USA > Virginia > Rockbridge County > Rockbridge County > A history of Rockbridge County, Virginia > Part 12
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But if no pacific measures shall be proposed or adopted by Great Britain, and our enemies will attempt to dragoon us out of those inestimable privileges, which we are entitled to as subjects, and reduce us to slavery, we declare that we are deliberately and resolutely determined never to surrender them to any power upon earth but at the expense of our lives.
These are our real though unpolished sentiments, of liberty and loyalty, and in them we are resolved to live and die.
The opening lines of the address do not make the impression now that they were intended to make in 1775. The portraiture of George III is the direct oppo- site of that given in the Declaration of Independence. The latter document cen- sures only the king, while the address vents its indignation on the king's ministry and on Parliament. But the committee appear to draw a distinction between the king as a man and the king as a sovereign. In the former respect, George III was a very mediocre person, obstinate and narrow-minded. In the latter respect he was an impersonation of the state, and to the state every patriotic citizen owes allegiance.
Thomas Lewis and Samuel McDowell were delegates to the Virginia Con- vention of March, 1775. The instructions given to them by Augusta county, February 22, contain the following sentences :
We have a respect for the parent state, which respect is founded on religion, on law, and the genuine principles of the constitution. * These rights we are fully resolved, * with our lives and fortunes, inviolably to preserve ; nor will we surrender such inestimable blessings, the purchase of toil and danger, to any ministry, to any parliament, or any body of men upon earth, by whom we are not represented, and in whose decisions, therefore, we have no voice. * * And as we are determined to maintain unimpaired that liberty which is the gift of Heaven to the subject of Britain's empire, we will most cordially join our coun- trymen in such measures as may be deemed wise and necessary to secure and perpetuate the ancient, just, and legal rights of this colony and all British America.
A memorial from the committee of Augusta, presented to the state conven- tion May 16, 1775, is mentioned in the journal of that body as "representing the necessity of making a confederacy of the United States, the most perfect, inde- pendent, and lasting, and of framing an equal, free, and liberal government, that may bear the trial of all future ages." This memorial is pronounced by Hugh
& HISTORY OF ROCKHRANIC COUNTY, VIRGINIA
Blair Grigsby the first expression of the policy of establishing an independent state government and permanent confederation of states which the parliamentary Journals of America contain. The men who could draw up papers like these were not the ones to stand back from sending, as they did, 137 barrels of flour to Boston for the relief of the people of that city in 1774. A savage act of Parlia- ment had closed their port to commerce.
Even during the Indian war of 1774 there were very strained relations be- tween the House of Burgesses and the Tory governor. In the spring of 1775, the administration of Dunmore was virtually at an end, and the Committee of Safety was managing the government of the state.
With respect to Virginia soil there were three stages in the war for American Independence. The first was confined to the counties on the Chesapeake. con- tinued but a few months, and closed with the expulsion of Dunmore seon after his burning of Norfolk on New Years day, 1776. The invasion by Arnold began at the very close of 1780, and ended with the surrender of Cornwallis in October. 1781. The warfare with the Indians continued intermittently from the summer of 1776 until after the treaty with England in 1783. Except in the southwest of the state, the red men rarely came east of the Alleghany Divide. The British did not come across the Blue Ridge, and only once did they threaten to do so. Con- sequently the Rockbridge area did not itself become a theatre of war.
Nevertheless, Rockbridge took an active part in the Revolution. At the out- set of hostilities Augusta agreed to raise four companies of minute men, a total of 200 soldiers. William Lyle, Jr., was the lieutenant of the Rockbridge company, and William Moore was its ensign. We do not know the name of the captain, but the colonel was George Mathews, a native of Rockbridge. As the commander of the Ninth Virginia Regiment in the Continental service. Mathews distinguished himself in Washington's army until he and his 400 "tall Virginians" were outflanked during the fog that settled on the field of Germantown and compelled to surrender. Probably a number of Rockbridge men were in this regiment, but we have no positive information. [We do not know of the men then living in the county, or who subsequently settled therein, there were some who enlisted in other Continental regiments. ] It was in the militia organizations. and then only for two or three months at a time that most of the Rockbridge sol- chers saw military duty.
