State of Georgia
County of Madison
Court of Ordinary Adjourned Term October 1st 1832
On this first day of October in the year of our Lord Eighteen hundred and
thirty two personally appeared in open court before John Meroney, Noah W. Pittman, James
Anderson and James Long, Justices of the Inferior Court now sitting as a Court of
Ordinary, James Towns, a resident of Capt. Morgan’s Company District of Georgia
Militia in the County of Madison and State of Georgia, aged seventy six years, 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 under the following named officers and served
as herein stated, to wit; He entered as a volunteer in March 1781 as a private under the
command of Captain Hunt Macon to throw obstructions in the road designed to impede the
progress of the British in the march to Guilford Court House North Carolina. He entered
the service in Warren County North Carolina where he then resided. The British army having
taken a different direction from the one anticipated, the volunteers were discharged in a
short time, but what time they were on duty he does not recollect. He was afterwards
called into service by draft upon a three months tour under the command of Captain White
and was transferred to the command of Captain Sessions, the regiment commanded by Col.
Leaton, all of North Carolina. We joined a detachment of Gen’l Greene’s army at
Chatham Court House in said State and was thence stationed as a guard. Having served thus
about a month, the army was ordered to march to the South, and his health being very bad,
having only partially recovered from a severe spell of sickness, employed a substitute by
the name of Bird Perry to perform the balance of the tour and received a discharge
previous to the duty heretofore detailed. The legislation of North Carolina required the
Militia of the State to be drafted and classed, and that he was assigned to the fourth
class, and by the provision of the same act it was permitted that if twelve drafted men
should hire a man to enlist in the regular service, that those twelve should be discharged
from duty for the span of three years, and that he with eleven others availed themselves
of that provision, and that he has lost those evidences of duty with other useful papers
long since. He has no documentary evidence and he knows of no evidence that he can procure
who can testify to his services.
In answer to the interrogations prescribed by the War Department and propounded
by the court, he anwereth as follows, to wit,
Answer to 1st Inter ~ He was born in Brunswick County Virginia in
the month of March 1756
Answer to 2nd Inter ~ He has no record of his age
Answer to 3rd Inter ~ He was living in Warren County North Carolina
when he was called into the service. About twenty four years since he moved to Greene
County in Georgia and from thence to Madison where he now resides
Answer to 4th Inter ~ He was first called into service by draft,
then as a volunteer, and again by draft
Answer to 5th Inter ~ As a volunteer I recollect none of the names
of officers but Captain Hunt Macon. When upon three months tour, Colonel Leaton’s
regiment, the officer commanding the detachment he cannot recollect. As to the ------ of
the service, it is before mentioned that they were employed as a guard and afterwards
marched to the South.
Answer to the 6th Inter ~ He received a discharge first from the
officer commanding the fourth class of drafted Militia, as well as he can recollect, whose
name he has forgotten. From Captain Hunt Macon as a volunteer, and he thinks from Captain
Sessions when he left the regiment at Chatham Court House .
Answer to 7th Inter ~ He refers you to James Long, JIC, Robert
Groves, JIC, William Sanders, Clk, Col. Gabriel Nash, Augustus Crawford and William
Meroney of this County, Armistead Atkinson and William and Robert Simpson of Green County
of this State, and Frederick Hawk, now of this County, formerly of Warren County in the
State of North Carolina.
He hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension or annuity and
declares that his name is not on the pension roll of the agency of any State.
Sworn to & subscribed the day & year aforesaid.
James Towns
