Tennessee Soldiers in the Revolution Compiled by Penelope Johnson Allen, 1935. INTRODUCTION THE Revolutionary history of Tennessee belongs to her mother state, and in the archives of North Carolina are to be found many interesting records of the valorous services performed by the men on her western frontier during the Struggle for Independence. Before the Revolutionary War began, the country west of the Allegheny Mountains was being cleared and tended by pioneers who braved the dangers of forest and Indian to establish new homes in the beautiful valleys of what is now East Tennessee. The tide of emigration had turned westward in response to the reports of the Long Hunters of plentifull game and fertile soil. As early as 1769, William Bean had staked his claim and built a cabin on Boon's Creek, in what is now Washington County, and very soon thereafter friends and relatives from Pittsylvania County, Virginia, from whence he came, joined him in the new country. Other settlers followed and the Watauga Association was formed. In 1777, the territory lying west of the mountains was formed into the county of Washington. These North Carolina frontiersmen were patriots. The same spirit of independence which moved them to face the dangers of the wilderness, turned them also against British taxes. The Indians with whom they were contending for the land whereon they were building their homes were allies of the English. The extension of the western boundary line between North Carolina and Virginia, in 1780, threw a large settlement that had hitherto considered itself to be on Virginia soil, into the domain of North Carolina. This territory was formed into a second new county and named for General Sullivan. The militia was organized in Washington and Sullivan Counties, after the manner of the rest of North Carolina. Companies were formed from tall gaunt men with sharp eyes and steady fingers -- bred to the rifle from childhood. But for them the fight was in both directions -- English armies on the East, Indian bands on the West. Living with gun in hand they were always ready to answer the call to arms. ... The militia of the two western counties was very active up to the close of the Revolutionary War, and for sometime thereafter in Indian campaigns. The Watauga and Holston settlers carried on a continuous struggle with the Indians. At one time a great tribal confederacy was planned by the British, which design, if carried out, would have created a formidable obstruction to the west of the colonists, extending from Canada to Florida. An expedition against the Chickamauga Indians, in April, 1779, led by Col. Evan Shelby and Lt.-Col. Charles Robertson, destroyed this plan, and for the time being, checked the hostilities of the Indians. Five hundred men from Washington and Sullivan Counties took part in this campaign and overcame the Indians at the first Battle of Chickamauga. In the summer of 1780, a regiment of Watauga men commanded by Col. Charles Robertson did good service in the South Carolina campaign and participated in several battles. On October 7, 1780, the memorable Battle of King's Mountain took place, and the part played by the "over-mountain" men in defeat of General Ferguson has been described by competent historians as the turning point in the Revolution. Returning home from this great victory another excursion was made into the Cherokee Country under the leadership of Col. John Sevier. A third expedition was ordered against the implacable Chickamaugas by the State of North Carolina, in the fall of 1782, and was commanded by General Joseph McDowell and Col. John Sevier. A thousand men raised in the western counties comprised the troops for this attack on the Indians who were growing increasingly hostile to the Americans as the result of the labors of British agents among them. From the North Carolina Colonial and State Records, Vol. 16, page 450, the following extract from a letter of Governor Alexander Martin to the North Carolina delegates in Congress, dated New Bern, Nov. 2d, 1782, is taken: "The 20th ultimo near one thousand militia marched in two divisions, under command of Brigadier General McDowell and Col. Sevier, from Morgan District, against the Chickammogy and other hostile towns of the Cherokees. This expedition was absolutely necessary and was by the advice of the Council of State, ordered out." The state of North Carolina began enacting legislation for the payment of her soldiers and the settling of war claims in 1780. In 1781, a board of Auditors was established for the settlement of public claims, and Anthony Bledsoe, a resident of Sullivan County, was named as one of the Auditors for Salisbury district to which Washington and Sullivan Counties then belonged. At the same time an act was passed by the General Assembly providing for the payment for military duty and other claims against the state for articles furnished or impressed. In April, 1782, an "Act for the Relief of Officers of the Continental Line" was passed, and at the same session an amendment to this act provided "that all claims now due and unsettled shall be liquidated in specie, by the district auditors under the same rules and regulations as prescribed by the before recited act." In section five of the same act the names of the auditors for the different districts of the state are given. For Washington and Sullivan Counties -- Anthony Bledsoe, Edmund Williams and Landon Carter are named. In 1783, an Act authorizing the opening of a land office for the redemption of specie and other certificates was passed, and all soldiers holding specie or certificates were enabled to redeem them by taking land in exchange, at a rate fixed by the state. page 13: North Carolina Revolutionary Army Accounts Index to Soldiers Residing in Washington and Sullivan Counties 1781-1783 An account of Specie certificates paid into the Comptroller's Office by John Armstrong, Entry taker, for lands in North Carolina taken from Accounts paid by Anthony Bledsoe, Edmund Williams, and Landon Carter. Volume, Page, and Folio are from the North Carolina Revolutionary Army Accounts in the State Archives at Raleigh, NC. Volume Page Folio page 25: ------ ---- ----- Mathews, Obediah I 17 4 Matthews, Joel I 9 2 Matthews, Jon. I 63 4 Matthews, Will I 4 4 page 26: Morgan, Abel I 21 4 Morgan, Adonijah I 67 4 Morgan, John I 72 4 Morgan, Thomas I 2 4 I 34 4 V 98 4 Copied 1995 for private use by Dennis Nicklaus. from a copy of the book in the Wisconsin State Historical Society Library. No permission to republish this has been sought.