Tag: Pension applications

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A Demographic View of South Carolina Revolutionary War Soldiers, 1775–1783

Over the past few years, three demographic studies of North Carolina and Georgia Revolutionary War pension applicants have been completed (North Carolina militia, North Carolina Line, Georgia). A similar study of South Carolina soldiers who served in the Continental Line, state troops, and militia provides compiled demographic data of those who served in that state, […]

by Douglas R. Dorney, Jr.
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British Soldier John Ward Wins Back His Pocketbook

We expect writers for the Journal of the American Revolution to use primary sources—things written as close as possible to the time of the events that they describe. Sometimes even primary sources contain inaccuracies that can be spotted and resolved only by cross-referencing other primary sources. One example lies in the records of a criminal trial […]

by Don N. Hagist
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Johnson Cook: Patriot Warrior

In the fall of 1796, just months before George Washington’s presidency ended, thirty-six-year-old Revolutionary War veteran Johnson Cook (1760-1848), a Connecticut native, petitioned the president for financial assistance and entreated him to spare Cook from living out his final days “neglected.” In his two-page manuscript letter to Washington, written on October 1, 1796, from Marietta […]

by Adrina Garbooshian-Huggins
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A Demographic View of the Georgia Continental Line and Militia: 1775–1783

To complement my two studies of the North Carolina Continental Line and militia/state troops, I’ve researched the demographics of the Georgia Continental Line and militia using Federal pension applications.[1] The colony of Georgia at the beginning of the Revolutionary War consisted only of a series of counties along the Savannah River running from the Atlantic coast […]

by Douglas R. Dorney, Jr.
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“Good and Sufficient Testimony:” The Development of the Revolutionary War Pension Plan

One of the greatest sources of information on the American Revolution is the collection of pension applications submitted by American veterans of the war or their families. Over 80,000 files are available to researchers as part of the National Archives and Records Administration microfilm publication M804. Intent on finding some desired morsel of information, however, […]

by Michael Barbieri
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Memorial Day: Recovering the Service of William Tiller, American Soldier

Every now and then, one comes across a pension application of an old soldier that includes extraordinary detail. Occasionally the application includes a journal or memoir, as in the case of Connecticut’s Isaac Grant or Virginia’s William Tiller. Tiller’s journal is full of detail, but unfortunately few muster rolls for his regiment exist, making certain […]

by Michael J. F. Sheehan