Guilford-Randolph County NcArchives Military Records.....McLain, Robert 
Revwar - Pension 
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Nancy Poquette npoq@hotmail.com June 21, 2006, 11:10 am

Constructed History Of Major Robert McLain
From EDWARD BEESON:
	“He entered the service as a volunteer from the state of North 
Carolina, Guilford County, now Randolph. It was the spring of the year 1778, as 
he believes. DAVID BROWER was his captain, JAMES WOODS-Lieutenant, this 
deponent ensign, and ___ sergeant. ROBERT MCLEAN was their major, THOMAS 
DOUGAN, colonel, BUTLER- general. Their object was the destruction of the 
Tories. Next day, after they left Johnsonville, their place of rendezvous, 
their captain and three men were killed by the Tories who waylaid them (the 
Tories were commanded by Major RAINS) and fired on them from a steep hill on 
the side of Brush Creek.”
“After BROWER was killed, WOODS became captain and this deponent Lieutenant. 
They pursued the Tories about forty miles to Fork? Creek, and there besieged 
them in a house belonging to one JOHN NEEDHAM [per The Old North State, Eli W. 
Caruthers, this was in the fall of 1781]. In the morning before they got to 
NEEDHAM’s, their colonel (DOUGAN) joined them. This deponent was then ordered 
with half of his company to the back of the house under concealment of an 
orchard, while the rest were to attack in front. This deponent’s company were 
the first who took possession of the same, those in front having feigned a 
retreat to draw out the Tories, which accordingly succeeded. Twenty-one were 
killed, seven at the house and fourteen at the place where they kept the 
horses, the Tories having fled there, to where they were concealed on the bank 
of Deep River, and where Colonel DOUGAN himself had gone with a detachment to 
surprise them if they should be driven from the house.”
“They then marched down to Cape Fear (or Fair)Town and from there to the Brown 
Marsh near Wilmington, where they again had to battle with the Tories on open 
ground [per the Old North State, Eli W. Caruthers, after the Battle at Cane 
Creek, which was on Sept. 13, 1781]. They there (again) defeated the Tories 
who, being reinforced by the British from their shipping at Fort Johnson, they 
returned and defeated us in turn. From thence they (the Americans) returned by 
Cape Fear to Guilford (now Randolph). At this time they were out three months 
and were discharged.”

From EZEKIEL CRAFT: “About the 10th of May 1780, he enlisted as a substitute 
for JACOB MCDANIEL in Randolph County, North Carolina. Was mustered into 
Captain ROBERT MCLAIN’s company of drafted militia. He thinks Colonel COLLIER 
was the colonel and well knows his company was attached to General CASWELL’s 
brigade. He was marched to Ramsey’s Mill to Cross Creek, thence to the upper 
part of Randolph County, thence to Colston’s old field near the Pedee in South 
Carolina, thence to a point below on that river where a junction was formed 
with General [GRIFFITH] RUTHERFORD, thence to Lynch’s Creek where they joined 
the division under Major General HORATIO GATES and Count [BARON] DE KALB and 
thence with that division by Ramsour’s or Rugeley’s Mill and Clairmont to the 
old plain near Camden, whence they arrived on the 15th August.”
“…About two o’clock a.m. of the 16th, the skirmishing commenced betwixt the 
pickets of GATES’ army and the British under the Earl of CORNWALLIS. The Battle 
commenced so soon after the dawn that affiant had but little opportunity of 
observing the ground or the positions of the different corps. He thinks the 
American artillery was placed near the center of General GATES forces and near 
to that affiant and his company. He well remembers that one of the causes of 
the retreat of the troops immediately next to him and of his own company was 
the circumstances of Colonel TARLETON, as was said, having carried the 
artillery and turned it upon the Americans. This was a three months tour, which 
had expired some three or four days prior to the Battle of Camden [per Heitman, 
August 16, 1780], but petitioner’s company were retained until after that 
battle and its disasters prevented the giving of discharges.”
“SOLOMON GERON of Rowan County, Tennessee, of the age of 71…declares that 
EZEKIEL CRAFT…is well-known to him. That said CRAFT was with affiant in the 
tour above named, beginning about May 1780 in ROBERT MCLAIN’s company and 
CASWELL’s brigade. That he knows said CRAFT was with affiant in the marching 
stated by him above stated in Battle of Camden.”

From DAVID EIRWIN:
	“That he was drafted into the army of the United States in the summer 
of the year of the Battle of Camden [1780] and served as a private in the 
company of North Carolina militia commanded by Captain ROBERT MCLAIN, 
Lieutenant JAMES CRABTREE, other officers names belonging to the company not 
now recollected. The declarant, at the time he entered the service, resided in 
the lower part of Guilford County in the state aforesaid. He was drafted for 
three months. His company assembled at the time aforesaid near the High Hills 
of Santee River. They ranged through the country until the Battle of Camden, 
upon different scouting expeditions.”
“That about one week previous to that engagement his company joined the main 
army commanded by General GATES near their place of rendezvous, at the High 
Hills of the Santee River, and with his company, incorporated with the main 
army, moved towards Camden. That the engagement began about 10 o’clock in the 
night previous to the main engagement. That in the morning his Company was 
brought to act in the battle [per Heitman, August 16, 1780]. He had 40 
cartridges, and fired about 20 rounds before the militia broke ground. That out 
of his company, one man was killed and two wounded.”
“From extreme old age and subsequent lapse of memory, he is unable to remember 
the names of any other of the regular as well as the militia officers with whom 
he was acquainted, and being illiterate, has since these events been unable to 
refresh his memory by reading, and for many years past has been deprived of the 
opportunity of conversing with those who knew anything of these events that 
transpired at the times referred to and to which he shall have occasion to 
mention.”
	“From the before described engagement, he returned to his father’s in 
Guilford County, where he stayed a few days, when he received orders to meet 
with his company at Bell’s Mill, 10 miles from his father’s residence, where 
they assembled, and in a short time thereafter, he was with the rest of his 
company, was discharged by his captain, and received a written discharge from 
him, which has long since lost, having served the term of three months. The day 
on which the before described battle took place he cannot recollect, but he 
remembers that on his return home, he subsisted on “ration ears” and that it 
must have been in August or September.”

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.


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