Orange-Guilford County NcArchives Military Records.....Karr [Kerr], James 1819 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 May 23, 2006, 4:03 am Pension Application Of James Karr [Kerr], Pension Application of James Karr [Kerr], Natl Archives Microseries M804, Roll 1456, Application #W9093 Logan County, KY, 1819: “James Karr declares and state that in the year 1775, he enlisted as a sergeant in the regular army of the United States for the term of six months. That he enlisted in the state of North Carolina where he then lived and into the company of Captain George Davidson, belonging, as well as he recollects, to the 2nd North Carolina regiment commanded by Colonel Alexander Martin. That in that company and regiment, he served faithfully the term of his enlistment, and one month longer as a sergeant major. That he was afterwards, and sometime in the year 1776, appointed and commissioned first lieutenant in Captain Cole’s company belonging to the 4th regiment commanded by Colonel Thomas Polk, and in the said last mentioned company and regiment, served seven months as first lieutenant. That at the expiration of the last mentioned period, he was promoted to a captaincy in the said 4th regiment, and in that capacity served therein for the further term of eight months. “The said Kerr also states that in the course of his said service, he was in six engagements with the public enemy and received two slight wounds. He also declares that all the services aforesaid were rendered during the Revolutionary War of the United States, and that during all the periods aforesaid, he served in the capacities and stations aforesaid in the Army of the United States upon the Continental establishment and against the public enemies of the United States. He also declares that he does not remember what has become of his discharge from the services as a sergeant. He further declares that upon his resignation and leaving the army he deposited his commissions both as captain and lieutenant with his Colonel Thomas Polk, and that it is now out of his power to obtain them, if they exist, which he thinks very improbable…” Sept. 30, 1818 Davidson County, Tennessee Howell Tatum: “I certify that the first of my knowing James Kerr was as a captain in the 4th North Carolina regiment, early in the month of April, 1777, and on the first day of my knowing him, he resigned his commission as such. I was then informed and believed he had served as lieutenant and captain in that reg’t from the time it was first raised which was on the 16th of September, 1776, as well as I can recollect or within a few days of that date. This information I received from a number of officers of that regiment that were respectable men, and if their information was correct, he must have served between eleven and twelve months as an officer in the Continental line. I also understood from them that he had served a tour of enlistment of six months with a detached party of the 1st regiment under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Martin of the 2nd regiment, who was detached to preserve peace and order in back part of the state of North Carolina. I have no doubt but he performed that tour for the term mentioned and further saith not.” Sept. 24, 1848 Davidson County, Tennessee E. Gamble: “That some time in the month of August 1776, he became acquainted with Captain James Kerr of the 4th Regiment of North Carolina Continental Troops commanded by Colonel Thomas Polk, then on our march from Charleston, South Carolina to Wilmington in North Carolina. The deponent, then a lieutenant in the first regiment of infantry as aforesaid, commanded by Colonel Francis Nash, and that he the deponent did do duty under him as a subaltern as aforesaid, and that to his knowledge and belief, he, the said Kerr, did serve in the line aforesaid from the time of his appointment until he resigned, at least eighteen months, if not two years.” September 5th, 1846 Estill County, KY “I, Basil Eastes…do certify under oath that I was raised from a small boy in the state of North Carolina and lived in the County of Rowan [before Orange County, North Carolina was divided, it had been a part of Rowan County, NC] near David Kerr, and was well acquainted with his family, and also James Kerr, who was an officer in the service of his country during the Revolutionary War. The said James Kerr, in the summer of 1776 married his cousin, Mary Kerr, daughter of David Kerr…The following summer after their marriage, James Kerr left the army and came home and went to housekeeping in the neighborhood…After he went to housekeeping, he was frequently out in scouts after the British and Tories, but these tours was not long, say some times not more that two or three weeks and at other times, a month or two. The said James Kerr was considered a fine ___ soldier, always ready to defend his country and to turn out after the enemy where his country required it.” “January 11, 1915 Commissioner of Pensions Washington DC” “Dear Sir, I am in receipt of a letter from the Rev. J. C. Wagner of Mason City, Iowa, a constituent of mine, in which he says, ‘I had an ancestor named James Kerr in the Revolutionary War and who went from Pennsylvania to North Carolina when a mere child and must have enlisted from Orange County, North Carolina. I have no documentary proof of this statement, except a letter written nearly 100 years ago. I should like further record of the fact. He had two brothers, Billie and John Kerr, who were killed in that war…’” File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/orange/military/revwar/pensions/karrkerr41gmt.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ncfiles/ File size: 6.0 Kb