What's New
A lot of our new additions this month center around memorials and regimental documents.
When one considers there were tens of thousands of active Loyalists during the war, it is quite impossible that we (or anyone else) can provide detailed information on each and every one in this format. The post-war memorials themselves were only submitted by a fraction of the Loyalists, thereby limiting the number that exist. The ones we provide are really only meant to be illustrative of the types that are available, or are ones that tell an interesting story in and of themselves.
We know a lot of you out there would love to see more material on a specific person or ancestor, and we will do our best to accommodate folks. But just because of the sheer numbers we can't include everyone, so please take no offense if you do not find your ancestor here!
In that same vein though, we seek to expand the number of documents we have that relate the history of each corps. While we hope one day to provide a written history of every unit, that time is way in the future. However, it is pretty easy to follow a regiment's career through the various areas we have set up on the site.
The Regimental History section provides the best place to start. In here we put a selection of documents that show correspondence, returns, accounts, advertisements, etc. As they are arranged chronologically, one can track the progress of a regiment's (and thereby a soldier's) career, as well as see where information on the unit is available.
Military records of the 18th Century do not provide the detailed personal information that they do today, or even as much as during the 19th Century. Soldiers were mostly the responsibility of the regiment, not the government at large. The government was primarily responsible for paying, feeding and clothing soldiers. Therefore it only needed information for those purposes.
Sometimes a regiment would perhaps prepare "size rolls" which would gather height, age and nativity of each soldier. These exist primarily for the Northern Army, but not for the Army in America. The information on these rolls was helpful in preparing a deserter description for the local newspaper, should the soldier run off.
We hope you will learn something of the life and times, the daily existence if you will, of those who took up arms for the King. Enjoy!
History Section:
There has been some discussion of late about the Battle of Crooked Billet, in Pennsylvania. While we had posted something on this previously, we have added additional information in the Battles and Campaigns area.
Some time after the battle, there was an accusation of atrocity made by the Rebels against the British, specifically that the prisoners and wounded were burned alive by the British. While it appears that baggage and stores were burned by the British, none of the accounts gives any hint of cruelties perpetrated on the Rebels.
Military Section:
We have added four new regiments in the Regimental History area:
The James Island Troop of Light Dragoons. This small cavalry unit served outside of Charlestown, South Carolina between 1781 and 1782.
Mackay's/Pfister's/Leake's Corps of Royalists. One of the units raised during the Burgoyne Campaign. Francis Pfister, an old officer of the 60th Regiment, was killed at the Battle of Bennington. The regiment afterwards passed to the command of Captain Samuel Mackay and Major Robert Leake, before being drafted into the King's Royal Regiment of New York and the Loyal Rangers.
Royal Garrison Battalion. Although a Provincial unit, this corps was primarily composed of old and worn out British soldiers whose active service days were dwindling. Some Provincial officers and soldiers served in the unit, besides a few Loyalists who enlisted in it outright. The unit garrisoned the islands of Bermuda and New Providence, in addition to serving in detachment strength at Halifax, New York and Charlestown.
Loyal Ordnance Volunteers. This small unit was raised in the winter of 1779/1780 from among the members of the Royal Artillery's Civil Branch at New York City. It helped garrison the city during a time of increased risk, owing to all the rivers being frozen and the fear of Washington's army attacking.
We have also filled out some other units with more documents. They are: the Queen's American Rangers, British Legion, Royal Fencible Americans, Indian Department, West Florida Loyal Refugees, and the Suffolk and Westchester Counties of New York Militia.
Admittedly there is little rhyme or reason to how we add documents. Part of the fun of research can be the eclectic nature of it. There is still plenty more to add!
As mentioned, we have added a great number of new documents and related materials in the Claims & Memorials area. Here are the new additions, by province:
Connecticut. Elihu Crofoot, Joshua Stone.
Massachusetts. Robert Cook, John Ruggles, Adam Walker.
New Hampshire. Alexander McNaughton.
New Jersey. Added additional documents for Philip Van Cortland.
New York. Willet Carpenter, James Crawford, John Dawson, Thomas Flewelling, Alexander Fraser, Joshua Gidney, Abraham Hatfield, Jotham Hawhurst, Jabez Husted, James Irwin, Moses Knapp, Timothy Leonard, John Macomb, Jonathon Mowry, Jacob Tage/Tague.
North Carolina. Alexander Ballantine, Jacob Williams.
