Unit recruited from - depot as of 1813 principal campaigns/battles
1st Inf – Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Missouri – New Brunswick,NJ depot - Detroit Campaign (Jul-Oct 1812)
2nd Inf – LA, TN, MS - New Brunswick,NJ depot 1813– New Orleans (an 1815 ) – defense of Ft Boyer
3rd Inf – PA, DE - Louisville, KY Natchez MS depots- Detroit Campaign (Jul-Oct 1812)
4th Inf – MA, NH – Concord, NH depot -Tippecanoe (1811); Detroit Campaign (Jul-Oct 1812); Plattsburgh (1813)
5th Inf – PA, DE - Harrisburg, PA depot - Fort George (May 1813); Plattsburgh (1813)
6th Inf – NY, NJ - Reading, PA depot - Fort George (May 1813); Plattsburgh (1813-14)
7th Inf – LA, TN, MS - Eddyville, KY depot – New Orleans (Jan 1815)
8th Inf – NC, SC, GA - Ft Hawkins, GA depot -
9th Inf – MA, NH - Pittsfield, MA depot - Plattsburgh (1813-1814); Chippewa (Jul 1814); Fort Erie (Nov 1814)
10th Inf – NC, SC, GA - Wilkebarre, NC depot -
11th Inf – NY, VT - Rutland, VT depot -Plattsburgh (1813-14); Fort Erie (Nov 1814)
12th Inf – MD, VA - Staunton, VA depot - Queenstown Campaign (Oct 1813); Fort George (May 1813); Plattsburgh (1813); Bladensburgh (Aug 1814)
13th Inf – NY, VM - Albany, NY depot - Queenstown Campaign (Oct 1813); Fort George (May 1813); Plattsburgh (1813-14)
14th Inf – MD, VA - Baltimore, MD depot - Queenstown Campaign (Oct 1813); Fort George (May 1813); Plattsburgh (1813)
15th Inf – NY, NJ - Trenton, NJ depot - Battle of York (1813); Plattsburgh (1813-1814)
16th Inf – PA, DE - Easton, PA depot - Battle of York (1813); Plattsburgh (1813)
17th Inf – KY, OH, IN, MI, ILL, MO - Chillicothe, OH, Lexington, KY depots – Raisin River (1813); Battle of Thames (1813)
18th Inf – NC, SC, GA - Charleston & Columbia, SC
19th inf – KY,OH, IN, MI, ILL, MO - Zanesville, OH depot - Detroit Campaign (1813); Fort Erie(Nov 1814)
20th Inf – MD, VA - Fredericksburg, VA depot - Queenstown Campaign (Oct 1813); Chippewa (Jul 1814)
21st Inf – MA, NH - Portsmouth, NH depot - Battle of York (1813); Plattsburgh (1813-14)
Chrystler’s Farm (Nov 1813); Chippewa (Jul 1814); Fort Erie (Nov 1814)
22nd Inf – PA, DE - Pittsburgh, PA depot - Plattsburgh (1813); Chippewa (Jul 1814)
23rd Inf - NY, VM - Utica, NY depot - Queenstown Campaign (Oct 1813); Fort Erie (Nov 1814)
24th Inf – LA, TN, MS - Nashville & Knoxville, TN depot - Detroit Campaign (1813); Battle of Thames (1813)
25th Inf – RI, CT - Hartford, CT - Fort George (May 1813); Plattsburgh (1813); Chippewa (Jul 1814) after 1813-4 24,000 men recruited
26th Inf – VT- Burlington, VT - depot - Battle of Thames (1813)
27th Inf – NY - New York, NY - depot - Battle of Thames (1813)
28th Inf – KY - Olympian Springs, KY depot - Battle of Thames (1813); Plattsburgh (1813-14)
29th Inf – NY - Albany, NY depot - Plattsburgh (1813-14)
30th Inf – VT - Burlington, VT depot - Plattsburgh (1813-14)
31st Inf – VT - Woodstock, VT depot -
32nd Inf - VT - Woodstock, VT depot -
33rd Inf – ME- Saco, ME depot - Plattsburgh (1813-14)
34th Inf - ME - Portland, ME depot - Plattsburgh (1813-14)
35th Inf – VA - Petersburg, VA depot
36th Inf – Georgetown, DC, Richmond, VA depot -east - Bladensburgh (Aug 1814)
37th Inf - CT - New London & Hartford, CT depot
38th Inf – MD - Baltimore, MD depot - Bladensburgh (Aug 1814)
39th Inf – TN - Knoxville, TN – Creek War Talaposa River (1814)
40th Inf – MA - Boston, MA
41st Inf – NY - New York, NY
42nd Inf - PA, DE - Sunbury, PA, Newcastle, DE
43rd Inf – NC - Raleigh, NC
44th Inf – LA, TN - New Orleans, LA, Nashville, TN - New Orleans (Jan 1815)
45th Inf (Light?)– ME - Bath, ME
46th Inf (Light?)– NY - New York, NY
+47th Inf (Light?) – ? - ? redesginated when lower numbered regiments were consolidated due to low recruitment
+48th Inf (Light?) - ? - ? -redesginated when lower numbered regiments were consolidated due to low recruitment
+ listed in the Army 1815 register - not available online
----------
Rangers
1812-1815 - Three battalions of Rangers (12/17 companies) - *defense of Old NW Territories - Harrison's Campaigns
1812-1815 - regiment of Mounted Rangers - 17th U.S. Regiment - Col. William Russell - *defense of Old NW Territories - Harrison Campaigns
Rangers in the War of 1812
----------
Riflemen
US Regiment of Riflemen with colors inscribed 1st Rifle Regt.-US – formed 12 April 1808
– 3 companies NY, VT
- 3 companies South & LA Territory
- 4 companies KY, OH, IN Territory
Company Tippecanoe 1811
Companies Siege of St Augustine April 1812
After 1813
1st Rifle Regiment - VA, GA - Shepardstown, VA & Savannah, GA depots
Company raid on Brockville (Feb 1813)
Company Ogdensburgh (Feb 1813)
Battalion of Riflemen Queenstown Campaign (Oct 1813)
Companies Battle of York (Apr 1813)
Companies Fort George (May 1813)
Company Crysler’s Farm (Nov 1813)
Company SANDY CREEK Ambush 28 May 1814
Companies Fort Erie (Aug - Nov 1814) "CONJOCTA CREEK Ambush" - 4 Aug 1814 - probably the decisive engagement of the war, which prevented the fall of Niagra
2nd Rifle Regiment – KY, TN - Chillicothe,OH, Nashville, Tn, Lexington, Ky depots
Company Bladensburgh (Aug 1814)?
3rd Rifle Regiment – NC, VA, TN - Charlotte, NC, Bath Courthouse, VA, Gallatin, TN - New Orleans Campaign (Jan 1815)
British Navy attack Fort Saint Philip on the Mississippi River commanded by Major Walter H. Overton of the Third Rifles.
4th Rifle Regiment – NY - Utica, NY, Western PA depots - Fort Erie Campaign (Aug-Nov 1814)
Companies with 1st at "CONJOCTA CREEK Ambush" - 4 Aug 1814 - probably the decisive engagement of the war, which prevented the fall of Niagara
-----
"The prewar infantry component of the U.S. army (regiments numbered 1 through 7) were organized as individual regiments with no battalion structure. In 1812 Congress authorized the raising of 18 new regiments of infantry (numbered 8 through 25) on a new establishment of two battalions per regiment. Difficulties were encountered in recruiting and the different establishments of infantry regiments also created other problems which caused Congress in late 1812 to make infantry organization uniform throughout the army and the battalion structure was ended. Some regiments of the 1812 "wave," however, did succeed in raising two battalions and, as late as the autumn of 1813, still retained the two-battalion structure. That is the easy answer to your question, please don't ask for the difficult response."
Organization of an American Infantry Regiment during the War of 1812
The War of 1812 Magazine, Issue 1: January 2006
"Accurate and reliable information on the strength of the regular U.S. Army during the War of 1812 is often very hard to find. Although the authorized strength of the establishment was about 57,000 by December 1814, the best figures (Donald Graves has) been able to discover for the actual strength are 38,186 in September 1814 and 33,424 in February 1815. (He has) taken the average of 35,800 as the estimated strength in December 1814. To this, however, it should be added that during the War of 1812 the United States called out some 10,110 volunteers in federal service, 3,049 rangers and 458,463 militia (197,653 in 1814 alone) and there were also 5,000 men from the navy and marines available for land service, if required. Given these figures, it is small wonder that British strategic planning during the War of 1812 emphasized the defensive.
Table 6: The American and British Armies, December 1814
_________________________British Army______United States Army
Strength___________________52,163_____________est.35,800
Cavalry Regiments____________2_____________________1
Infantry Battalions____________84____________________45
Artillery Companies___________31____________________42
Table 6 is Donald Graves attempt to compare the two opposing armies in terms of their numbers and types of units, and numerical strength. In compiling this table, the following equations have been made, based on the author's knowledge and experience of the organization and strength of the opposing forces: 1 British or Canadian infantry battalion equals 1 American infantry or rifle regiment; 1 regiment of British cavalry equals 1 regiment of American cavalry; 1 battalion of American artillery equals 3 British artillery companies; and the US Regiment of Light Artillery has been taken as a strength of 6 British artillery companies. The Incorporated Militia Battalion of Upper Canada, the Voltigeurs Canadiens and the Select Embodied Militia of Lower Canada have been included to provide an additional 8 battalions and 4,000 men for the British army."
The Redcoats are Coming!: British Troop Movements to North America in 1814, by Donald E. Graves
http://www.warof1812.ca/redcoats.htm
OPFOR!
Military Heritage of the War of 1812: an Update on the Infantry Regiments of the British Army Compiled by Donald E. Graves, The War of 1812 Magazine, Issue 6: April 2007 -----------
"Where most of these officers were bound was the northern border. It is often forgotten in the United States but the major military campaigns of the War of 1812 were not waged along the Atlantic seaboard or in Louisiana but against the British possessions to the north. The greater part of the operations in this theatre was carried out by the regular army and for the regulars, the conflict waged in 1812-1814 was a northern war. The statistics bear this statement out–of the 48 regular infantry regiments or fragments of regiments in service during those years, 31 served in the north as did both of the regular dragoon regiments, two of the four regular rifle regiments and about three-quarters of the artillery companies. In December 1813 three of the five major-generals in the regular establishment were in the north as were six of the thirteen brigadier generals and the same proportion of senior staff officers. The climate in the north, which ranges from sub-arctic in January to sub-tropical in July, was bad enough but a disastrous combination of faulty strategic direction, incompetent leaders, poor logistics and poorer communications as well as a very professional opponent condemned the regular army to thirty bad months that brought many hardships but precious little glory."
For want of this precaution so many Men lose their Arms:" Official, Semi-Official and Unofficial American Artillery Texts, 1775-1815 Part 10, By Donald E. Graves, The War of 1812 Magazine Issue 15: May 2011
Lots of "good reads" to be had by Graves, Hickey and others at The War of 1812 Magazine
http://www.napoleon-series.org/
____________________________________________________________________________________
American State Papers -- TABLE OF CONTENTS. MILITARY AFFAIRS. VOLUME. I.
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hlaw:@field%28DOCID+@lit%28sp0162%29%29:
Documents showing the amount disbursed as bounties and premiums for recruits since January 27, 1814, and the distribution of the same, October 27, 1814, ... 511
 |
| 1814 - Regimental Recruiting - RG composite picture - pp. 512-513 |
 |
| 1814 - U.S. Army - Strength and Distribution - p. 535 |
American State Papers: Documents, legislative and executive of the Congress of the United States ..., Part 5, Volume 1 (Google eBook), United States. Congress, Gales and Seaton, 1832
http://books.google.com/books?id=iJUbAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0%20%20
Register rules and regulations of the army for 1813 December 29 1813 384
Documents showing the amount disbursed as bounties and premiums for recruits since January 27 1814 and the distribution of the same October 27 1814 511 - 512-513 table
Report of the strength and distribution of the army previous to July 1, 1814 535
____________________________________________________________________________________
List of officers of the army of the United States from 1779 to 1900 ...by William Henry Powell, 1900
http://books.google.com/books?id=KogDAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover
Powell p. 56
 |
| 1812 - Rifle Regiment_Powell - p56 |
No list of Rangers for 1812 in Powell
Register, rules, and regulations of the army for 1813, December 29, 1813, ... 384
AR p. 408
 |
| 1813 - Rifle Regiment -Army Register - p.408 |
AR p. 421
 |
| 1813 - Rifle Regiment_Powell - p.87 |
 |
| 1814 - Rifle Regiments and Rangers -1st,2nd,3rd,4th_Powell - pp.137-139 |
Powell p.139
 |
| 1814 - Ranger _ list of _ officers- Powell-p139 |
Report of the Secretary of War, with an army register for 1815 (page 625 shows for year 1816), ... 625
NILES' WEEKLY REGISTER - FROM MARCH TO SEPTEMBER 1816 VOL X, p. 154,
http://books.google.com/books?id=1bARAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover
 |
| War of 1812 Battles table |
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Selected excerpts from William Addleman Ganoe's "History of the United States Army." D. Appleton Century Co., NY, 1942
Jan 1812 - "To help in the protection of these frontiers Congress authorized the enlistment of 6 companies of "Rangers" for twelve months. Then, because of threatening war with England, it added to the regular troops 10 regiments of infantry of 18 companies each, 3 regiments of artillery of 20 companies each and a regiment of light dragoons of 12 companies. After the increase, the army theoretically consisted of 17 regiments of infantry, 4 of artillery, 2 of dragoons, and 1 of rifles." p.117
May 1813 - "The Army register appeared also. It contained a complete list of regular and volunteer officers and showed a conglomerate mixture of elements making up the army: 1 regiment of artillery; 2 regiments of dragoons; 1st, 2nd and 3rd regiments of light artillery; 25 regiments of regular infantry; a rifle regiment; 14 regiments on one-year infantry; 5 regiments of volunteer infantry for the war; 12 companies of rangers; 4 regiments, 1 battalion and 1 company of "United States volunteers" and 5 companies of "sea fencibles." It also showed the country to be divided for military administration into nine districts with a brigadier general in charge in each." p.130
Jan 1814- "By way of increase, 3 regiments of riflemen, consisting of 10 companies (each company having 1 captain, 1 first, 1 second, and 1 third lieutenant, 1 ensign, 5 sergeants, 4 corporals, 2 musicians and 90 privates) were also authorized." p.136
April 1814 - "Theoretically, the army at this time consisted of 44 regiments of infantry, the corps of artillery, 1 regiment of dragoons, 4 regiments of rifles, the corps of engineers, the rangers, the sea fencible." p.137
Feb 1815 - "After the peace was generally known to exist, the army began to fall off in numbers until it totaled 33,424 out of a possible 62,773. Several attempts by Congress and the army were made to overcome by quality the lack of quantity." p.143
March 1815 - "In the war just passed the army had played its part in burlesque and tragedy. It had been more pitiful than in the Revolution. Yet when the affair was over, the country did not absurdly disband its entire force, principally because there was the fresh memory of a sound spanking. Instead a law was passed limiting the army to 10,000 men and a corps of engineers....Some sinister effort must have been at work to deprive all the old regiments of their traditions and spirit. For no plan could have more shrewdly dammed any existing pride and affiliations than the following:
The old 1st Infantry went into the new 3rd Infantry;
the old 2nd went into the new 1st;
the old 3rd, into the new 1st;
the old 4th, into the new 5th;
the old 5th, into the new 8th;
the old 6th, into the new 2nd;
the old 7th, into the new 1st;
and the old 8th, into the new 7th.
The new 1st was then made up of the old 2nd, 3rd, 7th and 44th;
the new 2nd, of the old 6th, 16th, 22nd, 23rd, and 32nd;
the new 3rd, of the old 1st, 17th, 19th, and 28th;
the new 4th, of the old 12th, 14th, 18th, 20th, 36th, and 38th;
the new 5th, of the old 4th, 9th, 13th, 21st, 40th, and 46th,
the new 6th, of the old 11th, 25th, 27th, 29th, and 37th;
the new 7th, of the old 8th, 24th, and 39th;
and the new 8th, of the 5th, 10th, 15th, 31st, 33rd, 34th, 35th, 39th, 41st, 42nd, 43rd, 45th. (Compare to Mahon below)The eight remaining infantry regiments were smaller than their war predecessors because, although the number of companies in each remained at ten, every company contained 78 men instead of 103. There was no effort to preserve the honors or traditional numbers of any of ,the prewar regiments. The 1st was merged with other regiments and re designated the 3d, and the old 2d, 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th were likewise lost in the remains of disbanded regiments. The new numbers were founded on the seniority of the colonels, the senior colonel commanding the 1st, and so forth. As a consequence of the reduction, 25,000 infantrymen were separated from the service. Another consequence was that the form of the infantry establishment was set roughly for the next thirty years. Not until the Mexican War, thirty-one years later, was it substantially expanded. Not only were the units of the army diabolically jumbled but its size had to shrink to about one-sixth its former self. Officers and men had to be ejected and the remainder readjusted with a natural wrecking of ambition and spirit. Neither was their any solace to the remnants in being sent in small scattered fractions to lonely frontier posts and seacoast fortifications" p.147
December 1820 - "..out there the army, having passed through its nameless period, was growing in quality while the government was looking with skeptical eyes at its size. It was too much to expect over 7,000,000 people to support 10,000 soldiers." p. 157
__________________________________________________________________________________
ARMY LINEAGE SERIES
INFANTRY
Part I:
Regular Army
by
John K. Mahon and Romana Danysh
OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF MILITARY HISTORY UNITED STATES ARMY WASHINGTON, D.C.,1972
pp. 13-16
http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/Lineage/in/infantry.htm#2
"...(President) Jefferson's administration had only a brief chance to test its convictions regarding a strong militia and a small standing army, for war clouds were gathering once more. The United States almost began the second war with England when the British warship Leopard attacked the American Chesapeake in 1807. This aggression caused Congress to add five Regular infantry regiments in 1808, the 3d through the 7th, and also to constitute the Regiment of Riflemen. The latter was a product of the Revolutionary experience and the first rifle unit since the end of the Legion in 1796. Rifle elements re-entered the service through the agency of Brig. Gen. James Wilkinson, commanding the army, and Henry Dearborn, Secretary of War, both of whom had had firsthand experience with them in the last war. Aside from the augmentation of April 1808 there was no further preparation for a fight until just six months before the second war with England. At that time, that is, in January 1812, Congress constituted ten new regiments of Regular infantry. The act of 11 January 1812 which created them was remarkable in at least two ways: first, it provided for the largest regiments and battalions authorized in the United States before the Civil War and, second, it established an organization that was at variance with the seven existing regiments. As a result, in the first six months of 1812 there were three different-sized infantry regiments, besides one of riflemen. The 1st and 2d regiments made up the infantry of the "military peace establishment," and they had ten companies in them of seventy-six enlisted men. The 3d through the 7th regiments, authorized in 1808, were called the infantry of the "additional force," and comprised ten companies with two more officers and two more enlisted men each than the 1st and 2d had. The 8th through the 17th in no way resembled the others, for they had eighteen companies of 110 enlisted men, arranged in two battalions. Although some of the bulky eighteen-company regiments were raised, several never acquired their second battalions. Recruiting was so difficult that they lacked the time to raise many men before Congress voted a fresh reorganization. Late in June 1812, the legislators changed the law. According to the new arrangement there were to be twenty-five regiments of infantry, exclusive of the rifle regiment, each containing ten companies of 102 men. Thus all the infantry regiments were made uniform on paper, and a standard of organization was established that persisted throughout the conflict. This standard was more often than not honored in the breach. Once constituted, all the twenty-five regiments organized and recruited actively, but during the first two years of the struggle their efforts brought in less than half of the total number of infantrymen authorized. Regulars at first could only enlist for five years, but late in 1812 newcomers were given a chance to enroll "during the war." All the while the states competed with the Federal government for soldiers, and the shorter "hitches" they offered drew men into their service. To combat this Congress directed the creation, in January 1813, of twenty new infantry regiments enlisted for just one year. Nineteen of them were raised and designated as the 26th through the 44th Infantry. Later, they were converted into long-term outfits (five years or the duration) , but all the units constituted after 1811 had men in them enlisted for different terms. For example, there were in a single regiment one-year regulars, eighteen month men, three- and five-year men, and some in for "during the war." Early in 1814 four more infantry regiments and three more regiments of riflemen were constituted. Finally, therefore, forty-eight infantry regiments, numbered from the 1st to the 48th, came into being, plus four rifle regiments, the 1st through the 4th. This was the greatest number of infantry units included in the Regular Army until the world wars of the twentieth century. A mighty effort was made in 1814 to raise the Army to strength, and nearly 27,000 men came in, but in spite of this, four of the regiments had to be consolidated because they were too small. The 17th, 19th, 26th, and 27th were joined to form a new 17th and a new 19th, while the two highest numbered, the 47th and 48th, were redesignated the 27th and 26th, respectively. No sooner was war over than Congress scrambled to rid itself of its more than 30,000 infantrymen. An act of 3 March 1815 set the peace establishment at 10,000 men, divided among infantry, rifle; and artillery regiments. Cavalry was eliminated, and eight infantry regiments and one rifle regiment arose from the ruins of the forty-six and four in existence. The rifles were consolidated and the infantry, after many rearrangements, settled as follows:
1st Infantry formed by consolidation of the 2d, 3d, 7th, and 44th
2d Infantry formed by consolidation of the 6th, 16th, 22d, 23d, and 32d
3d Infantry formed by consolidation of the 1st, 5th, 17th, 19th, and 28th
4th Infantry formed by consolidation of the 14th, 18th, 20th, 36th, and 38th
5th Infantry formed by consolidation of the 4th, 9th, 13th, 21st, 40th, and 46th
6th Infantry formed by consolidation of the 11th, 25th, 27th, 29th, and 37th
7th Infantry formed by consolidation of the 8th, 24th, and 39th
8th Infantry formed by consolidation of the 10th and 12th
The eight remaining infantry regiments were smaller than their war predecessors because, although the number of companies in each remained at ten, every company contained 78 men instead of 103. There was no effort to preserve the honors or traditional numbers of any of ,the prewar regiments. The 1st was merged with other regiments and redesignated the 3d, and the old 2d, 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th were likewise lost in the remains of disbanded regiments. The new numbers were founded on the seniority of the colonels, the senior colonel commanding the 1st, and so forth. As a consequence of the reduction, 25,000 infantrymen were separated from the service. Another consequence was that the form of the infantry establishment was set roughly for the next thirty years. Not until the Mexican War, thirty-one years later, was it substantially expanded. The Germinal Period., 1816-1860
After the reorganization of 1815, the Regular infantry fluctuated in size with the whole military establishment. Prospects of peace appeared to improve, and in 1821 Congress felt safe enough to cut expenses by disbanding the Rifle Regiment and the 8th Infantry. Having reduced the infantry establishment to seven foot regiments, which were thought adequate to meet all contingencies, the legislators next sliced the size of companies to fifty-one enlisted men, the smallest ever. This arrangement endured for fifteen years when, as usual, the Indians forced an enlargement. "____________________________________________________________________________________
NARA Records - Records of United States Army Commands, 1784-1821
Table of Contents * 98.1 ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY
* 98.2 RECORDS OF GEOGRAPHICAL COMMANDS 1786-1821 12 lin. ft.
* 98.2.1 Records of geographical commands, 1798-1813
* 98.2.2 Records of military districts, War of 1812
* 98.2.3 Records of the Division of the North
* 98.2.4 Records of the Division of the South
* 98.2.5 Records of army posts
* 98.3 RECORDS OF ARMY UNITS 1784-1822 31 lin. ft.
* 98.3.1 Records of artillery units
* 98.3.2 Records of infantry units
* 98.3.3 Records of other units
98.3.2 Records of infantry units
Textual Records:
Inspection return,
American Regiment of Foot, May 1784.
Company and order books,
1st Regiment, 1785-88;
3d Regiment, 1796-1802;
1st-7th Regiments, 1802-15;
9th-14th, 16th, 18th, 20th-23d, 25th-27th,30th-35th,
37th, 38th, 40th-43d, 45th, and 46th Regiments, 1812-15;
Maj. Zebulon M. Pike's Consolidated Regiment, 1805-11;
and 1st, 3d, 7th, and 8th Regiments, 1815-21.
98.3.3 Records of other units
Textual Records: Records of the Legion of the United States, consisting of orders, 1792-93, and enlisted returns, 1789-92.
Company and order books, 1st and 3d Regiments of Riflemen, 1812- 15. Company books, Regiment of Light Dragoons, 1812-15.
War of 1812 Discharge Certificates
Appendix I: List of Units and Subunits____________________________________________________________________________________
Online Book resources:
http://books.google.com/books?id=5XZKAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover
OFFICIAL LETTERS OF MILITARY AND NAVAL OFFICERS OF THE UNITED STATES DURING THE WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN IN THE YEARS 1812,13,14,& 15. WITH SOME ADDITIONAL LETTERS AND DOCUMENTS ELUCIDATING THE HISTORY OF THAT PERIOD.BY JOHN BRANNAN, 1823http://books.google.com/books?id=_LMTAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover
A compilation of registers of the Army of the United States, from 1815 to 1837, by William A. Gordon, 1837http://books.google.com/books?id=XIcFAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover
http://books.google.com/books?id=GJNLAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0
http://books.google.com/books?id=NU4WAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover
http://books.google.com/books?id=KogDAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover
http://books.google.com/books?id=1wI8AAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Register+of+the+Kentucky+State+Historical+Society,+Frankfort,+Kentucky&as_brr=1#PPA13,M1
Notes on Ohio’s Regular Army Infantry Regiments, 1812 to 1815, James T. Brenner
http://warof1812.ohio.gov/_assets/docs/Ohio'sRegulars.pdf
U.S. Rifle Regiments in the Northwestern Army
THE GREEN AGAINST THE BRITISH RED: U.S. Rifle Regiments in the Northwestern Army
James T. Brenner
http://warof1812.ohio.gov/_assets/docs/Rifles.pdf
THE GREEN AGAINST THE BRITISH RED: U.S. Rifle Regiments in the Northwestern Army
James T. Brenner
http://warof1812.ohio.gov/_assets/docs/Rifles.pdf
http://bks8.books.google.com/books?id=3ncrAQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover
"While the Revolutionary and Civil wars have been the object of much research and documentation, the war that bridged them has been largely neglected. This is a comprehensive research guide to the careers and manuscript sources for President and Commander-in-Chief James Madison, his three secretaries of war, nine major generals, 27 brigadier generals, various departments, five artillery regiments, three cavalry regiments, the Corps of Engineers, 48 infantry regiments, and four rifle regiments of the United States during the War of 1812. Each unit has a history and a listing of archival resources. A directory of more than 100 manuscript repositories and their addresses is included."
