Featured Object: Thomas Paine’s Hair

 

Appropriately, in the Morristown National Historical Park’s, Washington Headquarters Museum, Pamphlets of Protest Gallery, resides a new exhibit on the revolutionary rise of the author of one of the most recognized pamphlets of protest in the American Revolution, Thomas Paine. Paine, of course, wrote “Common Sense” among many other recognizable works. “Common Sense” is often credited with helping to raise support for the cause of liberty during the revolutionary period in America.

In conjunction with the release of our blog article on Thomas Paine and his fractured relationship with George Washington we have created a small exhibit that contains, a volume of Paine’s complied writings, as well as a lock of his actual hair, both from the park’s collection.

The hair came to us with solid provenance. In fact, it was attached to a note that explained it all.

It reads:

“This bit of Paine’s hair was exhibited at the Thomas Paine exposition in South Place Chapel, London, 1893, by Mr. Edward Smith, biographer of Cobbett, who carried Paine’s body from New Rochelle to England in 1819.

The hair was given me by my friend Edward Smith. It is kept in the original paper in-scribed “Mr. Paine’s Hair” in the handwriting of B. Tilly, Cobbetts agent- whose handwriting is well known to Edward Smith and myself.”

                                                                 Moncure D. Conway

The aforementioned William Cobbett was, according to Joy Masoff, “A harsh biographer of Thomas Paine, Cobbet later recanted and removed Paine’s remains from his New Rochelle gravesite for a grand monument in England that was never built.”[1] Cobbett, the erstwhile critic of Paine’s unfortunately ran out of money and was unable to create the monument he envisioned.

As noted in the letter the hair is affixed to, Cobbett did, in fact, carry “Paine’s body from New Rochelle to England” leading to years of speculation on where in the world various parts of Paine have ended up, including his brain, his bones and even more hair. (Read more on that here from our friends at the Institute for Thomas Paine Studies) 

The hair in the Morristown NHP collection seems to have passed through several hands before ending up in New Jersey, as evidenced, once again by all of the names mentioned in the letter. This is what we, in the museum world call provenance, or the history of the ownership of an object.

Essentially the hair passed from William Cobbett to his agent, Benjamin Tilly, to Edward Smith, to Moncure D. Conway to the park, now on display for you to see. Come check it out!

Written by:
Holly Marino, Museum Specialist

---

[1] Masoff, Joy. 2024. “The Curious History of Thomas Paine’s Biographies.” The Beacon, Vol. 18, No. 3, May, 2024.

SOLDIERS STORY: THE SOLDIER BOYS (PART 2)

 

Officially, a young man during the Revolution could be drafted or volunteer for service at the age of 16, and indeed many young men did so.  A few jumped the gun and started their military service at a younger age.  We found a few boy soldiers in our Morris County soldiers database, the youngest being only 9 years old when he enlisted in the army.  These men (and/or their widows) all applied for and received a pension for their service, which is a significant reason why their stories are preserved.  There were surely more young Morris County soldiers whose stories have been lost to time.

 This is Part 2 of our story of Morris County’s Revolutionary boy soldiers.

 Jonathan Ford Morris (DAR Ancestor A080933)

 Jonathan Ford Morris was born in Hanover Township NJ on 21 Mar 1760, and at the age of 15 he enlisted in the army as a very young Ensign serving in his father’s company.  Young men were not supposed to enlist until they were at least 16, so it is particularly astonishing that he was an under-age officer.  He was soon promoted to Lieutenant in Proctor’s Artillery of the Continental Army.  Lieutenant Morris was so young that the other soldiers he commanded did not appreciate taking orders from such a young man.  Abraham Fairchild would testify that “I will recollect the fact that many of this company whom I knew well were dissatisfied + shared their dissatisfaction plainly, that so young a man should be placed over them."

After serving in several notable battles including the Canada Expedition, Brandywine, and Monmouth, Jonathan Ford Morris resigned from the army in November 1778, shortly after his father died of a battle wound.  He re-enlisted in March 1780 in a new role that was a bit further from the action, serving as a Surgeon’s Mate reporting directly to the Army’s Surgeon General, Dr. William Shippen until June 1782.  He and Dr. Shippen remained close friends after the war, and Jonathan Ford Morris followed Shippen’s lead to become a doctor.

