Pension Application of Oliver Porter S32452
Transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris
State of Georgia, Greene County
On this the 27 day of November Eighteen hundred and thirty three personally appeared before the Honorable the Inferior Court of said County Oliver Porter a resident of the county & state aforesaid aged seventy years, who first being duly sworn according Law, doth on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the provision made by the act of congress passed June the seventh 1832. That he entered the service of the United States in the Militia of the State of Virginia on the 25 of May 1780, that he was drafted for the term of five months, commanded by Capt Jesse Owens rendezvous’d at Hillsboro [Hillsborough] North
Carolina, the whole detachment was put into Reg’ts commanded by Gen’l Stephens [sic: Edward
Stevens], he does not recollect the name of the Commander of the Reg’t that he served in, but thinks that it was in the 4 Reg’t [commanded by Col. James Lucas]; marched from thence to Rudgelys Mills [sic: Rugeley’s Mill], twelve miles from Camden South Carolina and there joined Gen’l. [Horatio] Gates on the 15 August 1780. On the 16 was in Gen’l. Gates’s defeat [Battle of Camden] – the remnant of our Reg’t. after the Defeat rendezvoused again at Hillsboro. from thence marched to Guilford Court House, under the command of Col. [Ralph] Faulkner, and was discharged on the 25 Oct’r 1780, if any written discharge was given it has been lost or mislaid. Also volunteered in the Militia of the State of Virginia on the 15 of February 1781, and joined Gen Greenes [Nathanael Greene’s] army near Dexey [sic: Dix’s] Ferry on Dan River, under the command of Capt Andrew Baker 1 Leut. Joseph Park [Joseph Parks] 2 Leut. Joseph Reed [Joseph Read]; was detached from Gen’l. Greene’s head quarters under the command of Col. Otho Williams of the Continental line of light infantry, and was in a skirmish at Whitsells mills on the reedy fork of Haw River with the main body of Lord Cornwallis’s army on the 7 [?] March 1781 [Wetzel’s Mill, 6 Mar 1781]. Also was at the storming of a British Picket guard previous to the engagement at Whitsell’s mill under the command of Capt Kirkwood of the Maryland continental line [see note below], and was discharged some three or four days before the 15th March 1781 [date of the Battle of Guilford Courthouse], after a service of one month. That some time in the summer of this year (the date he does not recollect) he volunteered & served two days in guarding military stores from Prince Edward county to New London in Bedford (now Campbell County) to prevent them from falling into the hands of the enemy. Also volunteered & marched to (in the same year he does not recollect the date) to Petersburg Va. under the command of Capt Williamson Bird & after a service of fifteen days was discharged without any occurrence worthy of notice, with the exception of takeing a deserter and delivering him to Barron Steuben [Baron von Steuben] at Chesterfield Ct. House.
Also entered the service as a substitute for a man by the name of Johnson in the year
1781, about the Twentieth of September under the immediate command of Capt. Nath’l.
Cunningham of Gen [Robert] Lawsons Brigade of Virginia Militia, was at the Seige of York [28 Sep - 19 Oct 1781], & capture of L’d. Cornwallis on the 19 day of October 1781, & was discharged on the 20 October, making a service of Thirty days as near as this applicant recollects. This applicant further states that there is no liveing testimoney in this state by which he can substantiate the above statement of facts. He hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension or annuity except the present and declares that his name is not on the pension roll of the agency of any state.
[signed] O Porter
Questions by the Court
1 Where and what year were you born?
Answer – In the state of Virginia, Prince Edward County in the year 1763.
2 Have you any record of your age, & if so where is it?
Answer – I have none but have seen it as above.
3 Where were you liveing when called into the service, where have you lived since the rd
revolutionary war & where do you now live?
Answer – I lived at the time of my service in Prince Edward County Virginia, & have resided in Greene County State of Georgia ever since 1783.
4 How were you called into service were you drafted, Did you volunteer, or were you a th
substitute?
Answer – I was drafted & volunteered as set forth in the forgoing narative I was a substitute in the service at the siege of York for a man by the name of Johnson 5 State the names of some of the regeler officers who were with the troops where you served, such Continental & Militia Regiments as you can recollect, and the general circumstances of your service?
Answer – I have seen Gen’ls. Greene, Washington, LaFayette, De Kalb, Gates, Col’s Smalwood [sic: William Smallwood] & [John Eager] Howard & others of the Continental line Col’s. [Henry] Lee & [William] Washington of Light Dragoons.
6 Did you ever receive a discharge from the service, & if so by whom was it given, & what has become of it?
Answer – If I ever received a discharge for any of these tours before stated, they have long since been lost, destroyed, or mislaid.
Sworn to & subscribed in open Court the day & year above written
[signed] O Porter
NOTE: The “storming of a British Picket guard” occurred on Alamance River early on 7 Mar 1781, according to Patrick O’Kelley’s Nothing but Blood and Slaughter, Vol. 3. Capt. Robert Kirkwood led a nighttime raid against the camp of Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton’s Legion.
https://revwarapps.org/s32452.pdf