"Despite a fair share of setbacks, the U.S. Army did produce some outfits and leaders worthy of attention and study. The 2nd and 3rd Regiments of Artillery, the 11th, 21st, and 25th Regiments of Infantry, and the Regiment of Riflemen all emerged as superb combat formations, equal to or surpassing many European counterparts." p. 6
Here is a fine review by John R. Grodzinski:
http://www.napoleon-series.org/military/Warof1812/2009/Issue11/c_Fredriksen.html
"Despite a fair share of setbacks, the U.S. Army did produce some outfits and leaders worthy of attention and study. The 2nd and 3rd Regiments of Artillery, the 11th, 21st, and 25th Regiments of Infantry, and the Regiment of Riflemen all emerged as superb combat formations, equal to or surpassing many European counterparts." p. 6
Here is a fine review by John R. Grodzinski:
http://www.napoleon-series.org/military/Warof1812/2009/Issue11/c_Fredriksen.html
"While the U.S. Army during the War of 1812 has been the topic of much literature, little has been devoted to its organizational history. The Osprey Men at Arms series touched upon this topic in at least three of its volumes, The American War, 1812 - 1814, (Men at Arms 226) The United States Army in the War of 1812, (Men at Arms 345), and The United States Army, 1783 – 1811, (Men at Arms 352). Indeed, dress and equipment has had far greater interest, whether through the plates published by the Company of Military Historians or reference works, such as Canadian René Chartrand’s excellent and difficult to find Uniforms and Equipment of the United States Forces in the War of 1812 (Niagara Falls, NY: Old Fort Niagara Association, 1992). The Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army, 1789 – 1903 (2 vols, Washington Printing Office, 1903) has much information, however until recently, these volumes are difficult to find: they are now available for download on the Internet.[1] Thus there is an important in our understanding the U.S. Army for the period of the War of 1812. As the first book length study on this topic, John C. Fredriksen’s The United States Army in the War of 1812 helps fill that gap. John C. Fredriksen is author of over 20 books, including several War of 1812 titles. He is particular adept at navigating around archival collections and has completed a number of powerful bibliographies, including Shield of Republic/Sword of Empire: A Bibliography of U.S. Military Affairs, 1783-1846 (Greenwood, 1990), Free Trade and Sailors' Rights: A Bibliography of the War of 1812 (Greenwood, 1985), and War of 1812: Eyewitness Accounts (Greenwood, 1987); he has also written a regimental history, Green Coats and Glory: The United States Regiment of Riflemen, 1808 – 1821 (Old Fort Niagara Association, 2000)......"
Notes:
[1] One site offering these volumes is the Internet Archive
US Army Insignia in the War of 1812 - new url
http://usarmyinsigniahomepage.110mb.com/war1812.html
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
RG Special Study:
The War of 1812 - A Search for the Old 35th U.S. Infantry Regiment
"They aren't forgotten because they haven't died. They're living, right out there... and they'll keep on living as long as the regiment lives....The faces may change. Names. But they're there. They're the regiment -- the regular Army -- now and 50 years from now."
Frank S. Nugent screenwriter
Introduction:
Many years ago, I happened to annotate the following concerning U.S. Army organization during the "Second War for Independence:
"By the end of War of 1812 period, the Regular army of the United States had a maximum strength of two regiments of dragoons, a regiment of mounted rangers, sixty battalions of line infantry, six battalions of light infantry, three battalions of Rangers, five battalions of rifles (formed into the 1st-34th, 36th -44th Infantry regiments, 35th Infantry {ranger} regiment, 45th - 48th Infantry {light} regiments, and 1st - 4th Rifle regiments), twelve battalions of the corps of artillery, each of four companies, and a ten-company regiment of light (horse) artillery.- Katcher and various" so I revised my War of 1812 Ranger table as shown:
United States Army Rangers - War of 1812
1812-1815 - Separate Ranger companies (12)
1812-1815 - Regiment of Mounted Rangers (10 companies)- 17th U.S. Regiment of Rangers
1812-1815 - 35th Infantry Regiment - alleged Ranger designation
To date, I have yet to find corroborative mention of the 35th's RANGER designation and have not been able to relocate my non-web book source for the original notation. NARA states that "the 12th, 20th, and 35th infantry regiments were recruited from Virginia," and its 98.3.2 Records of infantry units shows company and order books available on the 35th.
According to Craig R. Scott's Tip # 36, War of 1812 - Records in the National Archives, in some cases militia units became the core of regular Army units, and he cites as one example the 35th recruited in Virginia. A search at American State Papers and other sites yields numerous individual officer assignment and promotion mentions for the "35th Infantry" or "Thirty-Fifth Infantry" and inclusion of the regiment's strength and disposition (along with all the 48 regiments) raised in the 1815 register
The Regiment:
The U.S. 35th Infantry Regiment, as shown in the tables, was superintended for recruiting by Colonel Goodwyn with a principle rendezvous at Petersburg, Virginia. I suspect that the US 35th Infantry may, in some part, have been centered there, based on the hopes of attracting recruits of the caliber, or even former members of the militia unit, The Petersburg Volunteers, 1812-1813, whose "conduct in the Field has been excelled by no other Corps..." - General Orders - Headquarters, Detroit, 17th October, 1813.
The Petersburg Volunteers performance under Genereal Harrison at Fort Meigs, repulsing several attacks from January through September 1813, is said to have led to the cities "sobriquet, "The Cockade City of the Union," which is usually shortened to "The Cockade City." Allegedly it was conferred by President Madison himself - comparing the volunteers to the distinctive leather cockade ornament then worn on soldiers' hats - but research shows the sobriquet was not in general usage until several decades after the war.
In July of 1814 most of the 35th was vicinity of Norfolk, manned as shown, with an unstated effective strength since the aggregate given for it and the 20th Inf plus the 1st battalion of the 38th Inf = 873). By October its recruited strength was 565 all ranks.
The 35th's subsequent assignment vicinity at Norfolk, a port, at first glance, does not suggest "Ranger-style" country, but it was well-considered.
According to informed local historians, companies from this unit were stationed at Fort Norfolk (and along strategic positions of the James River such as Fort Powhatan) during the summer of 1813. "On July 3, 1813 this unit, along with a number of local militia companies were ordered to reinforce Lambert's Point and Sewell's Point area of then Norfolk county. This was in response to the British burning and looting of Hampton, Virginia. Original order books from the period are located in the Virginia Historical Society's Library in Richmond, Virginia. It's officers had a summer uniform which included "a linen round jacket made without the tails or lace. Ten buttons were used to close the jacket at the front. Very plain and easy to produce by the contractors of the period. Starting in 1812 this coatee was issued to those troops south of the Potomac River." -
However, from the Memoirs of First Lieutenant Blair Bolling, 35th U.S. Infantry Regiment - Courtesy of Blair W. Bolling (see below) in March, 1814, the "principal part" of the 35th was stationed on Craney Island, and his memoirs confirm that the stationing of the 35th was due directly to the the Craney Island and Hampton battles in order "to meet an enemy who were daily expected to attack us..." Of note, Bolling mentions marching the Company, of which he had temporary command, into Fort Nelson, across from Fort Norfolk, indicating the apparent planned dispersal of the Regiment to cover the region of operations.(as shown).
From Map at American State Papers
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsp&fileName=037/llsp037.db&recNum=774
In this regard, elements of the 35th may also have been stationed at Fort Powhatan/Powhatttan further up the James River in Prince George Cty VA (later a CW fort and battle site) - near the recruiting depot at Petersburg. As for information on Fort Powhatan, a marker is located entitled Hoods on VA Rt. 10 (westbound), Burrowsville. and states "Four miles north on James River. There, on January 3, 1781, Benedict Arnold, ascending the river, was fired on by cannon. On January 10, Arnold, returning, sent ashore there a force that was ambushed by George Rogers Clark. Fort Powhatan stood there in the War of 1812." The British fleet anchored off "Kennon's" and sent troops ashore there. Virginia Militia General (and later Governor) Thomas Nelson, Jr. ordered two cannon sent to the high point there to attack Arnold's returning fleet. Upriver, British Lt. Col. John Graves Simcoe led his Queen's Rangers and Hessian jaegers (riflemen) in an assault on Hood's Point (later named Fort Powhatan). The Civil War saw further use of Fort Powhatan as part of the Confederate defensive system along the James guarding the capital at Richmond - see related information at:
http://www.fortpocahontas.org/Besch.html,%20www.nps.gov/colo/Jthanout/JtCW.html
and
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1862/august/fort-powhatan.htm
-
Fort Powhatan/Powhattan
Plan of Fort Powhatan, Prince George County, Virginia / by Lt. Elijah Brown. Although included in a report of 1821, this plan represents the fort as it looked in 1819, before the cannon was removed. This item is in the Map Collection of the Library of Virginia.
The following curious vignette refers to the 35th and Fort Powhatan: "While providing support for the 35th Infantry, U S Army at Ft Powhatan in defense of Norfolk harbor he (William Howerton) was killed on 28 Jan 1815 at the same time as his company commander, Capt James Fisher. A salvo fired from a British ship in the harbor at Norfolk, Virginia, struck his battery." - http://www.howertonheritage.com/HowertonHeritageSummer1996.htm
The above is curious in that it appears to be either an erroneous statement or at best confusing one since Fort Powhatan (75 miles up the James River) did not specifically defend Norfolk "harbor" - and if it occurred at the actual Fort Powhatan, suggests that British sortied a not inconsiderable distance up the James River! I have not found corroboration. I suspect that Howerton's relatives confused his likely multiple duty stations. The vignette also suggests Howerton may have been in the militia. No Captain Fisher was on the lists of 35th Officers. A mix of regulars and militia was standard practice.
Another Fort Powhatan during the War of 1812: "It was during this time period when William Lough (also known as Loak or Loch) served in the militia during the War of 1812. In a letter written by Levi to his son during the Civil War, he states the following: "Perhaps you saw or at least heard of Fort Powhattan on the James River. My father was quartered there one winter during the War of 1812, was commissioned First Lieutenant... This Fort Powhattan was located on the south side of the James River, not far from where Grant's troops crossed the James. James Lough made that very crossing and was located for some time near the Fort. It is near Little Brandon."
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~benlough/pafn04.htm
Returning to the 35th and its service, Blair relates: "Many applications were made by Colo Joseph Goodwyn our commandant for orders to march his Regiment* (FN-35 Regiment US Infantry) to the northwestern frontier but all in vain. We wear kept on that station until peace, without having an opportunity of sharing the honours, with our bretheren in arms, who being in a more salubrious climate*(FN-Canada) sufered only from Inclementcy of the weather, the fategues of the march and in Glorious Battle."
Blair's memoir vividly captures the unglamorous, but expected and essential duties of the regiment of drill, picket, and erection of fortifcations etc; yet speaks to the spirit of the Regiment when he states that the duties "although arduous were performed without a murmer." Bolling is most poignant when he describes the losses suffered to wars then greatest killer - uncontrollable disease - a steady and unrelenting occurrence and a fact of life for all militaries until modern medical practice was able to reverse this situation. Indeed, the expected loss from disease alone underscores the 35th's deployment, though not great in distance from home counties, as an act of knowing and considered risk, and thus courageous, on the part of all those who then volunteered to serve in the army, militia or regular.
In 1815, Thomas Ritchie, the editor of the Richmond Enquirer cited an abstract from the official returns of the state of Virginia's troops at Norfolk which showed "that 250 of 1,600 regulars were sick, another 21 had died. Of 4,500 the militiamen had 2,012 sick, 160 deaths, and 290 discharged for "inability"; 691 having served a tour of duty, were discharged that month, "half sick."" Ritchie drew this comparison between the militia and regulars to argue against any yet "completely wedded to the present Militia System, as to be opposed to the substitution of a more permanent and regular force." - Citizen Soldiers in the War of 1812, C. Edward Skeen, 1999, p.56.
Memoirs of First Lieutenant Blair Bolling, 35th US Infantry Regiment - Courtesy of Blair W. Bolling - originally found on my Bravehost webpages, but often inaccessible due to bandwidth limitations, so therefore, posted below.
--------------
Register, rules, and regulations of the army for 1813, December 29, 1813, ... 384
Frank S. Nugent screenwriter
Many years ago, I happened to annotate the following concerning U.S. Army organization during the "Second War for Independence:
"By the end of War of 1812 period, the Regular army of the United States had a maximum strength of two regiments of dragoons, a regiment of mounted rangers, sixty battalions of line infantry, six battalions of light infantry, three battalions of Rangers, five battalions of rifles (formed into the 1st-34th, 36th -44th Infantry regiments, 35th Infantry {ranger} regiment, 45th - 48th Infantry {light} regiments, and 1st - 4th Rifle regiments), twelve battalions of the corps of artillery, each of four companies, and a ten-company regiment of light (horse) artillery.- Katcher and various" so I revised my War of 1812 Ranger table as shown:
1812-1815 - Separate Ranger companies (12)
1812-1815 - Regiment of Mounted Rangers (10 companies)- 17th U.S. Regiment of Rangers
1812-1815 - 35th Infantry Regiment - alleged Ranger designation
To date, I have yet to find corroborative mention of the 35th's RANGER designation and have not been able to relocate my non-web book source for the original notation. NARA states that "the 12th, 20th, and 35th infantry regiments were recruited from Virginia," and its 98.3.2 Records of infantry units shows company and order books available on the 35th.
According to Craig R. Scott's Tip # 36, War of 1812 - Records in the National Archives, in some cases militia units became the core of regular Army units, and he cites as one example the 35th recruited in Virginia. A search at American State Papers and other sites yields numerous individual officer assignment and promotion mentions for the "35th Infantry" or "Thirty-Fifth Infantry" and inclusion of the regiment's strength and disposition (along with all the 48 regiments) raised in the 1815 register
The Regiment:
The U.S. 35th Infantry Regiment, as shown in the tables, was superintended for recruiting by Colonel Goodwyn with a principle rendezvous at Petersburg, Virginia. I suspect that the US 35th Infantry may, in some part, have been centered there, based on the hopes of attracting recruits of the caliber, or even former members of the militia unit, The Petersburg Volunteers, 1812-1813, whose "conduct in the Field has been excelled by no other Corps..." - General Orders - Headquarters, Detroit, 17th October, 1813.
The Petersburg Volunteers performance under Genereal Harrison at Fort Meigs, repulsing several attacks from January through September 1813, is said to have led to the cities "sobriquet, "The Cockade City of the Union," which is usually shortened to "The Cockade City." Allegedly it was conferred by President Madison himself - comparing the volunteers to the distinctive leather cockade ornament then worn on soldiers' hats - but research shows the sobriquet was not in general usage until several decades after the war.
In July of 1814 most of the 35th was vicinity of Norfolk, manned as shown, with an unstated effective strength since the aggregate given for it and the 20th Inf plus the 1st battalion of the 38th Inf = 873). By October its recruited strength was 565 all ranks.
 |
| 35th Inf - recruiting -1813 |
 |
| 35thInf at Norfolk VA - July 1814 |
According to informed local historians, companies from this unit were stationed at Fort Norfolk (and along strategic positions of the James River such as Fort Powhatan) during the summer of 1813. "On July 3, 1813 this unit, along with a number of local militia companies were ordered to reinforce Lambert's Point and Sewell's Point area of then Norfolk county. This was in response to the British burning and looting of Hampton, Virginia. Original order books from the period are located in the Virginia Historical Society's Library in Richmond, Virginia. It's officers had a summer uniform which included "a linen round jacket made without the tails or lace. Ten buttons were used to close the jacket at the front. Very plain and easy to produce by the contractors of the period. Starting in 1812 this coatee was issued to those troops south of the Potomac River." -
However, from the Memoirs of First Lieutenant Blair Bolling, 35th U.S. Infantry Regiment - Courtesy of Blair W. Bolling (see below) in March, 1814, the "principal part" of the 35th was stationed on Craney Island, and his memoirs confirm that the stationing of the 35th was due directly to the the Craney Island and Hampton battles in order "to meet an enemy who were daily expected to attack us..." Of note, Bolling mentions marching the Company, of which he had temporary command, into Fort Nelson, across from Fort Norfolk, indicating the apparent planned dispersal of the Regiment to cover the region of operations.(as shown).
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsp&fileName=037/llsp037.db&recNum=774
In this regard, elements of the 35th may also have been stationed at Fort Powhatan/Powhatttan further up the James River in Prince George Cty VA (later a CW fort and battle site) - near the recruiting depot at Petersburg. As for information on Fort Powhatan, a marker is located entitled Hoods on VA Rt. 10 (westbound), Burrowsville. and states "Four miles north on James River. There, on January 3, 1781, Benedict Arnold, ascending the river, was fired on by cannon. On January 10, Arnold, returning, sent ashore there a force that was ambushed by George Rogers Clark. Fort Powhatan stood there in the War of 1812." The British fleet anchored off "Kennon's" and sent troops ashore there. Virginia Militia General (and later Governor) Thomas Nelson, Jr. ordered two cannon sent to the high point there to attack Arnold's returning fleet. Upriver, British Lt. Col. John Graves Simcoe led his Queen's Rangers and Hessian jaegers (riflemen) in an assault on Hood's Point (later named Fort Powhatan). The Civil War saw further use of Fort Powhatan as part of the Confederate defensive system along the James guarding the capital at Richmond - see related information at:
http://www.fortpocahontas.org/Besch.html,%20www.nps.gov/colo/Jthanout/JtCW.html
and
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1862/august/fort-powhatan.htm
-
Fort Powhatan/Powhattan
Plan of Fort Powhatan, Prince George County, Virginia / by Lt. Elijah Brown. Although included in a report of 1821, this plan represents the fort as it looked in 1819, before the cannon was removed. This item is in the Map Collection of the Library of Virginia.
The following curious vignette refers to the 35th and Fort Powhatan: "While providing support for the 35th Infantry, U S Army at Ft Powhatan in defense of Norfolk harbor he (William Howerton) was killed on 28 Jan 1815 at the same time as his company commander, Capt James Fisher. A salvo fired from a British ship in the harbor at Norfolk, Virginia, struck his battery." - http://www.howertonheritage.com/HowertonHeritageSummer1996.htm
The above is curious in that it appears to be either an erroneous statement or at best confusing one since Fort Powhatan (75 miles up the James River) did not specifically defend Norfolk "harbor" - and if it occurred at the actual Fort Powhatan, suggests that British sortied a not inconsiderable distance up the James River! I have not found corroboration. I suspect that Howerton's relatives confused his likely multiple duty stations. The vignette also suggests Howerton may have been in the militia. No Captain Fisher was on the lists of 35th Officers. A mix of regulars and militia was standard practice.
Another Fort Powhatan during the War of 1812: "It was during this time period when William Lough (also known as Loak or Loch) served in the militia during the War of 1812. In a letter written by Levi to his son during the Civil War, he states the following: "Perhaps you saw or at least heard of Fort Powhattan on the James River. My father was quartered there one winter during the War of 1812, was commissioned First Lieutenant... This Fort Powhattan was located on the south side of the James River, not far from where Grant's troops crossed the James. James Lough made that very crossing and was located for some time near the Fort. It is near Little Brandon."
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~benlough/pafn04.htm
Returning to the 35th and its service, Blair relates: "Many applications were made by Colo Joseph Goodwyn our commandant for orders to march his Regiment* (FN-35 Regiment US Infantry) to the northwestern frontier but all in vain. We wear kept on that station until peace, without having an opportunity of sharing the honours, with our bretheren in arms, who being in a more salubrious climate*(FN-Canada) sufered only from Inclementcy of the weather, the fategues of the march and in Glorious Battle."
Blair's memoir vividly captures the unglamorous, but expected and essential duties of the regiment of drill, picket, and erection of fortifcations etc; yet speaks to the spirit of the Regiment when he states that the duties "although arduous were performed without a murmer." Bolling is most poignant when he describes the losses suffered to wars then greatest killer - uncontrollable disease - a steady and unrelenting occurrence and a fact of life for all militaries until modern medical practice was able to reverse this situation. Indeed, the expected loss from disease alone underscores the 35th's deployment, though not great in distance from home counties, as an act of knowing and considered risk, and thus courageous, on the part of all those who then volunteered to serve in the army, militia or regular.
In 1815, Thomas Ritchie, the editor of the Richmond Enquirer cited an abstract from the official returns of the state of Virginia's troops at Norfolk which showed "that 250 of 1,600 regulars were sick, another 21 had died. Of 4,500 the militiamen had 2,012 sick, 160 deaths, and 290 discharged for "inability"; 691 having served a tour of duty, were discharged that month, "half sick."" Ritchie drew this comparison between the militia and regulars to argue against any yet "completely wedded to the present Militia System, as to be opposed to the substitution of a more permanent and regular force." - Citizen Soldiers in the War of 1812, C. Edward Skeen, 1999, p.56.
Memoirs of First Lieutenant Blair Bolling, 35th US Infantry Regiment - Courtesy of Blair W. Bolling - originally found on my Bravehost webpages, but often inaccessible due to bandwidth limitations, so therefore, posted below.
--------------
Register, rules, and regulations of the army for 1813, December 29, 1813, ... 384
 |
| 35th Inf - Army Register - 1813 - p. 416 |
--------------
Senate Executive Journal(s)
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwej.html
13th Congress--May 24, 1813 to March 3, 1815
First Session: May 24, 1813 to August 2, 1813 (71 days, held in Washington)Second Session: December 6, 1813 to April 18, 1814 (134 days, held in Washington)
Third Session: September 19, 1814 to March 3, 1815 (166 days, held in Washington)
--------------
Senate Executive Journal --FRIDAY, June 18, 1813.
LIST OF PROMOTIONS AND APPOINTMENTS. [images where names not available]
# William W. Southall Surgeons mate May 20, 1813 Appointed Virginia
--------------
Senate Executive Journal --WEDNESDAY, July 14, 1813.
# Wright Tucker, nominated to the Senate as Surgeon's Mate in the 35th, to be Surgeon of the 35th regiment.
# Jesse Keen, Ensign, 35th regiment, Maryland.
---------------
Senate Executive Journal --SATURDAY, July 31, 1813.
---------------
Senate Executive Journal --WEDNESDAY, March 16, 1814.
# Thomas K. Ball, 3d Lt. 35th Infantry, to be 2d Lieutenant. do
# Robert R. Conrad, Ensign in 35th reg. do do
------------
Senate Executive Journal --FRIDAY, October 14, 1814.
* Thirty-fifth Regiment of Infantry.
* Capt. C. W. Hunter, 15th Inf. Maj. 21st Sept. 1814, vice Smith, promoted.
* 1st Lieut. Christian Miller, Captain, 25th June, 1814, vice Stith, died.
* 1st Lieut. James Belches, Capt. 1st Sept. 1814, vice M'Guire, resigned.
* 2d Lieut. Wm. Loyall, 1st Lieut. 25th June, 1814, vice Miller, promoted.
* 2d Lieut. Simon C. Williams, 1st Lieut. 25th June, 1814, vice Crump, died.
* 2d Lieut. David B. Stith, 1st Lt. 1st Sept. 1814, vice Belches, promoted.
* 3d Lieut. Winfield Jones, 2d Lieut. 25th June, 1814, vice Loyall, do
* 3d Lieut. Samuel Kirby, 2d Lieut. 25th June, 1814, vice Williams, do
* 3d Lieut. John Thompson, 2d Lieut. 1st Sept. 1814, vice Stith, do
* 3d Lieut. Richard W. Scott, 2d Lieut. 1st Oct. 1814.
* Ensign Richard Watts, 3d Lieut. 25th June, 1814, vice Jones, promoted.
* Ensign Charles Daniel 3d Lieut. 25th June, 1814, vice Kirby, do
* Ensign Pleasant H. Mann, 3d Lt. 1st Sept. 1814, vice Thompson, prom'd.
* Ensign Lewis P. Lanier, 3d Lieut. 1st Oct. 1814, vice Scott, do
------------
Senate Executive Journal --WEDNESDAY, February 1, 1815. Field Promotions.
* Thirty-fifth Regiment of Infantry
* Major A. J. M'Connico, Lieutenant Colonel, 21st December, 1814.
* 2d Lieut. Charles R. Rose, 1st Lieut. 1st Dec. 1814, vice Rivers, resigned.
* 3d Lieut. John Huson, 2d Lieut. 1st Dec. 1814, vice Rose, promoted.
* Ensign Edward Archer, 3d Lieut. 1st Dec. 1814, vice Huson, promoted.
------------
14th Congress--December 4, 1815 to March 3, 1817
First Session: December 4, 1815 to April 30, 1816 (148 days, held in Washington)Second Session: December 2, 1816 to March 3, 1817 (92 days, held in Washington)
Senate Executive Journal --FRIDAY, February 7, 1817.
Francis W. Brady, late 3d Lieut. 35th Infantry, to be 2d Lieut. 4th Infantry.
D. Shelton, late 2d Lieut. 35th Infantry, to be 2d Lieut. 7th Infantry.
-------------
15th Congress--December 1, 1817 to March 3, 1819
Special Session: March 4, 1817 to March 6, 1817First Session: December 1, 1817 to April 20, 1818 (141 days, held in Washington)
Second Session: November 16, 1818 to March 3, 1819 (108 days, held in Washington)
Senate Executive Journal --TUESDAY, January 26, 1819.
