Pension Application of John Markham: S5726

                        Transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris

 

State of Virginia}

County of Bedford}  S.S.

            On this 25^th day of March 1833 personally appeared in open Court before the County Court of Bedford County now sitting the same being a Court of Record John Markham a resident of the County of Bedford and State of Virginia aged Sixty nine 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 June the 7^th 1832.

            That he entered the service of the United States under the following named officers and served as herein stated. He does not remember the date of the year but thinks it was in 1779 is confident it was in the month of March about two years before the close of the war that he was drafted as a militia man from the county of Prince Edward, where he then resided to serve a tour of duty and accordingly at that time marched from said county under Capt Henry Walker  Lieutenant Richard Holland and ensign John Porter and was attached to the Regiment under the command of Colo. Burwell and Thomas Hubbard was major. They marched to South Carolina beyond Charleston to place called Pon Pon [near Jacksonboro in Colleton County] within forty miles of Sunsbury [possibly Sunbury in Liberty County GA, site of Fort Morris] where they joined the American Army under General [Benjamin] Lincoln and General [William] Moultrie who there lay near the said place he thinks within seven miles. He was in the engagement at Stono River where there was a fort in South Carolina. [See note below.] St. John Island was on the side nearest the British forces whence they received reinforcements and so were enabled to carry and finally did carry the day. The battle took place on the 22^nd day of June and it lasted two hours and three minutes constant fire with cannon and small arms; it commenced between day break and sunrise and ended he thinks about 8 O’clock in the morning. He remembers there was a Frenchman who had command of a party of Americans in this engagement and in a display of strength to scale the fort was taken by the British and was again retaken. his name he does not remember. when the engagement had terminated they returned to the same encampment for a few days and afterwards was marched about through the Country and was at various places to wit Eutaw Springs, Camden, Monks [sic: Monck’s] corner, Dorsetshire [probably Dorchester], and many other small places. was not though in any other engagement during that time; the last place he was at was Camden where he was discharged, the day of the month he does not remember. thinks however it was in the latter part of August of the same year that he entered the service. During this term he served not less that five months and is confident he served that length of time at least. He received an honourable discharge from the service but supposes he has lost or mislaid it, he remembers to have seen it among his papers a number of years since. He received it from the hands of Captain Holland who succeeded to the captaincy after the death of Captain Walker who he thinks died In service. In the year 1781 in the month of March between the 15^th and 25^th shortly after the battle of Guilford [Battle of Guilford Courthouse, 15 March 1781] he was drafted as a militia man from the county of Prince Edward and marched from thence under the command of Captain Mat or Nat Cunningham, Lieutenant Alexander McClardy and ensign James Parks, to South Carolina by the way of Salisbury and Charlottetown [sic: Charlotte] in North Carolina to the District of Ninety-Six in South Carolina. He was attached to the Regiment under the command of Colo. [Hugh] Rose of Amherst County and Major [John] Ward of Campbell County [sic: formed from Bedford County in 1782] in Virginia. After they arrived at head quarters or where the main army was stationed under General Green [sic: Nathanael Greene], he thinks the Regiment bore the number of 71^st or 74^th. He was in what is commonly called the siege of ninety Six for twenty eight days [22 May - 19 June 1781] during which time he never pulled off his clothes even to sleep or to dress himself with others. General Green and his army were here finally routed by Rawdon [sic: Francis Rawdon] who had command of the British forces on the 28^th of June as well as he recollects. During this time he acted as an orderly Sergeant in the company to which he was attached for 10 or 15 days, the regular or duty Sergeants having died. After this Siege the Army under Green retreated to Broad river in South Carolina at the Shallow ford, and there in the latter part of June he with about 200 others part of whom were detached for the purpose from the army volunteered to act as infantry with Colo. [Henry] Lee who followed on in the trail of the British Army and up to that time he had served not less that three months under the officers as aforesaid as a militia  when as before said he was permitted to join Lees Infantry (or the men who acted as infantry) as a volunteer. They moved on toward Charleston and kept an eye to the operations of the enemy when at length an engagement took place at an old house where they lost some of Colonel Lees men and about 60 British prisoners whom they had previously taken, that is those were retaken by the British. General Green had intended to push on to Charleston ahead of the Army after the Siege of Ninety-Six but his designs were frustrated. he was in this volunteer service not less that 40 days and received a discharge for this as well as the preceeding tour of three months in the month of August but the day he does not remember. his discharge he has lost or mislaid never expecting to need it. The discharge he thinks was given him by Captain Cunningham. About Two days before the surrender of Cornwallis [19 Oct 1781] he was called to go again into the service but the news of the surrender made his services unnecessary. Andrew Baker was captain of the Company  He having just returned from the siege of 96 his captain gave him a furlough for ten days, and before his time expired Cornwallis had surrendered. The whole of his actual service amounts to not less than nine months and ten days to Wit, not less that five months he was engaged in the first tour to the South when the battle of Stono took place; not less than three months in the next tour to the Siege of 96 and not less that 40 days as a volunteer acting with the infantry of Colo. Lee all of which is set forth in the above declaration  He has no documentary evidence by which he can prove his services, and he knows of no person whose testimony he can procure or who can testify to his service except John Willard of the County of Campbell by whom both of the tours to the South are proven.

He was born in the County of Prince Edward in Virginia the day of the month or the year he does not remember ever to have known but from circumstances he thinks he is now 69 years of age; he entered the service when only 16 years old. He has no record of his age nor did he ever have. He has resided most of his time since the Revolution in Bedford & Botetourt Counties and now resides in Bedford. he as aforesaid resided in Prince Edward when he entered the service.

He Answers to the Interrogatories propounded by the Court as follows–

Answer to the 1^st Interrogatory. See body Declaration for an answer

Answer to the 2^nd  See body of Declaration for an answer.

Answer to the 3^rd See Body of Declaration for an answer.

Answer to the 4^th See Body of Declaration for an answer.

Answer to the 5^th See Body of Declaration for an answer.

Answer to the 6^th See Body of Declaration for an answer.

Answer to the 7^th See Body of Declaration for an answer.

He hereby relinquishes every claim 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 & year aforesaid   [signed] John Markham

 

NOTE: Markham’s account of the Battle of Stono Ferry differs in some respects from others. Several sources give the name of the Major in the Virginia militia at the battle as William Hubbard rather than Thomas Hubbard. The battle commenced about 7 in the morning of 20 June 1779 and lasted 56 minutes, according to Gen. Benjamin Lincoln. A French officer in command of some Americans was Major Chevalier Pierre François Vernier of Pulaski’s Legion, but those troops were held in reserve and did not charge any of the three redoubts. There is no record of Vernier’s being captured at Stono Ferry. Markham may have confused this battle with the Siege of Savannah, 24 Sep - 19 Oct 1779. Before dawn on the 9^th Pulaski’s troops, including Americans under Vernier, stormed one of the redoubts, and Pulaski was mortally wounded.