America 250 – Joseph Guess by Angela Michener

Joseph Guess was born about 1762 in Fairfax, County in the Colony of Virginia. His family moved to Orange County, in the Province of North Carolina when he was young and he was drafted in the local militia when he was of “age”, usually 16. He served as a private for 9 months in the New Levies (emergency conscripted soldiers in 1778 and 1779 authorized by the North Carolina General Assembly) under Capt. William Jamieson and Lt. Col. Archibald Lytle. They marched to Charlotte, then on to South Carolina; Charleston, Purrysburg, Two Sisters and Turkey Hill on the Savannah River. He was discharged at a place called Stono, according to his pension information.

A short time after his discharge, he was again drafted as a private and served for 3 months under Capt. Davis Gresham, Lt. Col. Thomas Taylor and Col. Francois DeMalmedy in the North Carolina Light Dragoons. The Dragoons were trained to fight on both horseback and foot, playing a crucial role in the American Revolution. They went against the Tories on the Pee Dee River and had many skirmishes with them. The prisoners they took were sent to Gen. Henry William Harrington, who was in the field not far from them.

Joseph Guess was my 5th great grandfather. He applied for a Revolutionary War pension and was placed on the pension roll on 14 March 1833. He died on 13 Jan 1835 in Caldwell, Kentucky. There is no marriage record and in order to continue to receive his pension, his widow Constance (Taylor), appeared in the Princeton, Kentucky courthouse on 17 May 1841 and testified under oath that she and Joseph were married on 11 Jan 1785 in North Carolina.

Angela Michener, Yakima Valley Genealogical Society