Daniel Keith, late Lieutenant 35th Infantry, to be 2d Lieutenant, Rifle.
--------------
Mini Bios
Note - I am NOT trying to determine genealogy. I am looking for eligible connections and probable residences of the officers of the old 35th. I may be totally inaccurate in my suppositions...where interested I have captured vignettes on many others - possibly related - especially those of the fathers/grandfathers of these War of 1812 veterans who saw service in the 1st revolution against Britain!
--------------
The Officers:
Dinwiddie County Surnames:
Archer, Boisseau, Bolling, Butts, Cocke, Goodwyn, McConnico, Pegram, Preston, Hardaway, Southall, Stith, Thorp, Walker - http://www.genealogyforum.rootsweb.com/gedcom/gedcom6a/gedr6076.htm
Joseph Goodwyn - (Colonel - 35th Inf) owned Burnt Quarters vicinity in Dinwiddie County - sw of Petersburg - Five Forks. (While Tarleton was on his way to Charlottesville, in his effort to capture Governor Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia Legislature, he visited this Coleman home. The family was storing grain for the Continental Army, and Tarleton burned the grain quarter. Thus the name "Burnt Quarter." Later, at the close of the Civil War, the home was in the line of fire at the battle of Five Forks.) - http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~nansemondcolemans/chascity/robtvatxc03.htm See land claims and historical maps - http://www.heritage.umd.edu/chrsweb/NPS/Petersburg/Five%20Forks%20Unit/Tables.htm-jgoodwyn@erols.com
Robert Edward Pegram(Lt Colonel - 35th Inf) 1, 2 (Edward , Edward , Daniel , George ) was born on 8 Dec 1782 in Dinwiddie Co., Virginia. He died on 18 Apr 1824. He was buried in "Weiland" Cemetery, Dinwiddie Co., Virginia. Robert married Mary Simmons Hardaway 1 on 5 Nov 1801 in probably Dinwiddie Co., Virginia. Mary was born on 19 Jun 1786 in Dinwiddie Co., Virginia. She died on 14 Jan 1832. She was buried in "Weiland" Cemetery, Dinwiddie Co., Virginia. - http://www.patch.net/pegram/pegg09.html#5152
C W Hunter (Major - 35th Inf):
On the receipt of the requisition for troops from the War Department early in July, 1814, Governor Snyder, of Pennsylvania, caused a general order to be issued for the mustering of the militia and the raising of volunteers, in which several military companies of Philadelphia, and elsewhere in the state, who had offered their services to the government in the summer of 1812, were named as accepted volunteers, and as forming a part of the quota of the state. 33 Recruiting went briskly on, and it was greatly promoted by intelligence of the capture of Washington toward the close of August. Volunteers flocked to the standard of General Bloomfield in great numbers. 34 Kennet Square, in Chester County, thirty-six miles southwest from Philadelphia, was the designated place of rendezvous, and there, at the close of August, a camp was formed, under the direction of Captain C. W. Hunter, and named Camp Bloomfield. On the 7th of September, Lieutenant Colonel Clemson, of the United States Army, assumed the command, and on the 14th he was succeeded by Brigadier General Thomas Cadwalader. The troops were brigaded, and the corps was called The Advanced Light Guard. 35 Captain Ross, with his First City Troop, took post on Mount Bull, a height overlooking the Chesapeake, thirteen miles below Elkton, to watch the approach of the enemy, and held communication with the camp and Philadelphia by a line of vedettes. - http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~wcarr1/Lossing2/Chap40.html
C.W. Hunter in Alton Ill in 1836.
Andrew J. McConnico (Major - 35th Inf) quoted:
"I have also directed works to be constructed for a better defense of the reverse of Fort Norfolk, and this morning I have begun entrenching the approaches to the Borough, and two hundred and eighty men, with a corresponding number of officers and non-commissioned officers are now at work in the absence of the General (Calendar of Virginia State Papers and Other Manuscripts, 11 vol., Richmond, Vol. 10, pp. 195-196)." son?= McConnico, Andrew J. — U.S. Consul in Trinidad, 1914-16 - http://members.cox.net/2varegiment/aspects_4.htm
Angus C. Smith (Major & Lt Colonel - 35th Inf) - no confirming data
James Belches (Lt & Capt - 35th Inf)- Surry Co
Daniel C. Butts (Capt - 35th Inf)- PETERSBURG, VA - CEMETERIES – Blandford Cemetery
In Memoriam, Our Father Capt. Daniel C. Butts Born Oct. 10th 1831 Died May 2nd 1878 Aged 75 years -http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/va/petersburg/cemeteries/blandford08.txt
Walter T. Cocke (Capt - 35th Inf)-
Williams, David M, Chesapeake, City of 1812 died Norfolk Co, Virginia: "Enlisted as a soldier ... in the late war for a term of three years or during the war in a company commanded by Capt. Cox (Cocke?) of the 35th Regt of Infantry under the command of Colo(nel) Cox ... died while in Actual service intestate in the County of Norfolk" Unfortunately," - lva.lib.va.us/whatwehave/mil/vmd/locresults.asp?place=Chesapeake
In Surry County, Virginia - Walter Cocke who was born in England came to America with some of his family and died in 1738,... Thomas Cocke .. married to Hannah Hamlin, Thomas died in 1750, then their son, John Cocke who married Ann Starke and he died in 1798, then their son, Walter Cocke who married Anne Carter Harrison in 1788 and he died in 1802, then their son Walter Travis Cocke b.1791 who married Susanna Virginia Coupland in 1816, ..their daughter, Ann Elizabeth Cocke who was born in 1818 and married to Milton Shepherd Cottrell in 1840, she died in 1892. - http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/COCKE/2002-10/1035744422
Susanna Coupland m. Walter T. Cocke - daughter of David O. Coupland and Ann Harrison - Ann Harrison Coupland was the daughter of Governor Benjamin Harrison, "The Signer" (of the Declaration of Independence) and sister of President William Henry Harrison. - http://genforum.genealogy.com/trent/messages/2933.html
6› Walter Cocke [6868.6.1.1.6.1] (-1802) married Ann Carter Harrison in Surry County 18 November (bond) 1788. He left a will in Sussex County in 1802.
7› Walter Travis Cocke [6868.6.1.1.6.1.1] (27 June 1791 - 17 Jan. 1835) married Susan Virginia Coupland.
7› Commodore Harrison Henry Cocke [6868.6.1.1.6.1.2] (10 May 1794 - 12 Oct. 1873), born at “Montpelier,” Surry County, married first Elizabeth Ruffin, daughter of George Ruffin and Rebecca Cocke, 5 June 1828. See their family
Cocke married second Emily C. Banister 5 May 1852 at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Petersburg. 7› John Henry Cocke [6868.6.1.1.6.1.3] (4 Sept. 1789 - 2 April 1795) died young.
7› Martha Ann Cocke [6868.6.1.1.6.1.4] (14 July 1798) married William Allen Harrison.
8› William Allen Harrison [6868.6.1.1.6.1.4.1].
8› John Henry Harrison [6868.6.1.1.6.1.4.2].
8› Anna Martha Harrison [6868.6.1.1.6.1.4.3].
7› Eliza Rebecca Cocke [6868.6.1.1.6.1.5] (3 Jan. 1801) married John Ponsonby, of Dinwiddie County, identified in her father’s estate accounts.
7› Thomas Randolph Cocke [6868.6.1.1.6.1.6] (27 Oct. 1796 - 27 Aug. 1797).
- http://www.virginians.com/redirect.htm?topics&ha
Cocke Family Papers, 1742–1976. 245 items. Mss1C6458c. Microfilm reel C399. Contains the papers of the Cocke family of Petersburg, Dinwiddie, and Prince George counties. The correspondence, May-June 1861, of Harrison Henry Cocke (1794–1873), while serving in the Confederate navy, concerns his role in commanding naval defenses on the James River (section 5). Letters in section 5 communicate lists of men serving in the navy on Jamestown Island and reports of crew and armaments on gunboats and discuss the construction of forts along the James River. Also in the collection are notes concerning naval light signals; a letter, 16 June 1861, from Robert E. Lee to Samuel Barron (1809–1888) of the Confederate Navy announcing the assignment of Gilbert V. Rambeaut (b. 1803?) and the Cockade Artillery Battery to Jamestown Island; special orders, May 1861, issued by Robert Selden Garnett regarding the defenses of the James River; and a requisition, 24 May 1861, for ordnance for Fort Powhatan, Prince George County (section 6).
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The 35th's most distinguished military alumnus was: Brevet Brigadier General John Garland
Birth: 1792
Death: Jun. 5, 1861
United States Army Officer. A native of Virginia and career military man, he was commissioned 1st Lieutenant in the 35th United States Infantry on March 31, 1813. With over a decade of service, he was honored on May 7, 1827 with the rank of Brevet Major, United States Army. His promotion to full Major is dated October 30, 1836 and the subsequent rank of Lieutenant Colonel, November 27, 1839. With the onset of the war with Mexico in 1846, he was Brevetted Colonel for his actions at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, Texas. By the same token, his actions at Contreras and Churubusco, Mexico earned him the honorary rank of Brevet Brigadier General on August 20, 1847. He received a wound at Chapultepac, Mexico while engaged with General Santa Anna forces. With 36 active years in the United States Army, he was promoted to full Colonel on May 7, 1849 and with nearly 50 years of military experience, would serve briefly during the American Civil War before dying of disease in New York City, New York on June 5, 1861. - http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=10643676
CSA General James Longstreet was his son-in-law.
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Benjamin Hardaway (Capt - 35th Inf) - Benjamin Hardaway [SI.4.4.2.3] represented Dinwiddie County in the Virginia House of Delegates (1816-18). - Jane Tillman [SI.4.4.2] married Thomas Hardaway. A chancery lawsuit of 4 April 1832 reveals that Edward Scott, husband of Julia Hardaway, and Robert Pegram, husband of Mary S. Hardaway, were both dead. [''Marriages Inferred from Dinwiddie County Chancery Order Book No. 1, 1832-1852,'' The Southside Virginian, vol. 4, p. 20] - http://www.virginians.com/redirect.htm?topics&si - Benjamin Hardaway - Source: The Hardaways of Chesterfield County;;;p 42;FHL film#1,017,405; Note: unmarried. War of 1812. http://www.patch.net/hardaway/hrdg08.html
Benjamin B. Jones (Capt - Inf) - September 3, 1801, Chamberlain Jones, administrator of William Jones, decd., on his own account, and as guardian (for this purpose especially assigned by Nottoway Court) of Polly Branch Jones, Sarah Jones, Benjamin B. Jones, minors of the aforesaid William Jones, decd., and Edward Ward, and Anne, his wife, formerly Anne Jones; to Daniel Jones, of Nottoway Co. L351:15s; 234 1/2 acres in Nottoway Co. - http://searches.rootsweb.com/usgenweb/archives/va/nottoway/courts/notes.txt
Lt. William Jones [3524.9.1.2.5] (-1801) inherited part of his father’s Spinners Branch property and part of the West Creek property. He sold 206 acres of the West Creek property to Joseph Osborne in December 1770, and another 206 acres to Peter Thompson in January 1771. [Amelia Co. Deed Bk. 11, pp. 184, 194] He bought 547 acres from his brother Peter Jones in June 1772, [Amelia Co. Deed Bk. 11, p. 453] which he gave to his son Chamberlaine Jones for “love and affection” 10 April 1798. On 25 September 1777 William Jones was recommended as 2nd Lt. in Philip Jones’ Company of Militia. William’s wife was likely Anne Branch, the daughter of Benjamin Branch who married a Jones. William named daughters Ann Jones and Mary Branch Jones and a son Benjamin B[ranch?] Jones. At the March Court 1801 of Nottoway County they returned an inventory of William’s estate in Charlotte County. The court appointed son Chamberlaine the administrator of the estate and the guardian of the minor children. On their behalf, he sold 234½ acres in Nottoway County to Daniel Jones in September 1801. [Nottoway Co. Deed Bk. 2, p. 222]6› Gen. Chamberlaine Jones [3524.9.1.2.5.1] (- 12 June 1829 [Death Notices from Richmond, Virginia, Newspapers, 1821-1840 (VGS), p. 163] ), who married Ann, was a justice of the peace for many years from 1798. He left a will in Amelia County that directed the executors of his estate to spend up to $10,000 to buy land in another county and settle his family on it (will dated 8 June 1828, recorded 15 June 1829). His later codicil confirmed he had already bought the land. - Benjamin B. Jones [3524.9.1.2.5.4] was in Davidson County, Tennessee, when he gave his brother Chamberlaine a power of attorney in Amelia County to sell “Rocky Run” in Charlotte County. http://www.virginians.com/redirect.htm?topics&3524 - William B. Lively served in the War of 1812 as a private in Captain Benjamin B. Jones' Company, 35th Regiment. U.S. Infantry. - http://www.livelyroots.com/gerald/83.htm
Samuel McGuire (Capt - 35th Inf) - Fourth Regiment of Infantry. - Samuel McGuire, Virginia, Ensign. - Senate Executive Journal --FRIDAY,March 1, 1799.
November, 1800. - Mullen vs. McGuire.--Samuel McGuire was an officer (Lieutenant)in the 4th Regiment, U. S. Army, and under arrest and required to keep his quarters when the sheriff arrested and imprisoned him for debt. Upon habeas corpus he was released. - http://searches.rootsweb.com/usgenweb/archives/va/augusta/court/court11.txt - The McGuires (MaGuires) were mostly from County Fermanagh Northern Ireland, although some, because of the turmoil there is the 1600's and 1700's fled to the south. John is believed to be from Ardfert near Tralee, County Kerry. Also, he and four brothers along with his father and mother sailed from Dublin and arrived at Bermuda Hundred, Charles City County on the Jane and Diana, skippered by Captain Hadwich in October 1789. It is believed that his family was indentured to Edward McGuire, who in 1747 purchased 346 acres on the Wappomo in Prince George County. By 1795, John and his family had moved to Franklin County in an area on the North Fork of Giles Creek. About 1815, they moved to Botetourt County. The McGuires were farmers and earned their living from the soil. W.L. McGuire Sr., Newport News, Virginia - The Montgomery Story - http://www.burelison.com/mcguire_FT/descendants_of_moses_mcguire.htm
Isaac T. Preston (Capt - 35th Inf) - "John Forehand aged fifty nine years, a resident of Monroe County in the State of Virginia who being sworn according to law declares that he is the identical John Forehand who was a private in the Company commanded by Captain Isaac T. Preston in the 35th Regiment of U. S. Infantry," - http://searches.rootsweb.com/usgenweb/archives/wv/monroe/military/war1812/f6530001.txt - Smithfield Preston Foundation - Folder 22: 1829, 1846--Two letters from Isaac T. Preston to James McDowell - http://spec.lib.vt.edu/mss/spf/contents.htm - letter from Isaac T. Preston written to the New Orleans Courier of July 2 in which the writer deplores the fact that the treaty between the United States and Mexico had been violated. - http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v016/n3/article_3.html - Benton, Thomas Hart. ALS to Isaac T. Preston, colonel. 15 February - http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utcah/00015/00015-P.html - Private William Webb : He served during the War of 1812 in Captain Preston’s Company, 35th Regiment United States Infantry (regulars). He applied for a bounty land warrant on 25 June 1818 under the ScripWarrant Act of 1812 (#17807) for 160 acres. It was received 8 May 1861 and located in Section 9, Township 2 N Range 3 W in the territory of Illinois. - http://www.webbdeiss.org/webb/webb_boys_w.html
Merriwether Taliaferro (Capt - 35th Inf) - Gen. note: Nominated to the Senate as Captain in the 35th Infantry on July 30, 1813 as having been made by the President March 31, 1813. Confirmed by the Senate August 1, 1813. Senate Executive Journals, 2:429, 436. The officers of the 35th Infantry were from Virginia, as shown by the Senate Executive Journals, 2:429, 430, and the Regimant itself is listed as a Virginia regiment in the Army Register [of] January 1, 1815 in Gordon, Compilation of the Registers of the Army, 37. Under the General Order of May 17, 1815 Merriwether Taliaferro was honorably discharged. See also, Heitman, Historical Register, 1:944, giving date of discharge as June 15, 1815. - http://ajax.lva.lib.va.us/ -
John Thorp (Capt - 35th Inf) - GREENSVILLE COUNTY, VIRGINIA Militia Lists - Jan. 9, 1809, William Bailey is recommended to the Gov. in Council to execute the office of Captain to raise a Volunteer Company of Light Infantry to be attached to the 2nd Battalion, John Thorp as Lieut. in said Co. & Charles C. Wardlow as Ensign - July 19, 1810, John Thorp, Capt. Richard Stewart, Lieut. & Benj. Dupree, Ensign, of the Volunteer Co. in the Mil. took oaths of office. (p. 27.) - Wm. and Mary Qrtly., V. 27, No. 3 - http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/va/greensville/military/militia2.txt
Isle Of Wight Count? Amelia Co? Campbell Co - unk/poss relation to: John Thorp (1710-1772) Southampton Co VA? - John Thorp, regular soldier (Wm. Thorp, heir); Wm. Thorp, sergeant, 1755-62;...in Col. Wm. Bryd's regiment (Cherokee Expedition; In 1760 the 2nd Virginia Regiment was formed for immediate defense of the state, with Colonel William Byrd as commander) - http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/va/campbell/military/history01.txt
F. Mortimer Thorp moved west with his father, Major John Thorp, to Oregon in 1844.home.netcom.com/~carpentg/fam_hist4.html
Francis E. Walker (Capt - 35th Inf) - Edmund Hall Vaughan m. Sally H. Walker, Mecklenburg Co., June 5, 1809. B/M (best man): Francis E. Walker. - http://www.vaughan-vaughn.org/vamarmg.htm - 1809 Mecklenburg Co VA, 11-13-1809, Bond by Stephen P. Poole, Francis E. Walker -http://searches.rootsweb.com/usgenweb/archives/va/halifax/bios/hite1.txt
Thomas K. Ball (Lt - 35th Inf)- The name, of Ball has been a familiar one in Virginia from an early period of its colonial history and yields to no other in patriotic performances. It will be remembered that it was a Mary Ball who became the mother of George Washington, the founder as well as the first president of the nation, and the most illustrious man of the eighteenth century if not of all time. - http://www.heritagepursuit.com/Ross/RossBio373.htm
*Blair Bolling (Lt - 35th Inf) - (3 Mar. 1791 - 3 Aug. 1839) of “Centre Hill” married first Margaret A. Webster 15 April 1824. [Marriage Notices from Richmond, Virginia, Newspapers, 1821-1840 (VGS), p. 18] He married second 7 March 1827 Penelope Storrs (c.1806- 29 May 1849), a daughter of Gervas Storrs. 5 sons, 5 daughters - http://www.virginians.com/redirect.htm?topics&ra
"Blair Bolling would have been a hero with the opportunity. He had all the daring, devotion and fearlessness to make one...His after career as Captain of the "State Guard" (in his day a turbulent and refractory band) furnished many practical proofs of the dauntless spirit he then exhibited....He was a stern disciplinarian, exacting from those he commanded that strict performance of duty he imposed on himself, but just and forgiving. He was of tall stature, of fine presence, and high character." - Pocahontas and her Descendants With - Biographical Sketches By Wyndham Robertson 1887
http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/pocahontas/index.htm
http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/pocahontas/page69.htm - http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/pocahontas/page70.htm
Mss1B6386b, Bolling Family Papers, 1748-1905,
Powhatan and Buckingham Counties, Virginia
Section 3 consists of three items, Letters, 1813-1819, written to Blair Bolling (of Richmond, Va., while serving in the 35th Infantry Regiment, U.S.A.) by John Caldwell Calhoun (concerning a request for an appointment as captain in the U.S. Army) and Joseph Goodwyn (concerning Blair Bolling's appointment as first lieutenant in the 35th Infantry Regiment); and commission, 1815, of Blair Bolling as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army (signed by James Madison [1751-1836] and James Monroe [1758-1831]).
Also, includes "Memoirs of Blair Bolling (1791-1839) concerning his service in the 35th Infantry Regiment of the United States Army, 1813 March 31-1815 July 18, at Craney Island, Norfolk, Paineville, Petersburg, Portsmouth, and Richmond, Va.," (p. 26-34) .
Section 4 consists of six items, accounts, 1813-1814, of Blair Bolling (1791-1839). The accounts were kept in Richmond, Virginia, and concern enlistments in the U.S. Army (35th Infantry Regiment).
http://vhs3.vahistorical.orgManuscripts
http://www.vahistorical.org/research/photocopies.htm
http://www.andersonpublishing.com/academic/guides/southern_hist/plantations/plantm5.asp
http://www.bolling.net/email.html
Captain Blair Bolling Cemetery - Blair Bolling Cemetery is located on the Blair Bolling Center Hill Farm off of Route 711 in Powhatan County, Virginia (four gravesites)- www.accessgenealogy.com/cemetery/virginian.htm
http://members.aol.com/lredtail/poca.html
Descendant of POCAHONTAS 1595?-1616 m. John Rolfe 1585-1622 - 1 Col. ROBERT BOLLING married JANE (Rolfe) the daughter of Thomas Rolfe (only son of Pocahontas), gent, by whom he had one son, John Bolling, born ye 26th day of Jan'y 1676 - 2 JOHN BOLLING, who from his rank in the Henrico militia was sytled Major John Bolling, "devoted himself," says the Bolling Memoirs,* "to commerce. He had a gay, lively, penetrating spirit. He lived at Cobbs, on Appomattox River, where he received all the profits of an immense trade with the Indians, and enjoyed at the same time all the pleasures of Society; for which never was there a person better formed." - 3 Col. JOHN BOLLING (his rank in the Chesterfield militia) inherited a large property from his father and himself, added greatly to the estate. His son states in the Bolling Memoirs that he was for thiry years a Burgess, and for a long time before his death Commander of the Chesterfield militia and a Justice of the County Court. He inherited his father's love of pleasure and his business qualifications. He was "fond of fine horses, hounds, hunting, fishing, fowling, feasting and dancing, yet doted on his wife and children," and had an admirable sense of humor. He was public-spirited, hospitable and popular. He represented his county in the House of Burgesses for thirty years, living "in a style of elegance and profusion not inferior to the Barons of England." 4 ARCHIBALD BOLLING of Buckingham County, included in a 1757-codicil giving him land in Bedford County. Archibald chose Thomas Bolling guardian 3 August 1770. "He was married four times, and told his last wife if she should die before him he would marry again, for it was God's own proverb, that it was not good man should be alone, and it was a point of conscience with him to fulfill the Scriptures." [Chesterfield Co. Court Order Bk. 4, p. 436] He and his brother Edward were students at the College of William and Mary in 1770. [William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, 2nd ser., vol. 1, p. 116] http://www.rootsweb.com/~albutler/families/rolfe2.htm
http://genforum.genealogy.com/bolling/messages/1718.html
http://www.geocities.com/amonute1595/pocadesc.txt
* see Memoirs below
Francis W. Brady February 7, 1817. Francis W. Brady, late 3d Lieut. 35th Infantry, to be 2d Lieut. 4th Infantry - Captain in 1823-1831 Army register not in 1832 register-
Francis D. Charlton (Lt - 35th Inf) - Francis D. Charlton of Suffolk VA land in Gloucester Co VA. - http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gregoryc/ncwills.htm - The Columbians - A militia company that functioned between 1820 and 1861, when its name was changed to the Suffolk Continentals and as such it entered the Confederate Army as Company B, 16th Virginia Infantry. However, in 1833 some change may have taken place, for Joseph Prentis credited "Francis D. Charlton - Paymaster 59th Virginia Regiment" with $3.63. The names of some of the officers have survived. Frances David Charlton was the first captain; in 1825, John Cowper Cohoon, Jr. was captain; and in 1830, Francis Cunningham Riddick, a lawyer, was lieutenant. P. 124 In 1826, the Marquis DeLafayette accepted an invitation to visit Suffolk, and his arrival day was a day long to be remembered. All the vehicles of any importance and some of the best citizens met him at old Tony Pugh's (a free negro who kept an eating place near present Driver), 9 miles below Suffolk; the Colombians greeted him at the head of Main Street, while the people enmasse followed in procession to the Castle Inn (a busy tavern) downtown. Captain Charlton proceeded at once to conduct the General along the line, while he shook every man cordially by the hand. - http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/w/a/g/Sharon-C-Wagner/GENE2-0002.html
Henry Cook (Lt - 35th Inf) - ?Great Grandfather Reuben Cooke (-1768) married Anne. The Albemarle Parish Register listed the births of five of their children. Their name was more often written “Cook.” Reuben Cooke purchased 200 acres on Assomoosick Swamp from John Peebles 20 June 1744 and 134 acres on the south side of Blackwater Swamp from David Jones 25 November 1748, [Surry Co. Deed Bk. 4, p. 231; Surry Co. Deed Bk. 5, p. 320] and patented 60 acres on the south side of Blackwater 10 September 1755.mother Betty Cocke married Samuel Lucas who left a will in Surry County (will dated 18 Jan. 1770, [Surry Co. Wills, Deeds, Etc. 10A, 1768-78, p. 70] recorded 17 Feb. 1770). - http://www.virginians.com/redirect.htm?topics&7130 - 4› - ?Grandfather Henry Cook (22 Aug. 1750 [Albemarle Parish Register (Colonial Dames), p. 27] ) married Rebecca Lucas. 5› ?Father Henry Cook (30 Dec. 1774 [Albemarle Parish Register (Colonial Dames), p. 143] )? - http://www.virginians.com/redirect.htm?topics&7130
Robert J Crockwell - M Undetermined 1812 2nd Lieutenant 11/15/1814 C 3rd Rifle - http://www.lva.lib.va.us/whatwehave/mil/vmd/locresults.asp?place=Undetermined
John G Crump (Lt - 35th Inf) - M Undetermined 1812 1st Lieutenant 9/25/1814 C 35th infantry - http://www.lva.lib.va.us/whatwehave/mil/vmd/locresults.asp?place=Undetermined
Leroy Daingerfield (Lt - 35th Inf)- descendant of Col. William Daingerfield, a member of the House of Burgesses, 1747-1751. He lived at "Greenfield" in Essex County, Virginia. son was John Daingerfield who married Anne Walker in 1670 when he was 39. John lived in South Farnham Parish in Essex County, VA near Tappahannock. The ferry was operated from his land to the mouth of Rappahannock Creek, now Cat Point - via mother Apphia Fauntleroy - daughter of Col. William Fauntleroy; d 1703- * inherited the "Old Plantation" tract and the Naylor's Hole .. This tract lies between Rappahannock Creek at Cat Point and Doctor's Creek, and built a square brick house here;*(captain 1739, major 1748, and colonel in 1751) served in the Virginia militia;*(1741) obtained a ferry license and operated a ferry at the mouth of Rappahannock Creek for many years; *(1742-1750) served in the House of Burgesses; In Apphia's father's will, Col. William Fauntleroy gives to his grandchildren Mary, Martha, Lucy, and LeRoy Daingerfield certain negroes. She was Col. Daingerfield's second wife.
