Benjamin Chambers (1749-1816)
MSA SC 3520-14992
Appendix B:
Two pension applications, 1832-3, by former residents of Kent County, Md. who had served in Col. Chambers’s regiment, c. 1777-1778.
George Usselton, 1832
State of Tennessee. Rutherford County, County Court, August sessions 1832
On this 21st day of August 1832 personally appeared in open court … George Usselton a resident of the County of Rutherford and State of Tennessee, aged about seventy one years, who being first duly sworn according to law, doth make the following declaration, in order to obtain the benefit of the act of Congress passed June the 7th 1832.
That he entered the service of the United States under the following named officers & served as herein stated. He believes it was in the year 1777 a part of the British fleet sailed up the Chesapeake bay & landed a part of their troops in the neighbourhood of a town at the head of Elk, on the next Saturday night a man came to my mothers and asked if there were any tories about there. I told him I knew not of any Said his name was Putnam & a cousin to the general of that name, that he had been a prisoner with the British a long time, he would be glad to get to our army, for then he would see men that would know him. I told him a Capt Jeremiah Ford a militia Capt, would meet his company at a school house, not far from Chesapeake bay, in Kent County in Maryland. I went with him then, & joined the company commanded by Capt Jeremiah Ford. Although I was not more than 15 or 16 years old I was too young to be drafted, but volunteered my services and was admitted to the company by the Captain. This he believes was in August or September 1777 though he may be mistaken as his memory has greatly failed about events names & dates in times long passed. He believes the company in which he joined was drafted for four or five months. John Reason [Rasin?] was first and Sewel [Sewell?] second Lieutenant of said company – he does not recollect the names of the Major nor the number of the regiment, but Col Chambers commanded the regiment.
They marched to Down’s Cross Roads [now Galena, in Kent County] where they waited until all the drafts of the company came up. Then they marched to the Head of Elk, which the British had just left, there they joined other troops (whether militia or regulars he does not recollect) And marched from thence along the road to a town called at that time Pots Grove. When they got to the town, the Capt, Lieutenant Sewell, Sergeant & this declarant, were taken sick with fever & ague, & had to lay by two or three weeks, at one Christian Rife’s, near the town. The balance of the company went on under the command of the first Lieutenant. While they were at Rife’s the battle was at Germantown.
When they recovered, they passed through Pot’s Grove and joined the army on this side of Philadelphia, the name of the place he does not recollect [Valley Forge?], he believes it was in the winter the weather was very cold before he left there. Then were assembled there, militia & regulars a great number, but he is not able to describe them nor to mention the names of the officers. He recollects of seeing a General officer on Horseback who was called Washington the commander in chief - & a militia General or Colonel from Maryland called Smallwood. When the winter set in severely the time of his company was out & he was marched home & dismissed at Down’s Cross Roads, having served a tour of four or five months ….
Thomas Beck, 1833
State of Kentucky Caldwell County
On this 21st day of October in the year 1833, personally appeared in open court …Thomas Beck, resident of said county and state aged sixty-nine 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 & served as herein stated: The Colonel who commanded the regiment under whom he served and to whose Regt he belonged was by the name of Benjamin B Chambers one of the majors belonging to said Regt he now recollects was by the name of Richard Graves. Colo. Chambers was some time after he entered the service sent to the main army and was he believes in the battle of Germantown. Major Graves succeeded Chambers in the command of the Regt and kept the command in his absence. The names of the other field officers belonging to said Regiment he does not now recollect. The name of the Captain to whose Company he belonged was by the name of Simon Weeks [Wickes?]. The names of some one the other Captains belonging to said Regt were Captains Ringold [Ringgold?] Page Tildin (Tilden?] Frisby Brown &c.
He states he first entered the service of the United States in the month of March or April in the year 1777. He states he acted as a drummer in the said Regiment under Captain Weeks. That he was called out several times from 1777 till the close of the war in 1783. He served in the spring of 1777 one month when the Regt was permitted to return home where they remained until August of the same year when the Regt was again called out to defend the coast along the Chesapeake bay where the enemys shipping was at that time lying and threatening invasion. The British fleet or part of it continued in the bay for two or three months when they left that part of the coast where Chambers Regt. was stationed and it was considered unnecessary to keep the Regt all there. A portion of the Regt was then detached and ordered to go and join the main army at that time at or near Valley Forge. He was with the said detachment, but when they got within a few miles of the main army they assertained that the regular troops or a part of them (to wit, the Maryland line of regulars) had gone into winter quarters, or was sent to Wilmington for that purpose, and they met the Maryland militia returning home. The detachment to which he belonged also returned and they went home. He was out on this expedition three months and one month in the spring of that year.
He then remained at home until early in the spring of 1778 when said Regt was called out to defend the coast along the Chesapeake bay. He states that in the spring and sumer of that year he was out on actual service under Captain Weeks in Chambers Regt. three months, the precise time of the year they were called out that year he does not recollect, but he recollects it was in the spring. He states that in the year 1779 they were engaged some time in securing the shores of the Chesapeake. It was considered necessary to keep the troops constantly on the coast when the enemys shipping were near the shore, he states, that they were out two months on that expedition and one month afterwards in the same year. The operations of the Regt was along the shore of the Chesapeake principally and the object in view was to defend the Coast and to keep the Enemy from landing.
In the three following years he was called out regularly with the said Regt under Captain Weeks some times they would be kept out only a few days at a time at other times they would be kept out for a longer time but he does not recollect with any certainty what length of time he was kept out at any one time in either of the three years 1780 81 or 82. He states that the several expeditions in which he was engaged during the years 1777, 1778 and 1779 and in which he was actually in the service of the United States amounts altogether to ten months. …
He states that at the time he first went into the service he was too young to be regularly enrolled as one of the militia, but having learned to beat the drum he volunteered his services in behalf of his injured Country. He states he was in no regular battle but they were frequently fired on by the enemys shipping and on several occasion lives were lost. On one occasion he recollects several persons were killed. The country through which they passed was through the Counties of Kent, Cecil, &c. principally along the Chesapeake. He states he was acquainted with the following named regular officers (towit) General Smallwood Colo. Richeson [William Richardson?] Colo Guess [Mordecai Gist?] Colo T Tillman [Tench Tilghman] aid to Genl Washington Colo Loyd [Lloyd] aid to Genl Green Major R Wright Captain Vesay [Veazey] who fell on Long Island and Captain P Reed [Philip Reed] &c. …
The following questions were propounded by the Court to the applicant and answered by him as follows
Question 1st Where, and what year, were you born?
Answer I was born in the year 1763 in the county of Kent State of Maryland
…
Question 3rd Where were you living at the time you entered the service
and where do you now live?
Answer at the time I entered in the service I was living in the county
of Kent State of Maryland and I continued to live there until about the
year 1794.
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