Soldiers of the Revolutionary War

The following are known Christian Countians

who served in the Revolutionary War.

These excerpts are from "History of Christian County" by Wm. Perrin, 1884

Jerry "Duck" Brewer
Knight Knight
Colonel Johnathan Clark
Nicholas Pyle
William Dupuy
Dudley Redd
Captain William Gray
James Robinson
Samuel Johnson
Robert Warner
John Knight
(Conclusion) Younglove, Meacham, Casky

Colonel Jonathan Clark came to Christian County as early as 1803, and was
long a Justice of the Peace and Sheriff. The following extract is taken
from the 'People's Press' of 1851:
"Jonathan Clark was born on the 20th day of May in Bedford (later Campbell)
County, Virginia. In the year 1773 he removed to Stokes County, North
Carolina. In the Spring of 1776 he volunteered as a minute man in Capt.
James Shepherd's company of North Carolina militia, was elected Lieutenant,
and attached to Col. Martin Armstrong's regiment. During this year he was
mostly engaged in keeping in subjection Cols. Bryan and Roberts, whose
loyalty induced them to raise two regiments of Tories, with whom he had
several engagements on the Yadkin and Catawba Rivers, and although not in
the battle of King's Mountain with Cols. Cleaveland, Campbell, and Shelby,
was on duty near at hand and joined them after the battle.

Lieut. Clark rendered signal service in an engagement with Col. Wright, a
Tory, at the Shallow ford of the Yadkin. He was then attached to Gen.
Perkin's division, and was in two skirmishes with the troops under the
command of Lord Cornwallis. Before the battle of Guilford, in the year
1781, he was attached to Col. Smith's regiment of cavalry, and had several
engagements with Col. Bryan, Cunningham and other Tory commanders, who
mostly occupied the hills and would not give general battle, but would
sally out in small parties and commit depredations upon the Whigs, requiring
the united Whig force to keep them in subjection. In the year 1784 he
removed to Pendleton District, S.C., and in 1803 to Christian County, KY.
Here he filled the office of Justice of the Peace and became Sheriff.

He was a man of sterling virtues, of more than ordinary intelligence, and
for the unwavering integrity of this character and goodness of heart was
held in the highest estimation by his friends and neighbors. He died at his
residence on March 12, 1851, aged ninety-one years nine months and twenty
days.
 

Jerry "Duck" Brewer was also a veteran of the Continental Army, and 
settled in the eastern part of the county, where he reared a family, and left a 
large number of descendants.
 
William Dupuy, familiarly known as "Uncle Billy", served through the war and 
came to this county at an early day. He died at his residence near  Hopkinsville 
September 11, 1851, at the ripe old age of eighty six years.
The 'Kentucky Rifle' of September 13, 1851, says of him:
"He was one of the oldest citizens of this county, and was universally
respected as one of those noble old patriots who fought over the cradle of
the young Republic, dealing the stalwart blows of freemen to the minions of
royalty.

We loved to see him lingering here to enjoy the surprising contrast between
those days and these, and to suggest to all who saw him moving about, like
one whose whole being belonged to the past, instructive reflections of the
times that saw the first faint hope that at last Liberty had determined to
found an empire and consecrate a home. But he has been gathered to his
fathers, and sleeps well beneath the soil which he loved with that warm and
peculiar devotion which forms one of the most characteristic traits of the
broad and manly nature of the early settler. He was buried with military
honors under the direction of Major General Hays."

 

Captain William Gray was also an officer in the patriot army, lived for many
years in the neighborhood of Mr. Lod Dulin, father of Rice Dulin, Esq., and
was highly esteemed for his probity of character and general intelligence by
all who knew him. But little is know of the part he took in the thrilling
drama of those times, but that little is creditable alike to his courage and
patriotism.
Samuel Johnson
The following application for pension, February 4, 1822, which appears in
the County Court Records, is about all that is known of the war record of
Samuel Johnson:

To the Honorable, the Secretary of the Department of War of the United
States of America,
The declaration of the undersigned respectfully showeth that in the Autumn
of the year 1775, in the County of Greenbrier, State of Virginia, he
enlisted as a private soldier, in the company of Capt. Mathew Arbuckle.
That the company of Capt. Arbuckle belonged to the regiment of the
Continental line, commanded by Col. John Neville, that he joined his company
at Lewisburg, in the month of March 1775, and marched from thence to Fort
Pitt; from thence he marched with the company of Capt. Arbuckle to the
mouth of the Great Kanawha, and remained with his company at the place
until about the month of October, 1778, at which time the station was
abandoned and the troops stationed there discharged from the service of
their country. That some few months after he entered the service, he became
a sergeant, and for the last year of his continuance in service, he acted as
Orderly Sergeant, and was discharged in good credit, that he now is a
resident of the County of Christian, in the State of Kentucky, that he is
now upwards of sixty-six years of age, and is by reason of his reduced
circumstances in need of assistance from his country for support, he
therefore prays that he may be placed on the pension list.
Signed: Samuel Johnson.