Col William was father of of Capt. Moore Fauntleroy, Capt Henry Fauntleroy - Captain Henry Fauntleroy, 5th VA Continental Line, who was killed in the Battle of Monmouth between this old Church and Monmouth Court House ..General Washington in a letter to his brother, Col John Augustine, dated Brunswic, NJ 4 Jul 1778 says, "Among our slain officers is Captain Fauntleroy". And in a letter to Governor Patrick Henry, of VA, 4 Jul 1778 says, "Capt Fauntleroy of the 5th was unfortunately killed by a random cannon ball." His four brothers, John, Griffin Murdock, Joseph, and Robert were officers in the VA Continental Line Troops...Custis' Reminiscences, page 221, speaking of the battle says, "On the part of the Americans, the fate of the young and brave Captain Fauntleroy of the Virginia line, was remarkable. He was on horseback at a well near a farm house waiting his turn while the fainting soldiers, consumed by a thirst arising from their exertions on the hottest day supposed ever to have occured in America, were rushing with frantic cries to the well, imploring for water. The Captain with the point of his sword resting on his boot, his arm leaning on the pommel, continued to wait his turn, when a cannon shot, pounding down the lane that led to the farm house, struck the unfortunate officer near his hip and hurled him to the ground a lifeless corpse. The lamented Fauntleroy was descended from one of the old and highly respected families of Virginia. Leaving the comforts of a home and the delights of a large circle of friends, this gallant young soldier repaired to the standard of his country early in the campaign of 1776." - http://www.tmason1.com/pafn109.htm & http://searches.rootsweb.com/usgenweb/archives/va/richmond/wills/willbk3-7-abstracts.txt
Robert Eskridge (Lt - 35th Inf) - ? descended from Colonel George Eskridge .. born in Lancashire, England and died in Westmoreland County, Virginia 25 November 1735. He married Rebecca Bonum, daughter of Samuel and Margaret(Philpot) Bonum. Colonel Eskridge was reportedly shanghaied in his youth while walking along a wharf in England about 1670, brought to America and sold as an indentured servaant. When his term expired he returned to England, studied law and came back to Virginia. He was a member of the House of Burgesses for many of the sessions from 1704 1734. George Washington was undoubtedly named for him. Douglas S. Freeman so stated in his biography of Washington, Vol. I, pp 43-45, 47. Mary Hewes __ the mother of Mary Ball and of Mary's older half-sister, Elizabeth Johnson who married Samuel Bonum __ named Colonel Eskridge as the guardian of Mary Ball. He served in this capacity from the time Mary was 13 years old until she married Augustine Washington. Mary Ball was reared in the home of Colonel Eskridge and her marriage to the father of the :Father of our Country" took place from our ancestor's home. It was George Eskridge who held their first born as he was christened George Washington. A highway marker near Sandy Point, Westmoreland County, Virginia (Northern Neck) attests to this fact.In more recent years this estate was the home of the author, John Dos Passos. - http://www.lightpatch.com/genealogy/paf/pafn07.htm
Abner H. Hicks (Lt - 35th Inf) - Great Grandfather Capt. Robert Hicks, or Robert Hix, as his name sometimes appeared, settled in what is today Emporia in Greensville County. The area was in Surry County when he secured his land patents there and was added to Brunswick County in 1732. Greensville was formed in 1782. In February 1735/6 the Brunswick County court granted Robert Hicks leave to keep a ferry over the Meherrin River at Hicks ford. [Brunswick Co. Order Bk. 1, p. 119] Emporia was known as Hicks’ Ford or Hicksford, until the Civil War. In 1728 William Byrd mentioned 70-year-old Robert Hicks. He wrote that he, “turn’d his Hand to everything, not withstanding his great Age, disdaining to be thought the worse for Threescore & ten. Beauty never appear’d better in Old Age, with a Ruddy complexion, & Hair as white as Snow.” Captain Hicks was indicted by a Surry County jury for allowing his Indian servant to hunt with a gun on the Sabbath. Grandson Robert Hicks [WE.H2.4.2] married Rebecca Harrison, a daughter of Benjamin Harrison, whose 1789-will left nine slaves to daughter Rebecca Hicks. [Brunswick Co. Will Bk. 5, p. 345] Robert left a will in Brunswick County remembered wife, Rebecca, and children Paschal, Abner H., Hamlin, and Isaac Hicks, Tabitha Bracey, Lucy Bracey, and Frances James (will dated 3 Jan. 1803, [Brunswick Co. Will Bk. 7, p. 29] recorded 25 June 1804). Abner H. Hicks [WE.H2.4.2.4] (-1818) left a will in in Brunswick County in 1818. [Brunswick Co. Will Bk. 8, p. 401] - http://www.virginians.com/redirect.htm?topics&we - Abner Harrison Hicks, will 29 Apr 1817, Brunswick Co., VA - http://genforum.genealogy.com/hicks/messages/8121.html - in his Brunswick County, VA will dated 29 April, 1817 states “Lovey Wesson all my estate real and personal and all which fall in possession upon death of my mother I give to her, the said Lovey Wesson, for life and after death to her son, William Hill Wesson, to him and his heirs forever”. Lovewell Wesson was authorized to administer Abner Harrison Hicks' will. It is supposed that Abner Harrison Hicks was the father of Lovewell Wesson's son William Hill Wesson. - http://genforum.genealogy.com/hicks/messages/8032.html
Charles Hutchings (Lt - 35th Inf) - married Elizabeth Dillard - Pittsylvania County (Virginia) was formed out of Halifax County in 1767; the Dillards and their holdings were in this new county - http://www.dillardfamilyassociation.com/dannuals/da1993/da93all.htm
Winfield Jones (Lt - 35th Inf) - (13 Nov. 1791), born just under nine months after the marriage of his parents, married Mary E. Jones 18 Marsh (bond) 1816, [Bedford Co. marriage bond] and was postmaster at Stony Creek Warehouse, Sussex County, according to his mother’s 1833-pension application. - http://www.virginians.com/redirect.htm?topics&1168
Daniel Keith - (Lt - 35th Inf) - Senate Executive Journal --TUESDAY, January 26, 1819. Daniel Keith, late Lieutenant 35th Infantry, to be 2d Lieutenant, Rifle. - 2d Lt. Daniel Keith, to be 1st Lieut (Rifle Regiment) 20 May, 1820, vice Hunt, promoted. - part of reduction - not in 1821 register for "new" 1st-7th infantry regiments - research of the KEITH family that lived in Dinwiddie Co in the late 1700s...Rev. Daniel KEITH, (1759-1824) was probably the son of Cornelius KEITH and a descendant of the Rev. KEITH who came to VA from Bermuda in 1617. On 5 Feb 1781, Daniel m. Rosa Corbin (b. 1781) and in 1782 the KEITH family moved to Montgomery (now Carrol Co) and then again they moved to Surrey Co, NC. Daniel and his family and his brother, Rev. George KEITH, moved to Grayson Co, VA. In 1817/1818, Daniel and Rosa KEITH moved to Jackson Co, IN with their family and their daughter, Prudence KEITH JONES and her husband, George JONES. -http://www.rootsweb.com/~vadinwid/query004.htm
George Keith, About 1749, born in Virginia.Parents: Cornelius Keith (b. 1715 Scotland, d. 1808 Pickens Co., SC s/o Cornelius Keith and Elizabeth Johnston or s/o James Keith b. Scotland) and Mary Bohanon (b. abt 1720)(they m. in Pittsylvania now Henry Co., VA and had slaves). Mary was Cornelius' second wife, he first married abt 1742 Juda Thompson. The Keiths came to Pittsylvania Co., VA from the Roanoke River, Brunswick Co., VA. 1771 - William Herbert's Company, Botetourt Co., VA - also his father Cornelius Keith (3 tithes). 1774 - Lord Dunmore's War, William Herbert's Company, Fincastle Co., VA. He is not on the pay lists. There is a Daniel Keith, 1782, Elk Creek Militia 1782 Montgomery Co., VA personal tax list: 1 tithe, 0 slaves, 0 horses, 6 cattle; Also Daniel 1-0-1-2, and Reuben 1-0-1-4. The Keiths were Baptists. George's brother Cornelius was a Colonel (Whig) in the Revolution.
William Loyall (Lt - 35th Inf) - father-in-law of Admiral David Farragut 1801-1870 The cruise ended in Norfolk harbor in February 1843. There, in December of that year, he married Virginia, eldest daughter of William Loyall, a woman of superior character and cultivation, and no little literary ability, who survived him fourteen years. - www.famousamericans.net/davidglasgowfarragut-The Decatur had already been long on the station when Farragut assumed command, and the time had now arrived for her to return home. After leaving Buenos Ayres she made short stops at Montevideo, Rio Janeiro, Maranham, and Para, the latter being the seaport of the Amazon River. On the 18th of February, 1843, she arrived in Norfolk, and Farragut was relieved. His health being delicate at this time, he spent the following summer at Fauquier Springs, Virginia. From the mountains he returned in the autumn to Norfolk; and there on the 26th of December, 1843, he married Miss Virginia Loyall, the eldest daughter of Mr. William Loyall, a well-known and respected citizen of Norfolk. - http://www.pattonhq.com/militaryworks/farragut.html
1832-For two centuries the name Loyall has been known and honored in Norfolk Borough and city. The eleventh name signed to the famous protest against the Stamp Act, March 31, 1766, was Paul Loyall. But Paul was well know here before these troubles began with the Mother Land, for heserved Norfolk as mayor from June, 1762, to June, 1763. He must have made an able and popular official, for he was elected for a second term (1772-73) and again to a third term, beginning June 1775. Our colonial mayors served each a year, and were not permitted to serve a second, successive term. During Loyall's third term the Revolution came to Norfolk, bringing fierce fighting, death, arson and destruction. No record is kept of the conclusion of his term, for there was no Norfolk in June, 1776, not so much as one inhabitant.. Dr. T. J. Wertenbaker gives this interesting portrait of the athletic mayor, a picturesque story of colonial Norfolk, as it was in 1767, the year after the detested Stamp Act: "This has always been a town for sailors, ships, and men of all nationalities. Be they good or bad, we have them from every nation under heaven, as all the flags of all peoples are reflected in the placid waters of our harbor. The British sloop-of-war `Hornet' (an appropriate name, as it proved) dropped anchor here, and Captain Jeremiah Morgan was short of men for the `Hornet's' crew."...Norfolk's, police force were amateurs and volunteers, called the "night watch." The watch rallied to the assistance of the men being shanghaied, the alarm was sounded, the fighting and rioting increased until the section of the town that lay south of Main street became a veritable battleground. Paul Loyall instinctively took command of the forces of law and order-- a befitted a former mayor-- and was getting the better of Jeremiah and his drunken crew when Jeremiah became so infuriated at Paul's interference that he lunged at him with a dirk. But Paul's friends were too quick, and Jeremiah, missing his aim, was forced to retreat to his tender. Most of the captives were released and many of Jeremiah's men were taken prisoners and had the privilege of sobering up in the little jail on Main street, and of facing the judge the next morning....When the Loyal name is mentioned, the people of America, especially north and west, recall the marriage ofAdmiral David Glasgow Farragut and Virginia Loyall in 1843. She was the daughter of William Loyall, the brother of George, a son of the mayor (1798) and a grandson of stout old Paul of the colonial Borough. From "Norfolk in By-Gone Days," by the Rev. W. H. T. Squires, D.D., published Aug. 11, 1938 (in "Squires Scrapbooks," Norfolk, Va., Public Library, Vol I, p. 185). Mr. (George) Loyall had held the office as (Navy agent) for thirteen years (in 1850) during which time he disbursed more than $14,000,000 of the public money without the loss of a cent to the treasury.http://www.geocities.com/buz_nest/oration.html
Edward Lyle Pegram(Lt - 35th Inf) 1 (John , Edward , Edward , Daniel , George ) was born on 26 Jun 1796 in Dinwiddie Co., Virginia. Edward married Mary Pegram daughter of George Pegram and Unknown on 17 Oct 1815 in Dinwiddie Co., Virginia.
father Major General John Pegram was born on 16 Nov 1773 in Dinwiddie Co., Virginia. He died on 8 Apr 1831. ... He married (1) Elizabeth Eppes Coleman, in 1793. ...She was born in 1775, the daughter of Robert Coleman and Mary (Letitia) Coleman, whose home was called "Burnt Quarters". This historic home was built in 1700, on land granted Robert Coleman by the King of England, and has never been out of the family. Elizabeth's sister, Mary Coleman, married Colonel Joseph Goodwyn. Their daughter, Mary Elizabeth, inherited "Burnt Quarters" from their mother in 1812. ...John served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1797-1801. He served in the Virginia Senate during the 1804-1815 period. He succeeded Peterson Goodwyn in the in the United States Congress, following Goodwyn's death, March 3, 1818, completing his term. He was a Brigadier General in the Virginia Militia, in 1808, and was Majr. General of the First Division of Virginia Militia, during the War of 1812. He was a trustee of Mount Pleasant Academy in Petersburg. The state of Virginia established a literary fund in 1810, to support education for the poor, and John was appointed director of the fund for Dinwiddie Co.,. He was also appointed United States Marshall of Eastern Virginia by President Monroe and served during the trial of Aaron Burr in Richmond. - http://www.patch.net/pegram/pegg26.html#6346
?uncle Edward Pegram was born on 13 January 1746 (8), apparently in Prince George County, Virginia, now Dinwiddie County. He died at his home "Diamond Springs", in Dinwiddie, on 30 March 1816. He was said to have been six feet and six inches in height, and proportionally large (7). Edward grew up as the son of an affluent plantation owner, and became active in political and military affairs. The name Capt. Edward Pegram appears on a copy of a Virginia record, in a receipt as follows: 18 December 1778 - Received for the use of Captain Pegram forty eight pounds 2/8 being for reward and pay of guard escorting Thomas Woodward to Public Gaol, Gov. Warr. Also 169 pounds 14/10 for reward and expenses of self and guard escorting John Bond to Public Gaol, Gov. Warr. John Burnett (58). Edward Pegram was a Captain in the Revolutionary War, and this title was used throughout his life (102). He was also a Captain of Dinwiddie Militia in 1779 (6) In 1789 Gentlemen Justices of Dinwiddie County were Edward Pegram Jr., Peterson Goodwyn, William Watts, John Videer Jr. and George Pegram. Edward4 was appointed Special Commander by the Colonial Government to defend his Parish and County attack of the Indians (6). His services in this capacity won for him the title of "King Pegram" (7). In 1792-93 Edward4 was Sheriff of Dinwiddie County (50). He was Mayor of Petersburg, Virginia, and the following letter may be of interest.37
Thomas Wilson (Major) to the Governor.
July 1, Richmond, Enclosing a communication from the Mayor of Petersburg relative to the defenceless situation of Fort Powhatan.
Petersburg, June 30th 1814
Dear Sir:
I beg leave to call attention and solicit your aid, in opening the eyes of the Executive to the defenceless and dangerous situation of Fort Powhatan. There is upward of seven hundred Kegs of Powder, besides all the Guns and other public property at the Fort, and only twelve men, and several of them sick, to guard it. If our enemy knew the situation of this place, they would most certainly destroy it; and as the Citizens of Richmond must feel equal interest with ourselves in protecting this place, I trust you'll lose no time in communicating the same to the Executive, and make known the results to
Your obedient servant,
Edw'd Pegram Jr., Mayor. (60).
- http://www.patch.net/simmons/sim09.html
Charles R. Rose (Lt - 35th Inf) - 12 February 1812. Sterling Claiborne to sons William Sterling and Charles Buller Claibirne, love and $1.00 - 1200 acres, GEDDES tract bought be me of Gustavus Rose, Thomas Aldridge, Anderson Moss, Norvell Spencer, John Marr, and Charles R. Rose. - http://members.aol.com/achmuseum/muse/muse10-99.html
David Shelton (Lt - 35th Inf) - Senate Executive Journal --FRIDAY, February 7, 1817. - D. Shelton, late 2d Lieut. 35th Infantry, to be 2d Lieut. 7th Infantry - does not appear in 1818 Army Register - 7th Infantry - The Virginia-North Carolina line was established in 1728. James Shelton was Captain in Henry County, Virginia militia in 1777, resigned in 1780. - A David Shelton was Captain in the Virginia Militia in the Revolution - Amherst County, Henry County, Henrico County http://www.rootsweb.com/~tnmcmin2/SheltonCXIP358.htm
David Stith (Lt - 35th Inf) - "STITH, DAVID B. Va. 2d Lieutenant 35 Infantry 31 Mar 1813; 1st Lieutenant 1 Sep 1814, honorable discharge 15 June 1815. (This is David B. Stith, a son of Buckner Stith, 1761801, and Elizabeth Jones, DS13-4) - Robert Stith, son of Drury Stith and Fanny Love, who was a surgeon in the Mexican War. (The reader is advised that Henry Bynum who married Amanda Stith, daughter of Robert Stith and wife Mary Goodwyn, was killed in the Mexican War at Cerro Gordo, Mexico, 1847.)- http://stithvalley.com/ancestry/stith/crstith/stithbook.htm
- Stith, David B. Va. 2nd Lieutenant 35th Infantry 31 March 1813 1st " 1 Sept. 1814 - www.jscott.tierranet.com/scottfam/stithfam/jwhitfld/crstith.htm - -brother John Sith (Lt- 35th) died in service
Simon C. Williams (Lt - 35th Inf)- Patents Shenandoah Co. Bee hive. - http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/va/schools/wmmary/patents2.txt
Edward Archer (Ensign - 35th Inf)- George Archer I (-1675) of Henrico County. Descendants found in Chesterfield, Amelia, Powhatan, and Nottoway. By 1782 four Archers paid personal property taxes in Dinwiddie County: John, William, George, and Edward Archer. Digression: Other Colonial Archers covers Archer families of early Virginia. Names include Gabriel, Roger, George, and others. - http://www.virginians.com/redirect.htm?topics&3524
- Mary Walthall (17 Dec. 1742 -1790) married Edward Archer 27 October 1768. In 1783 Chesterfield County listed Edward Archer head of a family of seven with twenty-three slaves. [Heads of Families at the First Census 1790, Virginia, p. and col. 51A] Edward died in Chesterfield County 3 January 1790 (will dated 30 Dec. 1789, [Chesterfield Co. Will Bk. 4, p. 244] recorded 11 Feb. 1790 [Chesterfield Co. Court Order Bk. 8, p. 373] ), and his wife the same year (will dated 27 July 1790, [Chesterfield Co. Will Bk. 4, p. 255] recorded 14 Oct. 1790 [Chesterfield Co. Court Order Bk. 8, p. 495] ). He mentioned in his will lots in Petersburg he held as tenant-in-common with George Robertson — his brother-in-law, which evidently descended to Edward. This accounts for why he paid taxes on three slaves in Dinwiddie County in 1782. [Virginia Tax Payers, 1782-87 (Fothergill, Naugle), p. 4]. Young orphaned sons Field and Edward Archer chose Archibald Walthall as their guardian 14 October 1790, [Chesterfield Co. Court Order Bk. 8, p. 497] and the court appointed William Archer guardian to Mary Archer, orphan of Edward Archer, deceased, 8 June 1795. -http://www.virginians.com/redirect.htm?topics&166 - father Field - Field Archer [1662.7.4.2.2] inherited land on the south side of Second Branch Road. - Field Archer was appointed ensign of the Chesterfield County militia 2 March 1781, and it was possibly this Field Archer who was a major in the 20th Virginia Regiment during the Revolution. [Historical Register of Virginians in the Revolution (Gwathmey), p. 19] By 1774 Field Archer of Chesterfield County had land in Lunenburg County where Robert Ingram was his overseer. [Sunlight on the Southside (Bell), pp. 312, 327, 370, 406, 408] He married Martha Bolling in Chesterfield County 20 February 1794, [Chesterfield Co. minister's return] and paid taxes in Chesterfield County in 1800. 6› Powhatan B. Archer 6› Lucy Ann C. Archer married ?Edward Archer? 16 August 1832. ? [Chesterfield Co. minister's return] 4 more sons? (Edward?)- ?uncle - Col. Edward P. Archer (1779 - 1823)Edward Archer [1662.7.4.2.3] (10 Jan. 1774 -1823), who inherited land on the north side of Second Branch Road, married first Mary Jefferson Bolling in Chesterfield County 27 May 1797, [Chesterfield Co. minister's return] and second, Ann Walthall 29 August 1799. [Chesterfield Co. minister's return] During his first brief marriage he had one child, and during his second, he had five. He paid taxes in Chesterfield County in 1800. [''Chesterfield County, Virginia, 1800 Tax List,'' The Virginia Genealogist, vol. 15, p. 254] Archer was captain in the Twenty-third Regiment during the War of 1812. [Chesterfield, An Old Virginia County, 1607-1954 (Lutz), p. 164] Edward left a will in Chesterfield County (will dated 11 Jan. 1822, recorded 10 Nov. 1823), as did Ann (will dated 11 Oct. 1833, recorded 17 Oct. 1839).. s http://genforum.genealogy.com/walthall/messages/17.html
Samuel Kirby (Ensign & Lt - 35th Inf) - Book 11, page 48, May 5, 1815—Inventory and appraisement of the estate of Samuel Kirby, deceased, late a lieutenant in the army of the United States: One negro boy, Stephen. One dark colored or black gelding. One saddle, bridle and martingale. Two sealskin trunks with wearing apparel. One sword belt. - http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/va/halifax/wills/earlywills-h-s.txt
Pleasant H. Mann (Ensign & Lt - 35th Inf) - Martha H. Green married Pleasant H. Mann in Amelia County 28 May 1815. - http://www.virginians.com/redirect.htm?topics&1848
Thomas H Boisseau (Ensign - 35th Inf) - Thomas Holmes Boisseau. Thomas Holmes Boisseau, the sixth child of Benjamin Boisseau and his wife Amey, was probably born sometime around 1792. He married Nancy Vaughan,the third child of Mary Goodwyn Boisseau and Peter Vaughan. They had at leastone child: 1. Mary G. Boisseau, born 1816 -Thomas Holmes Boisseau served at least briefly in the War of 1812,since he appears in the muster roll of Captain David Bunow's Company of theVirginia Militia, as the Lieutenant of the company, from June 27, 1813 to July 9,1813. He died sometime around October 1819, when a letter from BoswellHutchings of Dinwiddie County, to William Hutchings of Murfreesboro, Tennessee,mentions his death.Died - http://blueridge-spi.com/family/pafn09.htm#1459 - From Dinwiddie County, Virginia, Chancery order Book, No. 1, 1832-1852, page 2 - James H. Boisseau in his own right & as admr. of Thomas H. Boisseau decd - http://www.boisseau.homestead.com/deathlistings.html - From Dinwiddie County, Virginia, Order Book, 1789-1791 - April 4, 1832 (date of Court) George F. Boisseau an infant of tender years by Henry C. Thweatt his next friend...........Plts. against In Chancery Augustus B. Coleman admr. with the will annxed of Williamson Coleman senr. deceased, Joseph Goodwyn, Edward Powell and Susan H. his wife (formerly Susan H. Wynn) admr. of John Wynn decd. Edward L. Pegram admr. of Nathaniel Dabney decd. and Thomas Field Defts.- Cemetery Location: About 75 yards from “Mt. Liberty”, the old Boisseau home, on the east side of and one-fifth of a mile from Boisseau Road, the 3.5 miles northeast of Dinwiddie, Virginia. Dinwiddie County - Mr. Thomas H. Boisseau - 1914 - Thomas Holmes Boisseau - October 18 in Dinwiddie County (over 100 - too old - son?)
Peyton R. Burwell (Ensign - 35th Inf)
1. John L. Burwell (1829-55) m. 1852 Nannie Womack (1833-1900). 2. Peyton R. Burwell (b. 1792) m. Jane Seawell; John Womack (1803-70) m. 1827 Louisa Stith (1806-78). Mecklenburg Co., VA Will Bk 14:40 Dated 31 Jany 1836; Recorded 15 Feb 1836 unimpaired called on as Peyton R. Burwell and Richard Puryear to write a will - Signed by the undersigned at 9 oclock on Sunday morning he having died at eight. Jany 31st 1836 P. R. Burwell R. C. Puryear - http://www.rootsweb.com/~vameckle/dpettusw.htm
3. Lewis Burwell m. 2d Elizabeth R. Harrison (d. 1824); John Stith m. Ann Washington. Lewis Burwell (1745-1800) was colonel of Virginia militia and was in command at Yorktown. He was born in Williamsburg; died in Mecklenburg County, Va.
