Pension Application of Jesse and Mary Reynolds: W5683

                        Transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris

Virginia, Bedford County,

            On this 25^th day of Septem’r 1832 personally appeared before Thomas Sale a justice of the peace in and for the said County of Bedford, Jesse Reynolds, a resident of the said county, and State of Virginia, aged 78 years who being duly sworn according to law doth on his oath make the following declaration, in order to obtain the benefit of the provisions made by the act of Congress passed June 7^th 1832. That he enlisted in the Regular army of the United States in the year 1776 under one Groos Scrugs [sic: Gross Scruggs], and served in the 5^th Virginia Regiment of the Continental line. That he enlisted in the County of Bedford and State of Virginia, and marched from thence to Norfolk, and after remaining there some short time, proceeded to join the northern army, under the command of Gen’l [Horatio] Gates. That he was attached to Colo. [Daniel] Morgans command, and was engaged with the Regular army at Saratoga, when Gen’l Burgoyne was taken [17 Oct 1777], and received a bad wound in the hand and had his gun broken. That he entered the army as a private soldier, but in some short time thereafter was promoted to a Sarjent, in which capacity he continued to act until he returned home.

            That he was also in the battles of Princetown [sic: Princeton NJ, 3 Jan 1777] and Trentown [Trenton NJ, 26 Dec 1776], and aided in capturing about 400 hessians, and was commanded by one Capt. Henderson, and Ensign Washington. That after he returned to the County of Bedford, he served in the militia six months at one time, and three at another time, and that he served in the Regular army upwards of Two years, and that his discharge has been lost or mislaid.

            I hereby relinquish every claim whatever to a pension, or an annuity except the present, and declare that my name is not on the pension rool of any agency, in any state.

            [signed] Jesse Reynolds

NOTES:

            On 21 Sep 1838 Mary Reynolds, 78, applied for a pension stating that she married Jesse Reynolds “about the year 1778. or 1779. and she thinks on the 2^nd day of April,” and that he died 22 April 1836. On Reynolds’s pension certificate, however, is the notation “Died Apr. 23, 1834 according to Agency Book.”

            For a thorough analysis of Jesse Reynold’s military career see the study by Becky M. and Larry D. Christiansen (http://www.rootsweb.com/~vabedfor/reynolds.doc).