Probably the first active service on the part of men of this county was in the summer of 1776, when the militia under Captain John Lyle and Captain Galmore marched under Colonel William Christian in his expedition against the He was gone five months, and accomplished his purpose without actual fighting, although five towns were destroyed. The companies of John Paxton and Charles Campbell were in the column of 700 men that reached Point
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Pleasant in November, 1777. Major Samuel McDowell was a line officer in this force, and his men began their march from the mouth of Kerr's Creek. General Hand was to march against the towns on the Scioto. But deciding that it was too late in the season and that provisions were too low, that leader contented himself with announcing the surrender of Burgoyne and then dismissing the militia, who reached home late in the next month. Next spring. Captain William McKee was in command at Point Pleasant. It was another Rockbridge company, under the command of Captain David Gray, that marched to the relief of Donally's fort when the news came that it was attacked by the Shawnees. Captain William Lyle also campaigned on the frontier.
The British invasion of 1781 was a more serious menace. But it is necessary to preface our account of it with a glance at the fighting south of Virginia. After the battle of Monmouth in the summer of 1778, the British leaders made no serious demonstration against Washington's army, and their fleet made them quite safe at New York, which was almost the only ground they held in the North. The war in this quarter was a stalemate, and the British turned their attention to Georgia and the Carolinas. In these colonies the Tories were as numerous as the Whigs. Savannah was taken and then Charleston. After the second disaster there was no field army to contend with the enemy, and South Carolina and Georgia were overrun. While General Lincoln was besieged in Charleston, the Seventh Regiment of Virginia Continentals under Colonel Buford were on their way to reinforce him. But they were surprised at Waxhaw, no quarter was given, and they were cut down by the dragoons of Colonel Tarleton.
After dusk some of the troopers, who were generally Tories, returned to the scene of the massacre, and where they found signs of life, they bayonetted the hacked and maimed. Captain Adam Wallace was among the slain. Several other Rockbridge men were either killed or wounded. The inhuman cruelty shown on this and other occasions by Tarleton made him an object of bitter hatred. He thought German methods of warfare the proper ones to use against the Americans, and the resentment he did so much to arouse was not entirely extinguished at the outbreak of the war of 1917.
A few months later a new American army, advancing from the north, was overthrown at Camden. At the close of 1780, when the fortunes of the Americans in the South were at a low ebb, General Greene, a leader of signal ability, was given command in all the colonies south of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. But the wreck of the army defeated at Camden was small, half-naked, and poorly equipped. The British and Tories were in much superior numbers and did not lack for clothing and munitions. Nevertheless, there was a turn in the tide. At the Cowpens, the right wing of the American army nearly destroyed a force under Tarleton, and 600 prisoners were sent to Virginia. Greene made a mas-
& HISTORY OF ROCKBRINGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA
tily retreat across North Carolina, closely pursued by Cornwallis, the British commander-in-chief in the South. After Greene crossed the Dan, Cornwallis gave up a chase that was bringing him no result, and fell back to Hillsboro, then the capital of North Carolina Greene was joined by large numbers of militia. until his army was 4400 strong, but only one of his little regiments was of seas- oned troops, and the militia organizations were an uncertain reliance. The force under Cornwallis was only half as numerous, yet his men were veterans, well- equipped and well officered. Greene recrossed the Dan and took position at Guilford, where he was attacked by the British, March 15th. Cornwallis hekl the battleground, but one-third of his army was put out of action by the American rifles. He could neither follow up his nominal advantage nor remain in North Carolina. Ile made a rapid retreat to Wilmington, pursued a part of the way by Greene, who then advanced into South Carolina. Cornwallis dared not follow his antagonist, and led his shattered army to Virginia. In four months Greene nearly freed South Carolina and Georgia from the enemy, except as to the sea- ports of Charleston and Savannah.