John Stith (1755-1808) served as lieutenant, captain and brevet major in the Virginia Continental Line. He was born in Brunswick County, Va. Mrs. Louise Burwell Mosby. Wife of Junius B. Mosby. Descendant of Col. Lewis Burwell and of Capt. John Stith: DAR ID Number: 155095 Born in Prince Edward County, Va. - http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~rgwomack/dar.htm
VAGenWeb Mecklenburg County Project Home - Cattail Creek and Scott's Crossroads - Lewis Burwell, Col. & Peyton Burwell - http://www.rootsweb.com/~vameckle/finneywood/scotts.htm - The Burwell family was prominent in Mecklenburg County, Va., and Vance, Warren, and Granville counties, N.C., in the 18th and 19th centuries. Colonel Lewis Burwell, son of Armistead and Christina Blair Burwell, was born 26 September 1745, in Williamsburg. He moved to Mecklenburg County, Va., fought in the American Revolution, and served in the Virginia Assembly. With his first wife, Anne Spotswood Burwell, he had twelve children, including Armistead (d. 1819), Lewis (fl. 1792-1848), and Spotswood (1785-1855), all farmers in Mecklenburg County. - www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/htm/00112.html - Nancy Ravenscroft Burwell born about 1814 in Mecklenburg County, VA. She was the daughter of Peyton Burwell and Jane Seawell. - http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/BEH.2ACIB/334 - Mecklenburg Co., VA Will Bk 14:40 Dated 31 Jany 1836; Recorded 15 Feb 1836; witness P. R. Burwell - http://www.rootsweb.com/~vameckle/dpettusw.htm - ? BURWELL, Nathaniel Lt. Col. II b.1750 - "Carter's Grove", James City Co., VA - http://members.cox.net/broaddus/index3.htm
John Huson (Ensign - 35th Inf)
- [NI5788]South Carolina Magazine of Ancestral Research SCMAR, Volume IX Number 1, Winter, 1981 Union District Equity Journal (See vol. 8, p.223) SCMAR, Vol. IX, Winter 1981, No. 1, p.26 The humble petition of Peter M. Huson, John D. Huson, Hannah H. Huson, Elizabeth H. Huson, minors, the first two above the age of 14 and the two last above the age of 12, Sheweth that Richard Huson, the father of the petrs, dec'd. sometime past and some short time since their Uncle John Huson of the State of Virginia died leaving a will by which he bequeathed to the petitioners a considerable estate both real and personal the profit of which they cannot enjoy as they cannot obtain possession or use of said Estate as they have no Guardian appointed. They, therefore, pray that their mother Sarah Huson be appointed their guardian to attend to their interest in the premises. Signed by all four petitioners. - http://www.sutkin.net/notes.html - Chesterfield Co. in 1819. vic Broad Branch - to Stephen Johnson for 73 pounds, 3 sh., land- 38 & ½ acres. Bounded by Benjamin Johnson, Saml. Rountree, John Huson.
Richard Watts (Ensign - 35th Inf)
- related to? Benjamin Watts, b. 5 Oct 1764, Cumberland Co., Va. M. Elizabeth Key, daughter of John and Agnes Witt Key in Bedford Co., Va., 18 Nov 1784. Shortley thereafter they moved to Ga., where he wa appointed Justie of the Peace in Jackson Co., 7 Dec 1808. On 5 Oct 11781(? 1781), he enlisted in Franklin Co., Va., and served six months under Captains Newel and Bush, as a substitute for his father, Richard Watts, who was drafted; guarded stores at Richmond, Warwick, and Manchester, Va. With Other Watts, he and Elizabeth moved to Illinois in 1813 or 1814 and received a land grant in St. Clair Co. He died 7 Mar 1840, in Nashville, Washington Co., IL; - http://gen.culpepper.com/ss/p39883.htm
http://www.wattsline.org/gen/watts/newsletter2.htm
RICHARD D. WATTS BATTALION OF ART'Y (1813-14), VIRGINIA MIL. - doubtful arty guy would join infantry
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The Soldiers
Note- "(Virginia) Records concerning War of 1812 soldiers are scattered and fragmentary, and proof of federal military service and benefits will be found only at the National Archives." "Virginia did not grant bounty land or pensions for military service in the War of 1812. - http://www.lva.lib.va.us/whatwehave/mil/rn19_sold.htm
Example of search - lva.lib.va.us/whatwehave/mil/vmd/locresults.asp?place=Chesapeake - Williams, David M, Chesapeake, City of 1812 died Norfolk Co, Virginia: "Enlisted as a soldier ... in the late war for a term of three years or during the war in a company commaned by Capt. Cox of the 35th Regt of Infantry under the command of Colo(nel) Cox ... died while in Actual service intestate in the County of Norfolk" Unfortunately,"
Example of search - http://www.lva.lib.va.us/whatwehave/mil/vmd/locresults.asp?place=Undetermined - Crump, John G M Undetermined 1812 1st Lieutenant 9/25/1814 C 35th infantry
Example of search - http://www.howertonheritage.com/HowertonHeritageSummer1996.htm - War of 1812-William Howerton was born about 1786 in Brunswick County, Virginia. He was the son of Thomas Howerton and Mary Kirk. He served from Brunswick County as a Private in Capt J Fisher's Company of Artillery, 66th Regt Virginia Militia. While providing support for the 35th Infantry, U S Army at Ft Powhatan in defense of Norfolk harbor he was killed on 28 Jan 1815 at the same time as his company commander, Capt James Fisher. A salvo fired from a British ship in the harbor at Norfolk, Virginia, struck his battery. Official records show that in 1818 his dependent and widowed mother, Mary Howerton, of Brunswick County, Virginia requested her son's back pay as compensation for his death.William Howerton was born ca. 1786 in Brunswick County, Virginia.
Example of search - http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/wv/greenbrier/military/war1812/forehand.txt - "On this 17th day of December A. D. one thousand eight hundred and fifty personally appeared before me, a Justice of the Peace within and for the County and State aforesaid, John Forehand aged fifty nine years, a resident of Monroe County in the State of Virginia who being sworn according to lawdeclares that he is the identical John Forehand who was a private in the Company commanded by Captain Isaac T. Preston in the 35th Regiment of U. S. Infantry, commanded by Colonel Little in the war with Great Britain declared by the United States on the 18th day of June 1812, that he enlisted at Richmond Virginia on or about the 2nd day of August A. D. one thousand eight hundred and thirteen for the term of twelve months and continued in actual service in said war for the term of twelve months, and was honorably discharged at Craney Island , Va. on the 2nd day of August one thousand eight hundred and fourteen as will appear by his original certificate of discharge herewith presented or by the muster rolls of said Company. He makes this declaration for the purpose of obtaining the bounty land to which he may be entitled under the "act granting bounty land to certain officers and soldiers who have been engaged in the military service of the United States" paper September 28th 1850.
Example of search - http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/8502/geobook.htmlEdmund Golder - State of residence of soldier: Virginia & Arkansas - Company in which soldier served: 38th Regiment & Captain James H. Belsche's Company , 35th, United States Infantry Comments: born Prince George County, Virginia. Occupation was carpenter. Enlisted in Petersburg, Virginia. Dark eyes, dark hair, ruddy complexion, 5 feet, 7 inches high.
Example of search - http://www.livelyroots.com/gerald/83.htm - William B. Lively served in the War of 1812 as a private in Captain Benjamin B. Jones' Company, 35th Regiment. U.S. Infantry. He enlisted in Nelson County, Virginia on April 18, 1813 and was discharged at Fort Nelson on April 19, 1814. He later served in William C. Scott's Company, 7th Regiment commanded by Colonel Walls, Virginia Militia, substituting on August 28, 1814 and discharged on February 22, 1815. William married Jane Martin-[177] [MRIN: 76] on 8-20-1816 in Nelson County, Virginia. (Jane Martin-[177] was born in 1787 in Virginia.)
Example of search - http://www.buckbd.com/genea/pbabs.txt - Declaration for Pension Scott Co., VA 5 May 1871 Patrick Mc Buckner, 82 years old, resident of Estillville Twp., Scott Co., VA Widower Drafted as pvt. in Capt. John Hammond's Co. of VA Militia to serve at Norfolk, VA. At Richmond, enlisted under Lieut. Hoover [may have been "Huber" -- his recollections tend to vary from place to place] of Capt. Smith's Co., in Col. Smith's Regiment and Gen. Green's Brigade and Norfolk Division. Discharged at Annapolis, MD in 1815, absent 1 yr., 4 mos., and 4 dys. from home in Russell Co. [VA]. Joined U.S. service in late August of 1814 for a five-year term. At headquarters on G(C)raney Island around Sept. 1814. At Ft. Norfolk, Ft. Nelson, and Annapolis, MD. In no important battles. Contracted typhus fever at Annapolis and fever and ague. Attended by Dr. Pinckney. Discharged due to hip wound sustained in a fall at G(C)raney Island while building breastworks. Did not support the rebellion of 1861 in any way. Granted power of attorney to James W. Sage to prosecute pension claim. Post office address is at Pattonsville, Scott Co., VA. Domicile will be divided between grandson's, 8 miles north of Estillville, Scott Co., VA, till fall and son's, near Pattonsville, when he will live with his son, Henry Buckner. Patrick Mc Buckner, X his mark.
Pension Application Receipt no. 15737 War of 1812 11 May 1872 Patrick Mc Buckner enlisted 13 August 1814 at Richmond to serve 5 years. Assigned to 35th Regiment of U.S. Infantry.
Example of search - http://www.rootsweb.com/~vapittsy/notes.htm - MICAJA BOISE, born Pitts. Co, age 22, sailor, enlisted June 12 1813 in 35th Inf; discharged in Norfolk Mar 15 1815
Example of search - http://www.hebroots.com/chumney.html - Chumney, Edward, SC-8885, Nancy Larkin (Waddell) m 13-AUG-1815 in Pitt Cty, NC, srv Jones' Co, 35th US Inf & Josiah Pennock's VA Mil, lived in Prince Edward Cty, VA.
Example of search - http://www.netlizard.com/matt2/veterans.htm - Lockhart, Rodwick b. 1792, Amherst County, Virginia; US Army, 35th Infantry
Example of search - http://www.webbdeiss.org/webb/webb_boys_w.html - Private William Webb : He served during the War of 1812 in Captain Preston’s Company, 35th Regiment United States Infantry (regulars). He applied for a bounty land warrant on 25 June 1818 under the ScripWarrant Act of 1812 (#17807) for 160 acres. It was received 8 May 1861 and located in Section 9, Township 2 N Range 3 W in the territory of Illinois.
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Comparison of above names with the Petersburg Volunteers - 1812:
Captain Richard McRae, First Lieutenant William Tisdale, Second Lieutenant Henry Gary and Ensign Shirley Tisdale
On October 16, the company of Petersburg Volunteers was enrolled in the service of the United States for a term of 12 months. Besides the officers previously elected, the company was comprised of the following: Sergeants--Robert B. Cook, John Henderson, James Stevens, Samuel Stevens; Corporals---George T. Clough, Joseph C. Noble, John Perry, Joseph Scott, Thomas G. Scott, Norbon B. Spotswood; Musicians--Daniel Eshon, James Jackson; Privates--Richard Adams, Andrew Andrews, John W. Bentley, Joseph R. Bentley, Thomas B. Bigger, John Bignall, Robert Blick, Daniel Booker, George Booker, Richard Booker, Edward Branch, Richard H. Branch, Edmund Brown, George Burge, William Burton, James Cabiness, James G. Chalmers, Edward Chenoworth, William R. Chives, Thomas Clarke, Moses Clements, Reuben Clements, Edward H. Cogbill, Samuel Cooper, George Craddock, James Cureton, William B. Degraffenreidt, George P. Digges, Grieve Drummond, Laven Dunton, Alfred O. Eggleston, James Farrar, John Frank, Frederick Gary, James Gary, Edumnd Gee, Edumnd M. Giles, Leroy Graves, George Grundy, George W. Grymes, Nathaniel Harrison, William Harrison, John C. Hill, Jacob Humbert, James Jeffers, William Lacy, William Lanier, William R. Leigh, Herbert C. Lofton, Alfred Lorrain, Roger Mallory, David Mann, Joseph Mason, Nicholas Massenburg, Benjamin Middleton, Samuel Miles, Anthony Mullen, Edward Mumford, James Pace, Benjamin Pegram, Thomas W. Perry, James Peterson, Richard Pool, John Potter, Evans Rawlings, John Rawlings, William P. Rawlings, George P. Raybourne, George Richards, John H. Saunders, Thomas Scott, Richard Sharp, John Shelton, John Shore, John H. Smith, John Spratt, Robert Stevens, Ezra Stith, Nathaniel H. Wills, John F. Wiley, David Williams, James Williams, Samuel Williams, Daniel Worsham, Thomas Worsham, Charles Wynne
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Blair Bolling's Memoir of his service with the 35th Infantry during the War of 1812 - Courtesy of his descendant Blair W. Bolling (Korean War Veteran - 45th Infantry Division)
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| Blair Bolling - Lt 35th US Inf Regt_Courtesy Blair W. Bolling |
page 26
In looking over my old papers this morning I was pleased to find among them the following memorandoms, which I have determined to transcribe for my own statisfaction and such of my friends as may wish to know how I spent my time during the late war with Great Britten. I must acknowledge it was that part of my life which (as yet) I valiew most highly though I did nothing to distinguish myself in an eminent degree, yet I was ready had occasion required, to have defended (to the utmost of my abilities) my country from a powerful enemy, by being in the army of the United States - February 9th 1821 Blair Bolling.
On the 31 day of March 1813 I was appointed a First Lieutenant in the 35 Regiment United States, Infantry. Which appointment, I accepted on the 4th of April 1813 being ordered to report myself to Captain Benjamin B. Jones of Amelia County for further orders. I was stationed at Paineville, on the recruiting service until the last of June following, when I was ordered with my recruits to Petersburg where I arrived
page 27
on the 1st day of July. Set out from there, for Portsmouth on the seventh, where I arrived on the 12th, with a detachment of seventy odd men of whom I had command. By order of General Robert Taylor, part of our regiment were to be stationed in Fort Nelson. On the 1th of August Captain Benjamin B. Jones being in ill health I marched the Company assigned to him, into Fort Nelson and had the entire command of it, until some time in February 1814 where his health being improved enabled him to do duty.
On the 2d of March, 1814, I was ordered to Craney Island where the principal part of our Regiment was then stationed, and was attached to Captain Isaac T. Prestons, company, in which I did duty until the 30th of April following, when I was ordered on the Recruiting service to be stationed in Richmond where I arrived on the 3d day of May 1814 and remained until the 3d of November following. When agreably to order I set out for Norfolk on board the Scn= John. where I arrived on the 7th Ins't again to endure the toils and hardships of Camp. the weather being extremely cold and, unusualy, wet much
page 28
sickness prevailed in the army. in consequence of which, duty, was harder to those who enjoyed that inestimable blessing health* (FN-Of whom I was always fortunate to be one.) than it had ever been since I joined it. I was attached to a company then commanded by Captain William O. Allen and inconsequence of his Indisposicion commanded it until sometime in in February 1815, when Capt Walter T. Cocke was ordered to take charge of it. I continued with that company until the 15th of march 1815 when the noncommisionedofficers musicians and privates who enlisted for the War were discharged, an honorable termination having taken place to the war with England. I, with many of the other officers, remained at Norfolk until the 29th Inst where I embarked for Richmond on board the sloop Elizabeth, where I arrived the 2d of the next month April. I obtained, previously to leaving Norfolk, a Furlough until the 1st of May following at the expiration of which, I was to have returned, but in the mean time I was informed by good authority that it was not necessary for the officers who were on furlough, to return to their
page 29
respective Posts, in consequence of which I reported myself by letter to Col'o James Bankhead the Adjt Genl informing him that any communication addressed to me in Richmond would duly be attended to.
Agreably to resolution of Congress the Army was to have been reduced to 10000 and the supernumerary officers discharged forthwith, but the Treasury, not being in a situation to discharge demands, the Army was ordered to remain under the present organisation until the 15th of June 1815 which would give time, for the selection of Officers for the Peace Establishment, the payment of arearages,etc----
I will hear take occasion to mention, that soon after the conclusion of the war, an order was Isssued from the war department, requiring of the commandants of Regiments, a list, of the names, of all the officers of their respective Corps, who wished to be retained on the Peace establishment, to which list I would not have my name afixed. consequently they had not an oppertunity of scratching mine from it had they have been so disposed.
page 30
I remained in the country about Richmond, occasionally attending the Post office for Public orders, during which time having nothing to do, I visited my friends, and spent my time very agreably, as you may suppose, my pay going on in the interim. The 15th of June arrived and no money was yet in the hands of the Pay master to pay officers, and had there been, he was ordered to pay only such as would sware that they had no unsettled account with the United States. which I was not prepared to do, as I had forwarded mine, to the War department some time before, and had not heard from them since. I therefore concluded to go to the City of Washington, settle my account, draw my pay etc...For that purpose I set out from Richmond on the 7th of July 1815, and on the 13th had made a settlement of my accounts, drawn my pay, and after taking a hasty trip to Baltimore, I returned to Richmond where I arrived on the 16th of July 1815. My Public career being for the Present at an end, I now return to sivil life glorying in being citizen of a country
page 31
Where Peace and plenty abound uncontrolled by tyrants powere or the shackles of a Monrachy.
Blair Bolling late 1st Lieutenant 35 Regiment United States Infantry
It will be amis to give the reader some Idea of the state of the army, as it respected their duties, health etc while I was on the Norfolk station. and in doing so I shall only relate sercumstances, as they occur to me from memory, without any other data to be guided by. The prinsipal duty which it performed, was to guard the sea coast, which was in constant state of Blockade, to keep themselves in readiness to meet an enemy who were daily expected to attack us, to erect fortifications etc. much of which was done. For those purposes strong pickets were required, large details for fatigue, and rigid disiplin was observed, the duties of our own Camp aded to those, as you immajin, gave us full employment. however I can with pleasure as well as truth, add that they although arduous were performed without a murmer.
In June 1813 the Recruiting offisers of the 35th Regiment
page 32
were ordered to assemble their recruits at the principal rendezvous Petersburg, to be immediately organised and marched to Norfolk. Information having been received that that place was in eminent danger of being captured by the British.
The success of the enemy at Hampton, their first attack in that quarter, caused much uneasiness among the inhabitants of Norfolk for the safety of their town but their being repulsed at Craney Island in some degree inspired them with confidence, notwithstanding, many families had left and were then leaving it to seak safety in some more retired part of the country. I do not alude to that part of its citizens who were able to bear arms for I beleave, that city could boast almost as many patriots, as effective men. What was much more to be dreaded by the army stationed at the place, than the Swoard, was the climate which doomed to eternity in numbers Incredable, the hale and blooming youth of our country and some of its ornaments. I will not make my readers shuder by a relation of particulars, sufise it, to say
page 33
that for weeks together the burying ground was never unfrequented by those who were consigning to our mother earth the remains of those whose spirits had flown to that distant and uncertain country, from whose bourn no traveller returns.
I have reason to be thankful that during this scene of distress I was always healthy, and enabled to perform my duty. Our feelings can beter be imagined than described, at least those of us, who came from the uper, and senteral, parts of this state, who when we left our homes, and friends, parted with them, as though we wear destined no more to return which, alas, was the case with too many of us.
Many applications were made by Colo Joseph Goodwyn our commandant for orders to march his Regiment* (FN-35 Regiment Us Infantry) to the northwestern frontier but all in vain. We wear kept on that station until peace, without having an opportunity of sharing the honours, with our bretheren in arms, who being in a more salubrious climate* (FN-Canada) sufered only from Inclementcy of the weather, the fategues of the march and in Glorious Battle.
page 34
some of whom have immortalised their names. However it was not calculated, that Norfolk would have escaped an attack, for great part of 1813-14 and 15. a large fleet blockaded that coast and the army wear in daily expectations of being assailed.
- Blair Bolling
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Unrelated to the "35th Infantry Regiment" but of interest to me is the following "battle" research concerning my hometown (1961-1972 and 1992-present), Hampton, VA (wiki-
Hampton traces its history to 1610. The city's Old Point Comfort, home of Fort Monroe for almost 400 years, was named by the voyagers of 1607 led by Captain Christopher Newport on the mission which first established Jamestown as a British colony. Since 1952, Hampton has included the former Elizabeth City County and the incorporated town of Phoebus, consolidating by mutual agreement. After the end of the American Civil War, historic Hampton University was established here, providing an education for many of the newly freed former slaves. In the 20th century, the area became the location of Langley Air Force Base, NASA Langley Research Center, and the Virginia Air and Space Center. Hampton features many miles of waterfront and beaches.
In modern times, Hampton has become the sixth most populous city in Virginia.)
This episode, which occurred during the War of 1812, was/is largely underplayed by local historians (with the exception of the late Parke Rouse -who is sorely missed) , who frankly have so many events to choose from in its long history of significant happenings. nevertheless, the story deserves telling and the following represents an accumulation of a few sources on the web concerning the battle.
OPERATIONS AT AND NEAR HAMPTON DURING WAR OF 1812, by John H. Guy, The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Volume 37, Virginia Historical Society, 1929 - snippet view
http://books.google.com/books?id=CBE1AAAAIAAJ
Note: Guy provided the magazine a letter on the Battle at Hampton, which appeared in 1923 Vol 31, No 4, pp. 351-352..this Volume is not available as a Google eBook yet - coming soon?
Thanks to Librarian "CS" at APUS, I asked for and received a copy of this JSTOR article in less than 1 hour from time of request - technology is amazing but the relentless quest for information, and assistance offered by my education colleagues is also!
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Plan of Operations at Hampton - from the Galafilm War of 1812 Website [Map is from Benson Lossing's 1869 PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK OF THE WAR OF 1812. BY BENSON J. LOSSING
[A few minor typo corrections (but not all) and spacing adjustments have been made to the following article for readability sake]
Operations at and near Hampton during War of 1812
Source: The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 37, No. 1 (Jan., 1929), pp. 1-11
Published by: Virginia Historical Society
OPERATIONS AT AND NEAR HAMPTON DURING WAR OF 1812
[In 1923 Mr. John H. Guy, of Richmond, gave to this Society a letter, not complete, describing operations near Hampton, Va., and particularly the action of June 25, 1813. This was printed in this Magazine, XXXI, 351, 352. Mr. Guy has now, kindly given two other papers on the same subject,which are printed below. These were minor features of this war, but were important at the time and place.]
""York Town September 1846 [note the date]
Mr. Courier-
After a pleasant passage of only a few hours from Norfolk in the steamer Jervess, which was bound up York River to Walkerton on a party of pleasure, I reached and landed at this celebrated place, now much gone and still going to decay.
Its population consists of about twenty five families only, composing three hundred inhabitants of all kinds.
Walking around the town and upon the extensive, but fast receding breast-works which were thrown up during the revolutionary war by the English Army, I enjoyed a fine view of the beautiful water and other interesting prospects which are here so strikingly presented to the eye. An eminent divine visited the village last Spring, I am told, and having his attention particularly drawn to a white stone, which was one of the steps to the late spacious building occupied by the British general as his head quarters, during the seige in 1781, he took a seat upon it, and after a while said to his conductor that, twenty eight years ago, being then at Madrass, he visited the splendid Cenotaph raised there to commemorate the triumphs of Cornwallis in the East Indies - and now continued he, I am seated at the spot of that renowned commander's humiliation and disgrace. To my eyes alone, perhaps, he further remarked, have these characteristic and contrasting scenes been exhibited. And why, I could not help asking myself - has no Cenotaph, no monument, been erected by my country, here, to commemorate the closing scene of its memorable struggle for Independence? Echo answered me, Why?
As these and other kindred things revolved in my mind, I was involuntarily drawn to the consideration of events pertaining to the last struggle with Great Britain and the present one with Mexico. I would not if I could, detract one iota of that medium of praise so justly due to General Taylor and his gallant comrades for acts of valor on the Rio Grande, but there were deeds done by others more than thirty years ago, in the War of 1812, which will at least compare with those performed in the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, on the eighth and ninth of May last. Some of these, not far from this place, which I do not think have been sufficiently noticed, I will attempt to bring more prominently into view - having derived information not long since, from one who possessed full cognition thereof.
At the battle near Hampton on the 25 June 1813, when the British troops numbering several thousand, under the immediate command of General Beckwith and Admiral Cockburn, were advancing upon the Garrison and town, and the American Militia not exceeding three hundred men, were marching out in open column to meet them - an unfortunate difference of opinion existing between the two state field officers on the ground as to the best mode of conducting the battle, a joint appeal being made by them to him on the occasion, Captain, then Adjutant, Robert Anderson of Williamsburg, promptly replied "form the line, march to the enemy - then in view - fire, and charge with the bayonet". The advice being accepted, Adjutant A. at once gave the order, and, taking the lead, the only officer in front of the line, he cheerfully advanced to execute it. A few paces only had been taken however, when the enemy, unexpectedly opened a fire of Grape and Canister shot, within point blank distance. This unlooked for attack from Artillery induced a change of movement, and wheeling again into column, the Americans marched from the field to the road, where, turning toward the enemy, Adjutant A. led on the attack within fifty yards of the invaders. Whilst returning from the field to the road a four pound shot passed through a gate and splintered one of its bars only a few feet
from the Adjutant. To this little Spartan band, thus marching as it were into the very arms of an enemy more than ten, if not more than twenty times their number, destruction seemed almost inevitable, but by firing and extending its line through an open wood to the right, they killed and wounded of the British more than three times their own loss during the day, each army taking one prisoner.
Borne down at last by overwhelming numbers, but without any orders to retreat, the Americans were obliged, though reluctantly, to give way. Being at all times greatly exposed during the battle, and ever at the head, or in front of his contending comrades, Adjutant Anderson rallied his scattering command at every defensible position, and after passing over several enclosures, he was at last compelled, at Pembroke farmyard to abandon the contest by leaping his horse over a watling fence, when none would continue it with him.
I doubt whether there was at any time, or in any place, a more daring attack and successful defence than this one made by Adjutant Anderson at Hampton - and strange as it may appear, he was nevertheless, at that very time serving as a volunteer at his own private expense. This was but characteristic of him, however, for in 1807, during the Chesapeake affair, as Captain of a company of Riflemen he offered his own individual services for the full period of the War, and with his entire command volunteered to serve without pay, a tour of six months under Major Dudly, then commanding at Hampton, proposing to take the place of any company of Militia who would retire with the pay, their rations, alone excepted. This latter fact is within your own knowledge, as you and your brother Hamilton Shields I believe, were then at Williamsburg and members of his company.
