William Cashwell ( Cashwill ) Virginia.

Southern Campaign American Revolution Pension Statements.

Pension Application of William Cashwell: W3771.

Transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris.

On this 17th day of September 1832 personally appeared in open Court, before the Justices of the County Court of Amherst now sitting William Cashwell, a resident of the County of Amherst in the State of Virginia, aged seventy years last February, 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 as a Militia man from the County of Amherst in February 1779 under the command of Captain David Woodroof [sic: Woodruff] and marched from said County to the Barracks in Albemarle County where he was engaged in guarding British Prisoners a tour of duty which was for three months; at the expiration of which time he was discharged by the captain and returned home to the County of Amherst where he remained until sometime in September 1780, when he volunteered under Capt John Morrison who had command of a rifle company and was marched from Amherst to Richmond and from there to Petersburg and was stationed about three miles out of Petersburg at a place then known by the name of the long Ordinary [sic: Long’s Ordinary]. at this place there were about fifteen hundred men under the command of Genl [Robert] Lawson and Genl Steuben [sic: Baron von Steuben]. At the end of three months he was discharged and again returned home to Amherst County.

In February 1781 he was called on to perform another tour of duty, and marched under the command of Capt James Franklin from the County of Amherst to join Genl Greens [sic:Nathanael Greene’s] Army in North Carolina. he did not however reach Greens Army before the battle of Guilford [sic: Guilford Courthouse, 15 March 1781], though he was in a few miles and heard the cannon during that engagement, and thinks if his officer had pressed on they might have reached there in time to have borne a part in that engagement. On the day after this battle the company to which he belonged joined the main Army and his Captain James Franklin resigning his commission and returning home he together with the whole company was placed under the command of Capt. Younger Landrum, and was attached to Lawsons Brigade and Colo John Holcombes Regiment. he remained with Genl Green sometime and was discharged at Deep River near the South Carolina line. having there served out his tour of three months, that being the time for which he was called into service.

He then returned home and in September 1781 was again called out as a Militia man under Capt. John Stewart and was marched to little York [sic: Yorktown] and bore a part in that memorable seige, and after the surrender of Cornwallis he marched with the Prisoners taken in that battle to the Winchester barracks in Virginia where he was discharged and returned home. and thus closed his services during the War of the Revolution in the last tour he was also engaged three months. In three of the tours of duty which he performed he went as a militia man, and in the other he went as a volunteer and performed during the War twelve months service. In his first tour of duty he recollects the following officers Viz) Colo [Francis] Taylor, Capt Rice, Capt Porter, Capt John Woodroof and Capt David Woodroof and Genl Taylor commander in Chief of all the troops at that post.

In his second tour, when he went as a volunteer he recollects the following officers Viz. Genl Steuben, Genl Lawson, Colo Everett Mead [sic: Meade], Maj’r John Holcombe and Capt Jno Morrison under whom he served. and when he marched to Carolina he recollects Genl Green, the commander in Chief, Colo Green [sic: John Greene] Genl [Edward] Stevens, Genl Lawson, Colo Holcombe, Maj’r [William] Hubbard and Capt Landrum. And at York he recollects Genl Washington Genl Lafayette Genl Wane [sic: Anthony Wayne], Genl Lawson, Gen’l Stevens, Colo Holcombe, Colo [St. George] Tucker Maj’r Woods and Cpt Jno Stewart. that he has no documentary evidence proving his service, and relies upon his own statement sustained as it is by the certificates of a few of those who know of his services to establish his claim. the certificates which he has been able to procure are hereto attached. 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.
William Cashwell.

Sworn to and subscribed the day and year aforesaid.
And the Court proceeded to put the interrogatories prescribed by the War Department.

1. Where and in what year were you born?
Ans. I was born in the County of Amherst in the State of Virginia in 1762.

2. Have you any record of your age and if so where is it?
I have a record of my age at home in my Bible.

3. Where were you living when called into service, where have you lived since the Revolutionary
War, and where do you now live?
Answer. I lived in the County of Amherst and have lived there ever since.

4. How were you called into service, were you drafted, did you volunteer or were you a substitute?
I performed three tours of duty as a drafted Militia Man & volunteered one tour.

5. State the name of some of the regular officers who were with the troops when you served, such continental and Militia regiments as you can recollect and the general circumstances of your service?

Answer. When at the barracks in Albemarle I recollect Genl Taylor Colo Taylor, Capt Rice, Capt Porter, Capt. Jno Woodroof and Capt David Woodroof under whom I served. In my second tour when I volunteered I recollect Genl Steuben, Genl Lawson, Colo Mead, Maj’r Holcomb, Genl Stevens and Capt Landrum under whom I served.

6. Did you ever receive a discharge from service, and if so by whom was it signed, and what has become of it?

I received a ticket of discharge from the Capt. under whom I served. they have been given up long since and are not now to be obtained.

7. State the names of persons to whom you are known in your present neighbourhood, and who can testify as to your character for veracity and their belief in your services as a Soldier of the Revolution?

Answer– Bartlett Cash, William Lavender, Phillip Smith, William Hartless, Henry Cashwell and Benjamin Higginbotham.

NOTE: On 3 Jan 1848 in Amherst County Betsy Cashwell, maiden name Penn, age 76, applied for a pension, stating that she married William Cashwell in Nov 1791, and that he died 9 June 1847.

Note. His father was Peter Cashwell and mother was Catherine Campbell.
He married Betsey Penn, on November 7, 1791, at Amherst, Virginia.