Veterans at Rest: Known Graves, L-Z

LINK TO PART ONE (GRAVES A-K)

Sgt. James Lamb was born in 1756 in Scotland. He enlisted in Capt. David Stephenson's company in March, 1776. He married Hannah Boone, first cousin of Daniel Boone. He moved to Bourbon County, Kentucky after the war. and then to Wayne County, Indiana. In 1812 he left Kentucky and moved to Wayne County, Indiana because of his strong anti-slavery views. He died after falling from a horse in 1841 and is buried in Elkhorn Cemetery near Richmond, Indiana. His house in Wayne County is still standing.

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Fife Major William Lipscomb, Jr. was in Louisa County in 1756. His father was a member of the Louisa County Committee of Safety. He was appointed fife major in February 1778, a few months before the regiment folded into the 4th Virginia. He continued on until at least April 1779. He moved with his family to South Carolina and died there in  1802. He is buried in the Lipscomb Family Cemetery in Cherokee County.

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Charles Love was born in Pennsylvania and enlisted in 1777 as a substitute for another soldier. He moved to Catlettsburg, Kentucky after the war and then to Cabell County, now West Virginia, where he was a justice of the peace. He died in 1824 and is buried in Guyandotte Cemetery.

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A memorial to William Lewis Lovely is surrounded by campsites in Lake Dardanelle State Park, near Russellville, Arkansas. Lovely was a lieutenant in Capt. James Knox's company and followed Knox into Morgan's Rifles. Lovely rose to captain, but not while with Morgan. He was a federal Indian agent after the war, best known for brokering peace between the Cherokee and Osage tribes. The location of this marker near the shore of a manmade lake suggests it may be a cenotaph.

Martin Maney was born in County Wexford, Ireland in 1752. He served in Capt. James Knox's company. His pension states that he enlisted on about December 4, 1775 at the Long Island of the Holston River (now Tennessee). This was before Knox or his subaltern officers were appointed and may indicate that he first served in William Russell's Southwest Frontier Independent Company and left that unit with Knox to form the new company. He deserted on June 7, 1776, possibly in protest of the still-provincial regiment leaving Virginia for the Carolinas. He enlisted again in the 9th Virginia Regiment. He married Keziah Vann in 1781. He performed active militia service under John Sevier in 1780 and 1782 and performed scout service. He lived in Blount County, Tennessee and Buncombe County, North Carolina. He died in 1830.

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Thomas Miller, a native of Maryland, signed on as an ensign in Captain Darke's company in 1777. He rose to 2nd lieutenant and was briefly believed to have been captured at Germantown. Later in the war, he was at the battles of Cowpens and Guilford Courthouse. He was unable to drop the bad habits he developed during the war, abandoning his family and struggling with alcoholism. He is buried in the Patriot Square section of Grandview Cemetery in Chillicothe, Ohio.

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Lieut. Christopher Moyers (also "Myer" and "Moyer") was born in Culpeper, Virginia in 1740. He was made an ensign in Capt. William Darke's company in August of 1776. The regiment was in South Carolina at this time, suggesting he was promoted from the ranks. He rose to 2nd lieutenant in May 1777 and was captured at the Battle of Germantown on October 4. He and Ens. Philip Huffman escaped in June of 1778 and returned to service. Moyers was promoted to 1st lieutenant and served another year, resigning in March 1779. His wife's name was Susannah. He moved to Jefferson County, Tennessee, where he was one of the first settlers of White Pine. He died in 1815, and is buried in the "Old Christopher Moyers Graveyard in White Pine. His government-issue headstone identifies him as a lieutenant of the 4th Virginia Regiment, which is accurate for his last few months of service.

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Maj. Gen. Peter Muhlenberg was born in Trappe, Pennsylvania in 1746. He was the son of Henry Muhlenberg, the patriarch of the Lutheran Church in the America and the grandson (on his mother's side) of Conrad Weiser, an important early Indian trader and diplomat. He served briefly in the British 60th Regiment in the 1760s. He married Anna Barbara Meyer in 1770. He was ordained by his father and then ordained in the Church of England to lead a parish in the Shenandoah Valley. He served in the revolutionary Virginia Convention, received a colonel's commission in 1775 and was promoted to general in 1777. He played an important role in the Yorktown campaign and received a brevet promotion to major general at the end of the war. He returned to Pennsylvania and served as Vice President of that state and in the U.S. House and Senate. He died in 1807 and is buried in Trappe.