Pennsylvania. Joseph Brobston, Henry Magee, Gideon Vernon, Walter Willett.
Rhode Island. William Boone, James Frost.
South Carolina. George Fare.
Vermont. Roger Stevens.
Virginia. Shadrack Furman.
We're very pleased to announce we have added the rolls for the 3rd Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, c-1781 in the Muster Rolls area of the site. This gives us rolls for five of the six battalions on-line. Once we add Joseph Barton's fifth battalion, this regiment will be completely represented.
We have also added a 1783 muster of the Loyal American Regiment, commanded by Colonel Beverly Robinson.
The Courts Martial area is an increasingly popular section.
The first case we added here involves Lieutenant Nathaniel Fitzpatrick of the Queen's American Rangers. It would appear Lieutenant Fitzpatrick contracted a social disease, a not uncommon occurrence of the time. However, he apparently transmitted it to the lady friend of a fellow officer, leading to some unfortunate consequences!
We asked our good friend from the South, Mike Williams, some questions regarding the disease and its treatment. As usual, Mike has provided us with some excellent insight and analysis!
A second case involves a cavalryman, Thomas Townly of the Bucks County Light Dragoons. Corporal Townly went to trial for desertion, stealing and selling regimental stores and a horse.
The Clothing & Supplies area is always of interest to reenactors and military researchers. There is one new document here, concerning monies due from the different regiments at New York for necessaries. These were extra shirts, trousers, shoes, etc. provided by the captains for the men in their respective companies.
In the Spies & Intelligence area we have added one item from 1782 describing the start of a secret mission from the Loyal Blockhouse. This blockhouse was the jumping off point for many scouting missions from Canada late in the war.
Not everything in the war happened on dry land. The Civil Branches area contains a new account of a number of men belonging to the Engineers Department being taken prisoner on board the Alert and subsequently rescued by his Majesty's ship Experiment.
Genealogy Section:
We have added two new memorials/petitions to the Post-War Settlement area, both for land in Nova Scotia. These were for John Wisdom and Captain John McGill, the latter on behalf of himself and several other officers of the Queen's American Rangers. We have also added a numerical return of officers and men of that regiment who were desirous of settling in Nova Scotia.
The Female Ancestors area has a wonderful new picture of the children of Catherine and Philip Van Cortland, thanks to Barrie Clifford, their 4th great-grandson. While we suspect this painting may have been done from memory some time after the fact, it is still a fascinating study of the Van Cortland children.
Reenacting Section:
Todd's group, the 4th Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, took part in a small show in Clinton, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, in the beginning of August. The event included the 2nd New Jersey Regiment of the Continental Line and some friends from the 22nd Regiment of Foot, as well as the New Jersey Volunteers.
Hundreds of people visited over the two days, the beautiful weather not hurting in the least. We have some photos up in the Photo Gallery of this event to share with everyone.
&c &c &c Section:
We have finally gotten around to starting the task of breaking our Internet Links area into more logical groupings. There is still a long way to go and a great many links to add, but we have separated out the sites dealing with Living History and will continue to create new categories of links in the coming months.
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Announcements
Niagara Loyalist
We are pleased to announce that we have been featured in the November-December issue of Niagara Loyalist, a publication of the Colonel John Butler Branch of the United Empire Loyalists Association of Canada, which is edited by Joyce Stevens.
A couple of months ago, Joyce approached us to see if we would be willing to be interviewed for the newsletter, and neither of us being the shy type, we of course said yes! Joyce asked us a series of questions concerning the site and our own Loyalist ancestry.
In fact, we were so talkative that the interview is being split over two issues. The conclusion will appear in the January-February 2001 issue.
The November-December issue also features the text of Todd's chat lecture on deserters from the Continental army, which is available to our chat subscribers online at http://www.egroups.com/group/TOLIFALS-Chat.
Banastre Tarleton Revisited
Imagine our surprise when we viewed the Guestbook one day and found that it had been signed by none other than Banastre Tarleton! He mentioned that he found the material on the British Legion most interesting...
Of course we contacted him, half expecting to discover that the signature was a good-natured joke. As it turns out, though, there really is a modern day Banastre, and he is a rock musician and seemingly a very nice fellow. Nan is now eagerly awaiting the arrival of her very own Banastre Tarleton tee-shirt.
You can view Banastre's website (and sample his music) at http://www.banastre.com/.
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