Was not in the battles ... being a Waiter.

Enlisted Men and Civilians as Officers Servants

John U. Rees

Officers servants attended them in the field, as well as in a military camp or garrison.
Detail from Pierre Charles L'Enfant (1754-1825) painting of West Point and dependencies.
View is from the east side of the Hudson River, across the water on the right is the lower
part of Constitution Island. This was done after August 1782, as service chevrons, worn on
the saluting soldiers left sleeve, were first authorized on the 7th of that month. Library of
Congress, http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2004678934/

Contents
Part 1. Our boys bring down something to eat ...
Overview, and Field and Company Officers Servants
Part. 2. When the Cook has a mind to cut a figure
General Officers Personal and Household Servants
(Work in progress)

Part 1. Our boys bring down something to eat ...

Overview, and Field and Company Officers Servants
____________________
Ensign Ephraim Kirby, Olneys Rhode Island Battalion, to Ruth Marvin:
Camp Var-Planks Point, October 18, 1782
My Dear Ruthy, I am in a tent, destitute of any fire,
(except a little at some distance where my servant cooks my victuals) and a violent cold northeast storm
of rain, (which has raged two days and nights) beats about my ears, & still appears to encrease. Am so
chilld with cold that I now write you with my gloves on.1

____________________
In August 1779 Continental army surgeon Jabez Campfield wrote, "How hard is the soldier's lott
who's least danger is in the field of action? Fighting happens seldom, but fatigue, hunger, cold &
heat are constantly varying his distress." In the same vein, eighteenth century common soldiers
spent much more time preparing meals, digging fortifications or latrines, chopping and hauling
wood, and myriad other mundane tasks, than facing the enemy in battle. One of the lesser-known
roles for a soldier was acting as servant to one or several officers.2
Officers of both sides during the War for American Independence were allowed one or more
personal servants, also called waiters, but the practice was regulated. November 1776 Continental
army orders stipulated, No Boys (under the idea of Waiters, or otherwise) or old Men, to be
inlisted Waiters (sometimes also called servant, batman, or bowman) accompanied their
masters wherever they went. Directions for making unit field returns in March 1779 mentioned,
Under Rank and File in the first column are to be inserted all men fit for duty, in which number
are to be included all officers waiters belonging to the Army (who are ever to go on duty with
their Masters, making part of the detail). Furthermore, soldier-waiters were expected to carry
arms during drill and in line of battle, though, in reality, this did not always occur. On May 4,
1779 General George Washington directed that the armys brigades practice Maj. Gen. Friedrich
Wilhelm de Steubens new manual of discipline and maneuver, and as a single man's being
ignorant of the principles will often cause disorder in a platoon and sometimes in a battalion, no
waiter or other soldier is to be exempted from this exercise. This was reiterated a week later,
The Commanding officers of regiments are to be answerable that no Waiter or other person
absents himself from the Exercise on any pretence and the Generals and Inspectors of Brigades
will visit the regiments and see that this order is strictly obeyed. At months end, the
commander-in-chief seemed to relent: No Arms to be delivered to Waggoners, Waiters of the
General Field or Staff officers but only to those men who are to appear in Action. Thus far, no
official allotment of servants to officers prior to 1782 is known. One early intimation dates from
November 1778, to the commander of Sheldons 2nd Continental Light Dragoons, A field
officer is to be allowed forage for four horses only including his servants. A captain forage for 3
horses including his servants, and a subaltern forage for two horses including his servants.3 This
likely alludes to one servant per officer, with the additional mounts being pack horses for
baggage. Near the end of the war, the commander-in-chief laid out the authorized allowance:
Head Quarters, Philadelphia, Saturday, January 19, 1782 Commanding Officers of Regiments
or Corps are not in future to furnish Servants or Waggoners from their Corps on any pretext
whatever, without an express order from the Commander in Chief or Officer Commanding the
Army. Officers actually belonging to regiments or Corps and serving with them are to be allowed
servants from their respective Corps in the following proportions: Infantry, Artillery and all Corps
serving on foot viz.

Lt. Colonel Major Two each One with Arms one without Arms
Captain Subalterns Surgeon Mate each one Servant with Arms
Cavalry Colonel Lt Colonel Two without Arms
And to each regimental Waggon is to be allowed one Waggoner without Arms. Field Officers
of Regiments or Corps may take one servant with them on Furlough, but no other regimental
Officers to take one from their Regiment on any Account.
No Officer or Doctor to take a Convalescent from the Hospital for a servant on pain of being
Tryed by a Court Martial.
The General and Military staff and officers not belonging to Corps are to be allowed Servants
in the following proportions, and when they are not otherwise provided may take them from the
Army viz.
Major General four Servants
Brigadier General four do.
Colonel Two do.
Lt.Colonel One do. without Arms.
Major One do.
Captains One do.
Aid decamp One do.
Major of Brigade one do.
The servants carrying Arms are to be exempt from Guards and other Camp duties, but are to
appear under arms whenever the Regimt. Parades and are to Mount guard with the Officer on
whom they wait. The Servants without Arms are never to appear in rank and File, except at the
Inspection. When a Regiment Marches and leaves its Camp standing One servant to each
Company is to be permitted to remain; but on the Camps being struck and the Baggage Loaded
they are to join their regiment.4

Any overall British stipulations were altered by commanders as needed. During his 1777
campaign into New York Lt. Gen. John Burgoyne directed that every Regiment should be upon the
same regulation that the Servants and Batmen be allowed as follows:
Servants Batmen 6.
Field Officers,
1
2
Captains,
1
2
Subalterns of a Company,
2
1
When the mens Tents are carried upon Bat-horses, a Batman to be allowed each Company. The
Batmen to be always armed, and to form the baggage Guard. The Servants to be considered as
effective in the Ranks, and are to attend at every evening parade; the other parades and roll callings
are excused, unless the Regiments are ordered under Arms. 5

In mid-winter 1781 Lt. Gen. Charles, Earl Cornwalliss forces advanced into North Carolina.
At Ramsours Mill on January 24 he reiterated the Regulations respecting Negroes & Horses:
Horses
Field Offrs. of Infry.
3
Captns. Subns. & Staff
2
Serjts. Major, & Qr Mr Serjts.
1
No Woman or Negroe to ;possess a Horse.

Negroes
2 Each
1 [ditto]
1 [ditto]

The black retainers referred to were servants likely doubling as packhorseman.

Five days after the action at Guilford Courthouse, on the road to New Garden, and from there,
Camden, South Carolina, numbers of servants, batmen and horses were adjusted once more.
Head Qrs: Camp, Near Deep River 20th March 81 7
Brigd. Orders
Lord Cornwallis having Signifyd To Brigd. Genl. OHara that it is his Lordships wish that the
Number of Bat Men Servants & Orderlys may be greatly decreased the Necessity of the Service
requiring every means what ever may be used to Strengthen the files in each Corps, & that those
Men permitted to continue in Such Imploy shall be of the worst Marchers.
Genl. OHara is pleased to Make the following regulations for the Brgd. of Guards
No.[of servants/bat men]
No.
Bd. Genls.
2
Gl. Staff Offrs.
1
Surgeons
1
Commdant
1
Regl. Staff
1
between two
Compy.
1 to each
[officers]

While it is possible the proportion of black soldiers serving as officers waiters may have been
higher in southern Continental regiments, throughout the army most waiters were white, a fait
accompli given the relatively small numbers of blacks in Continental regiments. One hundred and
five veterans pension applications were examined in a preliminary study of African-Americans in
southern Continental regiments. Of those, nine of fifty-six Virginians told of serving as an
officers waiter or batman. Three of those said they served as a Bowman, likely a colloquial
pronunciation of batman, from the French cheval de bt [pronounced bah] for packhorse; the
term could be used to denote a servant or waiter, but a batman was also responsible for pack or
bat horses used to carry baggage. Several men recorded the officers they served, including
James Harriss time as servant to James Monroe (then Major of horse & Aid de Camp to [Maj.
Gen, William Alexander] Lord Stirling,), mulatto James Coopers 1780 service as waiter to Col.
Abraham Buford (11th Virginia Regiment, later the 3rd Virginia Detachment of 1780), and
James Wallace as cook for Lt. Col. Charles Porterfield of the Virginia State Regiment, before the
colonels death at the Battle of Camden. The single black soldier found for Georgia was, by
turns, waiter to major generals Friedrich Wilhelm de Steuben and Arthur St. Clair, one South
Carolinian was an artillery matross who occasionally did duty as servant to Col. Barnard
Beekman, 4th South Carolina artillery, and a North Carolinian for thirteen months late in the war
waited upon Brig. Gen. Jethro Sumner.8 (See Appendix A. for the names and pension numbers of
these men.)

Two of four Continental soldiers drawn in 1781 by French Sublieutenant Jean-Baptiste-Antoine de Verger,
Royal Deux-Ponts Regiment. The soldier on the left has long been thought to be from the Rhode Island
Regiment of 1781, that on the right of Hazens Canadian Regiment. Another version, found in French officer
Baron Ludwig von Closens journal, is headed Costumer de lArm Amricaine en 1782. Closens copy
notes that the left-hand soldier belongs to a Massachusetts Continental regiment, that on the right a New
Jersey regiment. Howard C. Rice and Anne S.K. Brown, eds. and trans., The American Campaigns of
Rochambeau's Army 1780, 1781, 1782, 1783, vol. I (Princeton, N.J. and Providence, R.I.,: Princeton University
Press, 1972), between pages 142-143 (description on page xxi). Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection, Brown
University. Sidney Kaplan, The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution, 1770-1800 (Greenwich, Ct.:
New York Graphic Society, Ltd. in Association with the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1973), 42.

On a small scale, a study of muster rolls for the New Jersey regiments from 1777 to early 1779
reveals that of ten soldiers listed as waiters from September 1778 to February 1779, all were white.
These men all served with officers detached from their company, or regimental and brigade
commanders. There must have been waiters attached to the other company officers, but the men
were not named as such possibly because they were not on detached duty. In January 1781 a "List
of the Men of Col. Spencer's Regiment belonging to the Jersey Line" contained seventy-two
soldiers, twelve of whom were described as "Waiters, Absent." The colonel and major of the
regiment each had two waiters, while two captains, four lieutenants, the surgeon and a major of the
New Jersey brigade each had one waiter apiece. James Condon, thirty-three years old at the time of
his enlistment in May 1777, recalled of his service, "enlisted for and During the war in the
Company Commanded by [Capt., later Major] John Hollinshead belonging to the second Jersey
Regiment ... he continued to serve ... near six years and after the takeing of Cornwallis ... was not in
the battles ... being a Waiter." And, reiterating the use of white servants, some not soldiers,
Georgian Dr. William Read, traveling north to join Washingtons army in June 1778, made some
improvements in his arms and travelling equipments, discharged a drunken servant and employed a
steady, respectable Englishman, named John Houston.9
Despite their plebian reputation, even New England officers, a number of them tradesman in
civilian life, took on a servant or two. Col. Loammi Baldwin, 26th Continental Regiment, described
his situation after the autumn 1776 retreat to the Delaware River: Dec. 16 I have lived 14 days
upon nothing but fresh beef without salt and dry flower (which we have cooked in the best
manner we could without even so much as a camp kittle half the time). Except 1 day allowance
of salt pork, a fowle or two and a few sasages my waiter bought of some of the inhabitants &
a little salt they beged.10 Lt. John Tilden, serving with one of the Pennsylvania battalions in 1782,
described other duties of servants in the field, writing from near the Edisto River in South Carolina:
January 9. [1782] - Make an addition to our hut; very bad off for want of furniture. ... Dispatch two
of our valets to head quarters.
January 10. - Spend the day in reading Spanish novels. Our valets arrive this afternoon-bring tents
which relieve us very much.
[Then, operating against British forces occupying James Island in the Stono River.]
January 13. - Move up two miles from [Stono] river, lay in ye woods all day and eat potatoes. Our
boys [waiters] not coming down with our bedclothes, we pass the night horridly ...
January 14. - Our boys bring down something to eat ... 11

A good servant was close at hand when needed. Thomas Anburey, a gentleman volunteer
serving with the 24th Regiment under Gen. John Burgoyne in northern New York, wrote that just
after the Battle at Freemans Farm, My servant arrived with my canteen, which was rather
fortunate, as we stood in need of some refreshment after our march through the woods, and this little
skirmish. I requested [Lieutenant] Dunbar [of the Royal Artillery], to partake of it sitting down
upon a tree At the June 23, 1780 Battle of Springfield, New Jersey, Pvt. Thomas Hobbs, 1st
Guards Regiment, was servant to Col. [Frederick] Thomas [1st Foot Guards] at the time and
with the brigade. Hobbs testified at Col. Cosmo Gordons court martial he, had the care of a
horse and a pair of canteens belonging to Col. [John] Howard [1st Guards], and of a few things
belonging to Col. Thomas After stopping to repair the trappings of the horse or canteens
Hobbs followed the Brigade of Guards as it moved towards the enemy.12

A horse canteen, carried by packhorse.

French, 1763. Denis Diderot, Encyclopdie ou Dictionnaire Raisonn des Sciences, des Arts et ds
Mtiers, vol. 3 (1763), "Coffretier-malletier-bahutier," plates.

Pack horse images, likely Prussian (undated, circa mid-eighteenth century). Plates
(unbound) from the Society of the Cincinnati collections (courtesy of Marko Zlatich). The
Society of the Cincinnati, 2118 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, DC 20008.

Waiters on campaign were sometimes in or near combat. At Freemans Farm (First Battle of
Saratoga) a bat-man of General Frasers [British Brig. Gen. Simon Fraser] rescued from the
Indians an officer of the Americans 13 Ensign George Inman, 17th Regiment of Foot, met a
Philadelphia woman during the British occupation of that city and married her on April 23, 1778.
He wrote in his memoirs,
On our preparing to quit Philadelphia I procured a passage for my wife in the Sukey (a Brig of
my Uncles) [bound] for New York, but was, owing to her excessive sickness, obliged to
send for her, and on the 16th June we evacuated the City, crossed (at) Coopers ferry, and I had a
Coach for the convenience of my wife, my man servant and his wife who was also my servant,
attended her, as I could not be so much with her as I could have wished. We proceeded through
Mount Holly and met with very little obstruction from the Enemy, excepting that of their
destroying the Bridges we were to pass and filling up the Wells that we might not get water
until we came to Monmouth on whose Heights we took Post on the 26th abt noon, and finding
that the Americans intended an attack we halted the 27th, the Enemy in parties making their
appearance at every avenue in front of our advance posts 14

After the June 28 Battle of Monmouth, We marched on our Route towards Sandy Hook abt
12 at night without being further molested by the enemy. The next morning abt nine I got up to
that part of the baggage where my wife was, she remaining in the Coach since she had left me,
the Baggage had been attacked and my dear Mary very narrowly escaped being shot. Unless
they had run off, the Inman servants must have come under fire, too.15

On the American side of the Monmouth battle, Dr. William Read reached the field late in the
day and when he rode into the thick of the battle, his servant [Peter Houston] all the time
remonstrating with him to go no further, reminding him of a promise not to carry him onto
battle.16 Of that same action G.W. Parke Custis, General Washingtons step-grandson and adopted
son, recounted a secondhand story,
A ludicrous occurrence varied the incidents of the 28th of June. The servants of the general
officers were usually well armed and mounted. Will Lee or Billy, the former huntsman and
favorite body-servant of the Chief, a square muscular figure, and capital horseman, paraded a
corps of valets, and riding pompously at their head, proceeded to an eminence crowned by a large
sycamore tree, from whence could be seen an extensive portion of the field of battle. Here Billy
halted, and having unslung the large telescope he always carried in a leathern case, with a martial
air applied it to his eye, and reconnoitred the enemy. Washington having observed these
manoeuvres of the corps of valets, pointed them out to his officers, observing, See those fellows
collecting on yonder height; the enemy will fire on them to a certainty. Meanwhile the British
were not unmindful of the assemblage on the height and perceiving a burly figure well mounted,
and with telescope in hand, they determined to pay their respects to the group. A shot from a sixpounder passed through the tree, cutting away the limbs, and producing a scampering among the
valets 17

Francis John Brooke, who served as a lieutenant in the 1st Continental Artillery Regiment,
recounted after the war,
At Williamsburgh in 1824, on our return from York, there came an old man by the name of
Powell, who had been the Marquis guide, after the army fell down between the two rivers James
and York, and he asked Gen. LaFayette if he remembered the fine horse that was killed under
him, at the battle of Green Spring, to which the General replied, the horse was a very fine one,
given him by a dear friend of Virginia, who I suppose was Gen. Nelson; but he was not killed
under him, he had a leg broken by a six pounder, and he made his bowman cut his throat.18

One British officers servant matched his masters martial character and idiosyncratic manner.
Richard St. George Mansergh St. George was a lieutenant in the 52nd Regiment light infantry
company; his friend Lt. Martin Hunter noted,
St. George and I were great friends. He was a fine, high-spirited, gentleman-like young man, but
uncommonly passionate. He had a little Irish servant, the most extraordinary creature that ever
was. He had been a servant in the family a long time, and was the ugliest little fellow I ever
beheld. He was very much marked with the smallpox, had a broad white face, little blue eyes, and
lank long hair. St. George always called him the Irish priest. This little man was to the full as
passionate as his master, and frequently provoked him to such a degree that I often expected he
would have killed him. St. George was quite military mad, and the man copied the master in
everything. When the man was fully equipped for action, he was a most laughable figure as was
ever seen. He wore one of his masters old regimental jackets, a set of American accoutrements, a
long rifle and sword, with a brace of horse pistols, and was attended by two runaway Negroes
equipped in the same way. On a shot being fired at any of the advanced posts, master and man set
off immediately the master attended by a man of the Company named Peacock, who had been a
great deal with the Indians in Canada, and a famous good soldier. I have often been surprised that
they were not killed.19

Myself on Picquet in a Tempest Disdaining a Cloak: This drawing was done by Lt. Richard St.
George Mansergh St. George, 52nd Regiment of Foot. Likely portraying an incident from the 1777
campaign around Philadelphia, the servant pictured may have been his man Collins. (Courtesy of
the Harlan Crow Library, Dallas, Texas)

Hunter wrote that while campaigning in November 1776,

We saw about three hundred of the enemy march out of Fort Lee, and retreat by Newtown
Bridge. The 52nd Light Company was quartered in a house, the cellar of which was full of
uncommonly fine Madeira The next morning when we marched, Collins, the Captains
servant, who liked a drop as well as his master, had loaded the Captains horses with so much,
that they could scarcely move off the ground. Everything had been thrown away to make room
for the Madeira, but it would not all do; three dozen must have been left behind, if St. George had
not, very good-naturedly, put it on one of his horses.20

Lieutenant St. George also drew caricatures uncommonly well, and I prevailed on him one
day to draw himself and man in a violent passion, which he did so well, and so like, that
everybody knew it immediately. Bernard, his servant, was lying on his back, and St. George,
with one foot on his breast, flourishing a sabre over his head, telling him to say a short prayer,
for that he had not more than a minute to live. Bernard may have been Collins first name or
one of the black retainers mentioned above by Hunter.21

Lt. St. George being carried off the field by Cpl. Peacock. Detail from Battle of
Germantown, October 4, 1777, by Xavier della Gatta , 1782 (Courtesy of the Museum of the
American Revolution). Historian Don N. Hagist notes, Corporal George Peacock, the
soldier named above, attended Lt. St. George well: when the officer was severely wounded
in the head at the battle of Germantown in October 1777, `he was carried off the field by
Peacock, who behaved like himself, otherwise St. George must certainly have been taken
prisoner. St. George asked Lt. Hunter `to take good care of Peacock, and gave him fifty
guineas. Peacock, a Yorkshire man who had joined the 52nd Regiment in 1763 at the age of
sixteen, continued in the army until 1799 when he was discharged and received a pension.

Battle of Germantown, October 4, 1777, by Xavier della Gatta (1782).

Courtesy of the Museum of the American Revolution.
(For more on della Gattas Germantown see, Stephen R. Gilbert, An Analysis of the
Xavier della Gatta Paintings of the Battles of Paoli and Germantown, 1777: Part II,
Military Collector & Historian, vol. XLVII, no. 4 (Winter 1995), 146-162.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/209914033/%E2%80%9CThe-Battle-ofGermantown%E2%80%9D-by-Xavier-della-Gatta-Stephen-R-Gilbert-%E2%80%9CAnAnalysis-of-the-Xavier-della-Gatta-Paintings-of-the-Battles-of-Paoli-and-Ger

Was taking servants from the ranks, as was done by Continental army officers, detrimental to
the service? The answer is, not at first, but eventually. In January 1779 General Washington told
the Board of War that the practice was well in hand.
Some little time before I left Fredericksburg I had a very minute inquiry made into the number of
Soldiers employed as Officers servants, and I had the satisfaction of finding by the Report of
Colo. Ward, Commy. General of Musters, that the number was not more than common usage and
the necessity of the Case required. In some particular instances where he found more soldiers
returned as Waiters than was justifiable or reasonable, he mentioned the matter to the Officers
employing them, and he informed me that at a subsequent Muster he found the injury redressed.
I cannot think that the measure, of allowing the Officer a sum equal to the pay and Rations of a
Soldier, to hire a Waiter would answer, for this obvious reason, that, at this time, no person can
be procured to do the most common drudgery for the pay and Rations of a Soldier, so far from it,
that the pay of a labourer now exceeds that of many Officers. The Board must be fully acquainted
with the discontents which already prevail in the Army on acct. of the disproportion between their
pay and every necessary Article of life, and to enter into a regulation, which would oblige the
Officers to pay as much for a servant as he himself receives, and which would deprive him of a
priviledge which I believe is allowed in all services, would I am confident be attended with the

most disagreeable consequences. That Officers should be limited to a number of servants, in

proportion to their Rank I think highly proper, and had I not found from Colo. Wards
representation, as before mentioned, that the number so employed was not more than sufficient, I
should have made some regulations on that head.22

On the other hand,

The Board will find by making a strict scrutiny into the Column of Men upon command [i.e.,
detached duty], that the Bulk are employed as Waggoners, Watermen, Artisans and in short in
every kind of Work necessary in and about an Army, for in fact the price of labour is so
extravagant that the Quarter Master is obliged to draw Men from the line, for most of his
purposes or his department must be at a stand.23

In March 1780 Congress passed a resolution that gave the commander-in-chief the authority
to make the most salutary regulations possible for modifying the practice of taking Men from
the regiments to act as servants to Officers, which has heretofore been attended with many bad
consequences.24 Their recommendation was that,
every Officer who by such regulations shall be intitled to a servant and who shall inlist to serve
during the war a youth not under fifteen nor exceeding Eighteen years of age, and who from
appearances is likely to prove an able bodied soldier, such Officer shall retain the Youth so
inlisted as his servant until in the opinion of the Inspector Genl. or one of the sub-inspectors he
shall be fit to bear Arms and the Youth shall receive the bounty Money, Cloathing, pay & rations
of a soldier In case of the death or resignation of such Officer, the servant to be turned over to
some other Officer in the regiment intitled to a servant any Officer intitled to a servant who
shall bring into the field with him a servant of his own, the Officer in such case not to be allowed
a servant out of the Line.25

This same resolve was issued again on March 11 1781, unchanged. Whether it was actually
implemented is not known.
The first real intimation that the practice of soldier-servants had widespread negative
consequences is found in General Washingtons January 18, 1782 army orders.
The Operating force of the Army having Suffered great diminution by the Number of Soldiers
made use of as Servants by persons of different denominations not immediately connected with
the line;
The General anxious to have the Regiments in the most collected State and as respectable as
possible at the opening of the ensuing Campaigne, Orders that in future, no person belonging to
the civil Staff be permitted to take a Soldier as a Servant, and that those Gentlemen in that
Department who now have such, return them to their respective Regiments, or Corps, on or
before the first day of April next, by which time he hopes they will be able to provide Themselves
otherwise without inconvenience.
Officers Commanding Corps are desired to pay particular Attention to this order, and directed
immediately to recall such of their men as are absent without proper authority: especially those
with officers who have retired from the Service.
The General is astonished to find by the returns that some of the absentees are accounted for in
the manner last Mentioned.26

The following day an order stipulating an army-wide standardized allotment of servants

according to rank or function was issued, three months after Maj. Gen. Charles Earl Cornwalliss

army was captured at Yorktown. The great majority of Continental troops were sent home for
good in June 1783, only a year and a half after this order.

Richard St George Mansergh St George, as an ensign in the 4th Regiment of Foot, 1776. In
December 1776 St. George purchased a lieutenants commission in the 52nd Regiment, and
served with the light company until wounded at Germantown, October 4, 1777.
Thomas Gainsborough, artist. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia

Marquis de Lafayette at Yorktown, Jean-Baptiste Le Paon, 1783. The identity of the servant holding
his mount is unknown. (Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania)

Part 1. Our boys bring down something to eat ...

Overview, and Field and Company Officers Servants
Endnotes
1. Dennis P. Ryan, ed., A Salute to Courage: The American Revolution as Seen Through the
Wartime Writings of Officers of the Continental Army and Navy (New York: Columbia Univ. Press,
1979), 276-277.
2. Journal of Surgeon Jabez Campfield, Spencer's Additional Regiment, 4 August 1779, Journals of
the Military Expedition of Major General John Sullivan Against the Six Nations of Indians in 1779
(Glendale, N.Y.: Benchmark Publishing Co., Inc., 1970), 53.
3. General orders, November 10, 1776, John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George
Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources 1745-1799, vol. 6 (Washington, DC: GPO,
1932), 262-263. General orders, March 11 and May 4, 1779, ibid., vol. 14 (1936), 224-225, 488;
General orders, 7 August 1782, John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington from
the Original Manuscript Sources 1745-1799, vol. 24 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1938), 487-488;
General orders, 11 August 1782, ibid., vol. 25 (1938), 7-8; General orders, May 12, 1780, ibid., vol.
vol. 18 (1937), 350-351, 407; Washington to the officer commanding Sheldons Dragoons,
November 26, 1778, ibid., vol. 13 (1936), 339.
4. General orders, January 19, 1782, ibid., vol. 23 (1937), 450-452.
5. E.B. OCallaghan, ed., Orderly Book of Lieut. Gen. John Burgoyne from his entry into the State
of New York until his surrender at Saratoga, 16th Oct., 1777, Munsells Historical Series No. VII
(Albany: J. Munsell, 1860), 87-88.
6. A.R. Newsome, ed., "A British Orderly Book, 1780-1781", North Carolina Historical Review,
vol. IX, no. 1 (1932); IX, 2 (1932); IX, 3 (1932); IX, 4 (1932).
7. Ibid.
8. Material gleaned from online transcribed pension files collected at Southern Campaign
Revolutionary War Pension Statements & Rosters, http://www.southerncampaign.org/pen/
(when my gleaning ended on 4/14/2011, 10,788 pension applications and 73 roster transcriptions
were posted). 105 African-American veterans pensions found using the search terms a free black,
black, color, colour, molatto, mulatto, and Negro. Breakdown is as follows:
1 Delaware; 10 Maryland; 56 Virginia, 32 North Carolina, 5 South Carolina; 1 Georgia.

