 31, 1777.

"SIR,-By a letter from his excellency General Washington we are informed that, viz. : ' By the promotion of Major Butler, nud death of the Colonel and Lieutenant-Colonel, the Eighth Regiment of your State is left without a Field-Officer, I must therefore desire that you will order the three new Field-Officers to join immediately, for I can assure you that no regiment in the Service wants then more from the diesentions that have lately prevailed iu that Corps, disipline lins been much relaxed, and it will require strict care aud attention to both Officers aud Men to bring them back to a proper sense of subordination and duty.

" You are therefore ordered to repair to your regiment immediately, and lest there should be any uncertainty of your receiving this order we have dispatched a special messenger with it, and we can have no doubt of your complying punctually herewith, as the public Service re- quires it.

" By order of the Board, . .. "OWEN BIDDLE, Chairman."

Col. Brodhead loff Reading, Berks Co., April 2, 1777, to join bis regi- meut .- Archives, v. 283.

To settle the question of precedence in reference to the officers of the Ninth Regimeut, the four oldest commissioned captains made an ar- rangement satisfactory to themselves, and making a statement of this to the President of the Council, Ang. 4, 1777, from camp at Germantown, prayed the Council that the arrangement stand, and that any antedated commission under specious pretensions might not supersede theirs. The dates of their former commissions and their rauk in the regular service of the State were as follows :

Joseph Erwin, captain, April 6, 1776.

Joseph Mcclellan, captain, July 15, 1776.

Thomas B. Bowen, eldest lieutenant in three battalions, April 6, 1776. John Davis, lieutenant, April 6, 1776 .- Archives, v. 183.

lieutenant, deserted ; Thomas Forthay, ensign, de- serted; Alexander Simrall, second lieutenant, cash- iered; David Mckee, ensign, dismissed the service; Ephraim Douglas, quartermaster, taken by the enemy March 13th.

It is a fact well known that the term deserted, as marked on the old military rolls, goes for very little, as in most cases those marked as deserters returned and did active and goud service, and afterwards, if living, drew pensions, and their names are found on the pension-lists. It was a custom in the Continental army for the soldiers from time to time to take uncere- monious leave, and again return to duty.

A return dated Nov. 1, 1777, shows the strength of the regiment present : Colonel, major, 2 captains, 6 lieutenants, adjutant, paymaster and surgeon, sor- geant-major, quartermaster-sergeant and drum-major, 29 sergeants, 9 drums and fifes, 112 rank and file ft for duty, 28 sick present, 77 sick absent, 139 on com- mand,-total, 351. Prisoners of war, 1 sergeant and 58 privates. Capt. Van Swearingen, Lieut. Basil Prather, and Lieut. John Hardin on command with Col. Morgan. Vacant offices : lieutenant-colonel, 4 captains, 2 lieutenants, 8 ensigns, chaplain, and sur- geon's mate. Lieut .- Col. Ross resigned after the bat- ties of Brandywine and Germantown.

The regiment suffered severely at Bound Brook, where Maj .. Gen. Lincoln, with five hundred men, was attacked by Cornwallis. Some of them also sustained the charge of the bayonets of the British grenadiers at Paoli. They were in the battles of Ash Swamp, at Brandywine, and Germantown.

The regiment was, as all regiments in the line were, from time to time broken and separated. Some of the officers were transferred to other regiments; so also were some of the privates upon re-enlistment. The service of those who participated with Morgan at Saratoga, and with Wayne at Stony Point, shall not be forgotten. Most of them, however, came together again before Valley Forge. When the regiment was ordered to the West, a great portion of those who had enlisted for the war were then assigned to other com- mands.

On the 5th of March, 1778, the regiment was ordered to Pittsburgh for the defense of the western frontiers. This was necessary by reason of the hos- tile actions of the Indians and the British military garrison in the Northwest, who controlled them and co-operated with them.

By directions of Gen. McIntosh, Col. Brodhead, about the 12th of July, made a detour up the West Branch to check the savages who were ravaging Wy- oming and the West Branch Valley. Of this expedi- tion we give some account later on. But on the 24th he was at Muncy, in Northumberland County, and had ordered Capt. Finley's company into Penn's Val- ley, where two of the latter's soldiers, Thomas Van Doren and Jacob Shedacre, who had participated in the campaign against Burgoyne under Morgan, were

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Capt. Michael Huffungle.

WESTMORELAND IN THE REVOLUTION.

lled that day, in sight of Potter's Fort, by the In- ans. Soon after Col. Hartley with his regiment lieved Col. Brodhead, and he proceeded with the ighth to Pittsburgh.

Capt. Matthew Jack, in a statement on file, says,-

" They were stationed at Bound Brook, New Jersey, in the winter and ring of 1777, where the British attacked and defeated it [the regiment] th the loss of a number of men. In the year 1778 it was sent to Pitts- rgh, to guard the frontier, and placed under the command of General cIntosh. That they went down to the mouth of the Beaver and there ilt Fort McIntosh, and from that went, upon McIntosh's command, to e head of the Muskingum, and there built Fort Laurens. In the year 79 went up the Allegheny on Gen. Brodhead's expedition, attacked the dians and defeated them and burned their towns. On the return of e regiment, its time having expired, it was discharged at Pittsburgh."