John Knight was an old soldier; fought through the entire war and drew a
pension from the Government. He left a large family in the northern part of
the county, and was much respected for his many kindly qualities of mind and
heart, and his character as a good citizen.

 

Knight Knight was a most knightly knight from the Palmetto State. He
enlisted in Capt. Buchanan's company, Sixth Regiment, Col. Henderson, and
served two years. He was at the battle of Sullivan's Island, Savannah,
Stono, and during the siege of Charleston was captured by the British, from
whom he afterward escaped. He did not re-enter the army, but removed to
Christian County, where afterward he appears on the records as an applicant
for a pension.

 

Several families of Tories also came to the county, but did not meet with
much sympathy or countenance from the citizens at large. Among the number
was Nicholas Pyle, who was the son of Col. Pyle of the British Army. He was much depressed by the unfriendliness of his neighbors and lived a life of
comparative retirement. On the breaking out of the war of 1812 he was of
the first to volunteer in the defense of that country against which he had
before fought.
He was with Jackson at the battle of New Orleans, and deported himself so
gallantly as to compel the admiration of all who knew him. Afterward his
old neighbors took him into their favor, and were wont to say: "Nick Pyle is
a gallant fellow, and has redeemed himself". 

 

Dudley Redd was another Tory, but claimed to have been a soldier in the
Continental Army. He had a deep scar on his forehead, which he claimed to
have received in an encounter with the British. But an old negro man, the
property of Lod Dulin, and who had formerly been a servant of Col. Hillion,
of the British Army, said he knew Redd well when he was a soldier under his
master. The negro's account, and which was probably true, was that Redd was
a Tory, and received the saber cut on his forehead at Kettle Creek, at the
hands of a patriot soldier, who left him on the field for dead.
James Robinson, one of the earliest settlers of the county, served through
the entire struggle for liberty, and came to Christian County in about 1786.
It is not improbable that he was here next after Davis and Montgomery. He
was from North Caroline, and was a revolutionary soldier; entered the army
at the beginning of the struggle and carried his musket--and used it
too--until the sons of Liberty conquered a peace before the walls of
Yorktown. He returned home to find his wife dead, and his family scattered,
and ever after may be termed a wanderer in the wilderness. The dark and
bloody ground, as Kentucky was even then known, was attracting attention,
and he wandered hither. He spend some time in the fort at Boonesboro, but,
ever restless, he resumed his wanderings, and came to what is now Christian
County, and built a cabin the present precinct of Wilson. Here he remained
about a year, and returned to North Carolina, gathered up the scattered
members of his family, and brought them to Kentucky.

His sons who came here were Abner, James, and Green. The first died in
Wilson Precinct, where he settled; James commanded a regiment under Gen.
Jackson in the battle of New Orleans, was the Captain of the Regulators, and
also died in Wilson Precinct. Green, the youngest of the brothers, was
killed in the Black Hawk war. No braver and more valiant soldiers ever
fought for their country than the old revolutionary hero, James Robinson,
and his sons.

Some years after he brought his family here, he went to Tennessee, and
eventually died at Port Royal. They were all men of note and their
footprints may still be seen in the community where they lived, and where
descendants still perpetuate a name that should not be forgotten.
 

Robert Warner:
Pensions- The following application for pension is found on the county


records:
This day Robert Warner came into open court and made oath that he is one of
the Revolutionary soldiers, that he is now in the sixty-third year of his
age, that he entered in the Continental service as a militia man, or a
soldier in the militia service, in the year ______ in a company commanded by
Capt. Robert Cravens, In a regiment commanded by Col. Benjamin Harrison, and that he served two tours of duty of three months each in said service, and
was duly and regularly discharged, but he had lost his discharge papers, and
that in the year 1778, as he believes, he enlisted in the Continental
service under the command of Capt. Wallis, in a regiment commanded by Col.
Richard Campbell, and in the Continental Army under the command of Gen.
Nathaniel Greene, that he served from that time during the war, and that
after the war he was duly and regularly discharged by Capt. Anderson, to
whom he was transferred after the death of Capt.. Wallis, who was killed at
the battle of Guilford, and which said discharge he has lost. He states
that he has never received anything, either land or money, from the United
States of America for any of said services, and is now old, infirm and
afflicted with palsy.
Signed and Sealed the fifth day of March, 1822.
Signed Robert Warner by his "X"

Samuel Younglove, Joseph Meacham, and Joseph Casky (the original founder of Casky Precinct) were Revolutionary soldiers, and moved to the county at an early day. There were doubtless many others who came about the same time; but their names have not been obtained.

 

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