Peter Charlont In The Revolutionary War.

Certificate of the Judges of the Circuit Court of the United States for the district of Massachusetts, in favor of Peter Charlont.

We, the subscribers, judges of the Circuit Court held at Boston, in and for Massachusetts district, in May, 1792, as commissioners designated in, and in execution of, the act, entitled “An act for the settlement of the claims of widows and orphans, barred by the limitations claims heretofore established, and to regulate the claims to invalid pensions,” do certify that Peter Charlont preferred a petition to us, setting forth that he was, at the commencement of the late war, a volunteer in the service of the United States, and continued in that service, in various characters, till he was wounded and taken prisoner by the enemy; and after his return again engaged in that service, and was disabled therein.

He personally appeared before us, and it appears that the said Peter Charlont is a native of Canada, and that he attached himself to the American cause early in the war; that from the time the American forces were in Canada, until the conclusion of the war, he was frequently engaged in the service of the United States, at certain times leading numbers of Canadians to attack the enemy, at others as a volunteer with the troops of the United States; he for some time appears to have been attached to the corps under the command of General Hazen, but in what rank does not clearly appear to us.

In the service of the United States, he was employed to carry letters to and from Canada; and that, on one of these errands, he was wounded by a party of the enemy, and disabled, by having a ball pass into his body, another through his left hand, and by a third his skull was fractured, and he was thereby deprived of the use of his left eye; by which wounds he has been very much disabled from procuring his livelihood by labor, which appears to have been his usual employment.

His disability is satisfactorily proved to the commissioners, and that it happened while in the service of the United States; but as he is not an inhabitant within the United States, he has not procured any certificate from the freeholders of the town, city, county, or parish where he lives, nor can such probably be procured. We have considered him as entitled (if within the intention of the act) to the half-pay of a sergeant, and to two hundred dollars, as arrears of pay; he appears to have been allowed, while on one of his journeys in the service of the United States, by order of the Secretary of War, one ration and a half. We really think he ought to be provided for. He is now poor and much distressed, and we warmly recommend him to the notice and benevolence of Congress.