Pension Application of Samuel Kennerley: S16900

                        Transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris

On the 11th day of November in the year 1834 personally appeared in open Court before the Justices of the Court of Botetourt County now sitting Samuel Kennerly a resident of the County of Botetourt and State of Virginia aged near eighty 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 was born in the County of Culpepper [sic: Culpeper] and State of Virginia and that from his Fathers register (which he has not now in his possession nor does he know what has become of it) it appears that he was born in the month of March or February 1754 that he resided several years in the County of Culpepper after his birth and then removed to the County of Augusta in the State of Virginia where he resided several years and removed from there to the County of Botetourt and State of Virginia where he has ever since resided and still resides  that he Volunteered under a Captain Patrick Buchhanan [sic: Buchanan] of the County of Augusta and State of Virginia and marched in his Company in the month of June 1777 or 8 [see note below] through the South Western part of Virginia and a part of what he supposes was then the State of North Carolina (but now the State of Tennessee) to the Tennessee River in what was then the Cherokee Country (a distance of about five hundred miles) against the Cherokee Indians who had been very troublesome in molesting our South Western Frontier  this opperation against the Cherokee Indians was Commanded by Colo. William Christian who after his forces had rendezvoused at the big Island of Holstine River [sic: Long Island in Holston River at present Kingsport TN] marched into the Cherokee Indian nation on the Tennessee River and burnt the Tents and Villages and Corn (which was then ripe) of the Indians. The Company of Capt. Buchhanan in which he marched started in the month of June 1777 or 8 on this expedition and returned in the month of November so that he served five months in this expedition during which time he was exposed to great hardships danger and fatigue  the march of the troops being almost entirely after they crossed the Alleghany through a wilderness and in the Country of a Savage Enemy  He says that he again Volunteered and entered the service in a Company Commanded by Capt. Thomas Rowland in the County of Botetourt and State of Virginia in the month of January 1781 and marched under him into the State of North Carolina and joined the Army of General Green [sic: Nathanael Greene] five days after the battle of the Cowpens [in South Carolina on 17 Jan 1781] and continued in his army until after the Battle of Guilford sic: Guilford Court House] which battle he was in and took from a British officer his cocked hat & feather, he was wounded by a ball on the side of his head  after this he was sent to a hospital at Colo. Perkins on Dan River where he remained nursing and attending to the wounded after his own wound was cured between 7 & 8 weeks when he was discharged in the middle of May so that he was during this tour four months in service and five months in the Cherokee expedition aforesaid will make altogether nine months that he was in the service of his Country during the Revolutionary war. He says that Colo Otho Williams  Colo Wm Washington & Colo Henry Lee were some of the regular officers in addition to those he has mentioned who were with the troops at Guilford. He says that he received a discharge from the service in writing in both the tours he made but has lost them. He says that William Kennerly [his brother] who is now in Court knows him and knows that he served in the Cherokee expedition and in the Campaign of 1781 under General Green in North Carolina and Peter Bricky & Colo Wm Anderson who was also in the Army of General Green in the same Campaign (& are now in Court) have been long acquainted with him and know that he served in the said Campaign and Mr. Bricky knows that he was in the battle of Guilford and was wounded and Colo William Anderson  Colo James Cartmill and John Moore who have long known him can testify to his character for veracity and their belief of his services as a Soldier of the Revolution. 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 aforesaid in open Court

            [signed] S. Kennerley

NOTES:

            Kennerley probably served in the Cherokee expedition in 1777 rather than 1778, because hostilities ended with the signing of the Treaty of Long Island on 20 July 1777.

            Kennerley’s pension was paid until 3 Feb 1840, the probable date of death. In the file is a letter dated 18 June 1844 stating that “Mr Samuel Kennerly late of Fincastle Botetourt county Virginia emigrated to St Louis Missouri some four or five years ago and died there some four months after his arrival. His son Samuel Lockhart Kennerly while acting as the Executor of his father placed the pension papers in my hands for the purpose of having the amount due collected.”