REVOLUTIONARY WAR PENSION APPLICATION
William Miles
–
Service:
Number: S28813
WILLIAM
MILES
Onondaga
Co. in the State of N. York who was a private in the company commanded
by
Captain (Fosberry?) of the Reg’t. commanded by Col. Whiting in the N.
Y.
Militia time for 11 months & 9 day.
Inscribed
on the Roll of Albany as the rate of 37 Dollars 66 cents per annum to
commence
on the 4th day of March 1831.
Certificate of pension issued on the 8th
Day of Nov. 1838
and sent to Gen. Pettit, Fabius, N. Y.
Arrears
to
Semi-annual
allowance ending
301.28
Revolutionary
Claim Act
Recorded
by D. Brown - Clerk
Book (C or E?) 2
Vol. 4 page
46
Declaration
in order to obtain the benefit of the Act of Congress passed
State
of
On
the 6th day of September 1838 personally appeared in open
court
before Grove Lawrence First Judge and Johnson Hall & Lyman H. Minor
two of
the judges of the court of Common pleas, & general session of the
peace now
sitting at Salina in said County, WILLIAM MILES, a resident of Lysander
in said
county of Onondaga, and State of New York, aged seventy-five years, who
being
first duly sworn, according to law doth, on his oath, make the
following
declaration in order to obtain the benefits of the Act of Congress,
passed June
7th 1832 –
That
he entered the service in the fore part of October 1780, in a company
of
militia commanded by Captain Jacob (Fosberry?) in the town of New
Britain, then
in Albany County, State aforesaid, his Lieutenant was Nathaniel Miles,
&
father to this declarant, and all lived then in that place, that he
turned out
as a volunteer, & said company officers, volunteered also, & as
all
went under Col. Whiting & Col. Watermann, to whose Regiment of
local
Militia, said company belonged, up the Mohawk river, & fought the
enemy in
the battle of Palatine, on the same day that Col. Brown was killed –
that he
returned home in November, having served one month. & followed the
enemy to
Fort Herkimer where he was discharged with all the Militia Volunteers,
by
Governor Clinton in person - Afterwards,
in the month of August 1781, he enlisted for four months into Capt.
Skinner’s
Company of state troops, which was attached to Willet’s Regiment, that
he went
to Albany, & went from there by advice of Gen. Clinton, with a
detachment
of another company to Schoharie, where were some of Skinner’s company,
with
whom he marched to Fort Plain on the Mohawk River, where Capt. Skinner
was with
his company – from there he marched in a detachment to Fort Herkimer -
remained
there two weeks, & were then marched back to Fort Plain – then went
with a
guard to Fort (Walcot?) & then after a week or two, went back again
to Fort
Plain – from thence he marched with all the troops by the way of Fort
Hunter to
Johnstown and was there in the Battle of Johnstown – from there the
Regiment,
under Command of Col. Willett, marched to Fort Herkimer – Major Rowley
was in
that Battle & got wounded in the heel – after about four days we
pursued
the enemy & had a skirmish, killed some & took fourteen
prisoners &
declarant was sent back with the prisoners to Fort Herkimer, while the
Regiment
pursued the enemy & killed their commander Butler – the Regiment
then
returned to Fort Plain where Skinner’s Company was discharged in the
month of
December – That in April 1782 he enlisted for Nine Months into Capt.
(Gray’s?)
Company of state troops, & joined it at Schoharie, and served in it
there
till August, & then & there he enlisted for three years, into
Capt.
Joseph Harrison’s Company of state troops – Rial Bingham was his
Lieutenant
& Pliny Moore was his Ensign that he was mustered into the three
years
service at Albany under General Clinton, & then the whole company
was taken
back to Schoharie, & remained there till October, keeping Garrison
- &
watching the Indians, and then went to headquarters at Fort Plain,
& built
our huts for winter – in January 1783 the men were inoculated at Fort
Plain for
the smallpox – and in Feb. he belonged to a party of about four
hundred, who
were ordered to go and surprise & take Fort Oswego – at Oswego
Falls we eat
our last provisions - & proceeded down the down the river about
four miles
- & the pilots got bewildered & the enterprise failed –
returned then
to Fort Plain having lost a number who were frozen to death – that he
was so
frozen himself, that he got a furlough & went home in March, but
did not
recover so as to join the Regiment before it was discharged at Albany
in July –
being confined at his Father’s house more than three months – that he
resided
in New Britain, County of Albany, State of New York when he entered the
service
aforesaid – that he knows of no other person except those whose
depositions are
hereto annexed, whose testimony he can procure, who can testify to his
service
-–that he was born, in the Town of Brimfield, County of Worcester,
& State
of Massachusetts, on the 9th day of September 1763, but has
no
record of his age – that since the Revolutionary War, he removed from
New
Britain to Pompey, Onondaga County – to Cazenovia Madison County – to
Phoenix
Oneida County and then to Lysander Onondaga County where he now lives,
that he
remembers Major Van (Schauten?) & Colonel Willet at Fort Plain also
Capt.
Cannon Capt. (Tione?) Capt. Pierce Capt. McConnel & Adjutant Fonda
– that
he never received a written discharge, excepting one from Col. Willet
at the
end of the four months service, and that is long since lost – That the
reason
why he has not made this application before now, is because he has not
been
able to find any witnesses alive who care to swear to any part of the
service
herein set forth. He hereby relinquishes
any 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 and
that
Ira Eno and Ebert B. Dyckman are known to him in his present
neighborhood,
& can testify to his veracity & their belief of his services in
the
Revolutionary War, as a Soldier.
Sworn
to and subscribed
Wm.
Miles
the
day & year aforesaid
Submitted 11 January 2005