WILKES COUNTY, NC - BIOGRAPHIES - William Harris ca. 1750-1848 ----¤¤¤¤---- excerpts from "The Harris Family of Wilkes County' William Harris ca. 1750-1848 William Harris was entering his 70s and probably could no longer continue the farming livelihood that had sustained him for the 40 years since he had arrived in North Carolina from central Virginia when he stepped forward to clain a new Revolutionary War pension in 1919. That humble action, oddly enough, is the most prominent event in his life that has endured through time. To claim his pension, the former Continental Army private, who served as a guard for Gen. George Washington for nearly three years, twice traveled from his home on the Big Elkin Creek in Wilkes County, where he had settled by 1815, to the frontier settlement of Wilkesboro in 1819 and in 1820. William Harris appeared before a government agent and told his story. We do not have his story from his own pen, since he was illiterate and attested to his affidavits with an "X." But we do have his story. It’s told in Revolutionary War pension file No. S41616, which found its way to the National Achieves in Washington, D.C., where William Harris' sworn testimonies were preserved for posterity, long after William himself was gone, his cabin dissolved into history, the life he knew vanished. The pension file gives tantalizing hints to the extraordinary life lived by this man. It says William Harris enlisted in the 10th Virginia Regiment in Capt. John Gillison's company in Culpeper County, Va., on January 17, 1776, wrote A.D. Murphy in an affidavit taken from Harris on Sept. 13, 1819. William Harris appeared before Murphy and told his story under oath. During the spring prior to William Harris’ enlistment, fighting had broken out between Massachusetts militiamen and the British army stationed in Boston. Talk by colonists of secession from the British Empire was heated, and a crisis on a scale never known before in the colonies had men like William Harris on edge and facing an uncertain future. We do not know what a 26-year-old William Harris, living in Virginia, thought as the Revolutionary War erupted far to the north in Massassachusetts in 1775, whether he feared the coming storm or rather felt patriotic exuberance in the face of the coming conflict. His obituary, written nearly three-quarters of a century later from the remembrances of a very old veteran soldier, claims a surge of colonial patriotism. "As soon as the unjust oppression of British tyranny was felt by the honest yeomanry of our Colonies," said his obituary, published in “The Carolina Watchman” newspaper Jan. 11, 1849 in Salisbury, N.C., William's "patriotism was aroused, and he joined an almost hopeless band of Americans to secure the common liberties of his country, and to protect his own household goods.” In early 1776, the call went out from Massachusetts to the other colonies to send troops to join the militiamen encamped outside Boston. William Harris answered the call. History tells us that John Gillison, from Caroline County and who appears to have moved to Culpeper County, Va., sometime after his brother, James, died, was one of a number of men in central Virginia who convinced their neighbors to join militia companies that they took upon themselves to organize, according to "Historic Culpeper," published by the Culpeper (Va.) Historical Society in 1974. After Virginia Colonial Gov. Patrick Henry, in his famous “Give me liberty, or give me death” speech, call for militia, 16 Virginia districts were assigned to raise and train a battalion of men "to march at a minute's notice." Responding were 150 men from Culpeper County alone, "Historic Culpeper" said, forming the celebrated Culpeper Minutemen. On July 17, 1775, a three-county militia representing Culpeper, Fauquier and Orange counties organized under a large oak tree in "Clayton's old field," later known as Catalpa Farm, just west of Culpeper. The Virginia minutemen of 1775 formed the core of the army companies that would be sent to the colony to Massachusetts to oppose the British the next year. William Harris was recorded as No. 39 in the “Culpeper Classes,” 106 men who enlisted or were drafted by order of the state legislature, according to Auditor of Public Accounts Inventory, published in 1992 in Richmond, Va. William likely was from Negro Run, a tributary of the Rappahanock River in northern Culpeper County. Following his enlistment in January 1776 in Culpeper, William Harris "continued to serve as one of General George Washington's life guard (sic) in the service of this United States until the 18th day of January A.D. 1779," his pension affidavit said. Life guard was a term used for the guards appointed to special duty under the commander-in-chief or commander-in-chiefs' special guards. In his first pension application, William Harris said he was “immediately” transferred from his 10th Virginia Regiment to the life guards, hinting that William arrived in Boston about March 1776. During his three-year