Rice C Darnell’s War of 1812 Service

My sister Janice (she’s my cohort in genealogy hunting) discovered our ancestor Rice C Darnell’s War of 1812 Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files at Fold3.com. It’s a large 11 page file that answers several questions.

Rice enlisted  on the fourth Monday in July 1814 ( July 25th) at the Orange Courthouse as a private in Captain William Smith’s company of the Virginia Militia’s 1st Regiment, Crutchfield’s division. He was discharged on December 19, 1814 in Fredericksburg, VA without written documentation.    His brother, James F enlisted just days later in the same company.

But what about that mysterious connection to Anthony Wilkerson? On page five of the file, is a notation that Rice has become a substitute for the mysterious Anthony Wilkerson on October 10 1814. I’m not sure just how this might have worked at the time, but at least we now know the Rice was the substitute. Still no clue who Anthony is or why Rice became a substitute.

And as it always happens when doing research, discovering Rice’s file leads us to more questions. For instance, there is a document from 1855 involving one of the Ohio land bounty claims given to Rice. It’s witnessed by Archibald Darnell.  He appears no where in our family tree, well at least that we know of yet! Is he a relative? Did he just happen to be in the office when they needed a witness and isn’t connected at all?  Always something more….

 

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