Rockbridge men under Captain James Gilmore helped to win the brilliant victory at the Cowpens. Their time had nearly expired, and they were used to escan the captured redcoats to their prison camp. In this fight Ensign John Mccorkle was wounded in the wrist and died of lockjaw. But Gilmore seems also to have been present at Guilford, where sokliers from Rockbridge were much more numerously represented. In this battle. Major Alexander Stuart was wounded and captured, and Captains John Tate and Andrew Wallace were killed. Among the other oficers were Major Samuel McDowell, Captain James Bratton, and Captain James Buchanan. Tate's company was composed almost wholly of students from Liberty Hall. They acquitted themselves so well as to extort a compliment from Cornwallis. After the action he asked particularly about "the rebels who took position in an orchard and fought so furiously." Samuel Houston, then a youth of nineteen, kept a diary while his company was on its tour James Waddell, the preacher who was so noted for his eloquence, ad- dressed the command at Steele's Tavern, the place of rendezvous The company left Lexington January 26th, joined Greene's army five days before the battle of Guilford, and got home March 23rd Houston fired nineteen rounds during the engagement 'The men had orders to take trees and several would get behind the same tree. The redcoats were repulsed again and again. At Gilford, as at the Cowpens, the conduct of the Virginia militia was exceptionally good Greene .od if He could have known how well they would act, he could have won a com- prie victory In that case the battle of Guilford might have decided the cam-
Meanwhile the tractor Arnold had landed 1600 men at Westover on the
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James. Two days later-January 5th-he burned Richmond. Finding his flank threatened from the direction of Petersburg, he retreated to Portsmouth, where he was closely watched by a small army under Steuben and Muhlenburg. Colonel Bowyer had a regiment under Muhlenburg, the clergyman-general. The company of Captain Andrew Moore marched from its rendezvous at Red House, January 10, 1781.
Virginia had been stripped of her trained soldiers, and Washington sent Lafayette to take command. The young Frenchman arrived in March with 1200 light infantry. To offset this help, General Phillips left New York with two regi- ments and occupied Manchester, April 30th. The British much outnumbered the Americans, but were not aggressive. Phillips died of fever at Petersburg, and Arnold was again in chief command. When Cornwallis arrived he brought the British army to a strength of 7000 men. Having no use for Arnold, he sent him away. The odds against the Americans were now serious. Late in May, Cornwallis moved from Richmond to gain the rear of Lafayette's army. He wrote that the boy could not escape him. Yet the boy did escape him, although he was pursued nearly to the Rapidan. Cornwallis then sent out marauding ex- peditions under Tarleton and Simcoe, while his main army moved upon Orange. Lafayette, reënforced by 800 veterans under General Wayne, recrossed the Rapidan. Cornwallis thought he would cut him off, but Lafayette opened an old road and marched by night to Mechum's River, where, with his back to the Blue Ridge, he made a stand to protect his stores. The British leader did not try to force a decision, and fell back to the Peninsula below Richmond. Tarleton had burned Charlottesville, then a very small place, and the Assembly fled from it to Staunton, where it sat from June 7th to the 24th. Tarleton made a threat of coming over the Blue Ridge. The legislators fled from Staunton so precipi- tately as to take no measures to defend the place. But the militia assembled in force, their ranks swelled by old men as well as boys, and meant to give Tarle- ton a hot reception, in case he should attempt to force Rockfish Gap. But as Tarleton had only 250 men, his threat could have been no more than a bluff.
Lafayette, gradually reinforced by the Virginia militia to the number of 3,000, followed the British. Washington came down from the Hudson with 2,000 of his American troops and 5,000 Frenchmen. The sequel is familiar to every reader of American history. Previous to the siege of Yorktown, the two small battles of Hot Water and Green Spring, fought near Williamsburg, were the only engagements in the Virginia campaign that rose above the dignity of mere skirmishes. But during his almost unobstructed march, Cornwallis in- flicted a loss of $10,000,000 in looting and burning, and the kidnapping of slaves.
Not only did the Valley men have to contend with the British cast of the Blue Ridge and the Indians west of the Alleghany, but in the spring of 1781 they had also to watch the Tories in Montgomery. The latter were threatening to
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A HISTORY OF ROCKIRINA COUNTY, VIRGINIA
seize the lead mines near Fort Chiswell, and then join Cornwallis, when, as was expected, he would follow Greene into Virginia.
Among the men from this county who turned out to fight the invader in 1781 were companies under Colonel John Bowyer and captains Andrew Moore, Samuel Wallace, John Cunningham, William Moore, David Gray. James Buch- anan, and Charles Campbell. Captain William Moore helped to guard the pris- oners during their march from Yorktown to the detention camp at Winchester.
