Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application File S. 30629, for James Patten, Pennsylvania
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(3-1776)
SERVICE
Penn.
CONTENTS
Patten, James.
Patton or
NUMBER
S. 30629
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James Patten Ser 
Declaration - 1833
27.503 (lined out)
get case
James Patterson
{illegible}
from 1777 private
6 for month
$21.66
100
only allow as a past
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State of Kentucky
Greenup County

On this 2nd day of September 1833 personally appeared in open court before the county court in and for the county of Greenup aforesaid in the said state of Kentucky, James Patten (illegible), a resident in the said county of Greenup in said state of Kentucky, aged eighty-two years on the first day of December, which was in the year 1832 who being first duly sworn according to law doth on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the provisions made by the act of Congress passed June 7th 1832.

That in July 1777 he entered the service of the United States as a private soldier in the militia of Pennsylvania (of which state he was then a resident and had been from his nativity having been born in that state) under the command of Capt. John Williams as a drafted militia man.  He rendezvoused with the troops at Carlisle and was marched to Marcus Hook, a little town below Philadelphia on the Delaware River. 

At this point there was a call for men to volunteer from the ranks of the infantry as riflemen, he volunteered and joined a rifle company commanded by Capt. Crawford -- Dunlap was the colonel of this rifle regt.  He was then marched in this rifle regt. to Wilmington in Delaware and was there stationed in the Brandywine Mills about one mile from Wilmington.  Genl. Maxwell ad the command of this corps of the militia.  That while the troops to which he belonged were so quartered in the Mills parties were continually kept out upon the scout watching the movement of the British preventing them as far as possible from foraging in the country.  

The troops to which this applicant belonged 
had frequent skirmishes with the British and amongst the rest a considerable fight at a place called Iron Hill in which this applicant was engaged.  The British succeeded in this conflict driving the American troops and the latter retreated to a place called Christiana a few miles from Iron Hill.  The British had just before that time landed near the head of Elk.  After that skirmish at Iron Hill this applicant with the corps to which he belonged was marched to Chadds Ford
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on the Brandywine and there encamped all night. On the next day the battle of Brandywine was fought in which this applicant participated.  The corps to which this applicant belonged assisted at this battle in covering the retreat of Genl. Wayne and aided in drawing his cannons up a hill or steps to the (illegible) of that place. 

After the battle of Brandywine and during the same night they retreated to Chester below Phila.  The next day they marched from Chester to Phila.  This applicant has but an indistinct recollection of the places to which they next marched but in a few days after the battle of Brandywine he was in an engagement with the British at a place near the White Horse Tavern between Phila. and Lancaster.  But owing to a tremendous rain that fell that day, the small arms were out of order and but little execution was done on either side.  The American troops however retreated to a place the name of which he has forgotten but a few days afterward this applicant was in another conflict with the British at Schuylkill where the British army crossed on their way to Phila.  The American troops again retreated before the British army and the corps to which this applicant belonged retired to a place called "The Trapps"(?), situate either in the county of Bucks or Berks in the state of Pennsylvania.  

Here they lay for a few days when they were marched to Germantown where he was in a severe battle.  The corps to which he belonged again retreated to "The Trapps"(?) and where they remained until he was duly discharged which he thinks was about the last of October 1777 and during all this time he served as a private militia soldier.   He thinks that it was early as the 15th of July that he entered the service as above stated, that therefore his services during this tour exceed three months all of which service he performed as a volunteer rifleman from the time he did so volunteer as above stated.  

He states that he was during this term of service in several other skirmishes but the names of the places at which he was so engaged or the particular events he does not remember except to his great regret the Americans were on those occasions unsuccessful. He remembers that while he was on this campaign. Genl. Wayne was defeated at Paoli and on the same
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night that Wayne was defeated the corps to which this applicant belonged crossed the Schuylkill a few miles from the place here Genl. Wayne was and escaped in some old fields.  He knew but few of the regular officers because he was generally kept out upon the wings and in stations distinct from the regular troops.  

