June 2008 – Edition 38

Most of the following information is the result of
research by Jerrems Journal reader Sandra
Walcyk.

The American Revolutionary War: The War
began in the US on April 9 1775 when a group of
colonists fought British soldiers at Lexington,
Massachusetts. The War lasted 8 years and the battle
scene stretched from Quebec in the north to Florida in
the south and from the Atlantic Coast inland as far
west as Illinois.

A significant event in the early stages of the War was
the adoption, by the Second Continental Congress, of
the Declaration of Independence on July 4 1776.
The War did not involve large numbers of men; the
size of the fighting forces rarely exceeded 15,000 men,
and was more usually around the 3-5000 mark.

Where David Lived: David lived in the Colony
(now a State) of Connecticut, located on the north east
coast of the United States. It is sandwiched between
the much larger States of Massachusetts (to the north)
and New York (to the west and south), where a lot of
fighting took place during the War. It was a small
colony, demonstrated by the fact that it is now the third
smallest state in the United States, but it made a
significant contribution to the war effort. Reputedly this
was due mainly to the friendship of its Governor
(Jonathon Trumbull) with the overall commander of
the Colonial forces, General George
Washington.

The small size of the fighting forces on both sides
meant that Connecticut’s contributions were
significant, notwithstanding its small size.
Connecticut, like some of the other States, had a
militia system which was started in the early 1730s.
Men between 16 and 60 were required to undergo
periodic military service. They were grouped on a
geographical basis, a group of towns contributing
men to a particular regiment. During the War these
militia regiments supplied men to the regular army,
known as the Continental Army.

Regiments were made up of “companies”, which
were of similar size to modern-day platoons.

David’s Company: David’s Company was part
of the Eighth Connecticut Regiment, initially called the
Eighth Connecticut Battalion. We have 19
monthly “muster sheets” (as they were known) for the
Company for most of the months between November
1778 to May 1780, when he was discharged. These
are our only source of information about David so I
have spent some time scrutinising them for clues.

The muster sheets were handwritten,
possibly by the Regiment’s Paymaster, and they set
out the men’s names, their rates of pay, and any days
they had been sick.

The sheets show that the Company was made up of
the Commanding Officer (Colonel Giles Russel
initially and later Captain Lieutenant Asahel Hodge), 3
sergeants, 3 corporals, one drummer, one piper, and
the privates.

The Regiment was attached to George Washington’s
Colonial army, known as the Continental Army. David
served in it for a period of 3 years (the period for which
he had signed up) from 26th May 1777.

David received the princely sum of five dollars per
month, which works out at seventeen cents a day. In
today’s currency he would have been able to buy a
McDonald’s “Big Mac” once every 3 weeks.

Role of David’s Regiment: During his 3-year
tour of duty from 1777-1780, he most likely took part in
2 battles (the Battles of Brandywine and Germantown)
near Philadelphia in Pennsylvania in late 1777, and
then survived the grim 1777/8 winter at Valley Forge,
near the same area in Pennsylvania.

He then travelled east to New Jersey and probably
fought in the Battle of Monmouth, south of Newark,
New Jersey. In late 1778, he was back north in
Connecticut and spent 2 more severe winters in
1778/9 at Redding, Connecticut, and 1779/80 at
Camp Peekskill, New York. He was then moved south
to Elizabethtown and Newark, New Jersey in early
1780 to counter Loyalist & British raids. He may have
been at Morristown, New Jersey at the time of his
discharge in May, 1780.

Our hero probably travelled a total of more than 500
miles between all those locations and, after
discharge, still had at least 60 miles more to travel
back to Connecticut to gorge himself on his Mom’s
apple pie!

Conditions for the Soldiers: David must have
frequently endured severe conditions, of both cold and
heat. He had served through three severe winters
(also in the first winter at Valley Forge the troops had
so little food supplied to them that they had to forage
for it). He also endured extreme heat, an example
being the Battle of Monmouth, where both sides
suffered casualties from heat exhaustion. In addition
the soldier’s food and equipment was very basic and
medical help minimal. These conditions, and battle
casualties, led to a quite high fallout rate amongst the
troops.