Breakdown pensioners who were servants:

Georgia
Drummer and officers waiter (batman) including Steuben and St. Clair
( Nathan Fry: S39545 a coloured man)
South Carolina
Common soldier (also waiter and matross)
(Isham Carter: S39293 a free man of colour descended from an Indian woman and a negroe
man)
North Carolina
Common soldier waiter to Brig. Gen. Jethro Sumner
(William Casey (Kersey) W29906.5 Free Colored)
Virginia
Common soldier (bowman)
(Shadrach Shavers S38368 Free Colored Person)
Common soldier (waiter for Col. Buford)
( James Cooper: S39362 a Molatto Free Man)

Common soldier (servant to James Monroe)

(John Harris S37997 a free man of Colour)
Common soldier (waiter to Col. Croghan)
Pension Application of James Hawkins: S37991 a coloured man
Common soldier (waiter for several weeks)
William Jackson: W7877 a free man of colour
Common soldier (servant to Col. Hawes)
Francis Pearce (Pierce): R8235 free man of colour
Common soldier (served as a batman, Bowman)
Lewis Smith: S6112 free man of colour
Common soldier (cook for Col. Porterfield)
James Wallace: S7834 free man of colour
Common soldier (bowman)
Reuben Bird: S37776 a mulatto boy Reuben Bird was Boman
for my brother William Gray while he was Lieutenant in the horse service under the command
of Col. White in the Southern Campain of 1780 and 1781
Common soldier (bowman)
Mason Collins: S39355 an illiterate Mulatto
10 (of 56) men noted serving as a waiter, servant, cook, or Bowman (batman, a servant in
charge of pack horses).
Primary resource for soldiers pension applications, Index of Revolutionary War Pension
Applications in the National Archives (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1976),
copies of depositions and related materials in National Archives Microfilm Publication M804
(2,670 reels).
9. Pvt. John Chubb (for the war), colonels waiter. Muster roll for Capt. Henry Luses company, 2nd
New Jersey Regiment, September 1778.
Pvt. Thomas Nichols/Nicholas (nine months), chaplains waiter. Muster roll for Capt. John
Hollinsheads company, 2nd New Jersey Regiment, November and December 1778.
Pvt. William Barrell (for the war), colonels waiter. Muster roll for Capt. Jonathan Phillips
company, 2nd New Jersey Regiment, October 1778.
Pvt. Annanias Stratton (for the war), waiter. Muster roll for Capt. John N. Cummingscompany,
2nd New Jersey Regiment, October 1778.
Pvt. Michael Clark (for the war), Capt. Nathaniel Bowmans waiter. Muster roll for Capt.
Nathaniel Bowmans company, 2nd New Jersey Regiment, September 1778.
Pvt. Jonathan Bondell (three years), waiter for general officer.
Pvt. Lewis Noe (for the war), Colonel David Brearlys waiter.
Pvt. Henry Haylins (for the war), Maj. Gen. William Alexander, Lord Stirlings waiter.
Muster roll for Colonels company,3rd New Jersey Regiment, February 1779.
Pvt. William Harris (three years), waiter.
Pvt. Dennis Hays (for the war), waiter.
Muster roll for Colonel Matthias Ogdens,1st New Jersey Regiment, February 1779.
Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783, National Archives Microfilm Publication M246, Record
Group 93, reels 55 to Reel 62, muster rolls of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th New Jersey Regiments.
January 1781 "List of the Men of Col. Spencer's Regiment belonging to the Jersey Line" contains
seventy-two soldiers, twelve of whom are described as "Waiters, Absent."
Benjamin Applegate, waiter, Lt. Peter Tallman, Stony Point