Jonathan Ford Morris married Margaret Smith Ewing/Ewen in 1784 and moved to Somerset County, where he set up his medical practice.  Jonathan and Margaret raised a large family of nine children.  He died in Somerset Co NJ on 13 Apr 1810 and is buried at the Old Presbyterian Graveyard in Bound Brook.

 

Jonathan Ford Morris’ signature, from his pension application

 

Morgan Young Jr. (DAR Ancestor A200275)

Born on 3 Jan 1762 in Mendham NJ, Morgan Young Jr. was about 14 years old when he joined the militia as a Private in 1776.  His father also supported the Revolution as a wagoneer.

He served in the Battle of Springfield, an expedition to Staten Island, and battles at Hackensack and Elizabethtown.  At Minisink, he guarded the “frontiers against the incursions of the Indians.”  He also served as a guard for British prisoners held at Morristown.  Historians have reported that he served as a water boy for General Washington, but he did not make any claim of this in his pension record.

He married Jane Losey of Mendham and remained in Mendham for a few years after the war before moving west.  He lived for 18 years at Red Stone Fort (currently Brownsville) PA, then moved to Ohio, living in Adams, Huron, and Sandusky Counties before moving further west to Indiana with his son Losey Young.

Morgan Young Jr. died at La Grange IN on 21 Jan 1852.  He is buried next to his wife at the United Methodist Church Cemetery in Howe IN.  His tombstone reads “Morgan Young Died Jan. 21, 1852 in His 97 Year, A Revolutioner Formerly of New Jersey"

Find-a-Grave Memorial #24741330

 

Morgan Young’s signature, from his pension testimony

 

Moses Johnson

Moses Johnson was born on 17 May 1763 at Hanover Twp NJ.  When he was 14 years old, he entered the service as a substitute in June 1777 as a Private in the Morris County militia.  He substituted for a number of men, including his uncle Jonas Ward, his father, his neighbor John Tuttle, and David Ogden. 

He first served guard duty in Newark, Acquackanonk, and Morristown at the commissions storehouse and guarding prisoners at the courthouse.  He was also a scout to track Tory movements.  Later in the war, he served on the Minisink expedition against the Indians, as well as battles at Springfield, Connecticut Farms, and Elizabethtown. 

After the Battle of Connecticut Farms, he testified that his unit was sent to Elizabethtown, where the next day they were ordered to “file off into an open field, where a firing commenced between a scouting party of the militia + British.  They were then formed into a line of battle and were ordered to march at quick step toward the woods where the firing commenced.  The party then retreated to the enemy fortifications on Elizabethtown point - the part of the militia that had engaged the scouting party of the enemy brought sixteen prisoners to our regiment.”

A few days later at the Battle of Springfield, he reported that “he was on a road north of the village about half a mile when the battle began.  After the village was set on fire the British retreated to Elizabethtown point and crossed over to Staten Island.  His Regiment with the militia + Regulars went down the same night and destroyed the fortifications a few days after the British retreated.”

Serving more guard duty in Morristown in August 1780, he reported that “there were about 52 Tories brought to Morristown and confined in the jail there.  They were tried in the Presbyterian Meeting House in that place…there were thirty five of them sentenced to die hanged – only two were hanged…”

He moved to Tioga, Onandaga, and Ontario counties in New York.  He was last known living in Angelica, Allegany County NY in 1832, where he applied for a pension.  His death and burial are unknown.

 

Moses Johnson’s signature, from his pension testimony

 

 Thomas Layton

Thomas Layton was born in Morristown NJ on 11 May 1765.  When he was young his family moved to Northumberland County PA, where he enlisted in the militia in 1777 at the tender age of only 12 or 13.

He was stationed at a settlers’ fort known as Boone’s Fort near Milton PA, serving under Captain Hawkins Boone who is said to be a cousin of Daniel Boone.  The fort was the site of a grist mill which had been fortified during the Revolution.  Being at the edge of the frontier, the area was subject to frequent attacks by the British Army, loyalists, and Native Americans aligned with the British.  Beyond this point there was no colonial government and no protection except for privately owned settlers’ forts.

The grist mill at Boone’s Fort, from https://www.legendsofamerica.com/boones-fort-pennsylvania/

 

The most notable fort in the area was Fort Freeland, the site of a bloody and pivotal incident which young Thomas Layton witnessed first-hand.  In June 1779 several families fled to Fort Freeland for protection against the frequent attacks.  Though there had been rumblings of another pending attack, 21 boys and old men defending the fort were caught by surprise when 300 British soldiers and supporters stormed Fort Freeland on 28 Jul 1779.  When Captain Boone heard of the attack, he rushed his company to defend Fort Freeland, including Thomas Layton.  Captain Boone and other officers were killed in the ensuing battle, along with about half the men.  About 20-25 men were taken to Canada as prisoners.  A few men managed to escape, but 13 of their scalps were brought back in a handkerchief.  The fort was burned, leaving the frontier largely defenseless, and most of the remaining settlers left the area until after the war.

 

Fort Freeland, from https://www.legendsofamerica.com/boones-fort-pennsylvania/

 

Thomas Layton continued his service even after the harrowing experience at Fort Freeland.  He joined the Pennsylvania state troops when he came of age, and remained in service until he was discharged in December 1783.  His service consisted primarily of guarding the inhabitants against the Native Americans, or tracking the Native Americans as an “Indian Spy.”

In his pension testimony, he described being provisioned clothing from the state of Pennsylvania when he was part of the state troops.  As a rifleman, he was provisioned a short blue coat with white trim.  Their officers wore blue coats with red facing and trim.  He also described being provisioned powder and lead, but they had to remake all of the lead balls to fit their rifles.

At one point his unit went on an expedition to “Ealtown” with 350 men.  But he reported that “the Indians had heard of our coming + had left their town.  We burnt the town + then came home…”

Thomas Layton moved to New York in 1791, then moved to Clark County IL around 1804.  He applied for and received a pension in 1833.  His final pension payment was dated 3 Sep 1841 and died some time after that, though no further details of his death or burial are known.

 

Thomas Layton’s signature, from his pension testimony

 

Sources

Find-a-Grave Memorial #244502757, Moses Johnson

Find-a-Grave Memorial #147925086, Thomas Layton

Find-a-Grave Memorial #52993873, Dr. Jonathan Ford Morris

Find-a-Grave Memorial #24741330, Morgan Young, Jr.

Buckalew, John M., The Frontier Forts Within the North and West Branches of the Susquehanna River, Vol. 1 of the Report of the Commission to Locate the Site of the Frontier Forts of Pennsylvania by Clarence M. Busch, 1896, online at http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/1pa/1picts/frontierforts/ff15.html

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/boones-fort-pennsylvania/

U.S. Revolutionary War Pension W787, Abraham Fairchild, National Archives and Records Administration, M804, Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, RG15

U.S. Revolutionary War Pension S13551, Moses Johnson, National Archives and Records Administration, M804, Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, RG15

U.S. Revolutionary War Pension S32371, Thomas Layton, National Archives and Records Administration, M804, Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, RG15

U.S. Revolutionary War Pension W135, Jonathan Ford Morris, National Archives and Records Administration, M804, Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, RG15

U.S. Revolutionary War Pension S4741, Morgan Young, National Archives and Records Administration, M804, Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, RG15

Join or Die

 

"Friday last an Express arrived here from Major Washington, with Advice, that Mr. Ward, Ensign of Capt. Trent's Company, was compelled to surrender his small Fort in the Forks of Monongahela to the French, on the 17th past;”

 

So began an article in the May 9, 1754 edition of Benjamin Franklin’s “Pennsylvania Gazette” announcing that Ensign Edward Ward of Captain William Trent’s company had surrendered his small, hastily constructed fortification in what is today Pittsburgh to a larger French force on April 17th. The major mentioned is George Washington, a young colonial officer increasingly embroiled in the British struggle with the French for control of North America. The latest struggle had been escalating for six months, when in October 1753 Virginia Lieutenant-Governor Robert Dinwiddie sent Washington to Pennsylvania to negotiate with the encroaching French. Washington returned in January empty handed. In February, to underscore the seriousness of the escalating crisis, Dinwiddie published the notes of Major Washington’s nearly 1000-mile expedition and printed them in pamphlet-form as “The Journal of Major George Washington, Sent by the Hon. Robert Dinwiddie, Esq; His Majesty's Lieutenant-Governor, and Commander in Chief of Virginia, to the Commandant of the French Forces on Ohio.” Washington’s “Journal” was subsequently published in newspapers throughout the colonies and reprinted in London several months later, where it was read with great interest by many leading figures of the British empire. 

George Washington, still just in his early twenties, was making a name for himself on both sides of the Atlantic. Now that spring was again here, Dinwiddie promoted Washington to lieutenant colonel and sent him back to Pennsylvania to deal again with the French. That is how Washington’s message describing Ensign Ward’s surrender at the Monongahela was published in the “Pennsylvania Gazette.”

These were all crucial events in Colonial American history, but what makes the article in the May 9, 1754 edition of Franklin’s newspaper even more important to us today was the inclusion of the accompanying “Join, or Die” political cartoon we see here.

It was one of the very earliest political cartoons published in American history. We say “one of the earliest” because there is a misconception in some circles that the “Join, or Die” cartoon is the very first. This is untrue. In November 1747 Benjamin Franklin himself  had published a cartoon within a political pamphlet entitled “Plain Truth” that he had written and published anonymously as “a Tradesmen of Philadelphia” describing the state of affairs as he saw them in his city and colony.

Franklin in “Join, or Die” was calling for unity amongst British colonial subjects in the struggle against the French and their Native American allies. The cartoon was reprinted in several colonial newspapers within weeks after its initial publication. The serpent itself is a compelling choice. For one thing, the snake roughly delineates the cartography of the British colonies along the Eastern Seaboard, with New England at the head and South Carolina at the tail (Georgia being excluded). That it is a dismembered snake is also of note. British subjects in North America had always been split, with most inhabitants of the different colonies believing they shared more in common with the mother country across the Atlantic than with the residents of their neighboring provinces. Many in Franklin’s time believed that a serpent cut into pieces could rejoin its parts into a cohesive whole. Franklin’s inspiration for the dismembered snake was likely an “emblem” engraved by the French graphic designer Nicolas Verien in his 1685 book “Livre Curieux et Utile Pour Les Sçavans et Artistes.” Verien’s engraving depicts a dissected snake with the accompanying text reading “Un serpent coupé en deux. Se rejoindre ou mourir.”

 

British colonists in North America joining together in unity was long a goal of Benjamin Franklin. That very spring he was helping to organize what became the Albany Congress, a convention of officials from seven colonies who from June 19—July 11, 1754 met in Albany, New York to discuss a potential plan of union. In attendance too were representatives from the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, with whom Franklin and the others were hoping to improve relations. Little came from the Albany gathering. Indeed, by the summer of 1754 even as they were meeting further military engagements between the British and French were already underway. The French and Indian War would last until 1763 with the British ultimately victorious. Benjamin Franklin’s “Join, or Die” cartoon has been repurposed continually in the nearly three centuries since its publication two hundred and seventy (270) years ago this month. Colonists used it in protest against British taxation during the 1765-66 Stamp Act crisis. Patriots throughout the American Revolutionary War created numerous variations upon Franklin’s image and accompanying text. The yellow Gadsden Flag with its coiled snake and “Don’t Tread on Me” warning is but one example.

More broadly, political cartoons became part of the American vernacular. For instance in the early 1870s William Magear Tweed, the political boss who controlled New York City’s Tammany Hall, pleaded for someone—anyone—to “Stop them damn pictures.” The “pictures” that so enraged Boss Tweed were the political cartoons created by Thomas Nast and published in “Harper’s Weekly” exposing the corruption of Tweed and his henchmen. Tweed noted that many of his constituents were themselves illiterate and thus could not read political exposés, but that there was simply no competing with the visual imagery of the cartoons that lampooned him so pithily. Benjamin Franklin had been gone for more than eighty years by this time, but he would have understood Tweed’s sentiments. As a publisher Franklin grasped the power not just of the written word, but of visual imagery itself. That is why he published “Join, or Die” in his “Pennsylvania Gazette” on May 9, 1754 to begin with. In doing so, he laid the foundation of yet another aspect of American culture and iconography.

 

Images:

Published in Williamsburg, Virginia in February 1754 the month that George Washington turned twenty-two and reprinted in London later that year, the “Journal” brought Washington to national and international prominence in the early months of the French and Indian War. William Hunter was Virginia’s official printer, publisher of the “Virginia Gazette,” and since 1753 deputy postmaster general for the British North American colonies along with Benjamin Franklin.

 

The “Join, or Die” cartoon, or “emblem” as such images were called at the time, as it appeared in Franklin’s “Pennsylvania Gazette” on May 9, 1754.

 

Nicolas Verien’s “Un serpent coupé en deux. Se rejoindre ou mourir.” appeared in the engraver’s 1685 emblem book “Livre Curieux et Utile Pour Les Sçavans et Artistes.”

 

Keith J. Muchowski is a volunteer with Morristown National Historical Park. This is the first in what will be an occasional series marking events that occurred in 1754 at the outbreak of the French and Indian War.

John Dickinson and his Letters

Follow this link to read a post in the Journal of the American Revolution about John Dickinson and his Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania.

This post is by Morristown NHP chief of cultural resources Dr. Jude Pfister.

https://allthingsliberty.com/2024/04/john-dickinson-and-his-letters/ 

                                                                                     

                                                                   John Dickinson

                                                  (1732-1808)   

             

Young Morris County Revolutionary Soldiers

A post from our colleagues at the Daughters of the American Revolution in Morristown NJ. With thanks to member Bobbi Bailey for her research and writing of this post.

https://morristownnjdar.org/

SOLDIERS STORY:  THE SOLDIER BOYS (PART 1)

Officially, a young man during the Revolution could be drafted or volunteer for service at the age of 16, and indeed many young men did so.  A few jumped the gun and started their military service at a younger age.  We found a few boy soldiers in our Morris County soldiers database, the youngest being only 9 years old when he enlisted in the army.  All of these veterans (and/or their widows) applied for and received a pension for their service, which is a significant reason why their stories are preserved.  There were surely more young Morris County soldiers whose stories have been lost to time.

Here are some of the stories of Morris County’s Revolutionary boy soldiers.  The rest of the stories will be covered in the next Soldiers Story, The Soldier Boys (Part 2).

  

John D. Piatt  

 

The youngest Revolutionary soldier found from Morris County is Private John D. Piatt, who reported that he was born 17 Mar 1766 in Raritan, Somerset County NJ.  While he grew up and served from Somerset County, we consider him a Morris County soldier because after the war he lived his adult life in Pequannock, Morris County.

 

Very early in the war in late 1775, at nine years old he began serving as a fifer under his father, Captain (later Major) Daniel Piatt, in the 1st NJ Regiment of the Continental Army.  He was marched to Brunswick upper landing, then Elizabeth, then New York, Long Island, and then to Canada.  Imagine any nine-year-old marching that far!  He testified:

 

“The regiment…proceeded toward Quebeck as far as the Three Rivers, there had an engagement with the British and retreated to Ticonderoga. And lay there till late in the fall or beginning of winter, and then returned to the State of New Jersey.”  His father and other officers were in Pennsylvania on a recruiting trip at the time “Genl Washington attacked the Hessians at Trenton.  The deponent attending the rendezvous as a musician, the company was marched to the Delaware to aid Genl Washington in the battled – was prevented crossing the river till next day after the capture of the Hessians.  From thence was marched on to Princetown – saw the dead and wounded in the college.”