The following extracts are from the order-book be- re referred to :

" August 28, at Bedford, William Graham, brigade major.

"November 2, Capt. Joseph Finley to act as brigade major in Graham's sence.

At Tuscarawas (Fort Laurens, Ohio), November 21, court-martial or- red, Maj. Frederick Vernon president, to try Capt. Thomas Cook. ied, not guilty.

"November 25, Capt. Basil Prather, for good conduct yesterday, allowed hunt with any three men he chooses.

"December 31, at Fort McIntosh. As the Eighth Regiment is defi- nt in subalterns, the Gen. appoints sergeants Juhu Guthrie, John ark, Thomas Wiatt, and James Morrison to be ensigns."

During 1779 and 1781 portions of the Ninth and hirteenth Virginia Regiments were stationed at ort Pitt. In these two regiments and the Eighth ennsylvania there were many court-martials. Of e Eighth, Isaac Alkin, theft, guilty, fifty lashes; ames Maxwell, refusal to do duty, to ride a wooden orse ten minutes, with a musket to each foot; Ed- ard Wilkie, many offenses, one hundred lashes, and be drummed out of the regiment as a vagabond, t to appear again on pain of death ; Thomas Kelly, re hundred lashes, surgeon to attend the execution. In a letter from Gen. William Irvine to Gen. ashington, soon after he took command at Fort itt, dated Dec. 2, 1781, he says,-

"I have re-formed the remains of the Eighth Peny. into two com- nies, and call them a detachment from the Peuna. Line, to be com- uded by Lt. Col. Bayard."

The regiment was kept up by recruits from West- oreland County until the close of the war.

MORGAN'S RIFLE REGIMENT.

Of the heroes of the Revolutionary war who have American literature been accorded a full measure fame, the name of Daniel Morgan, "the wag- er of the Jerseys," the commander of the cele- ated "Morgan's Rifles," and the hero of Cowpens, ands conspicuous. Nor has his fame undergone minution, for it was but the other day that around e memorial statue 'erected by a grateful common- ealth to commemorate its gratitude to him and his mpatriots as to its deliverers the high official dig- taries of the States which had belonged to the iginal confederation stood with uncovered heads.

It is, however, not generally known in history how much Pennsylvania, and especially the Westmore- landers of the Eighth Regiment, had to do with the historic actions of the justly renowned Rifles. The glory which that corps won in the campaign in the North should be equally divided between Pennsylvania and Virginia, and not given entirely to the latter State, for the corps has usually been regarded as a Virginia corps.

"Morgan's Rifles," as it was usually designated, or "Morgan's Partisan Corps," as it was officially known, was a rifle corps organized by Gen. Washington him- self, of which Daniel Morgan, of Virginia, was made colonel; Col. Richard Butler, of the Ninth Pennsyl- vania, lieutenant-colonel; and Capt. Joseph Morris, of New Jersey, major.

These officers were personally known to Washing- ton, and were indeed on familiar terms with him, as familiar as any man could get to be. His splendid judgment of military character and talent was evinced in the selection of these officers.

This Richard Butler was promoted from major of the Eighth Pennsylvania to lieutenant-colonel and transferred to the First Pennsylvania, and from that regiment was transferred to Morgan's Rifles.

This corps was made up of chosen marksmen, picked out and drafted from the whole army.

Gen. Wilkinson, in his "Memoirs," has a return of Morgan's corps. According to this return the third company was commanded by Capt. Knox (who won promotion and distinction under Wayne at Stony Point), and the fifth company by Capt. Van Swear- ingen, of the Eighth Pennsylvania. Of Virginians there were 163; of Pennsylvanians, 193; and of Ma- rylanders, 65. There were in all, including sick and absentees, 508. Thus there were more Pennsylvanians in the regiment then than of any other State.

There were no better soldiers in the Continental army than the soldiers who made up the command of Morgan and Butler, and they have been highly praised by all historians. Of their services at Stillwater, otherwise Saratoga, Bancroft, in his " History of the United States," says,-

"In concurrence with the advice of Arnold, Gates ordered out Mor- gan's riflemen and the light infantry. They put a picket to flight at a quarter past one, but retired before the division of Burgoyne. Leading bis force unmolested through the woods, and securing his right by thick- ets and ravines, Morgan next fell unexpectedly upon the left of the Brit- ish centre division. To support him Gates, at two o'clock, sent out three New Hampshire battalions, of which that of Scammel met the enemy in front, that of Cilley took them in flank. In a warm engagement Mor- gan had his horse shot under him, and with his riflemen captured a cau- non, but could not carry it off."

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History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 22

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: