Guards of Camp Security 8: John Stewart
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 year before he was drafted in December 1776. From there he marched with his company to New Jersey, serving about three months.
Stewart goes on to state in his affidavit that he returned to Pennsylvania and served in the Pennsylvania militia for another four months. He states he was at the Battle of Gulph Mills [late 1777].
He next served under Captain Ford and Colonel Bailey guarding Burgoyne’s troops for two months at Camp Security. He started the tour at the end of July [1781]. Stewart states:
“They kept the single men in a stockade under guard and the married men, after they had been there awhile, were permitted to remain outside the stockade. A great sickness set among the prisoners and the married were then permitted to build huts on the hill outside of the stockade… . [Stewart received] £5-5s per month hard money for each month of this service.”
After the war was over, Stewart went west, spending “pretty nigh forty years” in Kentucky or with his nephew, William Boyd, at Williamsburg, Ohio. Stewart’s application was successful and he was awarded a pension of $34 per year on his service as a Sergeant during the Revolutionary War.
