Pension Application of Tully and Rebecca Sims Choice: W3774
Transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris
Georgia}
Hancock County}
On this 7th day of January 1833. personally appeared in open court before Joel Crawford, Gideon Holsey & James B. Ransone Esquires, sitting as the Inferior Court of said County & State now sitting Tully Choice a resident of the County & State aforesaid aged seventy nine 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 7, 1832. that he entered the service of the United States in what was called the minute service of the Virginia Militia, to the best of his recollection about the month of April 1776. in the company of Captain Thomas Dillard, & in a battalion commanded by Major Glenn all under the command of Col. Charles Lewis. That we were marched from the County of Pittsylvania in which he entered the service then to Williamsburg & York Town to James Town & then to Gynn’s [sic: Gwynn] Island. After the expedition to that Island was over, we marched out to the West against the Cherokee Indians and returned home and left the service for a few days before Christmas, having been in the service about eight months.
That he again entered the service of the United States in a detachment of Virginia Militia about the first day of April 1779 and remained in service until some time in the month of August making something more than four months. that the troops to which he belonged were within that period engaged in the battle of Stono [sic: Stono Ferry SC] but owing to sickness he was not present in the battle. He again entered the service of the United States in about the middle of June 1780 in another detachment of Virginia Militia in Col. Falkner’s [sic: Ralph Faulkner’s] Regiment composing part of Gen’l. [Edward] Stevens’s Brigade. That he remained in the service until the month of November making an aggregate of about five months. That he was in the battle of Camden commonly known as [Horatio] Gates’s defeat [16 Aug 1780], & received a ball through his coat, but was not injured by it. That in the minute service above mentioned Haynes Morgan was the Lieutenant Colonel, & in the expedition against the Cherokees the whole detachment was commanded by Colonel Christie [sic: William Christian]. In the second & last campaigns, herein mentioned, he marched through North Carolina & part of South Carolina & back again to Virginia. In the campaign of 1779 above mentioned he was commanded by Captain Witcha [sic: probably William Witcher] in the Regiment commanded by Colonel David Mason. That in the minute service he served about three months as ensign, and that the other five months of that service, & the whole of his said services in 1779 & 1780 he served as a Lieutenant, making an aggregate of about sixteen months service as Lieutenant, and about three months as ensign.
He hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension or annuity except the present, & declares that his name is not on the pension roll of the agency of any State.
Sworn to & subscribed the day & year aforesaid} [signed] Tully Choice
The State of South Carolina}
Greenville District} Ss
Before me Bayles J. Earle a presiding Judge of the Court of Common Pleas and General Session of the Peace for said State and District, personally appeared William Choice Senior who being duly Sworn deposeth and Saith that he is well acquainted with Tully Choice his brother, of Hancock County in the State of Georgia, that the said Tully and the deponent on or about the first June 1776 entered the service of the United States in the State of Virginia having been born and raised in Pittsylvania County [sic: formed in 1767 from Halifax County] in the State of Virginia where we then lived, under the Command of Capt Thomas Dillard, and marched to our station at old James Town, and on the 4 July 1776 were at Williamsburg in Virginia. We were called minutemen and the Regiment to which we belonged was commanded by Col Haynes Morgan, and shortly after we were ordered and marched to Quinns Island, and were both there engaged in the services when Governor Dunmore was driven from the said Island [10 July 1776]; afterwards Capt. Dillard was taken sick, & resigned, when Jesse Heard a lieutenant in Capt. Peter Perkins company was appointed Captain of such; and in the fall of 1776 we both marched under the command of Col. Christie out to Tennessee against the Indians and returned home just before Christmas making a time of service upwards of five months. The said Tully Choice was an Ensign in Capt Dillards Company, and from the time Capt Heard took the command he was [word illegible] as lieutenant. Afterwards, the precise period not recollected, the said Tully Choice and this deponent entered the service of the United States in the said State of Virginia, commanded by Capt Frederick Reeves, in which company the said Tully Choice was Lieutenant and marched to Salisbury NoCa [sic: North Carolina] where Capt. Reeves, whose company was too small, was turned back and his company joined Capt. Witekers under the command of the said Tully as Lieutenant. thence the said Tully with the rest of the Militia marched to Stono, and this deponent was in the battle, but the said Tully was sick in camp which prevented his being in the engagement which took place on Sunday the 20th June 1779. this deponent thinks they left home early in April 1779 and started back home on the 13 July 1779 received our pay at Camden in SoCa and the troops permitted to make their way home the best way they could
That the said Tully Choice substituted to fill the place of Joseph Cooper, and was as I am informed and believe in the Battle at Camden SoCa when Gen’l Gates was defeated, this deponent did not accompany him in this tour. He served also in this tour as Lieutenant. This deponent cannot say how long this tour of service continued
This Deponent cannot say how long in the aggregate the said Tully Choice served, but thinks it is equal at least to twelve months. Sworn and subscribed before me this 19 Sept 1832
[signed] William Choice
NOTE: In Hancock County GA on 27 Oct 1843 Rebecca Choice, 68, applied for a pension stating that she was married to Tully Choice by Rev. Drury Sims on 15 Aug 1791 in Laurens District SC, and that Tully Choice died 19 Dec 1837. The file includes a family record giving the date of birth of Tully Choice as 17 June 1753 and of Rebecca Sims as 29 Oct 1775, and listing the names and dates of birth of his children. See also the pension application made by William Choice [W3656]. A typed summary states that Tully Choice was appointed Second Lieutenant on 15 Sep 1777 and Captain in the Henry County Militia on 24 Aug 1780. It further states that at the time of his enlistment he lived in the part Pittsylvania County that became Henry County in 1776, that he moved from Henry County to Ninety-Six District SC in 1784, and from there to Hancock County GA in 1793.