American Lives--an Ireland-born King's Mountain veteran who went with Lewis and Clark

REMARKABLE LIFE--A veteran of King's Mountain who went with Lewis and Clark. On the Wide Missouri, did he tell about the death of Ferguson? How many of the King's Mountain men who survived to collect the 1832 pensions had remarkable afterlives, after that 60 minutes in October 1780 which changed the course of the Revolution?

State of Missouri, County of Miller

On this the 29th day of February 1838, personally appeared in open court before
the circuit court of the County of Miller now sitting, John Scott, a resident of the county
aforesaid State aforesaid, who being first duly sworn according to Law, doth on his oath
make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the act of Congress
passed June 7th, 1832. That he entered the service of the United States under the following named officers and served as herein stated.

This applicant states that he volunteered as a private soldier in the militia in the
year 1776 in Fairfield District South Carolina; that he was commanded by Francis
Marion, as colonel, John James, major, and Peter Horry, Captain. That he marched from
Winnsboro in Fairfield District South Carolina to Sullivan's Island (between 12 and 15
miles from Charleston) and was engaged in the battle that was fought in June, 1776,
under the command of William Moultrie. The British were commanded by Sir Peter
Parker, and this applicant thinks the fleet consisted of 26 or 28 vessels. He remained
there two or three weeks and returned to Charleston, where the troops commenced
scouring the country between the Pee Dee [Pedee] and Santee [Rivers], cutting off the
Tory parties. The applicant remained under Captain Horry until Horry was promoted in
which he thinks was the year 1778 or 1779. In 1779 or 1780, this applicant was elected
Lieutenant of a volunteer rifle Corps -- there was no Captain, the company consisting of
only 30 or 32 men. His commission was signed by the Colonel. This applicant marched
with his men to Purysburg and they are joined General Lincoln's Army [Benjamin
Lincoln] and proceeded thence to Savannah in the year 1780 or 1781. They there made
the attack on the port of Savannah in possession of the British; the South Carolina militia under Lincoln and the French fleet commanded by D'Estaing; the Americans were
defeated and retreated to South Carolina. Thence continued scouring the country,
keeping the Tories and refugees under. The general rendezvous was at Snow Island --
sullied out frequently from that place, and among their excursions followed Colonel
Watson, under the command of Marion -- got to Sand Pit Bridge of about 20 miles from
Georgetown. They are this applicant was stationed with 32 rifleman, near the bridge,
with orders to fire up when the enemy advanced, but retreated, being outflanked. The
next general battle which this applicant was present at was at Eutaw Springs, where he
commanded his riflemen on the extreme right of Lee's Legion. The British commander
was Stewart. General Greene commanded the Americans. After that battle, part of our
officers went on to Georgetown. This applicant under command of Colonel James
Williams[went]to King's Mountain. Col. Lacey William Campbell commanded the Americans—forgot the day but recollects that Col. Williams[James Williams]was killed & Col. Ferguson[Patrick Ferguson]. After that battle, the applicant marched between thePeeDee and Santee [Rivers] to Snow's Island and theyare remained scouring the countrywith short furloughs not exceeding several days. Several skirmishes took place, until spring of 1783, when this applicant was discharged. This applicant had thus served six years during about threeof which he acted as Lieutenant.

This applicant further states, in reply to interrogatories propounded by the court,
that he was born in Antrim County, Ireland in the That he landed in Charleston
South Carolina in the year 1770, and lived in Fairfield District South Carolina until he volunteered. After the close of the war this applicant lived in Williamsburg and Fairfield districts in South Carolina until the year 1791 when he removed to Baldwin County Georgia where he lived 10 ears. Thence he removed to Carver County Tennessee, and lived there about two years. Thence he moved to Wythe County Virginia where he lived about three years, and thence to Botetourt County Virginia where he lived 14 years. From Botetourt County Virginia he joined Lewis and Clarke and accompanied them and theyare expedition across the Rocky Mountains where he was about over two years and returned to Botetourt. After this he removed to Highland County in Ohio, where he lived about a year and a half and moved to Illinois and from thence went to Texas in 1832 and returned a year ago. He now lives in Miller County Missouri.

This applicant further states that he received a commission from Colonel Francis Marion, but took no care of it and has lost it. He further states that he has no documentary evidence and those of no person who can prove his having been in the service.

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.

Sworn to & Subscribed the day & year aforesaid.

S/ John Scott
[Andrew Bilyen,a clergyman, and Jacob Wimmar gave the standard supporting affidavit.]

