Pension Application of Josiah Meadow: S7225

                        Transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris

 

State of Virginia}

Giles County}      SS

            On the 27^th day of August 1832 personally appeared in Open Court before the Justices of the County Court of Giles now sitting Josiah Meadows a resident of said County and State of Virginia aged seventy four years of age last February 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 7^th 1832

            That he entered the service of the United States under the following named officers and served as herein stated, that he first enlisted in the County of Bedford in the spring of the year before the attacks were made on Donnelly’s fort in the County of Greenbriar [sic: Donnally’s Fort, Greenbrier County in present West Virginia, attacked 29 May 1778] by the Indians. he enlisted under Capt Joseph Renfro. that he was under no field officer this tour as he served against the Indians for the term of six month which was the term for which he enlisted  that the Lieutenant in the Company was David Kidder[?]  that he marched from the County of Bedford soon after he enlisted with the Company and marched to the County of Botetourt where they were joined by other men who had been enlisted in that County and then marched on to the county of Greenbrier and was first stationed at Jarrets fort where they remained some time and then the Company was divided and part of them were sent to Kerny’s[?] fort, that he was stationed at Kerny’s fort at the time the attack was made on Donnellys fort  that he remained at Kerny’s fort for sometime after the attack was made on Donelly’s fort and then they marched back to the County of Botetourt and were stationed on Johns Creek in that County until the term for which he enlisted expired and was then discharged having fully served the term of six months for which he was enlisted. that after that he received a discharge but took no care of it and it was lost. soon after that this term of service expired in the fall of the year after he enlisted that he then removed to the County of Botetourt and remained there until the next February when he again enlisted under Capt [first name illegible] Tyler from the County of Botetourt. they marched to the island of Holston [Long Island of Holston River at present Kingsport TN] where they joined the regiment commanded by Col. John Montgomery and Col Isaac Shelbys [see note below] regiment also went with them, and they went by water from that place to the Chickamauga town. That [in April 1779] they destroyed the Chickamauga towns which was at the mouth of the Hiwasee as it was then [and still] called, a branch of the Tennessee River. that after the destruction of the Chickamauga towns Col Isaac Shelby with his men returned and that Col John Montgomery with his men went by water to the Illinois towns on the Mississippi river. at that place they joined Col [George Rogers] Clark. that they remained there some time when the men were divided some of the men were sent up the Mississippi to St Louis but that he returned by water down the Mississippi to the mouth of the Ohio, and up the Ohio to the mouth of the Waubash [sic: Wabash] and up the Waubash to the  [illegible word] on the Waubash river. that Col. Montgomery staid at the Illinois town. when he left that and that he was then Commanded by Col Clark  that from the Waubash River he marched to the falls of the Ohio river, and remained sometime there, and then marched to Harrodsburg in Kentucky, and there he left Col. Clark and marched with his Capt back to the Big Lick [present City of Roanoke] in the County of Botetourt, where he was discharged. That sometime after he received his discharge, he was crossing the Roanoke river and went to take a chew of tobacco and pulled his discharge out of his pocket and let it fall in the river. that he served on this tour the full term of twelve months being the term for which he enlisted. That he is unable to say the year which he performed the aforementioned service further than he has described by the attack upon Donally fort that he performed no other service then untill after the taking of Cornwallis [19 Oct 1781] when he substituted in the place of John Mitchell of Bedford County who was engaged for six months but does not know whether he drafted or whether he was enlisted, and marched from Prince Edward Courthouse by Cumberland Old Courthouse to Richmond and was there sent as a guard to Carry some prisoners to Fredericksburg  that after returning the prisoners to Fredericksburg he marched back to Richmond and was then stationed at [illegible] near Richmond and guarded the waggoners there during the winter until the March afterwards he thinks on the 28^th day of March he received his discharge. that he cannot say how long he served this term but that he started in the fall of the year, he thinks about the time Cornwallis was taken and served until the 28^th of March following. that he received a discharge but took no care of it and cannot now tell what became of it. 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 Josiah Meadows

 

NOTE: The first name of Col. Shelby in the deposition is illegible, but it appears to begin with an I and could be Isaac. Isaac Shelby was a captain at the time of the Chicamauga and Illinois campaigns, however, so Meadows may have been referring to his father, Col. Evan Shelby.