Captain Anderson commanded a volunteer company in 1798, which tendered its services to the general government and was accepted - and in the Spring of 1802 he originated, and with four others raised that greatly distinguished Corps, the Norfolk Junior Volunteers.
Roll of Capt. Samuel Sheild's company of Light Infantry - part of the 2d Battalion 115 Regiment of Va. Militia taken at Hampton in service on the 1st March 1813..... [Roster containing 37 names - omitted ]
Capt. Samuel Sheild - absented 13 May 1813 - to take his seat in the State Legislature.
(Memo by R. A. William Presson was Lieutenant and Willis Wilson was Ensign in this Co.)
1813 April - Capt. (Reuben) Herndon's Co. of Light Infantry (Charlottesville, Albermarle Co.) joined the troops stationed at Hampton. (Archibald Duke Lt. & Achilles Broadhead Ensign.)
1813 April 20 We pitched our tents and were (Joined) reinforced by Capt. (John) Miller's Company of (drafted) Militia (Ensign-Stevens) from Orange Co. Capt. (Nimrod)
Ashby's Company of Lt. Infantry of Fauquier Co. (Lt.-Ball or Francis & Ens.-Adams) and Capt.
(Thomas) Jennings Co. of Lt. Infantry (Lt. Francis or Ball & Ens.-Kemper) of Fauquier County.
1813 February 4th. British Squadron, Admiral (Sir John Borlase) Warren, of two ships of the line & four frigates - blockaded the Capes of Virginia.
8th. 9 Barges capture off Back River a Baltimore letter of Marque - Capt. Southcomb mortally wounded in the Engagement.
March 10th. Other ships under Admiral (Sir George) Cockburn - Anchor in Hampton Roads.
26th. At Midnight - five sailors desert from the British & come to Hampton.
27th. Four other sailors desert from British and come to Hampton.
28th. British Squadron leave Hampton Roads for Lynhaven Bay.
April 11th. Schooner Flight from Bordeaux to Baltimore with a large cargo of Wines, silks, etc. pursued by four barges, ran aground on Willoughby's Point & wrecked. Crew 24 in number taken off by the Barges which four Barges in a N. E. gale was kept in Hampton Roads three of them were captured with fifty five prisoners by troops of Capts. Pryor and Servant in Revenue Cutter & a pilot boat of Capt. Savage who volunteered in her. The fourth barge surrendered to Frigate Constellation.
1813 June 3d. Major (Stapleton) Crutchfield went to Harris's Creek with troops etc.
17th. Enemy's force in Lynhaven Bay reinforced by 74 frigates & transports.
18th. Three Frigates enter Hampton Roads.
20th. Fourteen Gun boats attack a British Frigate near Crany Island for two hours.
22d. Enemy attack Crany Island & defeated with loss of men and three Barges.
25th. Enemy attack Hampton, etc., about 5 o'clock A. M. 12 & 18 shot & from behind Blackbeards Point - In 15 to 20 minutes the Rifle Company under Capt. Servant, commenced firing on the enemy's main force from the woods "The Battalion headed by Majors Crutchfield & Corbin the latter of whom during the action was severely wounded, is now ordered to march rapidly to meet the enemy who are advancing towards our camp, and having gained an open field, we were immediately fired on by two field pieces from a skirt of woods. The Battalion at this time was marching in line, but immediately upon the discharge of the field pieces, was ordered to form an open column by wheeling by platoons to the right, which having been promptly executed, we were then directed to pass in that order through a gate which led to the enemy, and having passed the road to form our line paralel with the said road (along which the enemy was advancing) by gaining ground to the right - this last evolution however was badly executed, and consequently a retreat was the result, which although a fortunate one, because of the inferiority of our forces ; yet of this great inferiority we knew nothing until the retreat commenced, and therefore it was precipitate. Having had the honor of being posted with my company on the right of the Battalion, I, of course, commanded the action, and suffered accordingly - having had four men killed and seven wounded, among the latter my orderly Sergeant Tennis, who poor fellow is since dead of his wounds - the whole number killed & wounded in the action amounted to about twenty. So that my company bore fully half the loss. The loss of the enemy we have never been able to ascertain, but from the best accounts, it appears they must have had killed and wounded about two hundred." "Capt. Pryor and his subalterns Lively and Jones, must have done considerable execution with their field pieces, which they defended until the enemy were within pistol shot & then spiked them and made their escape without the loss of a man." "Lieutenant Duke, who had the command of the second platoon behaved gallantly." (The enemy's conduct at Hampton spoken of) 1813 July nth. The Enemy's
fleet went up the Bay - except a few ships in Lynhaven Bay.
Detail of the Main and Piquet Guards at York Town, 2d July 1813. [list of 20 names omitted]
"Brigade Quarters May 2d. 1813. Brigade Orders. Measures are in train for a full payment of the troops ; The State of Virginia will immediately make the payment from the time of coming into service up to the 4th March. Commandants of Regiments and Corps will cause the Commandants of Companies to prepare Muster and Pay Rolls up to that date - the forms will be furnished by the Brigade Inspector on Tuesday the 4th May."
"Camp near Fort Norfolk May 3d. 1813. Regimental Orders. The Commandants of Companies attached to the Regiment of State Troops, will make out their pay rolls for their respective companies, from the time they entered the service, to the 4th of March last, and transmit them to me as early as with convenience they can. The Commandant of the post at Hampton will make out a pay roll in like manner for himself and staff. James Clarke Colo. Commanding."
"Extract from General Orders, 8 May 1813. The Major-General has found among the troops composing the Requisition from Virginia sundry individuals ( from the highest regimental grade to the private in the ranks) whose duty as representatives requires their presence in Richmond at the meeting of the Legislature on the- instant. Honorable as are the duties of the Civil appointment ; Scruples are entertained of asking furloughs to fulfill them - to remove such the General permits the Representatives of whatever grade in the army, to retire for the purpose of meeting their civil duties, when they think proper, and rejoin the army at their pleasure.
Signed, James Bankhead, Major, Asst. Adj. Genl.
A true copy from General orders James Maurice Br. Inspector.
"Battalion Orders. Camp near Hampton, June 4th 1813. Officers & non commissioner officers & soldiers, not otherwise ordered will remain in camp today- Sta: Crutchfield, Majr. Comd."
"Battalion Orders Camp near Hampton, June 8th 1813. The assistant Inspector General having arrived Capts. Miller, Herndon, Ashby and Jennings will parade their companies today at 10 o'clock, to be mustered and will have those on duty relieved by substituting them from other companies. Those of the sick who are able to parade will do so. The Battalion will parade tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock for inspection,
when they will parade tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock for inspection, when they will have their arms & accoutrements in good order. By Order - Sta : Crutchfield."
"Battalion Orders. Camp near Hampton June 8th 1813. The Adjutant will complete by 9 o'clock tomorrow a return exhibiting the strength of the troops at this post. The Captains will therefore be particular in their morning reports. All the troops will be ready for review of inspection on tomorrow at 7 o'clock instead of 9 as previously directed. By Order - Sta: Crutchfield, Maj. Extracts from Battalion Orders of June 20th 1813. "The Adjutant together with the 1st Lieut. Armistead of the Cavalry, will attend the senior Major. The 2d. Lieut. Cary will attend the junior Major for the purpose of transporting all orders." "Each officer will not fail having every man under his respective command examined this evening, & immediately charged & prepared for action at a moments warning." Sta: C, Majr.
"General Orders, York July ist. 1813. Having received orders to march to Williamsburg with all convenient speed - the whole of the troops now at York, except Capts. Archer & Bryants companies will be in perfect readiness to take up the line of march tomorrow morning at Revillie - Parade will be dispensed with this evening. Sta : Crutchfield."...
[the remainder of article is a short 3 sentence list of enlistments and appointments for a company, written on a muster sheet in December 1850 and therefore omitted]
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Newspaper accounts:Hampton Taken
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=9BBcAAAAIBAJ&sjid=91QNAAAAIBAJ&pg=956%2C2555417
Hampton, as we stated in our last, had been taken by the enemy. General Taylor has received a dispatch from Major Crutchfield at York.
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American State Papers - House of Representatives, 13th Congress, 1st Session Military Affairs: Volume 1
Outrages at Hampton in Virginia, June 29 1813..(begins at bottom of page 375)
...continue on pages 376 to 382
American State Papers: Documents, legislative and executive of the Congress of the United States ..., Part 5, Volume 1 (Google eBook), United States. Congress, Gales and Seaton, 1832
pp. 375-381
unedited
No. 9.
OUTRAGES AT HAMPTON, IN VIRGINIA.
Extract of a letter from General Taylor to Admiral Warren, dated
Head Quarters, Norfolk, June 29, 1813.
"I have heard with grief and astonishment of the excesses, both to property and persons, committed by the land troops who took possession of Hampton. The respect I entertain for your personal character leads me to make known these excesses. It would not become me to suggest what course of inquiry and punishment is due to the honor of your arms. But the world will suppose those acts to have been approved, if not excited, which are passed over with impunity. I do not, however, deprecate any measures you may think necessary or proper, but am prepared for any species of warfare which you may be disposed to prosecute. It is for the sake of humanity I enter this protest.
"We are, in this part of the country, merely in the noviciate of our warfare. The character it will hereafter assume, whether of mildness or ferocity, will materially depend on the first operations of our arms, and on the personal character and dispositions of the respective commanders.
"For myself. I assure you most solemnly, that I neither have authorized, nor will sanction, any outrage on humanity or the laws of civilized warfare. On the contrary, I think it due, no less to my personal honor than to that of my country, to repress and punish every excess. 1 hope that these sentiments will be reciprocated. It will depend on you whether^the evils inseparable from a state of war shall, in our operations, be tempered by the mildness of civilized life, or, under your authority, be aggravated by all the fiend-like passions which can be instilled into them."
H. B. M. Ship San Domingo, Hampton Roads, Chesapeake, June 29,1813.
Sir:
I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of this day, stating that you had communicated to your Government the proposal of an exchange of prisoners, and, also, that some excesses had been committed by the troops in the late affair at Hampton. I have communicated to my friend, Sir Sidney Beckwith, the commander of his Majesty's forces on shore, this part of your letter, and he will have the honor of writing to you upon the points to which it alludes.
I beg leave to assure you that it is my wish to alleviate the misfortunes of the war commenced against my countiy, by every means in my power; at the same time, I am prepared to meet any result that may ensue between the two nations.
I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient faithful humble servant,
JOHN BORLASE WARREN, Admiral of the Blue, and Commander in Chief. Brig. Gen. Taylor, Commanding the United States' forces at Hampton.
A true copy. JAMES MAURICE, Major, Acting A. A. G.
H. M. Ship Sak Domingo, June 29, 1813.
Sir:
Admiral Sir John B. Warren having communicated to me the contents of your letter, I lose no time in assuring you that your wish cannot exceed mine to carry on war with every attention to the unfortunate individuals in whose immediate vicinity military operations may take place. In this spirit I shall vie with you to the utmost. 'At the same time, I ought to state to you that the excesses of which you complain at Hampton were occasioned by a proceeding of so extraordinary a nature, that, if I had not been an eye-witness, I could not have credited it. At the recent attempt on Craney Island, the troops in a barge sunk by the fire of your guns, clung to the wreck of the boat. Several Americans, I assure you most solemnly, waded off from the island, and, in presence of all engaged, fired upon and shot these poor fellows. With a feeling natural to such a proceeding, the men of that corps landed at Hampton.;
That occurrences of that kind may never occur again, and that the troops of each nation may be guided by sentiments of honor and humanity, is the earnest wish of, sir, your very obedient servant,
SIDNEY BECKWITH, Q. M. Gen.
To Brig. Gen. Taylor, Commanding the United Slates' Troops, Norfolk.
A true copy. JAMES MAURICE, Major, Acting A. A. G.
Head Quarters, Norfolk, July 1, 1813.
Sir:'
It affords me the highest satisfaction to receive your assurance that you wish " to carry on war with every attention to the unfortunate individuals in whose immediate vicinity military operations may take place." Such sentiments can alone give splendor to courage, and confer honor on military skill. Worthless is the laurel steeped in female tears, and joyless the conquests which have inflicted needless woe on the peaceful and unresisting. The frankness with which you admit the excesses at Hampton is a guarantee against the repetition.
I cannot doubt, sir, your conviction that the scene described by you at Craney Island was really acted. But the very reason it appeared to you incredible and inhuman, it should have been unauthorized. Your own perception of propriety shall decide, if facts should not have been ascertained, and redress demanded, before retaliation was resorted to—a retaliation, too, extravagant in its measure, applying not to the perpetrators ot the alleged offence, or their comrades, but to the innocent and helpless. I have reason to think that you are mistaken in your impressions of the conduct of our troops at Craney Island. That they waded into the water on the sinking of your boat is true; but I learn that it was for the purpose of securing their conquest, and assisting the perishing. One person, perhaps more, was shot, but it was only for a continued effort to escape, after repeated offers of safety on surrender, (such at least is the representation made to me,) If, however, your yielding troops have been butchered, it is due to the honor of our arms to disclaim and punish the enormity. The fame of my country shall never be tarnished by such conduct in the troops under my command. 1 have to-day ordered an inquiry into the facts, by a board of field officers. Proper measures shall be taken to punish whatsoever of impropriety may have been committed. I flatter myself you will perceive in these measures a disposition to afford no cause of reproach in any future conflict. When we meet, let us combat as soldiers, jealous of the honor of our respective countries, anxious to surpass each other as well in magnanimity as in courage.
Accept, sir, the assurance of my consideration and respect.
ROBERT B. TAYLOR, Brig. Gen. Commanding.
To Sir Sidney Beckwith, Quartermaster General,
Commanding the Land Forces of H. B. M. Hampton Roads.
A copy. JOHN MYERS, Aid-de-Camp.
Extract of a letter from Brigadier General Taylor to the Secretary of War, dated
Norfolk, 2d July, 1813.
I enclose, as was promised yesterday, copies of the letters written to Admiral Warren and General Beckwith. My aid, who carried them down, yesterday, brought back a letter from Admiral Warren, of which a copy is enclosed, and has made a statement of what occurred in his conference with the General.
The letter of the Admiral, though polite, is certainly not responsive to any thing which has occurred, and the conversation with the General, though equally civil, is obviously designed to prevent any further discussion of the subject. From the report of prisoners and deserters, there is too much reason to believe that, before the attack on Craney Island, the cupidity of the troops had been excited by a promise of the pillage of Norfolk. To inflame their resentment, after their failure, and to keep alive the hope of plunder at Norfolk, there is much reason to fear that our troops have unmeritedly been charged with misconduct at Craney Island, and that made a pretext for their excesses and their conduct at Hampton. I entertain no doubt of the justification of the honor and magnanimity of our men, by the reports of the board of officers. I do not mean that the subject shall drop, but when I communicate the report, I shall leave the British commander the alternative, either of adopting similar measures in his own army, or remaining under the imputation of having excited their troops to commit these excesses. Our troops are highly inflamed.
Notes for Captain Myers in his interview with Admiral Warren.
A defenceless and unresisting town has been given up to indiscriminate pillage, though civilized war tolerates this only as to fortified places, carried by assault, and after summons.
Individuals have been stripped naked; a sick man stabbed twice in the hospital; a sick man shot, at Pembroke, in his bed, and in the arms of his wife, long after the defeat of the troops; his wife also shot at, and wounded—a Mr. and Mrs. Kirby.
Females have been not only assaulted, and personally abused and struck, but even violated.
If occasion offers, notice may be immediately made of the information, given by prisoners and deserters, of the promise to plunder Norfolk.
As to the imputation of our troops at Craney Island, if Admiral Warren should mention it, deny the fact, and state the actual conduct of our troops, in going into the water to assist their men, and then giving them refreshments as soon as they, entered the fort. Refer to the conduct of all our prisoners, particularly those taken from the boats of the Victorious.
JOHN MYERS, Captain and Aidde-camp.
Head Quarters, Norfolk, July 2d, 1813.
Sir:
In obedience to your orders I proceeded, yesterday, with a flag of truce, to Admiral Warren, in Hampton Roads, to whom I handed both the despatch for himself and that for Sir Sidney Beckwith. The Admiral received me with civility, and with many acknowledgments for the terms of your letter. Sir Sidney was on shore at Old Point Comfort. Feeling some difficulty about the propriety of delaying on board for his arrival, I was about to depart, but Admiral Warren expressed a wish that I would remain, saying that he would desire, no doubt, to give a reply.
Sir Sidney did not arrive till 8 o'clock. He expressed great respect for the motives that had actuated you, sir, in the measures which you were pursuing. They were more than he desired. It was sufficient, he said, if your own mind was satisfied. He expressed regret at the trouble you had taken, and much deference for your character, with a resolution to vie with you in efforts to confine future operations within the bounds of humanity, and the usages of war. He said, in allusion to the pretended conduct ot our men at Craney Island, that it proceeded no doubt from a few of the more disorderly. I denied the charge altogether, as I had done in my previous interview, when it was made the justification of their outrages at Hampton, on the ground of retaliation.
I found that it was not his intention to give to your despatch a written reply. By the light manner in which he
flanced at the subject of your investigation, I could perceive that it was pressed further than was desirable to him. t was my wish, however, to be able to report to you the probability of a like course of inquiry on his part, and I enumerated the catalogue of abuses and violence at Hampton. I mentioned the pillage of the town, and the wanton destruction of medicine; that individuals had been stripped naked; a sick man stabbed twice, who was in the hospital; a sick man shot in his bed, at Pembroke, and in the arms of his wife, who was also shot at, and wounded, long after the defeat of the troops—a Mr. and Mrs. Kirby; and finally, the assault on females, their being struck, and personally abused, and even violated.
At the mention of the murder of Kirby, and the wound given to his vvife, Sir Sidney distinctly admitted it; the others he appeared not to be acquainted with the particulars of, and expressed some concern at it. He said that he had, however, on coming to a knowledge of their conduct, immediately ordered the embarcation of the troops that were concerned, with a determination that they should not again land; and that, while he was unable to control a past event, the responsibility of a recurrence should rest on himself; that the troops under his command were strangers to him, on his arrival here', and appealing to my knowledge of the nature of the war in Spain, in which these men (meaning the French corns) he said had been trained, told me they could not be restrained.
Thus far he thought he could not give a more convincing proof of the sincerity of his professions, than in the withdrawal of these troops, and that he had, moreover, just been employed in finding a new watering place on Back river, in order to remove from Hampton, and to quiet the minds of the inhabitants.
He assured me that in making such a pledge, as he was doing, it should not be lightly regarded. That he would either send away these troops, or wait the arrival of others, for new operations. He concluded by expressing a hope that you, sir, would in future use no reserve in communicating any subject of impropriety; and, on his part, that he should certainly do so, with due regard to the liberality of your conduct. He hoped the subject was at rest. 1 took my leave.
1 have the honor to be, very respectfully, your most obedient servant,
JOHN MYERS, Captain and Aid-deCamp.
Brigadier General Robert B. Taylor, Norfolk.
Extracts of a letter from General Taylor to Sir Sidney Beckwith, Quartermaster General, commanding the land forces of his Britannic Majesty, at Hampton Roads, doled
Head Quarters, July 5, 1813.
," I have now the honor to transmit to you the proceedings of the board of officers convened to inquire into the transactions at Craney Island. They doubtless will convince you that, in that affair, the American troops merited no censure; that their conduct was distinguished by humanity and magnanimity; and that the distance to which you were removed from the scene, by rendering it impossible that you could be informed of the motives of their conduct, unhappily led you to draw conclusions equally mistaken and unmerited.
"You have done me the justice to declare that the measures pursued by me evince a disposition to permit, in my troopSj no abuses on humanity, or the laws of authorized war. As I cannot doubt the existence of similar sentiments with you, I have a right to expect, on your part, measures equally decisive and unambiguous. If I have deemed it needful to forbid openly, to my whole army, all acts of impropriety, and to direct a public investigation of charges believed to be unmerited, but having the sanction of your imputation, I put it to your candor to determine,!? excesses in your troops, admitted by yourself, and some of them of the most atrocious character, should pass unnoticed. My conduct, and your declarations, give me a claim to ask that these excesses be punished. Your army will then learn the abhorrence you feel for such acts, and be restrained, by the fear of your indignation, from similar outrages. But if these admitted excesses are passed by, the impunity oHhe past will be construed, by your troops, into an encouragement of future outrages, and your own humane intentions be completely defeated. Neither can
you be unmindful of the propriety of taking, from my army, the pretexts for impropriety, by a knowledge of effectual restraints on yours.
"I am fully impressed with the liberality of your conduct in promising to remove the troops who committed the outrages of Hampton from the opportunity of repeating these enormities. But, besides that my confidence in the gallantry of the American troops forbids me to desire any diminution of your force, and such a measure being liable to misconception, by our own troops, might not attain your object. The rank and file of an army seldom reason very profoundly, and however erroneously, might ascribe their withdrawal to the desertions which,have, on every opportunity, taken place in that corps, and in their unwillingness, if any should have been displayed, to fire on the American troops. If this should unfortunately be the case, your force will be diminished, without securing the great ends of discipline and humanity for which you had, with so much liberality, made the sacrifice. I am the more pressing on this subject, because I have reason to believe that, even since your assurance, though unquestionably against your wishes, very improper acts have been committed by the troops on James river. The domestic property of peaceable private citizens, respected by all civilized nations, has been pillaged, and what furnished no allurements to cupidity has been wantonly defaced and destroyed.
'If such acts are either directed, or sanctioned, it is important to us, and to the world, to know what species of warfare the arms of Great Britain mean to wage. If authorized, it will be of little practical avail to know, that the director of these arms entertains the most liberal personal dispositions, while these dispositions remain dormant and inoperative.
"If I am troublesome on this subject, charge it to my anxious desire that nothing may occur to embitter our own feelings, and those of our respective nations. In the progress of the war, charges of inhumanity have unhappily been frequent and reciprocal. I am not indifferent to the infamy which such a charge fixes on the officer, who either encourages or permits it. I derive the highest satisfaction from the assurances you have given of similar sentiments. We have, sir, become enemies, by the sacred obligations we owe our respective countries. But, on the great and expanded subject of human happiness, we should be friends by the sympathy of our feelings. Let us then cordially unite, and exercising effectually the powers with which our Governments have invested us, give to our warfare a character of magnanimity, conferring equal honor on ourselves, and on our countries."
Extract from General Orders.
Norfolk, Assistant Adjutant GeneraPs Office,
July 1st, 1813.
The General commanding has deemed it proper to remonstrate against the excesses committed by the British troops who took possession of Hampton. It has been attempted to justify, or palliate, these excesses, on the ground of inhumanity in some of the troops at Craney Island, who are charged with having waded into the river, and shot at the unresisting and yielding foe, who clung to the wreck of a boat which had been sunk by the fire of our guns.
Humanity and mercy are inseparable from true courage, and the General knows too well the character of the troops under his command to doubt their magnanimity towards an unresisting foe. It is equally due to the honor of the troops engaged, and to the hitherto unquestioned fame of the American arms, for honor and clemency, that the imputation should be investigated. If the charge be well founded, the army must be purified by punishment for this abomination. If, as the commander hopes ana believes, the conduct of our troops has been misconceived, the world should have an authentic record to repel the imputation.
He, therefore, directs that a board of officers, to consist of Colonel Freeman, President, Lieutenant Colonels Boykin, Mason, and Read, do convene the day after to-morrow, at a place to be appointed by the President, for the purpose of investigating these charges, and report accordingly.
JAMES MAURICE, Major, Set. Ast.Ad. Gen.
The evidence having been gone through, the Board, after deliberate and mature consideration, do pronounce the
following opinion:
That it appears from the testimony adduced, that, on the 22d of last month, in the action at Craney Island, two of the enemy's boats, in front of their line, were sunk by the fire of our batteries: the soldiers and sailors who were in those boats were consequently afloat, and in danger of drowning; and being in front of the boats which were uninjured, to disable these, our guns were necessarily fired in a direction of the men in the water, but with no intention whatever to do them further harm, but, on the contrary, orders were given to prevent this by ceasing to fire grape, and only to fire round shot. It also is substantiated, that one of the enemy, who had apparently surrendered, advanced towards the shore, about one hundred yards, when he suddenly turned to his right, and endeavored to make his escape to a body of the enemy who had landed above the island, and who were then in view; then, and not till then, was he fired upon, to bring him back, which had the desired effect, and he was taken unhurt to the island.
It further appears, that the troops on the island exerted themselves in acts of hospitality and kindness to the unresisting and yielding foe.
"Therefore, the Board do, with great satisfaction, declare, as their unbiassed opinion, that the charge alleged against the troops is unsupported, and that the character of the American soldiery, for humanity and magnanimity, has not been committed, but, on the contrary, confirmed."
CONSTANT FREEMAN,
Colonel Artillery, President.
ARMISTEAD T. MASON, Lieut. Colonel, commanding 5th Reg. Inf.
FRANCIS M. BOYKIN,
Lieut. Colonel, commanding 3d Beg. Inf.
THOMAS READ, Jun.
Lieut. Colonel, commanding Artillery.
JOHN BARBER, Recorder.
A true and correct copy. JAMES MAURICE, Maj. Act. As. Ad. Gen.
Copy of a note from Sir Sidney Beckwith to Gen. Taylor, dated H. M. ship San Domingo, July 6, 1813.
Quarter Master General Sir Sidney Beckwith begs leave to return his best acknowledgments to Gen. Taylor for his polite communication, and to repeat his earnest wish that military operations should be carried on with all the liberality and humanity which becomes the respective nations. Any infringement of the established usages of war will instantly be noticed and punished.
Extract of a letter from. Brigadier General Taylor to the Secretary of War, dated
Norfolk, IthJuly, 1813.
