James F. Gordon
Revolutionary Pension Application
Declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the act of Congress passed 7th
June 1832.
State of Georgia and
County of Oglethorpe
On this fifteenth day of January eighteen hundred & thirty four personally
appeared in open court before the Honorable the Justices of the Inferior Court now
sitting, James F. Gordon of the county & State aforesaid aged sixty eight years, less
seven days, 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 and served as herein stated.
That he was born in Brunswick County, State of Virginia on the 22nd
day of January 1766. That the only record of his age that he has is a transcript made by
himself from the old family bible which is now exhibited in court & which was always
considered correct by the family. That when he first went into service he lived in Warren
County North Carolina & was a well grown lad of fifteen years of age. That after the
Revolutionary War he lived in Mecklinburg County North Carolina & that he now lives in
Oglethorpe County State of Georgia where he has resided for about twenty seven years past.
That he first entered the service as a substitute for one William Ballard. That the nature
of the service he had to perform was such that he had no opportunity of being personally
acquainted with any of the regular officers or Continental regiments; and if his own
company of Militia were ever organized into a regiment at all he has no recollection of
its number or name. That he left home with the expectation of being placed under the
command of General Greene & that expectation continued until he got within fifteen
miles of Guilford Courthouse where himself & about sixteen or eighteen of the company
to which he belonged were ordered back with the stock procured for provisioning the army
to a magazine where they were stationed during the remainder of the three months guarding
the magazine day & night under the strictest discipline. The name of the Captain under
whom he served was John Twitty, the names of his first Lieutenant & Sargent if he
remembers aright were White & Langford. That forgetfulness of names & dates is his
peculiar infirmity. That he set out from the edge of N. Carolina next to Virginia &
marched direct for Guilford where he would have joined Greene & taken part in the
battle of that place if he had not been disposed of in the manner above mentioned. This
tour was commenced in the early part of the Spring of 1781 say about the last of February
or first of March & deponent served out every day of the three months.
Immediately after the close of this first tour he went over to Brunswick in
Virginia to his grandfather’s & there though perhaps too young he stood a draft
& it fell to his lot to serve another tour of three months in that State. On this
occasion he was commanded by one Captain Stith, a Lieutenant Collier & if his memory
serves him the Battalion was commanded by a Major of the same name with his Captain. The
names of other officers he does not recollect except the Commissary with whom he had more
to do than with any one else. He only had to march about five miles from his
grandfather’s before he came to the dwelling of a Mr. Lamb who was the Commissary
just alluded to & whose home furnished one department of the magazine & deponent
having become somewhat skilled in the services required about magazines he was again left
among those upon whom such duties were imposed & the duties performed for three months
were precisely of the same character with those described in the first tour. He obtained
discharges from his Captains at the close of each tour & left them at the house of a
stepfather in Chatham County N. Carolina where they were destroyed. This tour was
commenced & completed in the summer of 1781. Deponent never held a commission &
has now no documentary evidence by which to support this declaration nor does he know of a
single living witness of the facts herein stated. He feels no difficulty in stating the
names of the Rev. Miller Bledsoe, Benjamin Blanton, George Lumpkin & Thomas A--- to
whom he is known in his present neighborhood & who he thinks would cheerfully testify
as to his character for veracity & their belief of his services as a soldier of the
Revolution. Declarant not thinking it of much consequence had almost failed to mention,
that in the Fall of the same year above mentioned (1781) he was again drafted for a three
months tour in Warren County North Carolina & enlisted under the command of Captain
Kendrick & Major Davis & marched from Warren to Dinwiddie County in Virginia &
when approaching near to Dinwiddie Courthouse news came that Cornwallis had surrendered
& we were then on the way to assist the American forces at Yorktown we were marched
back home & disbanded not having been subjected to military discipline much more than
about three weeks, but fully that length of time. So that six months & three weeks is
the whole amount of time which deponent served in the war of the Revolution. 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 the United States.
Jas. F. Gordon
Sworn to and subscribed the day & year said in open court before me.
John Landrum, Clerk
We, Benjamin Blanton a clergyman residing in Oglethorpe
County State of Georgia, and Daniel Deupree residing in the same county, hereby certify
that we are well acquainted with James F. Gordon who has subscribed & sworn to the
above declaration, that we believe him to be of the age therein stated; that he is reputed
& believed in the neighborhood where he resides to have been a soldier of the
revolution, & that we concur in that opinion.
Benjn. Blanton, MP
Daniel Deupree
Sworn to & subscribed in open court the day & year above mentioned
before me
John Landrum, Clerk
And the court do hereby declare their opinion, after the investigation of the
matter, & after putting the interrogations prescribed by the War Department, that the
above named applicant was a Revolutionary soldier, & served as he states. And the
court further certifies, that it appears to them, that Benjamin Blanton who has signed the
proceeding certificate is a clergyman resident in our county of Oglethorpe, & that
Daniel Deupree, who has also signed the same, is a resident of the same place & is a
credible person, & that their statement is entitled to credit.
Brittain Stamps, JIC
Hay T. Landrum, JIC
Geo. Tuggle, JIC
You are our [an error occurred while processing this directive] visitor!
This page was last modified on
Sunday, 02-Apr-2006 21:37:30 MDT
� Copyright 2004 Jeanne Arguelles
|
