The Piedmont Historical Society
Military Records - JOHN O’SHIELDS

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Militia Order for Spartanburg County, 1836  PDF File   HTML

Revolutionary War Pension File of Soloman Crocker PDF File HTML

Revolutionary War File of MARSHALL FRANKS   PDF File   HTML

Revolutionary War File of JOHN O’SHIELDS   PDF File  HTML

Revolutionary War File of JOHN O’SHIELDS (S18146)
Submitted by Judy McHam Davis, great, great, great, great granddaughter of John O’Shields.

personally appeared in open Court being the court of Session & Common pleas for the District of Spartanburgh now sitting, before John Boncal presiding judge, John Osheals a resident of the State and District aforesaid aged seventy-one 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 under the following named officers & served as is herein stated.

He drafted & went into service in the Spring of 1777 under Captain Thomas Blassingame in Colonel William Wofford's Regiment in Union District, South Carolina; he marched from Union District into the lower part of South Carolina, crossed the Savannah River below Augusta & went into the State of Georgia to a fort about twenty-five miles from Augusta, which was in the possession of the Tories, for the purpose of taking the fort, but the Tories left there before Colonel Wofford's Regiment reached there.

He was then marched back, re-crossed the Savannah River near Ebenezer into South Carolina where he remained opposing the Tories, sometime, when he was marched back to Union District until the latter part of the winter of 1780 when he again drafted & went into service under the command of Captain Thomas Blassingame, Lieutenant Samuel Jackson, Major Bullock's Battalion in the regiment commanded by Colonel Stean, marched to liberty hill in Edgefield District opposite to Augusta, Georgia where he remained guarding prisoners until the expiration of six months when he was dismissed & returned home where he remained a few months.

When he drafted again & went into service under Captain Thomas Blassingame, Major Ford's Battalion in the regiment commanded by Colonel Thomas Blassingame (?). He then marched toward Charleston to the ten mile house where he was stationed for the purpose of protecting the City. He remained there a few months, was marched back to Union District & was dismissed having served six months.

He then remained at home a month or two & entered the service as a volunteer under Captain Thomas Blassingame in Colonel Brandon's regiment & marched to Augusta, Georgia - from there he was marched toward Savannah & met with Colonel Hammond's regiment about four miles from Augusta. The two regiments marched on toward Savannah until they met General Lincoln's army about the last of May or first of June 1779. General Lincoln took the command and marched back across the Savannah River into South Carolina & on to Parkers Ferry on ________ River where the army remained a few days, when General Lincoln with the main army crossed the river & marched on toward Charleston. He remained under the command of Captain Blassingame to guard the ferry until his term of service expired which was seven months when he was dismissed &

returned home where he remained but a very short time when he was ____________ by the Tories & went & joined General (Morgan's) army at Smith's Ford on the Broad River in Union District in the Fall of 1779 as a volunteer in Captain John Thomson's company, Major McJunkin's Battalion in the Regiment commanded by Colonel Brandon; marched from there to the Grindl Shoals on the Pacolet River where the army halted & remained about two or three months; from which place he was marched in a detachment under the command of Colonel Hays in the direction of Ninety-Six in pursuit of a party of Tories under the command of a Major Lanthrope, which party Colonel Hays met & defeated in Laurens District.

When he returned to the main army at the Grindl Shoals, General (Daniel) Morgan lay there until news reached him that the British army under Colonel Tarleton were pursuing him. He then retreated with the army into Spartanburgh District to the Cowpens, where the army was halted & preparations made for the Battle which commenced early the next morning being the 18th January 1781 which terminated in the defeat of the British army.

This deponent then went to Salisbury, North Carolina as one of a guard who carried the prisoners to that place & delivered them to the American army then stationed there. He returned to South Carolina about the last of February & was dismissed having served about five months;

he remained at home but a very short time when he again joined the same company in Colonel Brandon's regiment with the same officers & in the Spring of 1781 marched to the siege of Ninety-Six where he joined General Pickens; they remained around Ninety-Six, now Cambridge, until the news reached them that a strong reinforcement of the British army under Lord Rawdon was advancing. General Greene then quit the siege & retreated who_____ Colonel Brandon's Regiment - to which this deponent belonged__________ Greene's army & returned home wh_________ he was dismissed having served about two or three months.

This deponent then moved to Spartanburgh District & joined Colonel Benjamin Robuck's regiment in Major John Ford's Battalion in the company commanded by Captain Joseph Wofford in which company he was elected 1st Lieutenant & as a Lieutenant he served in Colonel Robuck's regiment in South Carolina skirmishing with the Tories from the Spring or first of the Summer in 1781 until the end of his revolutionary career which terminated with the war, which time was, he thinks, about 18 months or two years.

After the termination of the revolutionary struggle, this deponent settled himself in Spartanburgh District, South Carolina where he has lived ever since. He hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension or annuity except the pension & declares that his name is not on the pension roll of the agency of any state.

Answer #1 : Born in North Carolina about the year 1761.

Answer #2 : I have a true record of my age in a family bible in the possession of my sister which belonged to my father.(his sister, Apsley, married John Lancaster in NC in 1770)

Answer #3 : Was living in Union District, S.C. & removed to Spartanburgh about the time of Tarleton's defeat where I now live & have lived ever since the revolutionary war.

Answer #4 : Was drafted (for full answer see declaration)

Answer #5 : See declaration

Answer #6 : Never received a written discharge nor held a commission

Answer #7 : In support of my declaration and my character as a man of veracity, I refer to William Smith, Jethro Osheals & James Howard who knew me in the service of the United States in the war of the revolution.

(he received $80 per year pension)

I, William Smith ....... well acquainted with John Osheals ....... & saw him in the service of his country at Bacon's Bridge under the command of Major Ford in Picken's Brigade about the year 1782 ....... William Smith

South Carolina
Spartanburgh District

I, Jethro Osheals ...... and served under him as first Lieutenant in Captain Joseph Wofford's company in a campaign of six months on Spirit Creek in the State of Georgia after the fall of Savannah .......

(* there are other documents in file)