There was little active disloyalty in Rockbridge. Archibald Alexander says there were few Tories, and he intimates that these found it advisable to seek a change of climate. One was John Lyon, who had been a servant to Alexander's father. He deserted to the British, and was one of the misereants who bayoneted the hacked and helpless men on the field of Waxhaw, although he still had enough humanity to spare the life of John Reardon. Lyon was killed at Guilford. Tory Hollow, near the head of Purgatory Creek, derives its name from the Tories who fled into it and were not molested. Doubtless they were wise enough not to make their plight needlessly severe. There is another Tory Hollow between Col- lier's and Kerr's creeks, and it may take its name from the Tory branch of the Cunningham family. Robert Cunningham, a son of John of Kerr's Creek, became a brigadier-general in the British army in South Carolina. His conduct made him so odious that his estate was confiscated, and although he petitioned to be granted to return, he had to spend the rest of his life under the Union Jack. He was granted an annuity by the British government. His brother Patrick, although a colonel in the British army, was not exiled from South Carolina.
But there was discontent, and there was sometimes a disinclination to per- form military service. It is related of Edward Graham that he found the militia assembled near Mount Pleasant about 1778, quite unwilling to volunteer instead of being drafted. Special inducements were offered, but without visible result. Graham addressed the men to induce them to supply the quota with volunteers. Captain John Lyle and a few others stepped forward, and marched and counter- marched before the militia, but without effect. Graham then joined the volunteer squad him elf, and was followed by enough of the unwilling crowd to make out the number desired. Like some other persans, this minister did not think well of the headlong flight of the legislators from Staunton. He was on his way Home from attending a presbytery, and at once set about raising a force of respect- able -ize, acting as its leader.
The most serious disaffection seems to have taken place in May. 1781. It grew out of an Act of Assembly of October, 1780, whereby the counties were to be laid off into districts for the purpose of procuring a quota from each to serve in the Continental hne for eighteen months. A petition was sent to the capital from Rockbridge, representing that an absence from home for that length of time meant rum to the family of the sokhier. Districts had been laid off in this
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county, and in two or three instances the quota had been procured. Jefferson, then governor of the state, pursued a vacillating course and hesitated to enforce the conscription law. Then he wrote a letter taking off the suspension, but by that time the day appointed for the draft had gone by. A date was set for another laying off of the districts. A hundred people gathered at the county seat, May 9th. Hearing that the Augusta people had prevented such action in their county, and seeing Colonel Bowyer getting lists from the captains, a crowd went into the courtroom and carried out the tables. The men said they would serve three months at a time in the militia and make up the eighteen months in that manner, but would not be drafted as regulars for the term mentioned in the law. After tearing up the papers the crowd dispersed.
Virginia was prosperous when the Revolution broke out, but there was much distress during the war. Trade with England came necessarily to an end, and was carried on with France at great risk. Specie was scarce, and there was a tendency to keep it hidden. The currency issued by the Continental Congress to pay its war claims rested on a very insecure basis, and Henry Ruffner relates that it operated as a tax because of its rapid depreciation. In March, 1780, the ratio of paper to specie was forty to one, and in May, 1781, it was 500 to onc. Taxes were high and hard to meet, and the collecting of them was an unpleasant official duty. Almost everything was taxed, even the windows in a house. A petition of 1779 complains not only of the high assessment, but says that a still greater grievance is the separate taxing of houses, orchards, and fencing, these items aggregating more than the land itself. It was made legal for taxes to be paid in certain kinds of farm produce. This form was called the specific tax, and it required storehouses for the produce levied upon.
The return of the specific tax for April, 1782, mentions 3421/2 bushels of wheat, 1,282 pounds of bacon, and $12.58 in specie, turned in by 702 tithables. There were 338 tithables in arrears for 165 bushels of wheat and 676 pounds of bacon. Samuel Lyle and John Wilson, the commissioners, were allowed ten per cent. for their services. A petition of 1784 says there is little or no hard money, and that the number of horses and cattle had been much reduced during the war. The only merchantable staple was hemp, and this had fallen in price very much.
Under the Federal pension law of 1832, the applicant was required to make his declaration before the county court, and his reminiscences are often of interest and value. The declarations below are by men who were living in Rockbridge in the year indicated. Only a synopsis is given here. A less abbreviated account -of more service to genealogists-may be found in McAllister's Data on the Virginia Militia in the Revolutionary War.
