Guilford-Randolph-Orange County NcArchives Military Records.....Gillespie, John Revwar - Pension ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/nc/ncfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Nancy Poquette npoq@hotmail.com June 18, 2006, 2:25 pm Constructed History Of Colonel John Gillespie WILLIAM ALBRIGHT-“States that he served under Captain WHITESELL, Colonel GILLESPIE, and Colonel PAISLEY.” WILLIAM DONNELL-“During the time he belonged to Captain GILLESPIE’s company of volunteers, he was called upon by Col. JOHN GILLSPIE, who was wagon master, to drive a wagon down to Newbern after salt for the army. He recollects that he left on Christmas day in the year 1780, and returned home about the last of March, making a term of service of three months. He served another tour of three months in the Raft Swamp or Wilmington expedition as it was called… etc.” SAMUEL FINDLEY-“In a few weeks after my discharge from LEE, I was drafted as a militiaman in the aforesaid County of Guilford form the term of six months, and we rendezvoused in the County of Randolph and as well as now recollected, at ELISHA MENDENHALL’s Mill on Deep River. The captain under whom I served was GEORGE STEWART. The major was JOHN GILLESPIE and our colonel, JAMES MARTIN. At this place we met the troops from Stokes County, Randolph and Surry Counties and the whole was commanded by General RUTHERFORD. From this place the army marched thru a town then called Cross Creek, now called Fayette, and went in pursuit of a Colonel FANNING who had Tories embodied and passed through a town then called Elizabeth, crossed the Cape Fear River and marched on to Wilmington where we remained until our tour of six months was completed, and this applicant was then honorably discharged in the latter end of the year 1781.” JOHN FITZPATRICK-“That we remained at home in the same neighborhood until GATE’s Defeat at Camden [per Heitman, August 16, 1780], immediately after which time myself and the said JOHN FITZPATRICK again entered the service of the United States in a light horse or cavalry company commanded by Captain DANIEL GILLESPIE in a regiment commanded by Colonel JOHN GILLESPIE. “That we were in various other battles, to wit: Wahab Lane [per Heitman, September 21, 1780] against the Tories, and at Charlotte [per Heitman, September 26, 1780].” THOMAS GIBSON- They were thus employed in watching and chasing the Tories for about two months, when KNIGHT’s company joined a company from the upper part of Guilford under the command of Colonel GILLESPIE, at a place now called Randolph Old Courthouse, or the Crossroads.” “Thence they marched down Deep River into the neighborhood of the Buffalo Ford, when they learned that Colonel FANNING with his Tory crew had retreated into South Carolina, about the Waccamaw settlements thence they returned to the Crossroads, thence to Colliers’ on Caraway Creek in Randolph County, where KNIGHT’s company remained sometime to guard Colonel COLLIER’s house, who had become obnoxious to the Tories. “He, then, with his company rejoined Colonel GILLESPIE’s company under Colonel John SAPP or SOPP at the Crossroads aforesaid, and the three companies marched into Moore County, where they were piloted by a boy to the rendezvous of the Tories, and where they killed some, took some prisoners and dispersed the rest. Thence they returned into Randolph, when the other two companies left KNIGHT’s.” WILLIAM KERR-“That a short time after his last mentioned discharge, he turned out as a volunteer for “during the War of the Revolution”, and met at Salisbury aforesaid, the day and year he cannot state. [He] was sergeant in a company of horse commanded by Captain JOHN GILLESPIE, Lieutenant DANIEL GILLESPIE, Major [JAMES] WHITE, Colonel WILLIAM R. DAVIE and General [WILLIAM] DAVIDSON. That he was marched into SC. [He] was in a skirmish with the Tories in Wahabs Lane [September 21, 1780], where they took 90 horses and 80 prisoners from the Tories where the British army appeared in sight before they left the ground. Shortly after which skirmish he was marched back to Guilford. That he served on this tour in the capacity of Sergeant, 3 months.” “That in a very short time after his return from the above tour he was again called out, served in the same company when Captain GILLESPIE was made Colonel, Lieutenant GILLESPIE was made captain, GEORGE PARKS Lieutenant and he was made cornet. [They] left Guilford Courthouse, went to Salisbury, thence to Mecklenburg County, thence