He knew Genl. Washington when he saw him.  He also knew Genl. Wayne when he saw him and perhaps some others.  He knew a Genl. Armstrong but this applicant thinks he commanded in the militia.  He remembers that before the troops marched to Germantown and fought the battle there that Genl. Armstrong came to "The Trapp" and made a speech to the troops requesting the militia to volunteer a little longer as they had now some experience and as more confidence could be placed in them than in raw troops; but where they were going or what particular service he desired them to perform he did not at that time disclose. In accordance with the request of Genl. Armstrong this applicant remained in the service although the term for which he had originally entered the said service had then expired or was about expiring, and he then was marched to Germantown and was in the battle at that place as before stated.

That in April 1778 he again entered the service of the united Staes as a drafted militia man under the command of the same Capt. John Williams and served what was called a two month tour although it cost him about three months absence from home.  He served the whole of this tour entirely under Capt. Williams as a private soldier in the militia.  Hauning(?) was the lieut. of this company.  The major who commanded the battalion was Mc Hatton or Mc Illhatton or some such name.  He was usually called in the army by the name of (illegible) Mack.  This applicant served his tour also wholly as a private soldier.  

That when he joined the troops at this time they rendezvoused at Brown's Mills in Kishacoquillas Big Valley and was then marched to Big Stow Valey called then the Standing Stow Valley now in Huntington County, Pa. against the Indians.  Here the troops to which he belonged built a stockade fort around the house of McCormack and built a number of cabins within the fort for families to live in.  It was during this tour in no actual battle with the Indians although they had occasional skirmishes
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with small parties of them in which several persons were killed.  In the month of July 1777 he was again regularly discharged and returned home after an absence of near three months. 

Upon his return home from this last campaign this applicant was elected ensign in the militia company to which he belonged at home; and in the summer of 1779 and he thinks in August of that year, he was drafted to serve what was called a two month tour as ensign; and as ensign the (illegible) to wit in the month of August 1779 entered the service of the United States in the militia of Pennsylvania under Capt. (illegible).  Col. John Purdy commanded the regt. to which he then belonged at home and caused the drafts enrollments (illegible) of the troops detached from this reg. for actual service.   This applicant rendezvoused at Brown's Mills in the same Kishacoquillas Big Valley marched from there to a place called Potter's Fort in Penn's Valley on the waters of the Susquehanna.  The county not known, but in the state of Pennsylvania.  At this fort he served the whole of this tour in the capacity of ensign in the militia against the Indians.  He was during this tour employed in commanding squads of new (illegible) scouting and spying expeditions and at the same time he did the additional duty of carrying (illegible) from Potter's Fort to another fort in the same valley about sixteen miles distant which was commanded by Capt. James Fisher, but the name of the fort he cannot now remember.  He had his horse entered in the service and rode him on these (illegible).  He continued to serve the whole of this tour and received a discharge and then returned home at the end of near three months from the time of his leaving home. 

This applicant was born in Pennsylvania between Carlisle and Shippensburg at a place called the Big Spring and during all the time of the several services mentioned in this declaration from first to last he resided in Tuscarora Valley, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania.  He states he has long since wholly lost all written or documentary evidence of his said services and of his discharges never having supposed they would or could be material for time in life.  He regarded them as useless papers took no
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care of them and he knows not what has become of them.  

That he knows of no person within this state by whom he can prove his said services or any part of them.  That when he made his former declaration in the circuit court of this county at the last October term whereof he supposed he could prove a part of his services by Capt. James Fisher who then lived as he understood between Lexington and Georgetown in this state if he could have been procured to attend but since that time he has been informed that the said Fisher is dead.

That this applicant now lives in this county of Greenup and has so resided in this county for the last sixteen or seventeen years.  He owns no land, is very poor, works hard considering his age and infirmities, has great difficulty to subsist himself and wife which constitutes his family.  

That he known to the Rev. Charles Phillips a clergyman of the Presbyterian order, to the Rev. John Young, a clergyman of the Baptist order and to the Rev. John Waring, a clergyman of the Methodist order, all residents in said county and to John Culver and Clement H. Waring, esq. and many others of his neighbors, citizen of said county of Greenup.

