Since the states were responsible for Militia Pay Rolls during the Revolutionary War, and Camp Security was guarded by York County Militia during much of its existence, the Pennsylvania State Archives is the place to look for individual names. Pennsylvania State Archives, RG-4, Records of the Comptroller General. Military Accounts,
(A public meeting with information on the May/June 2015 dig at Camp Security will be held at the Springettsbury Township building, 1501 Mount Zion Road at 7 p.m. Wednesday March 25.) There are 42 pages in the Revolutionary War pension file of Manuel Zeigler [Frederick Emanuel Zeigler] at the National
How easy was it to escape from Camp Security near York? It doesn’t seem to have been very difficult. Many of the first group of British Revolutionary War prisoners confined there, the so-called Convention Troops surrendered by Burgoyne at Saratoga in the fall of 1777, seems to have lived in
Nicholas James was a York County teenager during the closing years of the Revolutionary War. He was evidently learning his trade as a butcher, and part of his job was distributing provisions for the guards and British prisoners of war at Camp Security. James states, in affidavits filed with pension
For nearly a year my research at the National Archives has been focused on copying Camp Security related Revolutionary War pension applications from the microfilm at the National Archives. (They also hold the originals, but neither the Archives nor I want to handle the fragile documents.) I have scanned about
The hunt goes on for the various components that made up Camp Security, the Revolutionary War camp established to detain British prisoners in York County. Specific areas of interest, such as the palisaded stockade and the village for the captives accompanied by families, will eventually be located by careful research
Here are two more excerpts, possibly related, from Revolutionary War pension applications at the National Archives concerning erecting a stockade for the British prisoners held at York (Camp Security). By the time he was eligible for a pension under the 1832 act, Philip Werntz was living in Haines Township, Centre
I stopped by the site of the Camp Security archaeology dig yesterday and took a few photos. There have been some small Revolutionary War period artifacts found so far: brass and tombac buttons, a lead musket ball, a British copper coin and a Spanish coin (widely used in Europe and
Here is another clue from the National Archives records into life at Camp Security. John Stewart as 77 years old when he applied for a Revolutionary War pension in Clermont County, Ohio in 1832. He states that he was born in Lancaster County, Pa. and moved to Maryland about a
The pension act of June 7, 1832 extended benefits to some Revolutionary War veterans that had not qualified under the 1828 act. The war had been over for 49 years, so most applicants were at least seventy years old, with many in their eighties. From the introduction to Revolutionary War