"The Board of officers convened to examine the charge brought against our troops in the affair at Craney Island have made such a report as an American could desire. I enclosed a copy yesterday to the British commander, with a letter, of which a copy is enclosed. The bearer of my despatch was met by a flag, the officer of which received the despatch, and a few hours after returned with an answer, of which a copy is also enclosed. I fear, from the generality of its terms, that little amelioration of the. system, hitherto practised, is to be expected; but something is gained by placing the enemy so decidedly in the wrong, that the world cannot doubt to whom is to be ascribed any excesses which hereafter may be committed on either side."
Extract of an official letter, addressed by Major Crutchfield to Governor Barbour, dated
Yokk County, Half-way House, June 20, 1813. "To give you, sir, an idea of the savage-like disposition of the enemy, on their getting possession of the neighborhood, would be but a vain attempt. Although Sir Sidney Beckwith assured me that no uneasiness might be felt in relation to the unfortunate Americans, the fact is, that, on yesterday, there were several dead bodies Tying unburied, and the wounded not even assisted into town, although observed to be crawling towards a cold and inhospitable protection. The unfortunate females of Hampton, who could not leave the town, were suffered to be abused in the most shameful manner, not only by the venal savage foe, but by the unfortunate and infatuated blacks, who were encouraged by them in their excesses. They pillaged, and encouraged every act of murder and rapine—ki.ling a poor man by the name of Kirby, who had been lying on his bed at the point of death for more than six weeks: shooting his wife in the hip at the same time, and killing his faithful dog while lying under his feet- The murdered Kirby was lying, last night, weltering in his bed."
Extract of a letter from Captain Cooper of the Cavalry, to Charles K. Mallory, Esq. Lieutenant Governor of
Virginia.
"I was yesterday in Hampton with my troop; that place having been evacuated in the morning by the British. |C7» My blood ran cold at what I saw ana heard. The few distressed inhabitants running up in every direction to congratulate us; tears were shedding in every corner. The infamous scoundrels, monsters, destroyed every thing but the houses, and (my pen is almost unwilling to describe it) the women were ravished by the abandoned ruffians.' Great God! my dear friend, can you figure to yourself our Hampton females seized and treated with violence by those monsters, and not a solitary American arm present to avenge their wrongs? But enough; I can no more of this.
"They have received a reinforcement of 2,000, in all 6,000 men; and Norfolk or Richmond is their immediate aim. Protect yourselves from such scenes as we have witnessed. They retired in great confusion, leaving behind 3,000 weight of beef, muskets, ammunition, canteens, &c. &c. and some of their men, which we took. It is supposed that they apprehended an immediate attack from 6,000 of our men, which caused them to retreat so precipitately. My friend, rest assured of one thing, that they cannot conquer Americans; they cannot stand them: if we had had 1200 men, we should have killed or taken the greater part of them."
From the same to the same, dated
Armistead's Mill, Near Hampton, July 10, 1813.
Dear Friend:
"Your favor of the 7th has just been received through the politeness of Major Crutchfield, who had it forwarded to me at this place. I am surprised to hear that you have among you a man who would endeavor to apologize for the unprecedented villany and brutal conduct of the enemy in Hampton. Be assured of one fact, that that which 1 informed you of in my last was strictly true.
"You request me to make known to you a few of the distressing particulars in a way which will force conviction upon the minds of the incredulous. I will attend to it, my friend, that you may be enabled to confound such with positive proofs. At present you must content yourself with the following, and believe it as religiously as any fact beyond denial. - . .
"Mrs. Turnbull was pursued up to her waist in the water, and dragged on shore by ten or twelve of these ruffians, who satiated their brutal desires upon her, after pulling off her clothes, stockings, shoes, &c. This was seen by your nephew Keith, and many others. Another case—a married woman, her name unknown to me, with her infant child in her arms, (the child forcibly dragged from her) shared the same fate. Two young women, well known to many, whose names will not be revealed at this time, suffered in like manner. * Doctor Cotton, Parson Holson, and Mrs. Hopkins, have informed me of these particulars. Another, in the presence of old Mr. Hope, had her
town, &c. &c. &c. cutoff with a sword, and violence offered in his presence, which he endeavored to prevent, but ad to quit the room, leaving the unfortunate victim in their possession, who, no doubt, was abused in the same way. Old Mr. Hopef himself was stripped naked, pricked with a bayonet in the arm, and slapped in the face; and were I to mention a hundred cases in addition to the above, I do not know that I should exaggerate."
Extract from a report made to Major Crutchfield by Thomas Griffin and Robert Lively, Esqrs. dated
York, 4lh July, 1813.
"Upon reaching Hampton, a scene of desolation andjdestruction presented itself. The few inhabitants we found in town seemed not yet to have recovered from their alarm: dismay and consternation sat on every countenance: reports had reached us of the violence and uncontrolled fury of the enemy after they obtained possession of the place; their conduct, in some cases, being represented such as would have disgraced the days of Vandalism. Our feelings were much excited, and we deemed it our duty to pursue the inquiry as far as practicable, and are sorry to say. that, from all the information we could procure, from sources too respectable to permit us to doubt, we are compelled to believe that acts of violence have been perpetrated, which have disgraced the age in which we live. The sex, hitherto guarded by the soldier's honor, escaped not the rude assaults of superior force; nor could disease disarm the foe of his ferocity. The apology, that these atrocities were committed by the French soldiers attached to the British forces now in our waters, appears to us no justification of those who employed them, believing, as we do, that an officer is, or should be, ever responsible for the conduct of the troops under his command."
* The former of these gentlemen acted as surgeon to the detachment lately stationed at Hampton, and is a young gentleman of the first respectability. The latter is president of the academy at that place, and stands deservedly high in public estimation. Mrs. Hopkins, also, is a lady of very high respectability, and of the most unquestionable veracity.
¦j- This worthy old gentleman is bowing beneath the pressure of age, being near 70, or older: has a numerous family, most of them sons, now in the service of their country.
To the Editor of the Enquirer.
Sir:
Having just returned from Hampton, where I made myself acquainted with all the particulars of British outrage, whilst that place was in their possession, I am requested, by many persons, to communicate, through you, to the public, the information I have given them. I do this with no nope or expectation of satisfying those who required other testimony than Major Crutchfield's or Captain Cooper's. I too well know there are those among us, who will still doubt, or pretend to doubt But as I believe this class to be few in number, and insignificant in the public estimation; as I firmly believe that a large majority of all political persuasions are open to conviction, and feelingly alive to their country's wrongs; I cannot withhold from them the facts, whose simple recital will, according to their different temperaments, inflame them with rage, or fill them with horror.
My name you are at liberty to give to the public, or only to those who may inquire for it, as you think proper. I have reason to believe that those who know me, whether federal or republican, will know and acknowledge that I am incapable of publishing a falsehood; and I aver, that every statement inconsistent with the following, no matter on whose authority it is made, is untrue; in proof of which I solemnly undertake, before the world, to establish every fact contained in it, provided any gentleman will sign his name to a denial of either of them.
I went to Hampton with a determination of inquiring minutely into the truth of reports, which I hoped, for the honor of a soldier's profession, and of human nature, to have found exaggerated. In the investigation, I resolved to depend on the second hand relation of no one, where I could mount to the original source of evidence; but since, in some cases, this was impracticable, I feel it a duty carefully to distinguish the one class from the other.
That the town and country adjacent was given up to the indiscriminate plunder of a licentious soldiery, except, perhaps, the house where the head quarters were fixed, is? an undeniable truth. Every article of valuable property was taken from iti In many houses not even a knife, a fork, or plate was left. British officers were seen by Dr. Colton in the act of plundering a Mr. Jones's store. His house, although he remained in town, was rifled, and his medicine thrown into the public street, just opposite where many officers took up their quarters, who must have been eye-witnesses of the scene. The church was pillaged, and the plate belonging to it taken away, although inscribed with the donor's name. The wind-mills in the neighborhood were striptot their sails. The closets, private drawers, and trunks of the inhabitants, were broken open, and scarcely any thing seemed to be too trifling an object to excite the cupidity of these robbers. Several gentlemen informed me that much of their plunder was brought into the back yard of Mrs. Westwood's house, where Sir Sidney Beckwith and Admiral Cockburn resided. But I had no opportunity of seeing this lady, who, it was said, would testify to the fact. In short, Hampton exhibits a dreaiy and desolate appearance, which no American can witness unmoved. Doctor Wardlaw and Mr. John G. Smith, of this city, visited it in company with me; and their indignation was equal. They, and every one who saw and heard what I have stated, united in execrating the monsters who perpetrated these enormities; and political distinctions, if any existed, were lost in the nobler feelings of pity for the sufferers, and a generous ardor to avenge their wrongs.
Here it may be necessary to notice a publication I have this moment read in the Alexandria Gazette of the 12th, where, among other things, it is said, on the authority of a " gentleman who was in Hampton the day after the evacuation by the enemy," that it was believed there " that nearly all the plundering was committed by the negroes;" and that he saw many "articles brought to the magistrates which had been secreted in negro houses." That some plundering may have been committedoy the negroes, who, (as I was told) were embodied and paraded though the streets, is probable enough: that the expression of such an opinion may nave been heard in Hampton is likewise probable; but I do utterly deny, that it is believed there, by any person worthy of credit, that "nearly all the plundering was committed by them." Let the gentleman, then, who gives this account, state from whom he derived his information. Let him give the names of the magistrates who received the plunder thus found, and his own; and let him declare what were the main articles he saw brought in. I will not directly hazard the assertion, but I am very much inclined to believe, there were no magistrates in the town at the time spoken of, unless Parson Holson, Dr. Colton, or Captain Wills, are magistrates; and with all these gentlemen I conversed, and heard not a whisper countenancing the statement in the Alexandria paper. How it is known that the negroes " had the address," first to impose on the British commanders, and then on the American troops, which " induced them to retreat to York," and leave Hampton to be plundered by these artful rogues, that gentleman is left to say; but that the American troops did not retire to York, in consequence of such information, is undoubtedly true. Nor is it less true that Captain Cooper's troop arrived in time to prevent any plundering of the least consequence, after the evacuation; and in time to prevent, what many gentlemen there believed to have been a plan concerted between the black and white allies— the firing of the town.
That " Admiral Warren expressed his regret that the inhabitants of Hampton had not all remained, as in that case no plundering would have happened," is possible enough; since it admits the fact of the plundering, and is conformable with the answer given to Captain Wills, who complained to Cockburn and Beckwith of the destruction of his private property. "Why did you quit your house?" said these honorable men. "I remained in my house," answered Doctor Colton, " and have found no better treatment."
That Kirby, who, for seven weeks or more, had been confined to his bed, and whose death the savagesonly a little hastened, was shot in the arms of his wife, is not denied. Those who wish for further confirmation may go and take him from his grave, and weep, if they can feel for an American citizen, over his mangled body. They may go to his wounded wife, and hear her heart-rending tale, and then they may turn to the account of the gentleman, and derive consolation from the excuse {which I never heard) "that it was done in revenge for the refusal of the militia to give quarter to some Frenchmen, who were on board a barge that was sunk by our troops, who continued to fire on the almost drowning men, when making for the shore." This vile slander on our troops will, I have no doubt, be met, in the proper manner, by the gallant officer who commands them at Norfolk. But the worst is to come.
I conversed with a lady whose name is mentioned in Captain Cooper's letter, in company with Parson Holson, Doctor Colton. and Captain Wills. Her story was too shocking in its details to meet the public eye. When I had convinced her of the object I had in view in visiting her—that it was dictated by no impertinent curiosity, but a desire to know the whole truth, to enable me, on the one hand, to do justice even to an enemy, or, on the other, to electrify my countrymen with the recital of her sufferings, she discovered every thing which her convulsive struggles between shame and a desire to expose her brutal assailants would permit. This woman was seized by five or six ruffians, some of them dressed in red and speaking correctly the English language^ and stripped naked. Her cries and her prayers were disregarded, and her body became the subject of the most abominable indecencies. She at one time made her escape, and ran into a creek hard by, followed by a young daughter; whence she was dragged by the monsters in human shape, to experience new and aggravated suffering. In this situation she was kept the whole night, whilst her screams were heard at intervals by some of the Americans in town, who could only clasp their hands in hopeless agony.
Virginian! American! Friend or enemy of the administration, or of the war! go, as I have done, to this woman's house, and hear and see her. _ See too her young daughter on the bed of sickness, in consequence of the abuses of that night! and your heart, if it be made of1' penetrable stuff'," will throb with indignation, and a thirst for revenge, and your hand instinctively grasp the weapon for inflicting it.
A Mrs. Briggs related to us. that a woman who had come to Hampton, to visit her husband, who was in the militia, was taken forcibly from her side by four soldiers in green, and with her young child, which one of them snatched from her arms, borne to the hospital, in spite of her screams. They had previously robbed them of their rings, and attempted to tear open their bosoms. A Mrs. Hopkins, who was not in town when I was there, obtained the assistance of an officer, and rescued the woman from her ravishers, but not until one of them had gratified his abominable desires. I was told by the gentleman who accompanied me, that Mrs. Hopkins confirmed this statement, and would swear to at least two other cases of a similar kind, without, however, giving up the names of the young and respectable women who suffered.
Doctor Colton and Captain Mills, assisted by an officer, rescued another lady from the greatest of all calamities.
Old Mr. Hope, aged, as he told Major Crutchfield, (m my presence) sixty-lour or live years, was seized by these wretches and stripped of all his clothing, even of his shoes and his shirt. A bayonet was run a little way into his arm behind, as if in cruel sport: while several were held to his breast. In this situation he was kept for a considerable time, and would probaDlyhave been another victim of their rage, if their attention had not been diverted to a woman, who had sought refuge in his house. They followed her into the kitchen, whither she had run for safety. Mr. Hope made off amidst her agonizing screams, and when he returned to his house, he was told by his domestics that their horrid purposes were accomplished. This I had from him.
How far this violation extended will never be known. Women will not publish what they consider their own shame, and the men in town were carefully watched and guarded. But enough is known to induce the belief of the existence of many other cases, and enough to fire every manly bosom with the irrepressible desire of revenge.
I am not disposed to tire the public patience, or I could tell of enormities little inferior to the above. But the enemy are convicted of robbery, rape, and murder, and it is unnecessary to add to the catalogue of their crimes.
Men of Virginia! will you permit all this? Fathers, and brothers, and husbands, will you fold your arm* in apathy, and only curse your despoilers? No, you will fly with generous emulation to the unfurled standard of your country. You will imitate the example of those generous spirits who are, even now, in crowds, tendering their services to the commander-in-chief; who are pouring from their native mountains, and soliciting to be led against the enemy wherever he dares to show his face. You will prove yourselves worthy of the immortal honor that the enemy has conferred upon you in selecting you as the object of his vengeance. You will neglect, for a time, all civil pursuits and occupations, and devote yourselves to the art, a knowledge of which the enemy has made necessary. You will learn to command; to obey; and, with " Hampton" as your watch word—to conquer.
Sir: . --!<". » York, July 4, 1813..
Anxious to effect, as early as possible, the objects of the flag entrusted to us by you on the 1st instant, we proceeded, immediately after receiving your despatches for AdmiralWarren and General Taylor, to Hampton. On our arrival at the latter place, some difficulty arose in procuring a vessel to convey us to the British fleet: and after some delay, we were compelled to embark in a small, open, four oared boat, the only one, it seemed, which the fury of the enemy had left capable of floating. We proceeded to the fleet of the enemy with the utmost despatch which our little skiff, and the excessive heat of the (lay, would permit; and when distant from the Admiral's ship about a half mile, were met and hailed by a barge of the enemy, the officer of which was informed we had despatches for Admiral Warren. We were invited into the barge, which invitation we accepted, as well to relieve ourselves from the confinement on board our little vessel, to lighten as much as possible the burthen of our oarsmen, and to proceed with as much expedition as was practicable to obtain the objects of our mission. On our arrival at trie Admiral's ship (the San Domingo) we were directed to proceed to the "Sceptre," a line of battle ship, on which we were informed Admiral Cockburn had recently hoisted his flag. Arriving along side of this ship we were desired by the officer of the barge to ascend the ship. Upon our reaching the deck, we found a large assemblage of officers—certainly a greater number than could" be necessarily attached to a single ship. In the space of ten minutes the two Admirals, Warren and Cockburn, approached; to the former, we delivered your despatches, who, upon perusal, evinced embarrassment, and after a short pause, said, that the principal object of the flag appeared to be to procure supplies for your hospital. He was answered in the affirmative. Could not these supplies have been as easily and early procured from Richmond as from Norfolk? We thought not. The Admiral then said he would reflect upon the subject, and return us an answer soon, and retired with Admiral Cockburn to the cabin of the ship. A period of about fifteen minutes then elapsed, when Admiral Cockburn advanced, and addressing Major Griffin, informed him, that the Admiral would see him in the cabin. Upon Major Griffin's reaching the cabin, the two Admirals only with him, Admiral Warren again repeated the opinion, that the hospital supplies could be as expeditiously procured from Richmond, as from Norfolk, saying, it was contrary to their regulations to permit eVen a flag to go to Norfolk; that it was their intention to land Mr. King, who went with the flag, at Seawell's point, and jointly with Admiral Cockburn, expressed an unwillingness to permit the flag to proceed. They were answered, that if the flag was permitted to proceed, the supplies could be procured sooner than if the flag was compelled to return, certainly in the course of the following day; that if compelled to resort to Richmond, three days, probably more, would pass before the stoves could reach Hampton; that our wounded and sick were suffering tor medicine and necessaries; that all the medicine, private as well as public property, had been wantonly destroyed by the troops who lately captured Hampton; and that the supplies absolutely required for the use of the hospital could not be procured in Hampton. The Admiral said he had heard that the hospitals had received some supplies. He was asked from whence, and assured it was not the case. Finding the Admiral still hesitating, Major Griffin said, "that the reputed humanity of Admiral Warren forbid Major Crutchfield to doubt that the application for the passage of a flag to Norfolk would be refused." After a short pause Major Griffin was informed that the flag might proceed, upon condition of returning along-side the ship, in the same vessel, with the same persons, and with no increase of persons. The restriction to the same vessel was combated, on the ground that, in the event of much wind, the boat was too small to navigate the roads, and thus the object of the flag would be defeated. But finding no relaxation in the condition probable, it was determined, upon consultation with Lieutenant Lively, to proceed. Upon the subject of prisoners, Admiral Warren acknow"ledged one only to be in the fleet, taken at Hampton. He declined all arrangement, and avoided all discussion on this topic, saying he had opened a correspondence with General Taylor, but nothing^was decided. i Relative to the officers'baggaj and mentioned assured Major
it. would be made known to us on our return. We were then informed we might proceed, which we immediately did,,and reaching Norfolk after 3 P, M. repaired to General Taylor's quarters, who directed the supplies written for by the surgeons. Returning on the 2d, we were, as customary, again met by a barge of the.enemy, and desired to call on board the Admiral's ship; we entered the ship with the officer of the barge, and were received by the Captain, who inquired if we had despatches for the Admiral. Being informed we were the returning flag that had proceeded to Norfolk the day before, the Captain retired to the cabin, and shortly returned with information that we might proceed when we pleased; this we did, and deposited with Doctor Colton the medical and hospital supplies sent from Norfolk. ;• •
Upon our reaching Hampton a scene of desolation and destruction presented itself. The few inhabitants we found in town seemed not yet to have recovered from their alarm; dismay and consternation sat on every countenance. Reports had reached us of the violence and uncontrolled fury of the enemy after they obtained possession of the place; their conduct, in some cases, beiug represented sucji as would have disgraced the days of Vandalism. Our feelings were much excited, and we deemed it our duty to pursue the inquiry as far as practicable, and are sorry to say, that, from all the information we could procure, from sources too respectable to permit us to doubt, we are compelled to believe that acts of violence have been perpetrated, which have disgraced, the age in which we live. The sex, hitherto guarded by the soldier's honor, escaped not the rude assaults of superior force; nor could disease disarm the foe of his ferocity. The apology that these atrocities were committed Dy the French soldiers attached to the British forces now in our waters appeared to us no justification of those who employed them, believing, as we do, that an officer is, or should be, ever responsible for the conduct of the troops under his command.
We have the honor to be, your humble servants, ,~
THOJ
[graphic]
To Major Crutchfield, Commandant, York. ROBERT LIVELY.
•Believed, upon good authority, to be Colonel Richard E. Parker, of Westmoreland county,
Flournoy, H. W., ed.; Calendar of Virginia State Papers V10, 1892
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PICTORIAL FIELD-BOOK OF THE WAR OF 1812. BY BENSON J. LOSSING 1869
Google book - CHAPTER XXX
http://books.google.com/books?id=okh7K53m_BIC&pg=PA667#v=onepage&q&f=false
from Chapter XXX. – PREDATORY WARFARE OF THE BRITISH ON THE COAST.
http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wcarr1/Lossing2/Chap30.html
"....– Hampton. – Americans at Hampton. – Landing of the British near Hampton. – Armed Boats appear in Front. – The British Invaders confronted. – A severe Skirmish. – Struggle for the Possession of Hampton. – Americans driven from Hampton. – The Village given up to Rapine and Pillage. – A Committee of Investigation. – Official Correspondence concerning Outrages. – A Visit to Hampton and its Vicinity. – Landing-place of the British. – Commodore Barron’s Daughter. – Colonel James and his Family. – Destruction of Hampton.
Exasperated by their ignominious repulse at Craney Island, the British proceeded to attack the village of Hampton, a flourishing borough on the west side of Hampton Creek, two miles and a half from Old Point Comfort. It was the capital of Elizabeth City County, Virginia, and was a mile from the confluence of the creek with the waters of Hampton Roads. It was defended at the time by about four hundred and fifty Virginia soldiers under Major Stapleton Crutchfield, whose adjutant general was Robert Anderson, Esq., whom I had the pleasure of meeting at Yorktown in 1848. They were composed chiefly of militia infantry, and a few artillerymen and cavalry. They were encamped on the "Little England" estate of five hundred acres, a short distance southwest from the town, where they had a heavy battery composed of four 6, two 12, and one 18 pounder cannon, in charge of Sergeant William Burke, to defend the water-front of the camp and the village. 25
VIEW AT HAMPTON CREEK IN 1853.
On Friday night, the 24th of June, twenty-five hundred British land troops, including the rough French prisoners (Chasseurs Britanniques), were placed in boats and small sailing vessels, and between dawn and sunrise of the 25th [June, 1813.] were landed behind a wood near the house of Daniel Murphy, a little more than two miles from Hampton, under cover of the guns of the Mohawk sloop of war. These were designed to fall upon Hampton and the little American camp in the rear, while Admiral Cockburn, with a flotilla of armed boats and barges, should make a feint in front.The land troops, under the general command of Beckwith, assisted by Lieutenant Colonels Napier 26 and Williams, moved stealthily and rapidly forward toward the doomed town, while the armed boats appeared suddenly off Blackbeard’s Point, at the mouth of Hampton Creek. The latter were first discovered by American patrols at Mill Creek, who gave the alarm. The camp was aroused, and a line of battle was formed. At that moment a messenger came in haste with intelligence that the British were moving in force on the rear of Hampton. The woods toward Murphy’s were glowing with scarlet, and a grain-field near was verdant with the green uniforms of the French. The inhabitants of the village, who yet remained, fled toward Yorktown, excepting a few who could not leave or who were willing to trust to British honor and clemency.
The brave Crutchfield resolved to stand firm and defend the town against the invaders on land and water. He sent Captain Servant and his rifle company out to ambush on the road leading to Celey’s plantation, beyond Murphy’s, who were to attack and check the enemy; and when Cockburn ventured within Blackbeard’s Point, and opened fire on the American camp, Crutchfield’s heavy battery responded with so much spirit and effect that the arch-marauder was glad to escape for shelter behind that point, and content himself with throwing a shot or rocket occasionally into the American camp.
Crutchfield gave special attention to the movement in his rear, being convinced that Cockburn’s was only a feint. From his camp was a plantation road, that crossed cultivated fields, and by the edge of the woods behind which the British had landed unobserved, to a highway known as Celey’s Road, that connected with the public road to Yorktown a short distance from Hampton. Connected with this road was a plantation lane leading to Murphy’s, on the banks of the James River. Along this lane or road the British moved from their landing-place, and had reached rising ground and halted for breakfast when they were discovered by the Americans. Captain Pryor, of the artillery in camp, immediately detached Sergeant Parker and a few picked men, with a field-piece, to go up the Yorktown Road to Celey’s Junction, to assist the ambushed riflemen. Parker had just reached his position and planted his cannon, when the British moved forward with celerity. They had just crossed the head of the west branch of Hampton Creek, at the Celey Road, when the advanced guard of Servant’s corps (Lieutenant Thomas Hope and two others), who were concealed by a large cedar-tree (yet standing when I visited the spot in 1853), opened a deadly fire with sure aim upon the French column in front, led by the British sergeant major, a large and powerful man. That officer and several others were killed; the invaders were checked, and great confusion in their ranks ensued. The main body of the riflemen now delivered their fire, and the commander of the Marines, the brave Lieutenant Colonel Williams, of the British army, fell dead.
The British soon recovered from their temporary panic, and pressed forward, compelling the riflemen to fall back. In the mean time, Crutchfield, hearing the firing, had moved forward from his camp with nearly all of his force, leaving the position on the Little England estate to be defended by Pryor and his artillerymen from the attack of the barges. While he was marching in column by platoons along the lane from the Little England plantation toward Celey’s Road and the great highway, he was suddenly assailed by an enfilading fire on his left. He immediately ordered his men to wheel and charge the enemy, who were on the edge of the woods. This was done with the coolness and precision of long-disciplined soldiers, and the foe fell back. The victors were pressing forward, when the British opened a storm of grape and canister shot upon them from two 6-pounders, and some Congreve rockets, and appeared in force directly in front of Crutchfield. The Americans withstood the fire a few minutes, when they fell back, and a part of them broke and fled in confusion across the Yorktown Road and the Pembroke estate.