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Lieut. Jacob Parrot was born about 1744. His parents lived in a cabin at the headwaters of Jordan Run in what is now Shenandoah County. They were probably from Switzerland. They were among the very earliest settlers of the Shenandoah Valley, acquiring their land from Jost Hite in the North Mountain settlement near the future sites of Woodstock and Toms Brooks. He inherited their house and was living there in 1786. He was commissioned an ensign in Capt. Jonathan Clark's company in March 1776 and promoted to 2nd lieutenant a year later. He was cashiered that May for being away without leave.  He died in May of 1829 and is buried in St. John Lutheran Cemetery in Singers Glen, Rockingham County. Since this photo was taken in 2013 his marker has broken and is in urgent need of attention. He was the brother of Joseph Parrot.

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Capt. Joseph Parrett was born in what is now Shenandoah County, Virginia in 1760. He enlisted in Capt. Jonathan Clark's company two months before his sixteenth birthday in February 1776. He was promoted to sergeant in 1777 and may have been briefly detached to Morgan's Rifle Battalion. He was discharged at Valley Forge in January, 1778. He served as ensign of a Shenandoah County militia company in 1779 and as a lieutenant in 1781. He was referred to late in life as "captain," probably referring to further militia service. He married Anna Maria Wendel in 1780 and moved to Fayette County, Ohio about 1812. He married Anna Hartman in 1837 and died in 1847. He is burial site was reportedly obliterated by development, but there is a memorial stone for him in nearby Sugar Grove Cemetery in Clinton County, Ohio.

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Cpl. Edward Poe enlisted in Capt. William Darke's company early in 1776 and was promoted at some point to corporal. He reenlisted in December and was listed once (possibly in error) as a sergeant. He was detached to the artillery in 1777 and was assigned to Captain Croghan's company after the regiment was folded into the 4th Virginia. He was probably taken prisoner at Charleston in 1780. Poe was born in 1732, making him twenty years older than the average enlisted man. He was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He married Martha Britain in 1753 and was remarried about 1776 to Catherine Edward. He lived in Baltimore County, Maryland for a few years after the war and then moved to Bracken County, Kentucky in 1797. He died there in 1816. He is buried in Sharon Cemetery next to Catherine. (Mike Smith)

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James Range was born in Somerset County, New Jersey in 1754. He enlisted in Capt. William Darke's company early in 1776 and was captured by the enemy on October 1, 1777--three days before the Battle of Germantown. His two year enlistment expired while he was in captivity and was liberated in an exchange of prisoners in August, 1778. He explored the Warpath River in what is now middle Tennessee in 1779 and may have served militia duty under Gen. Edward Stevens during the Yorktown campaign. He married Barbara Hammer in 1787 in Washington County, North Carolina (now Tennessee. He died in 1825 in Carter County, Tennessee. His gravestone is improperly marked "8th Va. Mil[itia]."

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Col. Jacob Rinker, Jr. was born in what is now Shenandoah County, Virginia to Swiss immigrants in 1749. He was appointed a lieutenant under Capt. Jonathan Clark in March 1776. He resigned his Continental commission after about fourteen months, but led a militia company under Gen. Nathanael Greene in 1780. He may also have served under Gen. George Rogers Clark in the Illinois Regiment. He married twice, voted to ratify the U.S. Constitution, and served several years in the Virginia House of Delegates. He died in 1827 and is buried near his father in a beautiful hilltop cemetery in western Shenandoah County. His lifelong home, built by is father, still stands nearby.

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Ashkenaz Shappee, usually recored as "Askin Shippy," served as quartermaster sergeant from June 3, 177 until about April of 1778. Genealogies state he was born in Lorraine, France in 1749 and may have belonged to a a Huguenot family. He died in New York in 1797 and is buried in Beaver Dams in the northwest corner of  Chemung County, 

Jacob Sivley was born in what is now Shenandoah County and drafted into Capt. Jonathan Clark's company in February 1778. He was put in Capt. Abraham Kirkpatrick's company of the temporarily combined "4th-8th-12th Virginia Regiment" and stayed with Kirkpatrick when the 8th Virginia was folded into the 4th Virginia in the fall of 1778. He was discharge in February 1779. He moved to Tennessee before 1808 and then settled on Indian Creek, south of  Huntsville, Alabama. He married a widow named "Alcey" or "Alice" (possible Alice). He died in September 1816 and is buried Huntsville.

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Col. John Stephenson was born in Frederick County, Virginia in 1736. He served in Dunmore's War and may have served in the French & Indian War. He settled near what is now Connellsville, Pennsylvania in 1768. In 1775, he was made captain of the second West Augusta independent frontier company, which was later assigned to the 8th Virginia. He was a colonel of Yohogania County militia in 1778, leading men in the Squaw Campaign and the McIntosh Expedition. He moved to what is now Harrison County, Kentucky about 1790. He married a woman named Mary, but they had no children. He died in 1801 and was buried near his home, which is still standing. His roughly-made gravestone was stolen in the 1980s but recently reappeared. 

