Guilford County NcArchives Military Records.....Gurley, Jeremiah 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, 2:31 pm Constructed History Of Jeremiah Gurley From the pension application of JAMES COTTON-“JEREMIAH GURLEY aged above 72, a citizen of Madison County…declares that having been in General GREENE’s army on the march from Troublesome Ironworks to Ramsey’s Mills, and having witnessed the incident of the Tory hanging by the roadside and the hanging of two others at Ramsey’s Mills as describe in the foregoing declaration of JAMES COTTON, and from a variety of other incidents related to affiant, the said COTTON as occurring in the campaign in which those related occurred, he is fully convinced that said COTTON was actually engaged in the Revolutionary service as he in his declaration asserts.” From the pension application of JAMES COTTON-“In January 1781, when visiting relations in Henry County, Virginia, he substituted himself in place of one NANCE, (thinks JOHN NANCE), in Captain GEORGE HARSTON’s company of men, drafted from that county for a three months tour to North Carolina to assist in combating the British and Tories, who then infested that colony.” “He and his company were marched directly into North Carolina, where at Dan River, as he thinks, they joined Major General GREENE’s army. He proceeded with that army in its movements until the enemy under CORNWALLIS was met near Guilford Courthouse. According to his best impressions, the General shortly after sunrise approached the large waste field of the battleground from the east, leaving that portion of the militia in which affiant was on the eastern skirt of the field as a reserve. The enemy about the same time advanced from the west under a cannonade. The battle lasted several hours, when affiant with the reserve were led before the enemy to cover the retreat of the regiments which had been engaged and only fired a round or so, and were ordered to retreat with the main body of the army. The whole retreat was in order and as affiant believes, without pursuit, except some horse who showed themselves in the rear as far as the bridge over Haw River, about two miles distant from the scene of action.” “General GREENE halted at Troublesome Ironworks [March 1781] about 10 miles distant and in a few days marched upon the enemy and again halted at Ramsey’s Mills on Deep River. When marching to the latter point, the army proceeded in files of four, and an order was passed along the line to open the files so as to leave a space in the center, when some field officers rode swiftly through the space and during this movement, the attention of affiant was pointed to a man hanging under a tree in the right of the line with a paper spread on his breast, which advertised, as was asserted? reported?, his name, vocation and deeds as a Tory. Over against adjacent him on an eminence sat some ten or dozen men, by whom, affiant supposes the Tory had been caught and elevated.” “Whilst the army was encamped at Ramsey’s Mills, there was an alarm and the army put in motion toward the point as if to meet the enemy and a hollow square formed around a tree in an open space as if to repel a charge from cavalry, when to the surprise of all, two men were conducted into the center and hung to the same limb of the tree. They too were doubtless Tories.” 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/gurley324gmt.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ncfiles/ File size: 4.2 Kb