On this 14th day of September
1832 personally appeared in
open Court before the Honorable Samuel Powel [sic, Powell?] now sitting as a
Court of Law & Equity in and for the said County of Washington Leroy Taylor a
resident Citizen of said County & State, aged 74 years who being first duly sworn
according to law doth on his oath make the following declaration in order to
obtain the benefit of the act of Congress passed 7th June 1832. That he entered
the service of the United States under the following named officers & served as
herein stated, to wit: that being a resident citizen of the County of Burke State
of North Carolina during the Revolutionary War, that he volunteered in the County
of Burke aforesaid under Captain Reuben White a Captain of the North Carolina
militia under the command of Colonel Charles McDowell of General Rutherford's
[Griffith Rutherford’s] Brigade, to serve a three months tour of duty and was
marched to the head of Catawba River (place called the Pleasant Gardens) where
the troops were all to meet & when met a convention of the officers took place,
and his Captain having been killed before they arrived at the Pleasant Gardens
by the Indians this declarant was appointed by Colonel McDowell to command the
company which White had command of before his death, and in the Council of officers,
was ordered back to White's Fort on John's River, to guard said Fort (the Indians
being numerous in the neighborhood & did march back to said Fort with the company
under his command, & there remained over the term for which he engaged and dismissed
his men without written discharge, and went on to paymaster Matthew Locke drew the
money for the pay of the company under him & paid them off said Locke at the time
residing within a few miles of Salisbury). That the time of his entering into
said service was about the month of October 1776, under date of the receipts
hereto annexed (which from accident have been preserved in the rack of ancient
things) two with the receipts of Nicholas dated the 30th December 1776, for 69
days, they [sic, the] said Nicholas & others paid by him having been put under
his command sometime after he had been in command of the Fort aforesaid & not
in service as long as he had been, that said service was for three months as
Captain principally, his Captain having been killed as aforesaid within a few
weeks after he entered, and he is very certain that he entered in the month of
September or early in October and dismissed his men at the date of the receipts
hereto annexed, which were given a part of the men put under his command after
he had command of the Fort. He states further that he received a commission,
during his service at the Fort before specified, from the Department of State
of North Carolina, and after returning home from his first service.
That on the 27th March 1778,
he received an order from Colonel Beckman [Christopher Beekman] of the County of
Burke aforesaid as Captain, which he hereto annexes, directing him to train the
company under his command, which he did in conformity to said order, & in the
same year the November thereof the 6th Colonel McDowell issued to him his order
as Captain aforesaid to raise six men out of his company & have them equipped
and in readiness which is also annexed, that he in observance to said order,
did he & six men from his Company volunteered & marched to Greenlea's at the
Quaker Meadows, & there marched to Pine Tree (now Camden) & there joined General
Rutherford's Army, & there had his company filled up by men raised from other
Counties & commanded under General Rutherford in said campaign – from Camden the
Army marched to the ten mile house, (on this side of Charleston) from thence, to
Purysburg on the Savannah [River], thence up the River to the two sisters [sic,
Two Sister Ferry] there, the Army had marched from Purysburg to said Two Sisters
under General Lincoln [Benjamin Lincoln], at the last named place he was then
allowed to return home his term of time having expired being on the 8th of February
after his March in November as aforesaid.
That after his return home he removed to the Western settlements of North Carolina (now Tennessee) and settled in the County of Washington on the frontiers of the Cherokee Indians – after having acted for two months & thereabouts under the annexed order of Captain Gilbreath Falls [sic, Gilbraith Falls] (a Captain of the Light horse), and apprehending the said William & Robert Johnston named in the said order & traversing the other suspected places), that after taking said men he delivered them up to Colonel McDowell, & he calling a Court martial & trying them & they being acquitted & again joined the Army. His removal to the frontier was in the Spring of 1780 at which time the Cherokee Indians were killing & depredating [sic] on said [place]; and that he served in the three several tours or services about eight months, exclusive of the time which was lost in the going to the place of rendezvous & returning home that not being computed in the tour, or estimate – that he was as aforesaid Captain for all the time except about a month when he was first under Captain White before he was killed, that he had a commission until some years since when one of his neighbors, unfriendly disposed towards him, got possession of his papers in which was said commission, & he has never been able to regain it – these annexed being all that was left & they were accidentally left in his possession owing to their not being carefully preserved & left in the house from whence they were taken & which he annexes. That he knows of no person now living by whom he can prove his said services, nor is there a resident minister of the Gospel in his neighborhood by whom he can establish the report or belief required by the instructions of the War Department. He hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension or annuity except the present, and declares that his name is not on the pension Roll of the agency of any state. Sworn to and subscribed the day and year aforesaid.
S/ Leeroy Taylor
[sic, could be “Laroy Taylor”]
Sworn in open Court at September Term 1832
Test: S/ Jas. V. Anderson, Clerk
[William P. Chester & Jacob Brown gave the standard supporting affidavit.]