[fn p. 56]

An Amended Declaration

In order to obtain the benefit of the act of Congress passed the 7th of June 1832

State of Illinois County of White: SSOn this 21st day of October 1841 personally appeared before me James Ratcliff Probate
Justice of the peace in andfor the County aforesaid John Scott aged eighty-six or seven years and made oath in due form of law that in addition to the services rendered by him in
the Revolutionary Waras set forth in a declaration made by him in Miller County Missouri in May 1837 or 1838 he served 449 days in Captain Brown's Company General Marion's Brigade from the 1st of December 1780to the 16th of December 1782
alternately and he also served as a private horseman 40 days in Captain Green's Troop


General Marion's Brigade in 1782 and further this deponent sayeth not except that he
served from first to last in the Revolutionary War six years or more under many different
officers – and he gives as a reason why his service under the above captains was not set
forth in his former declaration that it was written in the midst of much confusion being
done in a store house where there was fiddling and dancing going on in the house and
quarreling and fighting out of doors so that much may have been omitted in that
declaration which might have been of service to him if set forth.

Sworn to and subscribed on the day and year above written.

S/ John Scott



[fn pp 16 and 17: certificate from the South Carolina Comptroller showing indents
playable to a John Scott and for militia service one as a private horseman in the militia in
1782; another for 40 days duty as a private horseman in Captain Green's Troop of general
Marion's brigade in 1782; another for 449 days service as a private in Captain Brown's
company of general Marion's brigade from December 1, 1780 to December 16 1782.]

King's Mountain

The Overmountain men won the battle at King's Mountain but the whole Ewart clan helped (as very few locals did).

Hershel Parker at Uncle James's name on a memorial at King's Mountain

James Johnston monument at King's Mountain

Uncle James, married to a Ewart, but apparently also a Knox, kin to his brother-in-law Robert Knox.

Alice Bell Costner 1954

For the grandchildren, a little revisionist history:

With its 29 March 1976 cover the New Yorker poked fun at its own reputation for provinciality, but in the 20 & 27 December 2010 issue Caleb Crain perpetuated another debilitating provinciality, the American Revolution as recorded by New Englanders. In this story the war was won by English colonists with the help of a few New York Dutchmen, and the southernmost victory was at Trenton, New Jersey. Southerners, of course, know that the turning point of the war was the Battle at King’s Mountain, which was won by Scots with the help of a few Germans. Older Southerners who still “take umbrage” at outrages are taking just that from Crain’s blithe dismissal of pre-war casualties: “British troops did kill a few of Americans over the years, but even the so-called Boston Massacre . . . seems to have been a case not of malice but of soldiers panicking in the midst of a crowd throwing snowballs and sticks.”

In Breaking Loose Together: The Regulator Rebellion in Pre-Revolutionary North Carolina (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2002), Marjoleine Kars sums up the slaughter at the Battle of Alamance in May, 1771 in which the Regulators faced off against the British Governor William Tryon: “Estimates of the dead and wounded vary; possibly as many as 20 Regulators were killed in battle, along with about 9 militiamen. Altogether, more than 150 men were wounded, many seriously.” Afterwards, Tryon publicly hanged six of the Regulators outside Hillsborough. Alice Bell’s Regulator GGG Grandfather Argulus Hercules Henderson knew the cost of pre-Revolutionary dead, although he may not have been at the battle, and although he lived to see his son Ezekiel volunteer for two long terms in the Patriot army and come safely home. I can’t banish the Massachusetts-centered history of the Revolution with one set of posts on a blog, but this little series is for Argulus and Ezekiel, as well as Alice Bell’s crowd of ancestors and uncles at the all-important battle at King’s Mountain. (Her husband had folks there to, but not direct ancestors.)

From a family point of view, what’s interesting is that the battle at King’s Mountain was won, really, by the Overmountain Men who took umbrage at what the British threatened against their houses and women and came down from the SE corner of Tennessee then won the battle with the help of a few locals in a strongly Whig area. The Ewart clan were locals, so close to the site of battle that Robert Ewart’s sister, married to an Adams (a cousin, it seems), passed into family lore by riding an unruly stallion 12 miles through Whig farms the day after the battle to see if her husband and son (not to mention brother and nephews by blood and marriage) were alive. The day after the battle was a Sunday, and she arrived to find the men, all good Presbyterians, passing a jug around and (this is hard for me to repeat) playing cards. Nevertheless, she stayed to nurse the wounded.