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Chaplain Christian Streit was born in Pennsylvania in 1749 to  Swiss immigrants. He studied theology under Henry Muhlenberg, father of 8th Virginia Col. Peter Muhlenberg and was ordained in 1770. He was recommended as a chaplain by Henry Muhlenberg in 1776 and is recognized as the first denominationally-sponsored army chaplain in American history. He joined the regiment in 1777 was later chaplain of the 9th Virginia Regiment. He was taken prisoner at the fall of Charleston in 1780. He preached in Pennsylvania after the war before moving to Virginia in 1785. He was minister of what is now Grace Lutheran Church in Winchester, but served congregations in Woodstock and Strasburg as well. He died in 1812 and is buried In Mount Hebron Cemetery in Winchester. His house is still standing.

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Robert Wadsworth enlisted in in 1776 into Abel Westfall's company in what is now Hardy County, West Virginia. In 1777, he was one of four 8th Virginia men chosen to join the Commander in Chief's Life Guard. He lived until 1823 and is buried in Shinnston, Harrison County, West Virginia.

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Capt. Abel Westfall commanded the 8th Virginia’s Hampshire County company. He came from a Dutch family. According to one genealogy, his great-great grandfather arrived in New York in 1642 to manage Gov. Peter Stuyvesant’s farm in New Amsterdam. He raised his company early in 1776 and resigned late in 1777. After the Revolution, he founded the town of Westfall, Ohio. The town no longer exists, but the Westfall School District still carries his name. He moved to Indiana and died there in 1814. He is buried in Bloomfield, Indiana next to his brother. (Sam Zuckschwerdt)

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Lieutenant Cornelius Westfall began as a sergeant in his brother's company early in 1776. he was commissioned an ensign and promoted to 2nd lieutenant in 1777. He resigned on April 21, 1778. He and his brother moved to Ohio and then to Indiana. Cornelius married a widow, Elizabeth Springstone (nee Lambert) in 1787. He died in 1829. He is buried in Bloomfield, Indiana. (Sam Zuckschwerdt)

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Henry Wysor enlisted in Capt. Thomas Berry's company in February of 1776 and was chosen to join the Provisional Rifle Corps under Daniel Morgan in 1777. He participated in the victory at Saratoga and witnessed the surrender of General Burgoyne. He went home after his two-year enlistment ended in 1778, but was drafted into the militia in 1781 when General Cornwallis entered Virginia in 1781. Wysor was at Yorktown for the British surrender in October. He died in 1844 and is buried with several members of his family at Wysor cemetery in Pulaski County, Virginia. His artfully-created headstone appears to be one of very few original ones remaining. (Wilderness Road Regional Museum)

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John Wyatt was born in London and drafted into the 8th Virginia from Botetourt County in February of 1778.  He joined the army at Valley Forge and engaged in his first battle at Monmouth at the end of June as part of the merged "4th 8th 12th Virginia Regiment." He reenlisted and was taken prisoner with most of the Virginia line at Charleston in 1780. He was exchanged early enough to be present for the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. He moved to Kentucky after the war, got married, had one daughter, and is buried in Milroy Cemetery in Rush County, Indiana.

Christopher Young enlisted in Jonathan Clark's company on January 28, 1776 and was promoted to corporal on August 1 of the same year. He fought at Brandywine but was assigned to guard the baggage during the Battle of Germantown. After completing his two-year enlistment, he was discharged at Valley forge. He moved to Ohio after the war and lived to be nearly 90 years old. He is buried only a few feet from Lt. Thomas Miller in the "Patriot Square" section at Grandview Cemetery in Chillicothe.

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Memorials and Other Markers

Richard Cain enlisted in Capt. Abel Westfall's company in February, 1776. He was wounded at Brandywine or Germantown and served the rest of his enlistment in the hospital. He was discharged early in 1778. He married Jean, whose maiden name is not known. He was one of the founders of Forks of Cheat Baptist Church in Monongalia County, West Virginia. The original log church is long gone and there is no surviving marker for Cain, though a plaque marks the site of the original church.

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A memorial to Sgt. William Combs (also Coombs and Coomes) and other family members in St. Lawrence Catholic in Davis County, Kentucky. Combs enlisted in Capt. Richard Campbell's company in February 1776 and was discharged at Valley Forge two years later. He married Nell Cloud, possibly a relative of Daniel Cloud. He lived in Lincoln County, Kentucky in 1795 and then Bath County in 1818. He was a school teacher. He died in 1840. It is not clear from the marker that he is buried on-site. Moreover, Bath and Davis counties are two hundred miles apart and there appears to be another "Coombs" family in Kentucky at the period that originated from Maryland. Separate genealogies can be seen here and here.

