Revolutionary War Soldiers – Get the Details of Their Lives & Service

Included in GenealogyBank’s Historical Documents & Records collection are many details about the lives and service of Revolutionary War soldiers, such as reports from the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Notice the detail in these reports.

The Eighteenth Report of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (1916) included Revolutionary War service and burial information on over 3,000 veterans.

For example, the entry for Thomas Abell tells us that he was born 9 October 1749 in Norwich, Connecticut, and died 10 October 1814 in Fredonia, New York. It states that he was buried in the Old Fredonia Cemetery in Pomfret, Chautauqua County, New York.

His entry continues, stating that he enlisted as a private, serving at the Battle of Bennington on 17 August 1777, and again enlisted as a “sergeant in Col. Samuel Herrick’s regiment, Vermont, 1780” and that he “served on an alarm in 1781, and under the same command in 1782.”

Look at this entry for John Abston of Pittsylvania County, Virginia:

“Born Jan. 2, 1757; died 1856. Son of Joshua Abston, captain of Virginia militia; served two years in war of the American Revolution. Enlisted from Pittsylvania County, Va; was in Capt. John Ellis’s company under Col. Washington. The evening before the battle of Kings Mountain, Col. Washington, who was in command of the starving Americans at this point, sent soldiers out to forage for food. At a late hour a steer was driven into camp, killed, and made into a stew. The almost famished soldiers ate the stew, without bread, and slept the sleep of the just. Much strengthened by their repast and rest, the next morning they made the gallant charge that won the battle of Kings Mountain, one of the decisive battles of the American Revolution. After the battle Col. Washington went to the place where the steer had been slain, and finding one of the horns, gave it to John Abston, a person friend, saying, ‘This is the horn of the steer that won the battle of Kings Mountain.’ Abston took the horn, carried it as a powder horn until war was over.”

What a terrific story.

I wonder if the family still has this powder horn, “the horn of the steer that won the battle of Kings Mountain,” to this day?

Find your family’s stories in GenealogyBank.