Analysis:John Buchanan

Contents 1 Background 2 John Buchanan of Germantown 3 Major John Buchanan of Cumberland		Buchanan Tapestry Register Data Notebooks Analysis Graphics Bibliography Index
	……………………..The Tapestry Families Old Chester OldAugusta Germanna New River SWVP Cumberland Carolina Cradle The Smokies Old Kentucky

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Background

This article provides a working analysis of issues for John Buchanan of Southwest Virginia. There are two main "John Buchanan's" of interest:

• Person:John Buchanan (72) son of James Buchanan and Martha Allison, believed to have settled in Locust Cove Creek
• Person:John Buchanan (75) son of Samuel Buchanan and Martha Edmiston, believed to have settled between Middle and South Forks of the Holston.

These John Buchanan's can be confused with Col John Buchanan of Augusta County and the Surveyor John Buchanan, aka "ye Little". Both figure prominently in the records of Southeast Virginia, but are probably not related to the Buchanan lines that actually settled in Old Washington County.

There are two main issues of interest.

• First, do either of these John Buchanan's correspond to the John Buchanan who served in the 7th Virginia Regiment of the continental Line, dying of wounds received at Germantown in 1777.
• Second, did either of these John Buchanan's move to the Cumberland settlements, and correspond to Major John Buchanan who settled in Davidson County

John Buchanan of Germantown

Source:Summers, 1903 tells us that

..by an act of the General Asseumbly of Virginia adopted in October 1776, a requisition of seventy four men was made upon the authorities of Fincastle county, to be officer by a captain appointed by the Governor.....The Officers of the company organized in Fincastle county fo the contineal service in the year 1776 cannot be ascertained, save in one instance.John Buchanan was lieutenant of this company at its organization, and was alieutenant in the Seventh regiment in the fall of the same year, and remained in the service until killed in the year 1777"

Summers is saying that a John Buchanan of Fincastle County was among the 74 men who were drafted into the Seventh Regiment from Fincastle County. Presumably ths would have been either person:John Buchanan (72) or person:John Buchanan (72), or perhaps some other John Buchanan of whom we know nothing else. What he based his statement upon is unknown, but he apparently found no local records relating to the men. Most likely he located a unit service record of some sort. The Seventh Regiment of the Virginia Continental Line fought at both Brandywine and at Germantown in 1777, and it seems likely that it was in one or the other of these two engagements that John Buchanan received his mortal wounds. Whether the John Buchanan who was mortally wounded in 1777 while serving in the Seventh Regiment is John Buchanan of Fincastle County, is not obvious. The same act that recruited men from Fincastle also recruited men from a number of other counties, and John Buchanan could have come from any of them. Absent Summers explanation of what his statement was based on, we have no particular reason to think that the mortally wounded John Buchanan came from Fincastle.

Major John Buchanan of Cumberland