Andrew Johnston, waiter, 1st Lt. Uzial Meeker, Stony Point

Lewis Johnston, waiter, Capt. Benjamin Weatherbee, Stony Point
Benoni Pew, waiter, Col. Oliver Spencer, Mendham
Lewis Millsom, waiter, ditto
John Bolton, waiter, Maj. John Burrowes, Monmouth
Mathew Smith, waiter, ditto
John Leighton, waiter, 1st Lt. John Stagg, A.A.G., New Windsor
Barnardes Gordon, waiter, Maj. William Barber, aide-de-camp to Maj. Gen. William Alexander,
Lord Stirling, Wallkill
Samuel Pierson, waiter, Lt. Robert Pemberton, Mendham
Anthony Parsill, waiter, Doctor Downy, Stony Point
Aaron Stiles, Capt. John Sandford, Stony Point
Israel Shreve to Washington (enclosure), "A List of the Men of Col. Spencer's Regiment ...," 8
January 1781, George Washington Papers, Presidential Papers Microfilm (Washington: Library
of Congress, 1961), series 4, reel 79.
James Condon (S34220),Index of Revolutionary War Pension Applications in the National
Archives (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1976), and National Archives Microfilm
Publication M804.
Reminiscences of Dr. William Read, Arranged From His Notes and Papers, R.W. Gibbes, M.D.,
Documentary History of the American Revolution: Consisting of Letters and Papers Relating to the
Contest for Liberty, Chiefly in South Carolina, From Originals in the Possession of the Editor, and
Other Sources. 1776-1782 (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1857), 255.
10. Loammi Baldwin, colonel, 26th Continental Regiment, to Mary Baldwin, 19 and 21 December
1776, Collections of Houghton Library, Harvard University (World Wide Web),
http://www.rootsweb.com/~nbstdavi/baldwin1776.html
11. "Extracts From the Journal of Lieutenant John Bell Tilden, Second Pennsylvania Line, 17811782," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 19 (1895), 218-219.
12. Thomas Anburey, Travels Through the Interior Parts of America in a series of letters by an
officer (London: Printed for William Lane, 1789), vol. I, letter XXXVIII, Camp at Freemans Farm,
412. The Trial of the Hon. Col. Cosmo Gordon, of the Third Regiment of Foot-Guards, for
Neglect of Duty before the Enemy, on the 23d of June, 1780, near Springfield, in the Jerseys:
Containing the Whole Proceedings of a General Court-Martial, Held at the City of New-York on
the 22d of August, and continued to the 4th of September, 1782 (London: Printed for Geo.
Harlow, St. Jamess Street, 1783)
13. Anburey, Travels Through the Interior Parts of America in a series of letters by an officer, vol.
I, 411.
14. George Inman, George Inmans Narrative of the American Revolution, The
Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. VII, no. 3 (1883), 237-248. [From the
original, in the possession of Chas. R. Hildeburn.]
15. Ibid.
16. Reminiscences of Dr. William Read, Documentary History of the American Revolution, 255.
17. G.W. Parke Custis, Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington (Washington, D.C.:
William H. Moore, 1859), 28-29.
18. Francis J. Brooke, A Family Narrative being the Reminiscences of a Revolutionary Officer
(Richmond, Va.: MacFarlane and Fergusson, 1849), 18-19; see also, The Magazine of History,

with Notes and Queries, extra numbers 73-76, vol. XIX (Tarrytown, N.Y.: William Abbatt,
1922), 90-91.
19. Martin Hunter, The Journal of Gen. Sir Martin Hunter (Edinburgh: The Edinburgh Press,
1894), 21-22.
20. Ibid., 20-21.
21. Ibid., 21-22.
22. Washington to the Board of War, 9 January 1779, Fitzpatrick, The Writings of George
Washington, vol. 14 (1936), 497-498.
23. Ibid.
24. Continental Congress, Resolution on Officers' Servants, March 11, 1780, and copy of the
same Congressional resolution, March 11, 1781, George Washington Papers, Presidential Papers
Microfilm (Washington: Library of Congress, 1961), series 4.
25. Ibid.
26. General orders, 18 January 1782, Fitzpatrick, The Writings of George Washington, vol. 23
(1937), 449.