Parker in the mean time had worked his piece with good effect. Now his ammunition failed. Lieutenant Jones, of the Hampton Artillery, hastened to his relief; but when they saw an overwhelming force of the enemy moving along the Celey Road, they fell back to the Yorktown Pike. Jones now found that his match was extinguished, so he ran to a house near by, snatched a brand from the hearth, and concealed himself in a hollow near a spring. When the British drew near and almost filled the lane, supposing the cannon to be abandoned, he arose and discharged his piece with terrible effect. Many of the foe were prostrated by its missiles, and during the confusion that ensued in the British ranks he attached a horse to his cannon and bore it off toward the camp. When he drew near that camp he saw that it was occupied by the enemy, who had come in force from the barges and compelled Pryor to spike his guns and flee. This he did in safety. He and his command, after fighting their way through the surrounding enemy with their firelocks, swam the West Branch of Hampton Creek, and, making a circuit in rear of the enemy, fled to what is now known as Big Bethel, without losing a man or a musket. Seeing this, Jones turned and fled, after spiking his gun. He followed Pryor’s track to the same destination.
PLAN OF OPERATIONS AT HAMPTON.
Crutchfield, with the remainder of his troops, had rallied on the flank of Servant’s riflemen, and renewed the fight with vigor. He soon observed a powerful flank movement by the enemy, which threatened to cut off his line of retreat, when he withdrew in good order, pursued almost two miles across and beyond the Pembroke farm. The pursuit was terminated at what is now known as New-bridge Creek. Thus ended the battle. The British had lost about fifty in killed, wounded, and missing, and the Americans about thirty. Of eleven missing Americans, ten at least had fled to their homes.
HEAD-QUARTERS OF BECKWITH AND COCKBURN.
The victorious British now entered Hampton by the Yorktown Road, bearing the body of the brave Lieutenant Colonel Williams. Beckwith and Cockburn made their head-quarters at the fine brick mansion of Mrs. Westwood, which stood upon the street leading to the landing. In her garden the remains of Williams were buried with solemn funeral rites on the same day. Then the village was given up to pillage and rapine. The atrocities committed at that time upon the defenseless inhabitants who remained in Hampton, particularly on the women, have consigned the name of Sir George Cockburn to merited infamy, for he was doubtless the chief author of them. 27 The reports of them at the time were much exaggerated, but sufficient was proven by official investigation to cause the cheeks of every honest Briton to tingle with the deepest blush of shame. "We are sorry to say," said Commissioners Thomas Griffin and Robert Lively, appointed to investigate the matter, "that from all information we could procure, from sources too respectable to permit us to doubt, we are compelled to believe that acts of violence have been perpetrated which have disgraced the age in which we live. The sex hitherto guarded by the soldier’s honor escaped not the rude assaults of superior force." 28 A correspondence on the subject occurred between General Taylor and Sir Sidney Beckwith, in which the latter, while he did not deny the charges, attempted to justify the atrocities by pleading the law of retaliation, falsely alleging, as was proven, that the Americans had waded out from Craney Island after the battle there, and deliberately shot the crew of a barge which had sunk on the shoal. 29 And while it was not denied that British officers and soldiers had engaged zealously in the business of plundering the private houses at Hampton of every thing valuable that might be easily carried away, 30 the more horrid crime of ravishing the persons of married women and young maidens, was charged by the British commanders upon the French soldiery. "The apology," said the commissioners just mentioned, "that these atrocities were committed by the French soldiers attached to the British forces now in our waters appeared to us no justification of those who employed them, believing, as we do, that an officer is, or should be, ever responsible for the conduct of the troops under his command." So shameful were these atrocities – too gross to be repeated here – that the most violent of the British partisan writers were compelled to denounce them; and Admiral Warren and General Beckwith, in obedience to the instincts of their better natures and the demands of public opinion, dismissed the Chasseurs Britanniques from the service.At the "ides of March," in the year 1853 [March 13 and 14.], I visited Norfolk, Craney Island, and Hampton, for the purpose of collecting materials for this work, and I had the good fortune to meet several persons who were well acquainted with places and events in that region pertaining to the War of 1812. I had spent the 4th of March at the national capital, "assisting," as the French say, at the inauguration of President Pierce; a day or two with the late George Washington Parke Custis at his beautiful seat of "Arlington," opposite Washington City; then a few days in Richmond; a little time in a trip and visit to "Monticello," near Charlottesville, the home of the living and the grave of the departed Thomas Jefferson; and then part of a day on the James and Elizabeth Rivers on a voyage to Norfolk. I intended to go to Craney Island the next morning, but the wind was so high that no boatman was willing to venture upon the water, so that day I visited the Navy Yard at Gosport, Old Fort Norfolk, and other places of interest in and around the city. At the former place were seen the skeleton of the famous Constellation; the useless monster ship Pennsylvania; the work-shops and yards where full eight hundred men found employment, and more than twenty-five hundred huge iron cannon, with a complement of balls. All of this property, valued at several millions of dollars, with other government vessels, was destroyed or seized by the insurgents of Virginia in April, 1861, at the breaking out of the late Civil War...."
selected accompanying footnotes:
25 This picture, sketched in the spring of 1853 from a window of Burcher’s Hotel, near the steam-boat wharf in Hampton, is a view of the portion of the "Little England" estate, lying on Hampton Creek, mentioned in the text. A line drawn perpendicularly beneath each numeral on the clouds would touch the locality intended to be indicated by such numeral. Figure 4 shows the place of Crutchfield’s encampment, and 1 the place where the four-gun battery was planted. Figure 2, the place of a smaller battery; 3, Blackbeard’s Point, at the mouth of Hampton Creek, from behind which the British flotilla came; 5, the forest behind which Beckwith’s troops landed; 6, Hampton Roads; 7, a portion of the old mansion of the Little England estate; 8, the mouth of the west branch of Hampton Creek; and, 9, Bully’s house, that stood there in 1813. The "Little England" estate was the ancestral possession of the family of Commodore Barron. In the foreground of the picture is seen the steam-boat wharf at Hampton, with the creek on the right.
26 This was Charles James Napier, afterward a distinguished general in the British Army, who was knighted for his services in the East Indies, where he became commander-in-chief of the British forces. He was born in 1782, and died in August, 1835, bearing the honors of a worthy lieutenant general. He was a sprightly writer, and his biographer says that "when he was not fighting he was writing."
27 There can be little doubt that Cockburn promised his men "Booty and Beauty" to their hearts’ content. It was like him. But no one could suspect the right-minded Admiral Warren, or even the more latitudinarian Sir Sidney, of such a crime against civilization and Christianity.
28 In his dispatch to Governor Barbour on the 28th, Major Crutchfield, the American commander at Hampton, said, after giving an account of the battle and the excesses of the soldiery, "The unfortunate females of Hampton who could not leave the town were abused in the most shameful manner, not only by the soldiers, but by the venal savage blacks, who were encouraged in their excesses. They pillaged, and encouraged every act of rapine and plunder, killing a poor man by the name of Kirby who had been lying on his bed at the point of death for more than six weeks, shooting his wife in the hip at the same time, and killing a faithful dog lying under his feet. The murdered Kirby was lying last night weltering in his blood."
Sir Charles Napier (see note 2, page 681), in his diary of these events, in which he bore a part, says, "Every horror was perpetrated with impunity – rape, murder, pillage – and not a man was punished." Again: "Strong is my dislike to what is, perhaps, a necessary part of our job, viz., plundering and ruining the peasantry. We drive all their cattle, and of course ruin them. My hands are clean; but it is hateful to see the poor Yankees robbed, and to be the robber."
29 General Taylor addressed Admiral Warren, and was answered by Sir Sidney Beckwith as the commander of the land forces. In his note to Admiral Warren General Taylor said: "The world will suppose these acts to have been approved, if not executed by the commanders, if suffered to pass by with impunity. I am prepared for any species of warfare which you are disposed to prosecute. It is for the sake of humanity that I enter this protest." General Beckwith, as we have observed, charged cruelty on the part of the Americans as a palliation; to which Taylor replied that he was satisfied that no such act as charged ever took place, and if it had, it was no excuse for the crimes committed at Hampton against the helpless and innocent. A board of officers was convened to investigate the matter, when it was ascertained that, during the engagement off Craney Island, two of the British boats were sunk by the American guns, and the crews were in danger of being drowned; that, being in line of action, the firing necessarily continued, but that, in order to avoid injuring those in the water and helpless, the firing of grape was discontinued. One man, who had surrendered, but endeavored to escape, was fired upon to bring him back.
30 Among other "property," according to the laws of Virginia, taken away by the British, were negroes. Under a promise of freedom, a large number of them flocked to the British standard. Most of those whom Cockburn enticed on board his vessels by these promises were afterward sold into a worse slavery in the British West Indies.
31 This is from a sketch made by the author on New Year’s Day, 1865.
32 See page 158.
33 The troops on the island at the time here mentioned were without any shelter excepting indifferent tents, and suffered much for lack of water. They dug hollows on the island in which they caught rain, and then strained the muddy water for use.
34 This tree is seen in the sketch on page 675.
35 See page 682.
35 See page 682.
36 This house was of brick, and beautifully situated. At the time of the British invasion it belonged to John S. Westwood. When I visited it it was the property of his family. In front of it were some tomb-stones, near the site of the old Pembroke church.
37 Mr. Kirby was an aged man, very sick, and at the point to die when the soldiers entered the house. His wife was by his bedside, when they shot him through the body and wounded her in the hip. This was proclaimed as a wanton murder, and excited the greatest indignation. Colonel Jones knew Mrs. Kirby well, and her version of the story was that, with vengeful feelings, the soldiers chased an ugly dog into the house, which ran under Mr. Kirby’s chair, in which he was sitting, and, in their eagerness to shoot the dog, shot the aged invalid, the bullet grazing the hip of Mrs. Kirby. Mrs. Kirby always considered the shooting of her husband an accident.
38 The conduct of the British at Mr. Hope’s was barbarous in the extreme. He was sixty-five years of age. They stripped him entirely naked, wounded him intentionally with a bayonet, and tortured him with menaces of death. They would doubtless have killed him had not their attention been directed to a woman who had sought refuge in his house. They left him, seized her, and subjected her to indignities of which savages would be ashamed. Because of these atrocities, M‘Laws, of the Veteran Corps at Wilmington, used the word HAMPTON, in place of Attention, when calling them to order.
39 For a drawing and full historical description of this ancient church, see Lossing’s Pictorial Field-look of the Revolution, ii., 326.
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[Daily Press Internet Edition] Sunday, August 2, 1992
SACKING OF HAMPTON LED TO BATTLE CRY By PARKE ROUSE, Columnist
The assault by the British on Hampton in 1813 destroyed much of that town, but it strengthened the nation's will to build Fort Monroe and avert future attacks. The so-called "Burning of Hampton" (it was more a pillaging) killed a few people and removed a lot of property, but it was far less destructive than the town's self-inflicted second burning during the Civil War when only St. John's Church was left standing.
After gutting Hampton, the Redcoats went on to burn Havre de Grace, Md., and the Capitol in Washington. The useless war ended in a draw. Neither side won.
In the spring of 1813, Virginia sent 10,000 militiamen under Brig. Gen. Robert Barraud Taylor of Norfolk to defend both sides of Hampton Roads. Great Britain's invasion began in June when 20 British naval ships entered Hampton Roads.
At Craney Island, the British were turned back. One of the participants of this action, James Jarvis, a 22-year-old sergeant in the Portsmouth Rifles, wrote, in 1846, an account of the battle. Shortly after the engagement, Jarvis quit the militia and operated a boat-building yard at Portsmouth. He later inspected timbers for Gosport Navy Yard, now the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. Jarvis' recollections are now among the rare documents kept in Swem Library at The College of William and Mary.
The British raid on Norfolk was aborted and the British waited a day or two before launching a pre-dawn strike of landing barges at Hampton Creek. Then, while some Virginians were preoccupied there, other British troop barges were landed near Celey's Plantation on the present Boulevard and Redcoats marched at dawn to Hampton. The British force numbered 2,500. The British command was under Adm. Sir John Warren, commander in chief of British naval forces in America, whose underlings were Adm. Sir George Cockburn and Gen. Sir Sydney Beckwith. Cockburn's duty was to get British troops ashore where Beckwith would lead them against the Virginians.
Commanding Hampton's militia defenders was Maj. Stapleton Crutchfield. In a letter to Gov. James Barbour on June 28, 1813, Crutchfield described the action. He reported that the British lost 200 soldiers at Hampton, while the Virginians lost about 20.
What infuriated Virginia and the nation was the conduct of the British forces. Crutchfield protested to the governor:
"The unfortunate females of Hampton who could not leave the town were suffered to be abused in the most shameful manner, not only by the venal savage foe but by the unfortunate and infuriated blacks. They pillaged and encouraged every act of raping and murder, killing a poor man by the name of Kirby, who had been lying on his bed at the point of death for more than six months, shooting his wife ... and killing his faithful dog."
Another Virginian, thought to be Col. Richard E. Parker of Westmoreland County, protested to the Richmond Enquirer that the British violated rules of civilized warfare. He reported "the town and country adjacent was given up to indiscriminate plunder of a licentiate soldiery. ... Every article of valuable property was taken. ... In many cases not even a knife or fork or plate was left. ... The church was pillaged, and the silverplate belonging to it was taken away, although inscribed with the donor's name. The windmills in the neighborhood were stripped of their sails."
Parker observed that the loot was taken to the shoreside headquarters of Cockburn and Beckwith. "Hampton exhibits a dreary and desolate appearance which no American can witness unmoved," Parker wrote. Taylor strongly protested to Warren. Warren, quartered aboard his Britannic Majesty's flagship, San Domingo, anchored in Hampton Roads, asked Beckwick to reply for him. Promptly, Beckwith wrote Parker that the British were retaliating for Virginians' callous shooting of defenseless British soldiers clinging to their sunken barge at Craney Island a few days earlier.
Taylor then sent his aide, Capt. John Myers (whose Myers house still stands in Norfolk), to Old Point Comfort to dispatch a report of the British offenses to Secretary of War John Armstrong in Washington. Myers talked with Beckwith, who admitted that his invaders had inflicted unauthorized damages on Hampton, but he blamed it on mercenary French troops, the Chasseurs Britanniques.
Taylor wrote Armstrong: "There is too much reason to believe that before the attack on Craney Island, the cupidity of the troops had been excited by a promise of the pillage of Norfolk."
Apologizing for French excesses, the British sailed out of Hampton Roads on to new offenses in Havre de Grace and Washington.
Meantime, "Remember Hampton!" became a battle cry. That's why President James Monroe in 1819 proposed building America's largest coastal fort at Old Point.
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[Daily Press Internet Edition] Sunday, August 13, 1995
IT WAS HAMPTON'S DARKEST DAY
By PARKE ROUSE, Columnist
The worst day in Hampton's history was June 25, 1813, when British forces under Adm. George Cockburn and Gen. Sir Sydney Beckwith invaded the town and partly burned it. The attack was a prelude to the British burning of Washington, D.C., 18 months later in the so-called War of 1812.
Oddly enough, Hampton histories say little about the invasion although they remember much more about the Confederate burning of the town in 1861 during the Civil War.
The 1813 invasion was Britain's revenge for its failure to burn Norfolk and Portsmouth a few days earlier, attemptsfrustrated by 10,000 Virginia militiamen on Craney Island and at Norfolk.
The invasion led to Britain's two year naval embargo of the Atlantic Coast, which stalled Virginia exports of tobacco and cotton. Only a few blockade runners and privateers got into Hampton Roads.
British depredations in the War of 1812 later caused the United States in the 1820s to build Fort Monroe, along with 11 other coast artillery forts from Maine to New Orleans.
The Hampton invasion was described by historian Benson Lossing in his useful "Field Book of the War of 1812," published years later. By then the British had apologized for their uncivilized warfare, but that didn't mollify Hamptonians who were not repayed for their ruined property.
But the experience had one benefit: it taught the United States it needed an army and navy to defend itself. The Atlantic Ocean was no barrier.
The heroes of Hampton were Virginia militiamen under Brig. Gen. Robert Barraud Taylor, a Norfolk lawyer whose family came from Williamsburg. The 10,000 civilian warriors were called up by Gov. John Barbour in Richmond to defend the exposed port towns of Norfolk, Portsmouth, Hampton and Suffolk. Newport News was then only farmland.
The British sailed into Hampton Roads on June 19, 1813,and anchored near Hampton and Old Point. They were rudely awakened at 4 a.m. the next morning by 14 rowboats full of sailors from the naval shipyard at Portsmouth, who attacked one frigate in the dark. When other British ships joined in the battle, the Portsmouth fighters had to flee.
The British attack on Norfolk began June 21 when 20 British men-of-war, frigates and transports moved to the mouth of the Nansemond River near Craney Island and the Elizabeth River near Norfolk. Their objective was Norfolk and Portsmouth. The chief American defense was a hastily-built fort at the east end of Craney Island, equipped with two 24-pound guns and one 18-pounder. It was manned by 400 Virginia militiamen, who knew their jobs.
Unbelievably, Gen. Taylor and his Virginians were able to turn back the British fleet plus the hundreds of marines and French mercenaries aboard the British transports.
Wrote a Virginia militiamen, William P. Young, of Craney Island: "While we were [hoisting the American flag], the enemy was landing his infantry and Marines, in all about 2,500. ... We knew not but their intention was to march to the town of Portsmouth ... and destroy the Navy yard. We were, however, soon undeceived."
When the British fired Congreve rockets into the Craney Island fort, the Americans returned fire. They killed two British officers and several men.
Then the Virginia defenders saw about 50 British landing barges coming ashore on Craney's seaward side, near the present Monitor-Merrimack bridge tunnel. The Virginians held their fire until Capt. Arthur Emmerson, who commanded a Portsmouth artillery company, signaled, "Fire." The first wave of Britons was badly hurt and survivors forced to retreat. Among those killed were French soldiers whohad been captured by the British from Napolean's troops in Spain.
Wrote Besson Lossing, Britian's foremost casualties was Captain Hanchett, an illegitimate son of King George III and half-brother to his royal successors, George IV and William IV.
It was getting late, so the British abandoned their unrewarding attack. They turned in revenge on Hampton, which they invaded on June 25 after landing troops before dawn at Celey's, Miles Cary's plantation bordering Hampton Roads, near the present Newport News/Hampton line. Hampton's defenders at first failed to spot the enemy, for they were misled by a feint by 40 British boats toward Blackbeard's Point on Hampton Creek.
"The enemy landed and had drawn up in battle array at least 2,500 men," reported Hampton's commander Maj. Stapleton Crutchfield, to Gov. Barbour on June 28. They took full control of Hampton, burning and pillaging. Adm. Cockburn and Gen. Beckwith moved into town to the house of Mr. and Mrs. John Westwood to run the occupation.
It was a harsh invasion. The British commandeered Hampton's homes and demanded food from nearby plantations.
They captured the American garrison at Old Point Comfort lighthouse. Angered by their defeat at Craney Island, their soldiers indulged in rape and cruelty. After months of seagoing, the French soldiers, called "Chasseurs Britanniques," ran wild.
"The unfortunate females of Hampton who could not leave the town were suffered to be abused in the most shameful manner, not only by the venal, savage foe but by unfortunate and infuriated blacks, who were encouraged in their success," Maj. Crutchfield wrote. "The pillaged and encouraged every act of rapine and murder, killing a poor man by the name of Kirby ... shooting his wife in the hip at the same time, and killing his faithful dog."
Gen. Taylor protested to Adm. Sir Boarlase Warren, commanding the British fleet aboard HMS San Domingo. Warren replied that the British were merely retaliating for American cruelty at Craney Island. But Lt. Col. Charles James Napier, who led some of the British invaders, confided to his diary that "Every horror wasperpetrated [by the British] with impunity - rape, murder, pillage - and not a man was punished."
Finally the British withdrew, later to be heard from when they burned Washington, D.C. It took America years to recover.
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[Daily Press Internet Edition] Thursday, Mar. 11, 1999
The burning of Hampton
When the British launched an assault on Craney Island in June 1813, they were repelled by militiamen and naval gunners intent on protecting Norfolk and Portsmouth. Two days later, on the other side of Hampton Roads, the invaders landed unseen near Indian Creek in Elizabeth City County. The next morning — June 25 — some 2,500 British soldiers and French prisoners of war impressed into the crown’s service marched on Hampton. The overwhelmed defenders tossed their two field pieces in the harbor and escaped by swimming across the Hampton River.
Humiliated at Craney Island, the British went on a rampage,looting homes and setting fire to the city. There were reports of rape and murder. Even the British commander admitted in his diary "every horror was perpetrated with impunity." He later charged the Frenchmen with the barbarities. But Americans focused their hatred on the British, who soon left Hampton in ruins.
Afterward, British warships blockaded Hampton Roads and patrolled the Chesapeake Bay, often rendezvousing off New Point Comfort in Mathews County. A year later, they attacked Washington, D.C., and burned a number of public buildings,including the Capitol and the White House. But when the British turned on Baltimore, they were driven back—inspiring Francis Scott Key to write "The Star-Spangled Banner."
The assaults on Hampton, Washington and Baltimore caused Congress to reappraise the need for coastal fortifications after the War of 1812, resulting in the construction of Fort Monroe and other Atlantic Coast defenses.
This Millennial Moment was written by Daily Press staff writer Will Molineux.
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I stopped my delivery of the local paper years later as the scarcity of any meaningful historical dried up with the passing of Parke Rouse and columnists such as Molineaux, judging by his article above, were seemingly given such little space to tell expanded versions of these such stories - that is to say stories outside of the Civil War and Colonial periods. One Peninsula writer who has, in my opinion, impressively carried on Rouse's tradition, writing mainly about archaeological discoveries at Jamestown, is columnist Mark St. John Erickson.
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Meanwhile, however, over on the Southside, the coverage of the area's War of 1812 events are treated with more in depth attention:
Finally, 1813 battle gets some respect | HamptonRoads.com ...
Jun 24, 2008 ... By Gary Ruegsegger Correspondent"Nearly two centuries years after all the gun smoke cleared, the June 22, 1813 Battle of Craney Island is
finally getting its special " day.".."
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Speaking of newspaper columnists, or I should say historical journalists, here's what I'm talking about in terms of the kid of scholarly and colorful prose, entertaining and informative history once available in the local rag by such historians as Elmo Scott Watson :
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A better historian than I can hope to be wrote this article on Hampton a month after I compiled my "research":
"Every horror was committed with impunity . . . and not a man was punished!" Reflections on British Military Law and the Atrocities at Hampton in 1813, By Donald E. Graves, The War of 1812 Magazine, Issue 11: June 2009
http://www.napoleon-series.org/military/Warof1812/2009/Issue11/c_hampton.html
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Assessing Responsibility for the Outrages at Hampton
Let us recross the Atlantic to Hampton. Since both Beckwith and Napier were "graduates," as it were, of the Peninsular army and familiar with the maintenance of discipline in that force, the question is: why they did not utilize these same methods in North America? Certainly Napier felt Beckwith "ought to have hanged several villains at little Hampton; had he so done, the Americans would not have complained: but every horror was committed with impunity, rape, murder, pillage: and not a man was punished!" As the commander of the brigade in which the Independent Companies of Foreigners were serving, however, Napier bears more than a small measure of responsibility. Since he regarded the Frenchmen as "dubious" soldiers and knew that many had deserted at Craney Island, why did he not take additional precautions at Hampton. Instead, Napier placed the Independent Companies on outpost duty, and thus not under his personal supervision, giving them an opportunity not only to murder, rape and rob but also desert. Napier's excuse seems to be that he could not go forward to their position because he was too busy trying to restrain his own regiment, the 102nd Foot, from joining in the plundering. This may well have been so, but he could at least have sent a senior British officer to directly supervise the Independent Companies as their own officers seem to have been incompetent. Napier later commented that he "wished to shoot some" of the Frenchmen who "murdered without an object but the pleasure of murdering" but "had no opportunity," evidently because they were transferred out of his brigade and re-embarked on the fleet.
While Charles Napier is not without some measure of blame, the greater responsibility must lie with Thomas S. Beckwith, who was senior officer. His correspondence reveals that Beckwith had been aware of the shortcomings of the Foreigners nearly three months before the incidents at Hampton and had resolved to "keep a careful eye" on them. This being the case, one questions why Beckwith even landed the two companies on American soil and, still worse, since so many had deserted during the earlier attack on Craney Island, why he decided to risk using them again at Hampton. Well before Hampton, Beckwith had been forewarned that the Foreigners were likely to get out of hand, but he took no particular precautions to make sure that they did not do so -- in fact, he did nothing. When his American counterpart, Brigadier-General Robert Taylor, officially remonstrated about their behaviour, Beckwith responded that the Frenchman were taking revenge for the "slaughter" at Craney Island. As Taylor rightfully pointed out -- if this was true, why had the Independent Companies wreaked their vengeance on harmless men and women, and not on American soldiers? Beckwith did not have any credible answer for this highly relevant question or for the findings of Taylor's board of inquiry into the matter and was clearly embarrassed that the American commander had gone to such lengths to discredit his excuse. In connection with this, it is interesting to note that Napier, who kept a journal throughout the 1813 operations in the Chesapeake, makes no mention of the "slaughter" at Craney Island."....
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finis
1 comment:
Thanks for all your work in researching, compiling and posting these records on the War of 1812. It's very helpful. I'm just wondering if there are some typos in your post "War of 1812 - US Army Infantry, Rangers and Riflemen - Special Studies-35th Inf and Hampton", Posted by RG on 5/16/2009. In the listings of infantry units at the beginning of the article, there are many references to "Queenstown Campaign (Oct 1813)". Does this refer to the battle of Queenston Heights, which occurred on 13 Oct 1812? I can't find a reference elsewhere to a battle of Queenston or Queenstown in Oct 1813. I'm not an expert on this, and am trying to learn about military units involved in the battle of Queenston Heights on 13 October 1812. I would appreciate any clarification you can give me, or guidance to other sources.
Thanks very much - astounding amount of work you have done!
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