He hereby relinquishes every other claim whatever to a pension except the present and declares that his name is not on the pension roll of the agency of any state whatever.  He states that he perceives his claim upon his declaration made at the last October term of this circuit court for this county and was rejected solely upon the grounds that his length of his service and his grade in the service was not stated so explicitly as to enable the War Department to determine with precision to what amount of pension he was entitled.  He now states by way of explanation on the first of these points of objection that his memory will not enable him to state precise dates and having no documentary evidence to refer to nor any of these with whom he served in his neighborhood with whom to converse, he has no means left of refreshing his memory as to dates.  He knows however that he
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was called upon by regular drafts to serve in the militia of Pennsylvania in the service of the U. S. three several tours of two months each and that he served the whole of these tours to their full extent in manner and at times above set forth and that in addition whereto he volunteered at the request of Genl. Armstrong, as above stated to remain in the service for a period beyond the term for which at that time he was drafted of one month. and that he is therefore entitled to a credit with the Department for at least six  months actual service and if because the dates have to faded from his memory as to prevent his stating them with precision the Department does not feel at liberty to allow him for more than six months service. he hopes they will allow him for that as it is out of his power to give to the Department any fuller or more precise statement as to the times of his service than is given above. 

In regard to the second point of objection he states that during the whole of the first two tours of his service as above set forth he was a private soldier and during the whole of the third tour he was an ensign.  Should the Department find insurmountable difficulties in equalizing these grades so as to determine the amount of pension to which he is entitled, then he desires that they regard him for the purposes of the pension as a private soldier only during the whole of his said services and award him a pension upon that grade alone.  
Signed:  James Patten
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State of Kentucky
Greenup County

We, Charles Philips, a clergyman residing in the county of Greenup aforesaid and Clement H. Waring, residing the same county hereby certify that we are well acquainted with James Patten who has subscribed and sworn to the above declaration, that we believe him to be upwards of eighty years of age, that he is reputed and believed in the neighborhood where he resides to have been a soldier of the Revolution and that we concur in that opinion.

Signed:  Charles Philips, C. H Warning

Sworn and subscribed the day and year aforesaid.
Attest. Signed A.W. G. Nichols, Clerk

And the said court do hereby declare their opinion, after the investigation of the matter, and after putting the interrogatories prescribed by the War Department, that the above named applicant was a Revolutionary soldier and served as he states.  And the court further certifies that it appears to them that Charles Philips, who has signed the preceding certificate, is a clergyman resident in the county of Greenup and state of Kentucky aforesaid and that C.H. Waring who has also signed the same, is a resident in said county and state and is a credible person and that their statement is entitled to credit.
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BRIEF in the case of James Patterson
County of Greenup in the State of Kentucky
(Act 7th June, 1832)

1.  Was the declaration made before a Court or Judge?   Court

2. If before a Judge, does it appear that the applicant is disabled by bodily infirmity? 
   No answer.

3.  How old is he?   82 years

4.  State his service, as directed in the form annexed.
Table
Columns:
Col R1:  Period, Duration of Service, Rank, Names of General and Field Officers under whom he served.
Col R2:  , Years, Months, Days, As a, Gen.
Rows:
R1: 1777, , private, Gen Wayne, Gen Washington, Capt.  Jno Williams
R2: rifle company, , private, Capt. Crawford, Col. Dunlap, Colonel Maxwell
R3: 1778, - 2 -, private, Capt. Williams, Major Hatton
R4:  1779, - 2-, ensign, Cap McAlister, Col. J Purdy

5.  In what battles was he engaged?  Iron Hill, Brandywine, White Horse, Schuylhill

6. Where did he reside when he entered the service?  Cumberland County Penn

7. In his statement supported by living witnesses, by documentary proof, by traditionary evidence, by incidental evidence, or by the rolls?  Traditionary

8. Are the papers defective as to form or authentication?  and if so, in what respect?  Correct

Certify that the foregoing statement and the answers agree with the evidence in the case above mentioned.

Rich'd K Watts (signature)
Examining Clerk