On June 7, 1832 Congress passed an Act specifying how Revolutionary War soldiers could apply for a pension. They were required to appear in court and give information about their service during the war. They were also required to provide proof such as a commission or discharge. If that was not available they could procure a credible witness to provide testimony as to their service.
William Miller appeared in Court in October 1833 in Ware County, Georgia and gave this statement:
State of Georgia
Ware County
On this the thirty first day of October in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty three, personally appeared in open court before the Honorable Lott? Warren, Judge of the Superior Court for the Southern District in said State, and for the county aforesaid, now sitting, William Miller, a resident of the County of Ware in said State, aged Seventy four years, who being first duly sworn according to law, doth, on his oath, make the following declaration, on order to obtain the benefits of the Act of Congress passed June seventh eighteen hundred and thirty two.
That he entered the service of the United States under the following named officers, and served as herein stated.
In or about the year seventeen hundred and seventy nine, the said William Miller volunteered under Captain Frederick Harget (afterwards colonel) in the County of Craven (after Jones) in the State of North Carolina, the Senior General Caswell being chief in command of the Militia in which he served: that he arched to the town of Wilmington, North Carolina, was stationed there about a month under the officers aforesaid, when he received a verbal discharge and returned home to the county of Craven aforesaid.
That within a few months thereafter he was drafted in the North Carolina Militia for a four month tour, in the said county of Craven, for the purpose of marching to the defenses of Charleston, South Carolina in the company under Captain Blanks in the Second Regiment of Brigadier General Con?? Brigadr. He marched through Fayetteville, North Carolina, Camden, South Carolina, and arrived on the River Santee in South Carolina, advancing to the relief of Charleston, where the Regiment aforesaid which at said River head of the capture of Charleston, South Carolina, by the British, whereupon the said Regiment instantly retreated to Cross Creek, near the River Cape Fear, Forth Carolina, when he was stationed about three months when the term expired for which he was drafted, whereupon he received a written discharge which is hereto attached.
After the British had taken Wilmington, North Carolina, General Craig of the enemy and his Army, joined and aided by the Tories, marched to Newbern in the State of North Carolina, on a plundering expedition, passed in group to and from Newbern, through the said county of Craven and the neighborhood in which the said William Miller was born, committing outrages and ___ times upon the honor and property of the citizens of North Carolina. He served as a drafted soldier four months, as required by law, as will be seen by his written discharge; and he also served three months as a volunteer, one month as first stated, and two months after his written discharge under Captain William George (Col. Harget in command) in skirmishing and scouting parties against the tories. The tories almost daily killed some of the whigs and citizens: for so doing the tories were often and severely punished by the whigs, many of them put to death. The said William Miller was present as one of the company under Captain George when a party of seven or eight tories surrendered to Captain George and complied with the law. He was never in a regular battle.
The said William Miller has the Record of his age as he ___ it from his parents, from which it appears (and he has no doubt of this fact) that he was born on the eighth day of April seventeen hundred and fifty nine, in the county of Craven (since Jones) in the State of North Carolina. From the time this birth he resided in said county until he removed to the State of Georgia between or about the year seventeen hundred eighty five and seventeen hundred and ninety in company with David Blackshear, a native of the sa e county with the said William Miller. Coming directly from North Carolina as aforesaid the said William Miller first settled in Burke County, State of Georgia, and resided ten or fifteen years in Burke County aforesaid: about twenty or twenty four years in the county of Bullock in the state last aforesaid, and upwards of Four years in the County of Ware in the State of Georgia where he now resides. The said William Miller was known from his youth by the said David Blackshear (at present General Blackshear of Laurens County, Georgia) by whom alone as any human living so far as he knows or believes, he can __ prove any of his Revolutionary services. The said William Miller served all the while as a private.
He stated that to the best of his knowledge and recollections a law was passed by the Legislature or General Assembly of North Carolina ordering a draft of Militia for the revolutionary service , in pursuance of which the said William Miller was drafted to serve a term of four months, which he completed as before mentioned, and that he was not engaged at any time of his service aforesaid in any civil ___. The other three months service was exclusively as a volunteer. He is known in his neighborhood, who can certify to his truth and veracity, to Mark Addison a clergyman and James Jones and others.
He hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension or an annuity, except the ___ and he declares that his name is not on the pension roll of any agency in any State.
Signed Wm Miller
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Occasionally I run across a reference to an occupation that I am not familiar with. The obituary of George W. Lovern in the Montgomery News (Montgomery County, Virginia) in 1928 lists George’s occupation as wreck car master. After checking out several sites on historic occupations and railroad occupations, I had no luck finding out more about this occupation. However, I finally found the answer from Kenneth Miller of the Norfolk and Western Historical Society. He explained the term as follows:
When I began researching my family history many years ago, several family stories were passed down to me. For example, I didn’t know anything about the wife of my great, great, great grandfather, Samuel Theodore Reese. The family story was that she ran away with another man when their three sons were very young. No one living even knew her name, because the family had never talked about her.
In researching your family history sometimes you are lucky enough to find a first person account describing a person or event in your family line. One of the most memorable stories I have found about a member of my family is that of the Buck Island Massacre, which was told by C.L. Hardcastle in 1892. The article was written up by John A. Wyeth and published on September 11, 1897 in Harpers Weekly.
