John McMullan
John McMullan, Soldier
Continental Line in the American Revolution
By Gale McDonnell Fuller
In searching for information on John McMullans service in the American Revolution, I found bits and pieces but nothing that was supported with documentation. Thus I sought to find the information, to know for myself and for others in the future just when and where John did serve his new country.
In locating the 6th Virginia Regiment records of one John McMullen, there are over 50 cards available company muster rolls and company pay rolls - that track his military service from the time he entered the American Revolution. The name McMullan is written McMullan, McMullen and McMullin. There are other McMullins, McMillons and McMullons who served, but they do not connect to the line of John McMullan of Orange Co., Virginia.
The 10th Virginia Regiment of Foot was one of the six new regiments ordered raised by the General Assembly in October 1776 to meet Virginias quota of fifteen regiments set by Congress on 16 Sept 1776. Edward Stevens, formerly Lieutenant Colonel of the Culpeper Minute Battalion, was commissioned on 12 Nov 1776, to raise this regiment. Unlike the nine regiments already in Continental service, which had been raised by districts, the 10th Regiment was raised at large in the counties of Augusta, Amherst, Fairfax, Culpeper, Orange, Spotsylvania, Fauquier, Cumberland, Caroline, Stafford, and King George.1
It is unclear where John was living when he enlisted in the service to his country, but it is known from his first Pay Roll card that his commencement of pay began on 20 Dec 1776. Thus this appears to be his enrollment date. He had to have been in either Orange County or in Augusta County, Virginia, since Rockingham County, Virginia was not created at this time.
John McMullan began his service on or about 20 Dec 1776. He was in the 8th Company of the 10th Virginia Regiment of Foot whose captain was John or Jonathan Smye. It is probable that this is the stepbrother or step-nephew of Patrick Henry, as Patrick Henrys mother was married to John Smye before marrying Col. John Henry.
According to author E.M. Sanchez-Saavedra, this company was raised on 3 Dec 1776 in Augusta, so this makes the writer believe John could have been living in Augusta at this time even though he could have been in Orange County and very close to Augusta County. Each of the ten companies of the 10th Regiment was raised in a different county of Virginia but all in the same geographical area.
From the earliest muster roll available, John was listed in Capt. John Symes Company of Foot of the 10th Virginia Regiment. These muster cards begin in May of 1777 but pay cards may have indicated earlier involvement. From May-June there is no indication of where this company was located. According to Sanchez-Saavedra, they were on the road and this could account for no rolls recorded. Sanchez-Saavedra states that the regiment marched north in the spring of 1777. By April two companies were reported on the road--four at Baltimore and four at Newcastle, Delaware. After reaching the main army in June the regiment was placed in General George Weedons brigade.2
On the June-July card, we find the first term of enlistment given was listed as for the War. Also on the July-August muster roll, it lists John in the hospital. For the month of August he does not show up as ill but is back in the hospital from September until December of 1777. On 31 Dec 1777, Capt. Nathan LammeÌ? was commissioned to serve when John Syme resigned.
The February 1778 pay roll shows John McMullin in the company of Lieut. LammeÌ? of the 10th Virginia Regiment, commanded by Major Samuel Hawes. A footnote on the pay card and muster card states that this company was designated at various times as Capt. David Lairds and Lieut. Nathan LammeÌ?s Company. John was also back in the hospital.
For the first time, in March of 1778, we find a location given on the muster card. It states that Lt. Nathan LammeÌ?s Co. was at Valley Forge [Pennsylvania]. John also is listed on two more muster cards as being at Valley Forge but is out of the hospital at this time.3Â Â Thus our John McMullan, soldier of the American Revolution, was a soldier with George Washington at Valley Forge during that terrible winter, although he is listed as in the hospital one month. The hospital at that time most likely was a tent and thus he would have suffered as greatly as any soldier in Pennsylvania during that terrible winter.
There is a card dated 8 April 1778, that is simply named Roll. It is for the 10th Virginia and John McMullen is listed as a private in Lieut. Thomas Barbees compy. This is unusual since the other cards, the muster cards, have him in LammeÌ?s company. There is a printed note on the card which reads:
N.B. The men were Inlisted in Decr 76 and Jany and they were mostly for
three years the Remainder for to Serve During the war which are about
four of them.
The May-June muster card gives his terms of enlistment as 3 years. This is the first time his enlistment has appeared this way. In June LammeÌ?s company was in Brunswick, New Jersey, and the word comd is listed in Remarks. In July the company was in White Plains, New York, and again the 3-year enlistment is given and under remarks, On comd. Mower. I have no idea what this means.
August finds the company still in White Plains, New York, but now under Lieut. Thomas Barbee and the command of Col. William Russell. In September they are at Camp Robertson which may be in White Plains but it is not stated that way.
On 14 Sept 1778, the 10th Virginia Regiment was re-organized with the rest of the Virginia Continental units at White Plains, New York. It was renumbered the 6th Virginia Regiment, and the 14th Virginia Regiment was renumbered the 10th .4 Â And so October through December of 1778 finds John in Lieut. Col. Samuel Hawes company of Foot belonging to the 6th Continental Virginia Regiment commanded by Col. William Russell. This is the first time we see John moved from the 10th to the 6th Regiment of Virginia and Sanchez-Saavedra has explained why.
This company under Lieut. Samuel Hawes (now under the command of Col. John Green), remained at Camp Middlebrook, New Jersey, until May of 1779. In May they were located in Smith Clove and John is listed as on duty. It was not until July that we see another place, Camp Ramepan [but it could be Ramapo as there are mountains by this name nearby] and they are listed in Smith Clove in August and Camp Ramepan in September. It is very probable that is the same place, one card listing the place and another the camps name. In July it is stated he was on comd and in August on duty. Possibly these mean the same thing.5
October 1779 we find the company in Haverstraw, New York6 and in November in Camp ??, also listed as Morristown (New Jersey).7 These cards all state his enlistment is for the war. The last muster roll we find is the one dated Nov 1779 - 9 Dec 1779. No more are listed. No more pay rolls or muster rolls are on the microfilm.
It seems likely to this writer that John had served his three years, which was his commitment when he signed up in December 1776, and he went home. Discharge papers were not given at this time and with no muster rolls or pay cards beyond December 1779, it is unlikely he was still in service. If conditions at Morristown were worse than Valley Forge where John had spent a number of months, this may have hastened his decision to return home when his three years were up.
According to Sanchez-Saavedra, the 10th regiment served at Brandywine and through the remainder of the campaigns in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.8
In reading the description of the Regiments from Sanchez-Saavedra, it is easy to make an error. The 10th was renamed the 6th but then the 14th became the 10th. At this point when following the regiment John would have served in, you must follow the 6th and I do not find anything in the Sanchez-Saavedra book that tells of the location of the 6th after 1779. All references are to the 10th [the old 14th] and the officers are all different from the ones who were in the old 10th, now the 6th. Sanchez-Saavedra only states that the new 10th Virginia Regiment was part of Muhlenburgs Brigade in 1778-1779 and part of Scotts Brigade in 1779. In May 1779 the regiment was combined with the 1st Virginia Regiment.
I have seen written that John served until the end of the American Revolution, but there is nothing to support this. Perhaps the person who wrote this overlooked the renumbering of these regiments. But it appears to this writer that in December of 1779, John McMullan ended his service and went home.
For the entire duration of the war, John remained a private. And he was either in the hospital or on duty each and every month at the muster roll. There are no furloughs ever listed. He fulfilled his duty to his country, helping fight for independence and enduring many hardships in doing so.
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Endnotes
1 Continental Congress resolution, Sept. 16, 1776, Governors Office, Letters Received, Executive Department, Archives Division, VSL (This item was calendared as Resolutions. Re: revolutionary army in Claudia B. Grundman, comp., Calendar of Continental Congress Papers [Richmond, 1973], 1). See also Dixon and Hunters Va. Gaz. (Williamsburg) Feb 28, 1777.
2 Â A General Return of the 10th Continental Virg[ini]a Regiment, Commanded by Colo. Edward Stevens, April the 10th 1777, folder 13, William H. Cabell Papers, Executive Papers, Executive Department, Archives Division, VSL.
3Illness, not musket balls, was the great killer. Dysentery and typhus were rampant. Many makeshift hospitals were set up in the region. The Army's medical department used at least 50 barns, dwellings, churches or meeting houses throughout a wide area of Eastern Pennsylvania as temporary hospitals. These places were mostly understaffed, fetid breeding grounds of disease. All were chronically short of medical supplies.
4 A Guide to Virginia Military Organizations in the American Revolution, 1774-1787. Compiled by E. M. Sanzhez-Saavedra. Virginia State Library 1978.
5Smith's Clove is a narrow valley south of West Point and about due west of Fort Montgomery. Since the main north-south road leading to the West Point area from north Jersey ran through the Clove, the region was almost constantly occupied by Continentals and/or New York militia from late 1776 on. Smith's Clove runs from Suffern to Monroe NY. Thatcher's Diary refers to it as "Smith's Clove is a fine level plain of rich land, situated at the foot of the high mountains on the west side of Hudson River. It is about fourteen miles in the rear of the garrison at West Point, and surrounded on all sides by the highlands."
As mentioned, "clove" is based in the Dutch term for "pass," other related English words found in the verb "cleave" and, of course, "cleavage." GW's headquarters noted in the dateline was Galloway's Tavern, a frequently used ordinary. Galloway's was used throughout nearly the entire summer of 1779 as Lord Stirling's HQ, his division remaining in the Clove after the departure of the PA division from its camp north of Smith's Tavern, and of the MD division from just south of it.
The dating of the orders as July 22 reflects that period during which GW was particularly devoid of intelligence as to the destination of Howe's transport fleet, the army's pausing in the Clove being his best compromise between anticipated moves to New England or Philadelphia. As reports of the fleet moving southward began to arrive, the C-I-C responded by moving the troops to the Neshaminy camp, again halting at a position short of fully committing to a move to Philly.
I received this information from Scott Smith, Am Revolutionary War researcher from information he received from other AM War researchers. scott@wscottsmith.com
Head Quarters, Slott's, 71 Sunday, June 6, 1779.
[Note 71: Stephen Slows (Slot). He was a captain in the Orange County militia. His place was about 6 miles south of Galloway's on the fork of the Clove road, which led to Suffern's.] Parole Philadelphia. Countersigns Peeks Kill, Poland.
The Pennsylvania division is to take post at June's or in the Vicinity according to the situation of ground &c. and send a light party of three or four hundred men into the passage of the mountain, at the cross roads,72 where Colo. Malcom is, there to remain 'till further orders.
6[Note 72: The Haverstraw road entered the Clove from the east and joined the Clove road at June's.]
The Virginia division to move to Smith's tavern.73 Baron DeKalb's Division (except the two companies of Light Infantry ordered there from, which are to remain at Suffren's) to move on by way of Slott's and Galloway's and join the other troops. The whole to move at the rising of the moon.
[Note 73: Smith's Tavern, in Smith's Clove, named from the "Horseblock" Smiths, notorious Tories, of whom Austin Smith, Claudius Smith, and Richard, son of Claudius, were the principal ones at this period.] Scott Smith also supplied this from a fellow American Revolutionary War researcher. scott@wscottsmith.com
Another researcher shared with Scott who shared with the author:
I'm just making guesses that it could be Haverstraw NY and could Ramepan be Ramapo?
The reason I ask all of these are in an area on the New York/New Jersey border (Rockland and Bergen Counties...and a little north), where there was a LOT of Continental Army activity. This area is part of the Ramapo Mountains and Haverstraw NY is not too far away. scott@wscottsmith.com
7 At Morristown, New Jersey, in the winter of 1779-80 the army suffered worse hardships than at Valley Forge. Congress could do little but attempt to shift its responsibilities onto the states, giving each the task of providing clothing for its own troops and furnishing certain quotas of specific supplies for the entire Army. The system of "specific supplies" worked not at all. Not only were the states laggard in furnishing supplies, but when they did it was seldom at the time or place they were needed. This breakdown in the supply system was more than even General Greene, as Quartermaster General, could cope with, and in early 1780, under heavy criticism in Congress, he resigned his position. US Army Center of Military History.
8 A Guide to Virginia Military Organizations in the American Revolution, 1774-1787. Compiled by E. M. Sanzhez-Saavedra. Virginia State Library 1978
John McMullans Company Pay Roll, Company Muster Roll and other military records, copied from microfilm records at Wallace State College Library, Hanceville, AL. This microfilm is from the compiled military records of the Soldiers of the American Revolution.