 

Later in his testimony, he mentioned that his Regiment was marched “westward under Genl Sullivan,” which is most certainly the Sullivan Expedition into Pennsylvania and western New York, taking place the summer and fall of 1779.  But he was injured when he was kicked by an officer’s horse, preventing him from continuing on the march with the Regiment.

 

When the troops returned, they set up winter quarters at Jockey Hollow for the winter of 1779-1780.  When his father died of disease at Jockey Hollow in April of 1780, John continued to serve under his uncle, Colonel Jacob Piatt of Somerset County. 

 

Only a few weeks later, he fought in the Battle of Springfield in June 1780, where he reported that “Young Ogden was killed, a considerable number more killed and wounded.  [He] was in the house of Parson Caldwell, saw his wife a corps[e].

 

At one point he was taken prisoner by the British at Pluckemin, but was “released afterwards being a youth.”    

 

Altogether he served four years in the army.  Even at such a young age, these years must have been a traumatic series of experiences:  multiple battles, losing his own father, seeing many dead and wounded, and himself being wounded and taken prisoner. 

 

After the war he settled in Pequannock, Morris County, where applied for a pension in 1832.  He was granted a pension for his service.

 

John D. Piatt died on 27 Mar 1837.  He is buried at the First Reformed Church of Pompton Plains (aka the Pompton Reformed Church), in Pompton Lakes. 

  

David Hamilton Morris (DAR Ancestor A080847)

 

David Hamilton Morris was born in Hanover Township, Morris County, NJ on 11 Jul 1769.  His father, Captain David Morris, died in December 1779 on the infamous prison ship HMS Jersey.  Soon after, at eleven years old young David enlisted at Morristown as a “waiter” for Captain James Christie of Pennsylvania.  His mother gave permission at Captain Christie’s promise that he would “take charge…and act the part of a father.”  Right away, Morris was stationed at Jockey Hollow during the infamous Hard Winter of 1779-1780.  He served a 3-year enlistment in 3rd Pennsylvania Regiment, part of General Anthony Wayne’s Flying Camp. 

 

When he was discharged in early 1783, Captain Christie wrote to Morris that he could travel to Philadelphia to pick up his discharge papers.  On his way through the Wyoming Valley, he accidentally stumbled into a skirmish between people of New England and Pennsylvania on Locust Ridge, and was wounded by a musket ball that “entered below the right breast and came out at the back.” 

 

In 1786 he traveled to the “Western Country” and served more than four more years in the Northwest Indian Wars in Colonel Josiah Harmer’s regiment, part of the time as a First Sergeant. 

 

For his military service he received bounty land in Ohio, where he settled.  He died at Honey Creek, Miami Co OH on 3 Apr 1843, and is buried at Saylor Cemetery, Troy, OH.  His tombstone, which is no longer legible, once read:

 

In Memory of David H. Morris Sen. A native of New Jersey and pioneer of the Western Country.
---
He was one of the very first white men that traversed the Miami Valley, which he did as a soldier under General Harmer and as a hunter.
- - -
In his youth he was a Soldier of the Revolution.
- - -
Previous to 1800, he settled amid the Forests in this vicinity and married Eve Ann Sailor, with whom he lived happily for more than forty years.
- - -
On the third of April 1843 he departed this life in the 74th year of his age, In full Assurance of a Blissful Immortality, Leaving a large family to inherit his name and remember his many virtues.

 

 

Benjamin Ogden (DAR Ancestor A085707)

 

Benjamin Ogden became known as the “Boy Soldier of the Revolution.”  He was born on 16 Apr 1764.  According to his pension testimony, he was born and lived near the spot where General Lee was taken, adjoining the land of Lord Stirling in Basking Ridge.

 

At twelve years old he ran away and went to Elizabethtown to join the army.  He served there until, as he reported in his pension testimony “a certain Maj. Wm Davidson (to whom my Guardian had bound me an apprentice) heard where I was and came down with his witnesses and demanded my release.”  He waited until he was 16 years old, then rejoined the army and was stationed at Woodbridge until the army was dissolved after the war.