army enlistment, William Harris traveled with the father of our country and undoubtedly had a front-row seat to all the major actions of the Revolutionary War. From Boston to New York to Valley Forge and finally to New Jersey and the evacuation of the British from the North, William Harris was an eyewitness. A second affidavit, given by William Harris a little more than a year after his first one, on Oct. 31, 1820, gives more clues to the turn of events that thrust William Harris into the heart of early American history. From his Virginia regiment, William Harris joined Washington's guards commanded by a Major Gibbs of New England, the later affidavit said. Washington, a Virginian himself, perhaps drew comfort and satisfaction from a soldier or a detachment of militiamen from his home colony. “It would be quite an honor to be in the lifeguard and it is only natural that George Washington’s ‘homeboys’ from Virginia would dominate it,” according to a Mt. Vernon, Va., historian. Also, Culpeper was close to the general’s heart. At age 17, one of Washington’s first jobs was as a surveyor in Culpeper County, according to the Culpeper Museum of History. During the war, William Harris “was in several skirmishes,” he stated in his second pension affidavit, “and in the Battle fought at Monmouth Courthouse in New Jersey," the final battle in the North during the Revolutionary War. At an earlier time, the affidavit added, William Harris "was at the Battle of Brandywine," an inglorious defeat of Washington's forces as the Continentals failed to stop a British offensive that succeeded in invading and occupying Philadelphia for a time. During the battle, on Sept. 11, 1777, William Harris was "not engaged in it," the affidavit said, "being attached as one of the guards to the general's baggage waggons (sic)." Following Monmouth, fought June 28, 1778, William Harris was discharged shortly after the following New Year at Morristown, N.J., finally able to return home. But that was not the end of his service, or his war adventures. An affidavit goes on to say that after William Harris left the continental service, with war still raging and the colonies’ fortunes still in doubt, he returned to the fighting in 1781 when, with the Southern theater of war moving through the Carolinas and with British army commander Cornwallis approaching the state, Virginia held a military draft, drawing men from its militias. Culpeper County was assigned to draft 106 men as part of a statewide total of three thousand, according to John Blankenbaker in “A List of The Classes in Culpeper County for January 1781 for Recruiting this State's Quota of Troops to serve in the Continental Army.” Finally, according to a pension affidavit, William Harris said he was on hand at what was called "the seige of Little York," a reference to the battle at Yorktown, Va., that ended the war. William Harris said he was at "the capture of Lord Cornwallis," a description of the final surrender by the British that ended the fighting. Since an 1818 pension law provided only for indigent veterans, William appeared to have taken pains to express in his 1820 pension application how poor he was. After the law was rewritten in 1820, many pensions were denied because the veterans were not indigent. William, apparently, was in no danger of losing his pension. In his 1820 pension application ­ more detailed and lengthy than the 1819 application ­ William lists his net worth as only $154, including 40 acres valued at $1 per acre, a modest farm at the time. He said his age limited him to farming “in a small way.” His unnamed son, probably James is “able to do any farming work” though a “not able” probably was intended. And while daughter Mary is 30 and “stays with him but is free from his control,” meaning William is arguing to not count his daughter against him in his plea for a government pension. William lists a modest herd of 16 swine, 10 cows and eight sheep. His barn only has three hoes, two plows, two axes and two mattocks. And William declares in the application that he has not “discharged of my property or any part thereof with intent thereby so to diminish it,” emphasizing he is indeed indigent. As a result of his 1819 application, William Harris was awarded a pension of $8 a month. He was one of 20,485 veterans, according to Austin, who got pensions. After he reapplied in 1820, the dollar amount awarded unfortunately is unreadable on the application. However, he must have made an impression. A lump sum for some arrearage is readable and totaled $93.03, undoubtedly a healthy sum at the time for the 70-year-old. William Harris’ two pension applications supply almost all that is known about the man. His life was a fascinating one. Stephen Harris 1721 Pleasant Ridge Road State Road, NC 28676 ___________________________________________________________________ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Stephen Harris carolinastephen@iwon.com ___________________________________________________________________