Pension Application of John Miller: S1921
Transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris
State of
On this 18th day of September 1832, personally appeared in open Court before the Honorable Samuel Powel Judge of the Circuit Court of Law & Equity for said County John Miller a resident citizen of the County of Carter and State of Tennessee aged seventy one years 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 towit that being a resident citizen of Bottetourt [sic: Botetourt] County and the State of Virginia, & raised in said County he when a youth and before he was subject to do military duty, volunteered to go on the expedition against the Shawnees, in the expedition (called the [Gen. Lachlan] McIntosh campaign) which was, (as well as now recollected) in the year 1774 [sic: 1778] the fall of the year, that he was enlisted under Capn Alcorn[?], in the aforesaid County, & marched from the said County of Bottetourt to Pittsburgh, where he found the main army under Genl McIntosh & marched from Pittsburgh to Fort McIntosh [about 25 miles northwest], & from there through an unexplored wilderness to Muskingum River [in Ohio] seventy miles from Detroit where the news of a treaty being made reached the army & the men were marched back on the same route to his residence in Bottetourt but was discharged by his Captain James Allcorn at Fort McIntosh (on the return of the Army from Fort Lawrance [sic: Laurens] on the Muskingum & was on said expedition seven months on said Tour, his discharge for which he has lost in the lapse of time and now has it not in his power to produce it. That he again in the year 178[last digit illegible, but should be 1] (having that year been placed for the first time called out after he was placed on the master roll) was called upon to perform a tour of duty at the time Cornwallis was on his march through Virginia, when all the militia was called out, & he was enrolled in Bottetourt aforesaid under no particular officers, but marched to Richmond Virginia, where he was put under Capn Ewel of the regular army or an officer of the regular army and remained there some days when he with the army was marched to the siege of YorkTown & got there after the surrender of Cornwallis & was placed there a short time as guard over the British prisoners who had there surrendered, & also to guard the magazine and shortly afterward was again ordered back to Richmond to guard a portion of said prisoners to Richmond, & conveyed them there, & remained the winter & spring in said place guarding the prisoners & magazine until the 22d day of May after the surrender of Cornwallis which was 1782, when he with the other troops was discharged by Capn Ewel under whom he had served the whole length of time being on said service from the First of September 1781 to the 22d day of May 1782 under said last engagement and as aforesaid under Capn Ewel of the regular army but in the great lapse of time has forgotten the Number of the Regt to which said Ewel belonged. he the declarant being for the whole time an orderly Sargeant in said Company, under Capn Ewel & Lieutenant Burk having received said appointment at Richmond on his first arrival in that place & continued until his discharge to act in that capacity being in the last service nearly nine months, & the first seven months. that his latter discharge has also been lost by him in the great lapse of time.
That he has no documentary evidence nor is there any person by whom he can establish his said services nor is there a resident minister of the Gospel in his vicinity by whom he can establish the facts of reputation of service required by the instructions of the War Dept.
He hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension or annuity except the present & declares that his name is not on the Pension roll of the agency of any State.
Sworn to & subscribed in open Court this 18th September 1832 John his X mark Miller