Guilford-Rockingham County NcArchives Military Records.....Scales, James 
Revwar - Pension 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Nancy Poquette npoq@hotmail.com June 17, 2006, 2:18 pm

Pension Application Of James Scales, Natl Archives Microseries M804, Roll 2129, Application #S7459
JAMES SCALES, a resident of Rockingham County, NC, aged 79 years:
	“He volunteered under Captain WADELL TATE, Lieutenant JOHN DAVIS and 
JEREMIAH POSTON [?BOSTON] ensign, marched through Guilford County to Salisbury, 
North Carolina, thence to Camden, South Carolina. I entered the army under 
Colonel SHEPPERD. We remained pretty much stationary during our whole term of 
service, which was four months. At the expiration of my term of service I was 
discharged and returned home.”
	“In a short time after, I volunteered with several others of my 
neighborhood as mounted men. Were enrolled as a company under Captain WEST, 
marched to South Carolina, joined the army under General SUMTER, was in the 
Battle of Hanging Rock [per Heitman’s, page 683, August 6th, 1780]. Our army 
was only about 6 or 800 strong, engaged about 1100 Tories commanded by a 
Colonel BRYANT, and about 200 British under the command of Major [the first 
letter is definitely an ‘I’, when compared to ‘J’s and ‘I’s and ‘H’s] ?ISAAK? 
who was killed in the action. I had a severe tour in that battle, had eight or 
ten deliberate fires at the enemy who were defeated with a considerable loss. 
We took 48 prisoners, all of their baggage and about 300 head of horses. Our 
time of service was not yet out, but our general said that as we had acted so 
very bravely and lived at a distance in another state, he would discharge us 
and let us go home, which was a distance of near 200 miles.”
“Some few weeks after I reached home, I was called into the service again, was 
marched to the Forks of the Yadkin against some Tories who were said to be 
embodied near that place, but when they heard of our coming they dispersed and 
in about two weeks we were permitted to return home.”
“Some time after this, I was called into service again under the command of 
Captain THOMAS COOK, were marched to what was called the Red House in Caswell 
County, NC. I continued in the service until after the Battle at Guilford 
Courthouse [per Heitman, March 15, 1781]. Was in that battle, under the command 
of Captain RICHARD VERNON, as a reconnoitering party, but I expressed a wish to 
the captain to join the infantry under Colonel JOSEPH WINSTON, which he 
permitted me to do, but the line of troops being thrown into a state of 
confusion, we did not render much signal service on that occasion. Some short 
time after this battle, I was discharged from service and returning home. I 
suppose that I was in active service between two and three months under that 
engagement.”
“After this I was engaged as one of the minute men until the close of the war, 
and always to be in readiness at a minute’s warning. I was called out for five, 
six, ten and twelve days, sometimes twenty days together and then permitted to 
return home again. These troublesome times lasted something near three years, 
in ____ ___ the county in which I think I served in the militia near half that 
time in active service.”
“On one occasion under an Act of the General Assembly of our state, [a class 
of] 8 men were permitted to furnish one man for twelve months by which they 
were exempted for one term of service. Myself and 7 others hired a man for a 
term of 12 months for ___ hundred dollars for the service and surrendering him 
up to Captain LEAK, the commanding officer…”

Amendment to his declaration:
“He volunteered as a private in the militia of North Carolina in the year 1779, 
and served in that engagement a tour of four months. The second tour was also a 
volunteer as a private soldier under Captain WEST, in General SUMTER’s brigade 
in the year 1780 and served precisely one month. The third engagement was near 
the close of the year 1780. He served as a volunteer for a term of about two 
weeks and was discharged. The fourth tour that he took was in the latter part 
of the winter or first part of the spring of1781. He entered as a volunteer in 
the state troops of North Carolina and served a tour of between two and three 
months and was discharged. With regard to the other small tours he took in the 
service of the Revolution, his recollection will not at this advanced state of 
his age, justify a particular statement, but can very safely swear that he 
served not less than eight months as a private soldier.”

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