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Capt.-Lieut. Leonard Cooper was from Shenandoah County and began the war as an ensign in Capt. Richard Campbell's Company. He rose to lieutenant and then "captain-lieutenant" (lieutenant in command of the colonel's company) in 1779. He had a leg amputated after a duel with Maj. Abraham Kirkpatrick and served out the war in the Invalid Corps. He married Christina Throenberger in 1796 and drowned in the Shenandoah River in 1821 after falling from his horse. The grave of another Leonard Cooper, one of the first settlers of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, is mismarked with a stone honoring Capt.-Lieut. Cooper's service. 

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Maj. Peter Helphenstine was born in Germany and emigrated to Winchester in the 1750s with his wife and first son. He died in 1778 or 1779 of complications of malaria contracted during the regiment's tough summer in the Carolinas in 1776. He resigned that summer and returned home, never to recover. He is buried in Mount Hebron Cemetery in Winchester in an unmarked grave. Though a man of stature, he family was left destitute after his death. It is likely that his family could not afford a stone memorial for him when he died and made do with one made of wood. A nearby plaque lists all of the Revolutionary War veterans buried in the historic cemetery.

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Cpl. Drury Jackson of Capt. George Slaughter's company is buried in Virginia. Though he was in Georgia as a soldier, he never lived there. In the 1930s, the DAR ordered a veteran's headstone for another man with the same name buried in Baldwin County, Georgia. The "real" Drury Jackson enlisted with his brother Utey in 1776. Utey died of malaria in Charleston, but Drury survived the war and lived nearly his whole life in what is now Madison County, Virginia. It appears he moved to nearby Shenandoah County shortly before he died, and he is certainly buried there or (possibly) in Madison. His actual marker is long gone and this memorial to his military service still stills atop another man's grave.

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This memorial to Enoch Job (also "Jobe") was dedicated by the Rock Island Chapter, DAR in 2018. Job was a former Quaker who enlisted in Captain Clark's company in 1776 but missed the rendezvous and was assigned to Captain Croghan's company for the first year. He was discharged in 1778. He lived in Tennessee and Kentucky before settling in Cole County, Missouri in 1819. He died in 1843. His grave site is not known, but this memorial is at Old Salem Church in Moniteau County.

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A Giles County, Virginia memorial honors James Johnston and several other Revolutionary War veterans. Johnston served in Capt. George Slaughter's company from Culpeper and then relocated to what became Giles County. His pension application includes a uniquely complete and coherent summary of the regiment's service. The site of his grave is not known.

Sgt. Jacob Kneisley (Nicely) of Capt. Jonathan Clark's company is believed to be buried here in Old Dutch Cemetery in Highland County, Ohio. Kneisley was the son of Swiss immigrants and remembered as a wagon driver before he enlisted early in 1776. He was reported as having deserted on July 2, 1777 but claimed with support from Lt. Jacob Parrott (who was cashiered after Germantown) to have served to the end of the war. He died in 1830. (Findagrave) 

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The possible but unconfirmed grave of John Sloan, a private in Capt. George Slaughter's Culpeper County company. Sloan enlisted for an unusual one-year term in January of 1777, suggesting he may have been a substitute serving out another man's two-year enlistment. Bryant Sloan, likely an older brother, enlisted for two years in the same company early in 1776. Bryant moved to Kentucky and died there. John also appears to have been in Kentucky, participating in the reprisal against New Chillicothe after the Battle of Blue Licks. This grave is in Trinity United Methodist Church's cemetery in Alexandria, Va. It is original,  decorated with an SAR medallion, and has dates correct for a man with Sloan's service history. It was rare, however, for veterans to move farther east after the war, particularly after service and known family in Kentucky.

Adjutant Francis Swaine was buried in 1820 in the cemetery of Trinity Lutheran Church in Reading, Pennsylvania. He was Colonel Muhlenberg's brother-in-law. In 1779 he became clothier for the Pennsylvania state line and was a general in the state militia in the early 1800s. He was buried "near the walls" of the church. In 1895 it was reported that a "large marble slab (now broken in two) marks his grave, and bears the inscription: 'Gen. Francis Swaine/Born January 2nd, 1754/Died June 17th, 1820.' Several graves that were covered by a church expansion are now listed on two marble slabs.

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The family cemetery at Warrenwood, the home of Capt. William Warren, was removed to accommodate road expansion in 1990. Warren enlisted as a private in Capt. Richard Campbell's company in 1776 and served for two years. He was later a captain in the Shenandoah County militia, before moving to Kentucky. His remains are now in a mass grave in Bellevue Cemetery in Danville, Kentucky.