 

He served in several battles, which he described as follows:

 

“The first battle that I was in, I think was in May 1780.  The enemy landed at night and was detected by our patroles the militia called by three signal guns; the gun and whale boat company under the command of two of the bravest officers I ever knew…All joined in battle between break of day and sun rise, near the road from Woodbridge to the old Blazing Star ferry – the enemy retreated to their gun boats at Smokum Point (by which the battle was named) where we received their heavy metal for near two hours.”

 

“The 2^nd Battle I think was in September following – commenced also early in the morning in Amboy commons.  We drove the enemy into the Town and from our Shore – under a heavy fire from three gallys, their guardships in the bay, and their gun boats.”

 

“The 3^rd Battle commenced near where the first did.  Sometime I believe in July 1781 (or about two weeks before Rye harvest).  They retreated to their vessels near Hog Island, above the mouth of Woodbridge Creek, where we again received their heavy metal for more (I think) than one hour – near a Rye field on the shore of the sound.”

 

“The 4^th Battle was, as well as I recollect, late in September following and about the first night after Genl Washington left New York with some of the French troops to meet Cornwallis.  The Capt of our gun boat company Lieut. Randolph + some of the militia went on the Island in the night to take Cuckhold [farm?] fort in the absence of the British troops which had been drawn off to graves and to assist New York.  But to our supprise they had returned the evening before.  We were discovered and the contest began just before and we had to fight hard to gain and keep a bridge just under the fort and across the Kills, to our boats which waited for us at the new Blazing Star.  The contest continued I think for more than three hours before we left their shore with the prisoners, [illegible], + other spoils of the enemy.”  [This last battle probably took place at Fort Cockhill, which was an outpost of Fort Washington in New York.]

 

Starting in 1784, he devoted his time to the Methodist ministry as an itinerant preacher, traveling “from the North River [Hudson] to the west of the Mississippi, and from Charleston S.C. to the shore of Lake Erie”. In 1785 was sent out as an itinerant preacher in New Jersey, in 1786 to Kentucky and then to Tennessee. He applied for a pension in 1832 from Kentucky. 

 

Benjamin Ogden died in Caldwell County KY on 20 Nov 1834, and is buried at Ogden Cemetery in Princeton, KY.

 

 

James Rodgers (DAR Ancestor A098051)

 

James Rogers was born on 1 Feb 1764 in Morris County NJ.  As a young boy he joined the First NJ Regiment at Morristown as a Fifer and Foragemaster.  At fourteen years old, he fought at the Battle of Monmouth in 1778.  As an adult after the war, he made a career as a carpenter and carriage maker in Morris Township.

 

He applied for pension from Morris Co in 1819 with the assistance of Dr. Lewis Condict.   The only people who were eligible for a pension at that time were those disabled due to war injuries, widows, and those who could prove that they were destitute.  Dr. Condict must have been very effective in arguing the case, because Rodgers successfully received a pension even though his inventory of assets suggested he was reasonably comfortable with a plot of land, a house, furniture, and many other items.

 

James Rogers died at Morristown on 12 Sep 1845.  He is buried at the First Presbyterian Church Morristown (now the Presbyterian Church in Morristown).  There is no tombstone.

  

Part 2 of our story of Soldier Boys will tell the stories of the rest of our young Revolutionary soldiers.

 

 

Sources

 

Find-a-Grave memorials #57232290 and #19278867

 

U.S. Revolutionary War Pension S9039, Bounty Land Warrant 9982-100, David Hamilton Morris, National Archives and Records Administration, M804, Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, RG15

 

U.S. Revolutionary War Pension S31281, Benjamin Ogden, National Archives and Records Administration, M804, Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, RG15

 

U.S. Revolutionary War Pension W1473, John D. Piatt (widow Jane), National Archives and Records Administration, M804, Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, RG15

 

U.S. Revolutionary War Pension S5733, James Rogers, National Archives and Records Administration, M804, Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, RG15