Pvt. Shepard Gum
Gum, Pvt. Shepherd
State of Missouri
County of Howard
On this sixth day of August, 1834, personally appeared before the County Court of the Court of Howard and state of Missouri, Shepherd Gum, a resident of the County and State aforesaid, aged 73 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 provision made by the act of Congress, passed June 7, 1832. That he entered the military service of the United States, in the County of Rockingham, Virginia, under the Command of Captain Robert Cravens in the spring of 1779, and marched under his command to a fort in Tigers [Tygarts] Valley for the purpose of guarding the frontiers of Virginia against the incursions of the Indians. In this service I continued three months and was discharged, or rather the whole company was disbanded.
In the fall of the year 1779 [should be the fall of 1778] I again entered the service under the command of Captain Abraham Lincoln, and marched under him to the northwestern part of Pennsylvania, where we joined the army of General McIntosh, at Fort McIntosh, on the north west bank of the Ohio. From thence the whole command of Genl. McIntosh (except a guard for the garrison) marched to the head waters of the river Muskingum, where we built Fort Lawrence [Laurens] on the western bank of the Tuscarora, and there met a tribe of Indians with whom we made a verbal treaty & from we procured some supplies of corn. In this tour I served three months.
In the fall of 1780 I served a term of three months, under Captain George Baxter. We marched from Rockingham, and ranged in the neighborhood of Fort Smith to prevent the incursions and depredations of the British, who had possession of the Fort.
In the spring and summer of 1781, I served a tour of three months under Captain George
Chrisman. I entered the service in Rockingham County and marched from thence to a place of rendesvouz north of old James Town. Nothing occurred during this campaign worthy, of recording.
In September 1781, I again entered the service and served a three months tour, viz: under Captain Richard Ragan I marched from Rockingham down to the battery at Yorktown, from whence I was ordered out on a fatigue party to Burrel’s ferry on James River, where I assisted in putting the cannon on their carriages & haul them up the river bluff. I was then ordered on board the schooner Hummingbird, then loading with provisions for the use of the French fleet then blockading York River. I sailed on board this schooner & delivered the stores to the French fleet. We proceeded from thence to York Town, where we arrived a few days after the surrender of Cornwallis, where I was discharged by Captain Hague.
Pvt. Shepherd Gum of the Rockingham Co, VA., militia submitted his pension application on 6 August 1834. Within a month of his application, the War Department rejected Gum’s pension. The primary reason given by the War Department was Gum’s statement that he joined the McIntosh army in the spring of 1779. It should have been stated 1778.
He amended his pension application on 3 November 1834, and in doing so not only corrected the 1778/1779 date, but also provided additional information regarding Fort Laurens.
In relation to my services as detailed in my original declaration aforesaid, I am now under the impression, from an examination of some of my old papers, and taxing my recollection to its upmost, that I entered the service of the United States under the command of Captain Robert Cravens in the spring of 1778, instead of the spring of 1779 as stated in my original declaration, and that, consequently, there is the inaccuracy of one year in the detail of his first, second and third tours of service.
Gum then describes his travel, under Capt. Abraham Lincoln, on the march to link up with the McIntosh army:
We struck “Braddock’s road” at Gwinns Tavern, at the foot of the Allegany Mountain, a short distance above Fort Cumberland; we followed “Braddock’s road” a large road cut out by General Braddock) across the Allegany Mountain to the foot of Laurel Hill, passing the camp of Dunbar, where he had once blown up a magazine, as we were given to understand in passing by it. Between “Dunbars Camp” and “Braddock’s old battle ground” we left this road, turning to the left in the direction of Devores old ferry, on the Monongahelia about thirty miles above Fort Pitt—now Pittsburg. From there we struck through the country to Fort McIntosh on the Ohio, passing Col. Neville’s on the head of Shirtee Creek. He remembers, in addition to what he has stated in his original declaration, that as the army was passing from Fort McIntosh to the Tucarora [Tuscarawas] (where he assisted in building Fort Lawrence) that as they were passing through some fallen timber, a body of Indians fired on the advance guard of the army & killed a man by the name of Gaines—and now—recollect the name. In the building of Fort Lawrence, having no waggons nor teams, he remembers the men had to carry the timbers used in its construction on their shoulders across a small prairie which lays between the Tucarora & the woods.
One final attempt at receiving a pension was attempted on 22 December 1841. The letter was sent to the Commissioner of Pensions, J. L. Edwards who originally rejected Gum’s August 1834 application. Pvt. Gum’s pension number is R-4,384. He was born in Orange Co, VA., on 29 July 1761. His father’s name was Jacob Gum. Gum lived in Rockingham Co., VA., Hardin Co., KY., and Howard Co., MO.
Initial information regarding Pvt. Shepherd Gum and his role at Fort Laurens was obtained by Shemenski, Pat, of North Canton, OH and submitted to the Friends of Fort Laurens Foundation on 5 June 2008. Gum’s pension application was transcribed by Fisher, Scott, Friends of Fort Laurens Foundation on 27 October 2009.
Pension File of Gum, Shepherd VA R-4,384. Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files. NARA. 27 Oct. 2009 http://www.footnote.com/image 2210962
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