Introduction:

WILLIAM CAMPBELL - REVOLUTIONARY WAR SOLDIER AT 15
By Merry Flanagan


This is a personal account of one 15 year old boy's experiences during the American Revolution, taken verbatim from the National Archives Files - spelling, punctuation and wording. (nat.Arch.file NoR1638). William signed his statement so that one knows that he could write. But later when his children applied for, and eventually obtained, the pension due to their Mother, some had to sign with their mark; "X". The pension had apparantly not been paid by the time she died. Eventually the $140 owed was allowed to them and had to be devided four or five ways and out of this no doubt the lawyer who had represented them also had to be paid. Today that amount would not be worth the time or expense but a dollar bought considerably more in those days. Today an American soldier's age has changed, education has changed and the value of a dollar has changed. To a Scot all three are of some significance!

How startling to those of us who have grown to maturity in the 20th century to realize at what an early age our ancestors accepted adult responsibliities...for example the fifteen year old Revolutionary War soldier, William Campbell.

William, brother of Mary Campbell who spent 11 years of her life as an indian captive (see Journal Vol. 13 No. 3, summer 1986), was born in 1761 on the banks of Penn Creek in Cumberland County Pennsylvania. His parents had settled on what was then the frontier during the French Indian War in 1757, the year that Hamilton and Lafayette were born. The family appear to have lived in a civilian type of "fort", a situation common to frontier settlers at the time and made necessary even after the ending of the war by the conflicting interests of the settlers and the Indian people of the area. Since William was born only two years after the end of the French Indian War and after his parents had already lost two children to the Indians, it is not surprising that he was brought up, much as Indian boys were, to be a woodsman-soldier from birth.

With the outbreak of hostilities in 1776 William Campbell volunteered for the Revolutionary army. He was then 15 years old. During the summers of 1776, '77 and'78 he served under Captain William Love and Col. Barr, the latter being a man whose name suggests that his ancestry may have been from Argyll. For eight months each year he engaged in campaigns against the Indians who were allies of the British and in "carrying express", which involved being a bearer or messenger. Since carrying express involved an ability for survival, woodcraft and a sense of direction beyond the ordinary, one suspects that William had these qualities.

In later years when William applied for his Revolutionary War pension he was fortunately obliged to leave a vivid, if brief, personal account of his war experiences. His account was in answer to the following question:

"State the names of some of the regular officers who were with the troops where you served such continental and militia regiments as you can recollect and the general circumstances of your service."

WILLIAM CAMPBELL'S STATEMENT
"Ans: I can recollect Capt. Love, Major Wilson, Col. Barr and Officer Hand (but can not recollect neither the office he bore or his given name.) The circumstances of the War were various. I can recollect that twenty seven of us had a severe skirmish nine of our number were killed among whom was our Colonels brother Robert Barr and at another time about thirty of us scouting after Indians in what is now Armstrong County. One night we discovered a light three of us went to see what it was we found four Indians encamped we fell on them and killed them all without fireing a gun they being a sleep. We also in the same scout (patrol Ed.) at the junction of the Mahonan came on a party of indians and killed twelve of them without loosing a man and at one time for want of provisions and amunition we were compelled to evacuate the fort and retreat further from the enemy and after some time returned and took possession of it again but as for regiment, battalion, I can not recollect."

William's account of his Revolutionary War experiences was accepted by the authorities in 1834 and he received a pension of $40 per annum until his death on the 28th of December 1838. He died in Sugar Creek Township in Wayne County Ohio, the home of his Willford nephew. His wife, Martha Baird, whom he had married in 1792, died on the 7th of December 1847. They had nine children and had spent their lives in the area where William Campbell had been born and fought as a fifteen year old American Revolutionary War Soldier.


I have a copy of a letter (another unknown sender) dated August 22,1912 from the Rev. War Section:

Honorable Ed. S. Johnson,
United States Senate.


My dear Senator:

In response to your letter dated the nineteenth instant, I have the honor to advise you that from the papers in the claim R. File No. 1638, Rev. War, it appears that William Campbell was allowed pension on his application executed February 18, 1834, while a resident of Wayne County, Ohio.

He stated that while a resident of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, he volunteered and served as a Private during the Summers of 1776 and 1778, under Captain William Love, Colonel Barr and other officers, names not stated; eight months in each year, and was engaged in Indian campaigns and carrying expresses.

He was born in 1761, in Cunberland County, Pennsylvania. He married in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Spring of 1792, Martha Baird, and died December 26, 1836, in Sugar Creek Township, Wayne County, Ohio. She died December 7, 1847.

Their children were:
Jane born 19 m Mch, 1795, married -----Koch
Mary born 29, March 1797
Floranda born 23 October 1799
Martha born 16, May 1801
Margaret (or Peggy) born 1 Feb. 1805
James born 4 March 1809
William M. C. born 4 March 1809
Hannah born 23 Nov. 1813
Sarah born 29 May 1815

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