July 2-July 8 Independence
Minute Men: A Family Affair
By Mya Vanderpool Gormley © 2018
Samuel Pierson was a private in Spencer’s Regiment of the Continental Troops. Capt. William Brittin’s Company, 5th New Jersey, Reg’t of Foot, commanded by Oliver Spencer. He enlisted “for the war” according to his military papers. Because he did not live long enough to receive a Revolutionary War pension (and none has been found for his widow) scant original records, other than some military company pay rolls, exist to tell the story of his participation in America’s struggle to be independent.
However, a Morris County (New Jersey) history provides noteworthy material about him. It says, "Of the famous company of lifeguards which accompanied (George) Washington through all his movements during the war, four, at least, are known to have been residents of Bottle Hill, their names being Samuel Pierson, Benjamin Bonnel, Nathaniel Crane and Daniel Vreeland, all of whom lived several years after the war in this vicinity." (Bottle Hill was the original name of what’s now Madison Borough in Morris County, New Jersey).
“Of these men, Samuel Pierson was a fine horseman, and a man of great courage and strength, whom Washington intrusted [sic] with several important and perilous commissions. In carrying out one of these during the Battle of Monmouth, Pierson was compelled to ride right in front of the enemy's line of battle, and in full range of their guns; two horses were shot under him, one of which in falling injured the rider's leg, but he was mounted on a third horse, and carried out the commander's orders. Washington warmly commended him, and said, ‘I feared when you set out with the orders that I should never see you again.’" [History of Morris County, New Jersey, 1882, p. 193.]
For years, life in Morris County was in flux. “There was continual excitement and solicitude. The alarm gun was firing, or the beacon light was burning, or the sounds of the fife and drum were heard, or companies of soldiers were passing and repassing, or the minute men of the vicinity were hurrying back and forth, or the commander-in-chief and his suite and life-guards were going from or returning to headquarters, or some general parade was taking place upon the campground . . . or other things were occurring to keep those who resided here in a state of excitement and fear.”
Valley Forge, located 25 miles west of Philadelphia, was the campground of about 11,000 troops of George Washington’s Continental Army from 19 December 1777 to 19 June 1778 and Samuel Pierson was one of them. In 1777, General George Washington and the Continental Army marched from the victories at Trenton and Princeton to encamp near Morristown from January to May.
“Washington had his headquarters during that first encampment at Jacob Arnold's Tavern located at the Morristown Green in the center of the town. Morristown was selected for its extremely strategic location. It was between Philadelphia and New York and near New England while being protected from British forces behind the Watchung Mountains. The churches were used for inoculations for smallpox.
From December 1779 to June 1780 the Continental Army's second encampment at Morristown was at Jockey Hollow. The winter of 1780 was the worst winter of the Revolutionary War. The starvation was complicated by extreme inflation of money and lack of pay for the army . . . It was during Washington's second stay, in March 1780, that he declared St. Patrick's Day a holiday to honor his many Irish troops and the Marquis de Lafayette came to Washington in Morristown to inform him that France would be sending ships and trained soldiers to aid the Continental Army.”
Born in 1748 in New Jersey, Samuel Pierson Sr. married Rebecca Garrigues 22 May 1769. They had nine children between 1770 and 1787. Their lives were constantly disrupted by the war and his service in the Army. Rebecca was the daughter of Jacob Garrigues (1716-1798), who, along with all four of his sons — David, Jacob Jr., John and Isaac — also fought during the war. Jacob Garrigues was the son of Huguenot immigrants, Matthew Garrigues and Susanna Rochet, who arrived in Philadelphia ca 1712 from the West Indies.
Rebecca’s brother, John Garrigues, participated in the Battle of Monmouth (28 June 1778), where so many of the British died of sunstroke. Wikipedia notes, “According to some accounts, an American soldier's wife, Mary Hays, brought water to thirsty soldiers in the June heat, and became one of several women associated with the legend of Molly Pitcher. By the second phase of the battle the temperature remained almost consistently above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and heat stroke was said to have claimed more lives than musket fire throughout the battle.” John Garrigues lived to be about 90, and his sword, which he carried at Monmouth, purportedly now is in possession of the Washington Park Association of Morristown, New Jersey.
Samuel Pierson appears on a number of company muster rolls (microfilmed by the National Archives) but three in 1778 are of especial value to the family history. He appears on the Company Muster Roll for March 1778, roll dated Valley Forge, April 1, 1778; and for April, dated Camp Valley Forge, May 5, 1778; and for May 1778, roll dated Camp Valley Forge, June 15, 1778 — the latter shows the term of his enlistment (for the war).
On several company muster rolls, dated in September, October, and November of 1780 they state he was wounded and in hospital. On one dated 24 December, it notes he was “sick, general hospital.”
His company’s Muster Roll dated 7 April 1780 at Mendham (New Jersey) notes he was “prisoner—camp guard.” But provides no explanation.
For most of 1782, Samuel Pierson is listed as sick and in a hospital in Philadelphia. The war was officially over on 3 September 1783 when the Treaty of Paris was signed. Apparently Samuel then went home to Morris County, New Jersey, but he did not live long to enjoy America’s newly won freedom that he and his brothers-in-law helped to attain. He died in 1790 of tuberculosis.
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