This is borne out by the Company’s high attrition rate
(about 45% in a little over 2 years). The November
1778 roll shows the Company strength of 28 privates
but this had run down to 20 by August 1779. At the
September 1779 camp at Peekskill they were built
back up to about 37, presumably this being the
standard strength. David’s Company (possibly set up
in May 1777) had therefore been depleted from 37 to
28 by November 1778 and finally 20 in August 1779.
David did not escape, he is shown as having
been “absent sick” in 4 of the rolls.

General Herkimer: While David was marching
merrily south towards Philadelphia after joining up, a
relative of Sandra was having a far less merry
time to
the north. He was Nicholas Herkimer, the
cousin of
Sandra’s great great great great great great
great
great grandmother (to save you counting them, this is
eight “greats”). Nicholas’s grandfather was therefore
Sandra’s “ten greats” grandfather.

Nicholas Herkimer (Erghamar in German)
was born in 1728 in German Flatts, New York. He
became a Militia Captain in 1757 and served in the
French and Indian Wars. In September 1775 he
became Brigadier General of the Tryon County
(current day Herkimer County) Militia.

In July 1777 General Herkimer led troops of
approximately 800 men as he prepared to ward off
1500 British forces (led by Colonel St. Leger) which
were approaching Fort Stanwix (near Rome, in New
York State).

On Aug. 6, 1777, General Herkimer and his men were
ambushed at Oriskany Creek, south of Fort Stanwix.
General Herkimer was shot in the leg but continued to
direct the battle, leaning against a tree. About a
quarter of his men were lost.

After the battle, General Herkimer was taken to his
home in the town of Danube, near the Mohawk River,
south of Little Falls, NY. His leg injury necessitated
amputation and he did not survive. He died on Aug.
16 or 17, 1777.

The Oriskany Battlefield has become a small park and
has a monument there to General Herkimer
and his
men which resembles the Washington Monument in
miniature. The home where he died still stands today.
It has been restored and is open to the public during
the summer months.

Sandra’s father, a war buff, has a photo
of “Cousin Nick” on his refrigerator
door, in tribute to
the most famous person on Sandra’s extensive family
tree. (Editor’s Note: We need to get a copy of that
picture!)

Gavin McCoy: In another interesting twist,
when David
was fighting at the Battle of Monmouth another soldier
with a future connection with the Jerrems family was
doing the same thing. He was Captain Gavin McCoy
(1738-1800), who commanded a company in the
Somerset County (New Jersey) militia throughout the
War and fought in the Battle of Monmouth. He was
born in New Jersey and died in Basking Ridge, New
Jersey.

Gavin’s great great grand daughter was to be Mary
Bell Jerrems, the wife of Alexander Nicholl
Jerrems. (Editor’s Note: Subscriber Leila
Menzies, one of our readers, did some sleuthing
work. Leila “met” Ray through a genealogical website,
she is related to Mary Bell. But that is another story
which Ray will tell you about in a future article.)

Confession Time: Having described
David as
being a “Jerrems” I must now confess that we do not
know exactly what David’s surname was. The
ancestry.com records I originally located about 4 years
ago listed him as “Jerrems”, but the muster sheets
recently located by Sandra show David’s name as
Jerrems, Jerrom, Jerroms and Jerums, as nearly
as
can be deciphered from the handwriting. The
predominate spelling was Jerrom, which is very close
to the spelling of our “William Jerom” (who christened
his children “Jerrems”) born near Gainsborough in the
early 1700s.

David may have been illiterate and the compiler of the
muster sheets merely wrote down what he thought
would be the spelling based on David’s
pronunciation. As far as the compiler was probably
concerned the exact spelling did not matter much as
long as he could account for where the money had
gone and David (who probably would not have seen
the sheet anyway) would not have been concerned,
even if he could read, so long as he got paid.

In those days, before the advent of passports, cheque
accounts, bankcards etc little turned on the precise
spelling of a name.

Conclusion: Our super sleuth Sandra
has not been able to find any further record of David,
so we are left with only a glimpse of his life. But it is
amazing that the muster sheets have survived for a
period of almost 230 years.

I wonder if David is up there somewhere having a
chuckle over the genealogical conundrum caused by
the four different spellings of his name. Perhaps he
would say, rephrasing what Humpty Dumpty said in
Alice in Wonderland, “When I use a name, it means
just what I choose it to mean-nothing more nor less”.