Copyright for these pages and the information contained thereon lies with the writer of this document. Reproduction or commercial use of any kind is strictly and expressly prohibited without permission of the author.
John McMullan's Trunk
By Ann Hunter Burkes
 Many families have a story that passes relatively unchanged from generation to generation. Sometimes that story relates a daring deed performed by a family many generations ago. Other family stories tell of the historical importance of family-owned property. In the John McMullan family, the story concerns a trunk.
I first learned about the trunk from reading the story in Albert McMullans The History of McMullan and Allied Families. John McMullan came to America from Ireland about 1760. John had followed his brothers from their birthplace of Tralee to Dublin. In Dublin, John served as an apprentice, probably as a tailor, before coming to Virginia. In Virginia John married and began a family. During the Revolutionary War, this patriot served as a junior officer in the 11th Virginia Regiment. After the war, John was granted 400 acres of land in Orange County Virginia and lived there until he moved to Elbert County, Georgia.
When he traveled to the new world, John McMullan brought with him a trunk (or tailors chest) made of cypress, which he used to hold the tools of his trade. After the death of John McMullan, the trunk became the property of his son Patrick McMullan and was then passed to his son William McMullan. William Marion McMullan, the son of William McMullan, was the next owner of the trunk, and it was then passed to his son William Jesse (Willie) McMullan. Miley McMullan owned the trunk for many years and it now it is in the care of Grayson and Bonnie McMullan of Hickory.
It seems incredible that one object could remain in a family for so many years, but a letter written by William Jesse McMullan on March 10, 1912, will help explain the care taken to see that the trunk remained in the McMullan family. The letter states:
History of the McMullan Chest brought from Ireland to Richmond, Virginia in 1760 1
It was carried on a wagon from Virginia to Elbert County, Georgia in the fall of the year 1797. After the death of John the 1st., it fell into the hands of Patrick his second son who used it for keeping his papers & money & whiskey, when he had but little.
At Patricks death, Aug. 31st. and after his burial Sept. 1, 1836, his children held a consultation. When the business of the estate was turned over to his oldest son William, and as the chest contained his papers & valuables, William demanded of the widow (Stowers) his 2nd wife, the keys and he took the chest home with him. He, William, afterwards repaired the lid, hinges and lock and painted it.
At Williams death, December 20th 1855, it was taken in charge of, by his older son Jessie Pemberton who brought it from Elbert Co., to Newton Co., Miss. in the 1st of 1866. He took the partitions or pigeon holes out and made a provisions box out of it on the trip, using the lid for a dining table. He afterwards used it to put clothing in and after his death 1879 his widow used it as before his death. Her home burned March 23, 1901. Her son Robert saved the chest the first article though nearly all of their goods was consumed. On the 10th of November she agreed to exchange the chest with W. J. McMullan for a nice trunk and November 18th the exchange was made, all parties being satisfied.
This is the record given by W. M. McMullan, my father, at the age of 76 years, he being the last and only one that knew its history, or where it came from. It was his father that got possession of it in 1836 and he knew it well several years before. In the past since he could recollect, his father William was well up on the family history, having been born in 1792 and his son William Marion remembered most of it distinctly. Age of the chest 152 years this March 10th, 1912 and now it is to my heirs.
This is my will concerning the old chest. Preserve it as best you can. Never allow it to be sold unless it be among yourselves. If ever the house gets on fire, by all means save the chest.
Your Father W. J. McMullan, March 10th. A.D. 1912.
Through a prized possession such as the trunk, members of the McMullan family will be constantly reminded of their heritage; however, the real mystery concerning the trunk is: Did my great-great-great-great grandfather John McMullan REALLY use the tools stored in the trunk to make the first uniform worn by General George Washington after he became Commander-in-Chief of the Army?He was in approximately the right place at approximately the right time and was trained as a tailor but whether he made the uniform or not remains unproven. Perhaps not knowing the truth is really part of the treasure left to us by John McMullan. As his descendants we can still take great pride in the service he gave to our country and dedicate ourselves to continuing to serve our communities and our great nation.
[1] Edited only for clarity.
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