to Camden, thence to Charlotte Courthouse, where they joined the regular army, as near as he can at this time recollect, under General MORGAN. That during this tour he was in the Battle at Guilford Courthouse [March 15, 1781]. JAMES MCADOW-“In the year of 1778, I volunteered as a minute man in cavalry under Captain DANIEL GILLESPIE and JOHN GILLESPIE, colonel, against the Tories and British. I was often called out, some times for the space of two months and some times for a less period. I was often in pursuit of Tories, and routed Colonel FANNING, a noted Tory. I was out in all this service six months.” “The next service I was a volunteer in the cavalry under Captain GILLESPIE in Guilford. We rendezvoused at Charlotte in Mecklenburg, North Carolina and placed under the command of Colonel DAVIE. While at Charlotte, we attacked the Tories in Wahab Lane [per Heitman, September 21, 1780] and killed a number and took a number of horses. We marched from Charlotte to Salisbury, then to Guilford and joined General GREENE in that action [per Heitman, March 15, 1781]. I served out the whole six months. I expect I can prove part, if not all of my services by Captain WILLIAM DONNELL, who was out in the service with him.” JOHN MCBRIDE- That he also frequently volunteered under Captain DANIEL GILLESPIE and Colonel JOHN GILLESPIE in various expeditions against the Tories in Randolph and Guilford.” FRANCIS MCKAIMY-“Deponent further states that he was drafted again in the same county (Guilford) between the 15th and 20th of January 1781, and was again taken from the ranks by order of the commanding officers to take charge of another public wagon as a driver in company with about twenty-two others, and went to Newbern in said state of North Carolina for salt for General GREENE’s army. He states that before they returned, about fifteen miles below Hillsborough, he received information that the British were then in Hillsborough, and he says they were conveyed from there under the command of Colonel GILLESPIE across Roanoke River at Taylor’s Ferry into the state of Virginia, where he says they remained until after the Battle of Guilford, when they returned home and was discharged after delivering up the wagons to the public officers, for a tour of three months service, although he says he was very little more than two months in actual service.” BENJAMIN RHODES-“That he volunteered about the first of October in the year 1780 in a company of light horse raised in Guilford County, North Carolina by order of Colonel GILLESPIE and commanded by Captain ASA BRASHEARS, Lieutenant JAMES DELAY and Ensign HEZEKIAH RHODES, brother of this declarant.” “He states that this company was raised for the purpose of acting and did act as an auxiliary to the main army under General GREENE in suppressing the Tories and watching the movements of the British. It was considered a company of minutemen, and he states that he, with the rest of the company was frequently at home for some days at a time, but was most of the time in actual service and always with the company when in service, which service was employed in scouring the Counties of Guilford, Randolph and Chatham, and for a good part of the time in search of a certain Colonel FANNING, a Tory whom they never could catch, but quite a few of his men were taken. He states that he procured his own horse and arms while in service, which service was of the severest kind, as they had to ride us _____ both night and day while in service, for which he was to have got one dollar per day while in service, but never received anything. He states that he first volunteered for three months, but the company being needed, he continued in service about seven months when he was discharged by his Captain BRASHEARS.” WILLIAM SHAW- In the latter part of the year 1780, I attached myself to a company of light horse under the command of Captain JOHN GILLESPIE, DANIEL GILLESPIE- Lieutenant, and GEORGE PARKS, Cornet. DANIEL GILLESPIE subsequently became our captain, GEORGE PARKS, lieutenant, and WILLIAM KERR, Cornet, JOHN GILLESPIE having been promoted to the command of a regiment. From this period until the conclusion of peace, we were continually employed in scouring the country from Guilford County in North Carolina to Waxhaw Creek in South Carolina and were engaged in various skirmishes with the Tories and British, one at Charlotte [per Heitman, September 26, 1780], one at Wacham’s Lane [per Heitman, September 21, 1780] and sundry