Pension Application of Bowlin Curtis W349
Transcribed by C. Leon Harris
State of Tennessee S.S. Washington County
On this twentieth day of June Eighteen hundred and forty four [1844] personally appeared before the subscriber an Acting justice of the peace in and for said County Mrs. Mary Curtis aged seventy three years a resident of the County and state aforesaid. . .
That she is the Widow of Bowlin Curtis who was a Soldier of the Regular Army in the war of the Revolution. That he first served a tour of 6 or 7 months as a drafted soldier from the state of Virginia, the time he entered this service the names of his Officers, and when he came out of said service she does not know;
that he afterwards enlisted as a regular soldier for five years or during the war, and that he served as such to the end of the war part of the time under the Command of General Washington, that he was under the Command of Washington at the battle of Brandywine [11 Sep 1777] where his brother Wyly Curtis was killed, that he was also at the Battle of Trenton [26 Dec 1776] under the same Commander.
She also declares that the aforesaid Bowlin Curtis was afterwards transfered from the Northern Army to the Southern Army and that he was at the battle of Guilford [Guilford Courthouse NC, 15 Mar 1781] and Eutaw springs [SC, 8 Sep 1781] in the states of North and South Carolina under the Command of General [Nathanael] Green and Colonel Armand, that he belonged to the horse or Cavalry during part of the said five years service under the Command of the aforesaid Colonel Armand and that he the aforesaid Bowlin Curtis served in the foot or infantry during part of the said service but she declares that she does not know the names of the other officers.
She further declares that she was married to the aforesaid Bowlin Curtis in the County of Shenandoah state of Virginia in the year 1787 but she cannot remember the month or day, but that it was sometime in the fall of the said year.
She further declares that she has no record of her marriage to the aforesaid Bowlin Curtis, nor does she know of any living Witness by whom she could prove it. She further declares that her husband the aforesaid Bowlin Curtis died in Rowan County State of North Carolina near the Yadkin river in the fall of 1808; that she was not married to him before his leaving the service but the marriage took place previous to the year 1794 to wit; at the time above stated. She further declares that she has no record or documentary evidence of her husbands military services and that she still remains a Widow and that she has not been married since her husbands death.
Mary her X mark Curtis
State of Tennessee S.S. Carter County
On this 20th day of June 1844 personally appeared before the subscriber an acting justice of the peace in and for said County John Curtis a resident of the County and state aforesaid aged fifty six years who after being duly sworn according to Law doth on his Oath make the following Declaration relative to his Father Bowlin Curtis a soldier of the War of the Revolution, to wit,
That the aforesaid Bowlin Curtis was the husband of Mary Curtis his mother, who is now making application to the Government for Land and money on account of her husbands services in the war of the revolution as a soldier;
That he always considered, and believed and understood, that the aforesaid Bowlin and Mary Curtis his father and Mother were lawfully married, and that he and her brothers and sisters were the Legitimate children of the aforesaid Bowlin and Mary Curtis;
and that he never knew it doubted or contradicted by any one. He further states that he often heard his father converse about his military services in the War of the Revolution; That he heard him say that he, his father, the aforesaid Bowlin was drafted in the state of Virginia for six months service in the War of the Revolution; but that he had served seven months instead of six; the names of his officers in that tour he does not recollect of hearing his father mention, neither does he know the time or year he entered the service or left the same in the seven months tour.
He further states that he heard his father say that after he came home from the seven months campaign, that a draft for soldiers came; and that rather than submit to so many drafts he joined the regular Army for five years or during the war by enlistment; The names of all the Officers he heard his father talk about he does not now recollect, but he remembers distinctly of hearing his father say that he was under General Washington at the battles of Brandywine and Trenton and that he was under General Greene at the Battle of Guilford and Eutaw springs;
That after his father and mother removed from the State of Virginia to North Carolina and when they left that state for Tennessee, and while on the journey, he recollects of passing over the ground where his father said was fought the battle of Guilford, in which he the aforesaid Bowlin Curtis said he was engaged under the command of General Greene; he believes also that his father said his Colonel’s name was Armand and that he, his father, had served part of the time in the horse or Cavalry under Col. Armand, and a part of the time in the foot, but it has been so long ago that he cannot reccollect many of the names and circumstances which his father mentioned, That he served to the end of the War or five years and seven months. He further states that his father and mother removed from the state of Virginia to the state of North Carolina and thence into the state of Tennessee and lived near the Wattauga river in the County of Washington now Carter County; that his father the aforesaid Bowlin and Mary his wife and family removed back to the state of North Carolina and settled on the Yadkin, Rowan County; where his father died of fever and ague and other complaints about the year 1808; that a short time thereafter his mother the aforesaid Mary Curtis with the family removed back to the state of Tennessee and settled in the same neighborhood where they formerly lived, where they all now reside except a deceased sister and that the aforesaid Mary Curtis still remains a Widow in indigent circumstances. He further states that there is no record of his age, but from what his parents always told him he was fifty six years old on the 20th March 1844.
He further declares that his father while living in the state of North Carolina went to Richmond in the state of Virginia in order to obtain some Land which he said was due him for his military services in the war of the Revolution, but that he failed to get it, and that his father said if he had his just dues from the Government he would have three hundred acres of Land
John his X mark Curtis
