Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Integer tempus, elit in laoreet posuere, lectus neque blandit dui, et placerat urna diam mattis orci. Suspendisse nec congue purus. Phasellus sodales massa malesuada tellus fringilla, nec bibendum tellus blandit. Maecenas non leo laoreet, condimentum lorem nec, vulputate massa. Fusce at massa nec sapien auctor gravida in in tellus.
The bulk of the data used on this site come from the Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land-Warrant Application Files, NARA Record Group 15, Microfilm Publication 804, accessed through Fold3.com. Beginning in 1818, the nation began to repay its debt of gratitude to revolutionary veterans and their widows, many of whom were in poor health and indigent circumstances, through service-based pensions.
The first Revolutionary pension act was spearheaded by James Monroe, a President who was himself a veteran of the war and who had shed his blood on the streets of Trenton. In 1817, a committee was established in the House of Representatives to work out the legislation, led by Representative and former Major of the 3rd New Jersey Regiment, Joseph Bloomfield. The bill which came out of this committee initially proposed to allow half-pay pensions to all soldiers who had served in the Revolutionary War, who were “reduced to indigence” or who could not “procure subsistence by manual labour” due to health or age. 1 William Henry Harrison, then a Representative from Ohio, objected to allowing anyone who served from being granted a pension, as it would “embrace everyone who had shouldered a musket, even for an hour… Persons, however, covered with scars and borne down by the length of service in those days ought not to be confounded with those who had been called out for an hour or a day.” However, he conceded that “[s]ome of the militia, he thought, were as well entitled to this pension as any regulars, of whom the Jersey militia might be particularly mentioned.”2 In the end, the final act passed on March 18, 1818 would grant a lifetime pension of $96 per year to enlisted men, sailors, and marines and $240 to officers who served at least nine months on the Continental establishment.
Kirkpatrick’s application is typical of those submitted for the 1818 pension - short with no narrative. Others will have little service history beyond “was in the battles of Short Hills, Germantown, and Monmouth.”
Arrears from the date the veteran was admitted onto the pension roll of the State where they resided at the time of application (the date they made their first application) until either the 4th of March or 4th of September previous (when the semi-annual payments were disbursed) to the date the veteran’s certificate was issued, as well as the semi-annual allowance that would be disbursed on the 4th of March or 4th of September after the date the veteran’s certificate was issued.
ages - however, as explained later under the Act of 1820, these are suspect.
Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Integer tempus, elit in laoreet posuere, lectus neque blandit dui, et placerat urna diam mattis orci. Suspendisse nec congue purus. Phasellus sodales massa malesuada tellus fringilla, nec bibendum tellus blandit. Maecenas non leo laoreet, condimentum lorem nec, vulputate massa. Fusce at massa nec sapien auctor gravida in in tellus.
Printed pension application made by Benjamin Applegate, S.33967, to be reinstated to the pension roll under the Act of 1820.
diam mattis orci. Suspendisse nec congue purus. Phasellus sodales massa malesuada tellus fringilla, nec bibendum tellus blandit. Maecenas non leo laoreet, condimentum lorem nec, vulputate massa. Fusce at massa nec sapien auctor gravida in in tellus.
Age discrepancies - Robert Blowers, S.34036, claimed he was aged 61 on his 1818 application, and then later on his 1820 application claimed he was 67. Since applicants were not asked for their date of birth, the ages claimed by the veterans may not be accurate. Similarly, Johannis Hoogland, S.34407, attested that he was 68 on his 1818 application, but somehow aged 6 years between May 25, 1818 and June 20, 1820, when he claimed to then be 74.
Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Integer tempus, elit in laoreet posuere, lectus neque blandit dui, et placerat urna diam mattis orci. Suspendisse nec congue purus. Phasellus sodales massa malesuada tellus fringilla, nec bibendum tellus blandit. Maecenas non leo laoreet, condimentum lorem nec, vulputate massa. Fusce at massa nec sapien auctor gravida in in tellus.
Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Integer tempus, elit in laoreet posuere, lectus neque blandit dui, et placerat urna diam mattis orci. Suspendisse nec congue purus. Phasellus sodales massa malesuada tellus fringilla, nec bibendum tellus blandit. Maecenas non leo laoreet, condimentum lorem nec, vulputate massa. Fusce at massa nec sapien auctor gravida in in tellus.
Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Integer tempus, elit in laoreet posuere, lectus neque blandit dui, et placerat urna diam mattis orci. Suspendisse nec congue purus. Phasellus sodales massa malesuada tellus fringilla, nec bibendum tellus blandit. Maecenas non leo laoreet, condimentum lorem nec, vulputate massa. Fusce at massa nec sapien auctor gravida in in tellus.
Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Integer tempus, elit in laoreet posuere, lectus neque blandit dui, et placerat urna diam mattis orci. Suspendisse nec congue purus. Phasellus sodales massa malesuada tellus fringilla, nec bibendum tellus blandit. Maecenas non leo laoreet, condimentum lorem nec, vulputate massa. Fusce at massa nec sapien auctor gravida in in tellus.
Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Integer tempus, elit in laoreet posuere, lectus neque blandit dui, et placerat urna diam mattis orci. Suspendisse nec congue purus. Phasellus sodales massa malesuada tellus fringilla, nec bibendum tellus blandit. Maecenas non leo laoreet, condimentum lorem nec, vulputate massa. Fusce at massa nec sapien auctor gravida in in tellus.
Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Integer tempus, elit in laoreet posuere, lectus neque blandit dui, et placerat urna diam mattis orci. Suspendisse nec congue purus. Phasellus sodales massa malesuada tellus fringilla, nec bibendum tellus blandit. Maecenas non leo laoreet, condimentum lorem nec, vulputate massa. Fusce at massa nec sapien auctor gravida in in tellus.
Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Integer tempus, elit in laoreet posuere, lectus neque blandit dui, et placerat urna diam mattis orci. Suspendisse nec congue purus. Phasellus sodales massa malesuada tellus fringilla, nec bibendum tellus blandit. Maecenas non leo laoreet, condimentum lorem nec, vulputate massa. Fusce at massa nec sapien auctor gravida in in tellus.
1. Resch, John. Suffering Soldiers. (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1999), 100.
2. Annals of Congres, House of Representatives, 15th Congress, 1st Session, pg 492-493.