others of less note. We were in active service about two years and six months, two years of which I served in the capacity of orderly sergeant. Our principal commander was Colonel WILLIAM R. DAVIE, both at Charlotte and Wacham’s Lane…” SAMUEL SMITH-“That some time after the Declaration of Independence, he was attached to a company of horse under the command of Colonel GILLESPIE. That he was with him for a few days when we were transferred by General JOHN HAMILTON to a company of Virginia militia where he was engaged as a commissary in collecting provisions for the army for about three months, when he was discharged by Captain WILLIAMS of his own company under Colonel GILLESPIE, by the interference of General HAMILTON, who stated the records of his being taken from the horse and engaged as a commissary.” WILLIAM SMITH-“That in, or about the summer of 1775, it was rumored in his neighborhood that the Tories had arisen down in the County of Orange and had committed depradations on Whigs. When the people of the Alamance (his own) neighborhood met together to consult what it would be best for them to do. That it was resolved by the meeting to send some two to ascertain whether this report was true; and that he and one JESSE MACOMB volunteered and went and found that the Tories were in arms and had wounded in a skirmish one WILLIAM DENT, Esquire, a Whig. That they returned immediately and brought to their friends this intelligence when they formed themselves into a company and marched with this commanded by Lieut. WILEY, Captain FORBIS, Colonel PAISLEY and Colonel GILLESPIE, and brought away said DENT, who was severely wounded, and placed him under the care of Dr. AGNEW, and returned after the Tories, took some prisoners and dispersed the balance. That he marched with Captain FORBIS, guarding the prisoners, to Martinsville, Guilford Old Courthouse, where they were dismissed on a promise to be peaceable citizens in future. That he cannot tell the length of this tour.” JAMES STARRITT-“He again entered the service as a volunteer light horseman in Guilford County, North Carolina, he thinks in the year 1778 or 79, under Captain DANIEL GILLESPIE and Colonel PAISLEY and JOHN GILLESPIE, and was stationed in the said county of Guilford, frequently scouting in various directions after the British and Tories. At one time he was marched to what was called the Raft Swamps, between the Pedee and Cape Fear River, where he had a severe engagement with the British and Tories under Colonel FANNING. He was again marched into Surrey County, NC to what was called the Hollows of the Yadkin, where we took a good many Tories…and remained there for some time. He was in the Battle of Guilford [per Heitman, March 15, 1781]. He was also in the Battle at Whitesell’s Mills [March 6, 1781]. He was also in the Battle at Pyle’s Defeat [Holt’s Racepaths, per Heitman, February 25, 1781] in Orange County, NC. He served, this time, two years and was discharged by his Captain GILLESPIE.” MATHIAS SWING- That from this time in ’75 until 1780? he was always ready at the call of his officers, Captain WHITESELL, Captain FORBIS, Colonel PAISLEY and Colonel GILLESPIE, and consumed in short tours after the Tories the half of this time (from ’75 to ’80). That owing to his advanced age, he is unable to give any correct or satisfactory account of this.” “That he was frequently marched down to the Caraway Mountains or High Hills of Randolph [County] and to the Raft Swamps near Fayetteville, in both of which places the Tories under one Colonel FANNING were in the habit of taking refuge after their ravages on the Whigs.” WILLIAM WILEY [a]- In his next tour he was out as a lieutenant in a company commanded by Captain JOHN FORBIS, the regiment by Colonel GILLESPIE and served three months. In this campaign he marched from Guilford to Pedee River against the Tories, but was in no engagement with them.” Additional Comments: Constructed History is my term for a soldier who did not file for a pension himself, but about whom there is enough evidence from other soldiers to form an equivalent to a pension application. Most of the testimony comes from other men mentioning the officer or non-comm. officer, but in some cases, the actual soldier himself testified on behalf of other men, thus revealing his own history. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/guilford/military/revwar/pensions/gillespi321gmt.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ncfiles/ File size: 13.8 Kb