Ailstock, Absalom: born a free mulatto about 1795. Marched from Louisa about December 1, 1780, it being rumored that the British were going to land on the Virginia coast, and was out four weeks. About April 1, 1781, joined the Second Regiment under Colonel Richardson. The ruins of the tobacco warehouses in Manchester could be seen from the
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4 11151011 01 ROCKPRIKA COUNTY, VIRGINIA
Richmond side The brigade was stationed a while at Malvern Hills. The enemy were in the halt of conting this far up the James in beats, cach with a gun at cither end, the pur - jose beug plunder. Two such boats and seventeen men were taken by the regiment During the vege of Yorktown the applicant dug intrenchments for batteries and made sand baskets
Cunningham, John Born in Pennsylvania in 1750 Served in that state in 1776, 1777. and 1781
Davidson, John Born in Rockbridge, 1757 He was willing to go out in the spring of 1778, being then unmarried, but was induced by his mother to hire a substitute. In the summer of that year, as a drafted man, he served in Greenbrier U'nder Captain Wilham I've he drove jackhorses loaded with flour and bacon to the troops on the frontier in January, 1781, he marched from Red House, his company commanders heng Captain Andrew Moore, Lieutenant John McClung, and Ensign James McDowell. At Great Brilge. near Norfolk, two twelve pounder howitzers and about twelve prisoners were captured There was another skirmish near Gum Bridge, near the Dismal Swamp He went out again. August 7, 1781, under Captain David Gray, who tried to induce him to be orderly sergeant At Jamestown the militia were ferried across the James by the French, who w cre 5,500 strong on the north side.
East, James : Born in Goochland, 1253. In 1779 he was guarding Hessian prisoners at Charlottesville. Left Fluvanna county, 1792.
Fix, Philip: Born near Reading, Pennsylvania, about 1754 Was Inving in Loudoun county, 1777. and served that year in his native state.
Harrison, James . Born in Culpeper. 1755. In the fall of 1777 he served under Captam John Paxton, marching to Point Pleasant by way of Fort Denally. He witnessed the death of Cornstalk, Red Hawk, Petalla, and Ellinipsico. He reached home shortly before Christ n'as. In 1781 he was engaged six months in Amherst, his duty being to patrol the county twice a week to thwart any effort by the Tories to stir up disaffection among the negroes
Hickman, Adam: Born in Germany, 1702, and came to America five years later Served under Captain James Hall in 1780 That company and Captain Gray's marched about October 1, and was absent three months around Richmond and Petersburg. He went out again in May, 1781, and the Appomattox at Petersburg was crossed on a flatheat, the bridge having been burned by the enemy He was in the battle of Hot Water, June 28th.
Thght, George: Born in King and Queen, 1755 Was in Christian's expedition against the Cherokees In August, 1777. he enlisted in Rockbridge for the war, serving in Colonel George Baylor's Light Dragoons. In October, he joined the regiment at Fredericksburg. and the foll wing winter was at Valley Forge. The troop to which he belogged was em- I loved in preventing the people of that region from furnishing supplies to the enemy, and in watching the movements of the latter He was in the battle of Monmouth Next Septem- ler, at a time when the regiment was asleep in barns on the Hudson, it was surprised les General Gres, and no quarter was given except to the members of his own troop He and arother man escaped by getting in among the chomy In the spring of 1279 the regimer! was recruited, and Colonel William Washington took command It was again employed. thiếtnic in New Jersey, in watching the enemy and preventing trading with him Near the che of 1780 the regiment marched to Charle ton, South Carolina Shortly after his ar- rival in March, Washington defeated Tarleton, taking sixteen prisoners, Int a while I ter was lorsself defeated at Monk's Corner The hor es were saddled and bridled but there was 1 Hur to mount them Applicant was taken prisoner and was exchanged at Jamestown, in Augn L 1781
Hinkle, Henry Barn in Pennsylvania, 1750 Served three tours in the militia of Fred crik ommonty, 1779 17. 1
Kcl . Jame Bern on Walker's Creek, Iol Drafted, January. 1781, into Captain James Buchanan's company of Colonel Bowser's regiment, and was in skirmishes near
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