John Sidebottom: Part 1

John Sidebottom (1750−1823) of Prince William County, Virginia, has one of the most amaz­ing sto­ries of all the African-American Revolutionary War veterans—and one of the least known.  John came to Kentucky after the war and oper­at­ed the fer­ry at Boonesborough, and lat­er moved to Clark County.  He has only recent­ly begun to receive acclaim for his ser­vice.  He has been hon­ored by the coun­ty where he was born and also on the floor of the U.S. Senate.  He has been rec­og­nized local­ly by the Winchester Black History & Heritage Committee on their African American Heritage Trail.

It is thought that John’s father was Peter Sidebottom of Stafford County, Virginia, who was hung for horse steal­ing in 1773.[1]  In Prince William County, John’s wid­owed moth­er, Mary, “was allowed the sum of 3 Pounds for her sup­port, her sons being on the Continental Service.”[2] 

John and his broth­er Joseph were then serv­ing in the 3^rd Virginia Regiment dur­ing the Revolutionary War.  John described his mil­i­tary ser­vice in his appli­ca­tion for a veteran’s pension:

He was enlist­ed for one [year] in Prince William County State of Virginia on or about the __ day of September he thinks in the year 1775—he knows that it was the same year the bat­tle of Bunkers hill was fought*—by one Cuthbert Harrison and served in the Company com­mand­ed by said Capt. Cuthbert Harrison of what Regiment he does not recollect.

That before the expi­ra­tion of the year he was dis­charged and that imme­di­ate­ly upon his dis­charge or with­in four days there­after he enlist­ed for two years at Hampton in the State of Virginia with one Capt. Charles West on or about the 8^th day of February in the year 1776, as well as he rec­ol­lects, and served in the com­pa­ny com­mand­ed by said Capt. Charles West untill he was pro­mot­ed to the rank of Major,[3] when he thinks the com­pa­ny was com­mand­ed by Capt. Brisco of the Third reg­i­ment Virginia line on Continental estab­lish­ment com­mand­ed when he joined the Regiment by Colo. Weden†, and after­wards by Colo. Thomas Marshall. 

That he con­tin­ued to serve in the said corps or in the ser­vice of the United States in the Continental army against the com­mon ene­my untill about the 8^th day of February 1778 when he was hon­ourably dis­charged from ser­vice at the Valley Forge.[4]

*  June 1775.
†  George Weedon 

We have a pay­roll of Capt. West’s com­pa­ny dat­ed July 1777 that lists John Sidebotham, cor­po­ral, Joseph Sidebotham, pri­vate, and one Charles Lander, sergeant.  Charles Lander’s pen­sion appli­ca­tion states

I act­ed as Sirjieant, had a cor­po­ral and six­teen pri­vates under my com­mand amongst whom were the fol­low­ing per­sons now rec­ol­lect­ed, Peter Benam [Benham], Andrew Race, and Two Coulered men Towit John and Joseph Sidebottom.[5]

Charles Lander resided in Bourbon County.  Other mem­bers of the Lander fam­i­ly lived in Clark County.  Appended to John’s pen­sion appli­ca­tion is Charles Lander’s depo­si­tion stat­ing “that he had the oppor­tu­ni­ty of wit­ness­ing the con­duct of the said Sidebottom dur­ing [his enlist­ment] and in jus­tice to him, he has the plea­sure of say­ing that in his opin­ion a braver sol­dier was not in the Army than the said Sidebottom.”[6]

Lander’s is the first report that John and Joseph Sidebottom were of African her­itage.  The records of Prince William County do not list John or Joseph as “col­ored,” as was cus­tom­ary.  In fact, when George Washington took over com­mand of the Continental Army, he barred the recruit­ment of black sol­diers.  It seems almost cer­tain that the broth­ers were very light-skinned mulat­toes, who were able to escape the severe restric­tions placed upon free blacks in Virginia.

We know noth­ing of the racial mix of John’s par­ents.  However, we have the 1841 depo­si­tion of a woman stating

I know Nancy Sidebottom, a very old woman.  She [was] the sis­ter to both John and Joseph Sidebottom and the only liv­ing heir to either of them that [she knew] of liv­ing at this time.[7]

Nancy Sidebottom was list­ed in the 1810 cen­sus of Prince William County as a free Negro.  All the cen­sus records for John list him as white, so appar­ent­ly his race was nev­er questioned.

In his Revolutionary War pen­sion appli­ca­tion, John recalled that he had par­tic­i­pat­ed in the bat­tles of New York, White Plains, Brandywine and Germantown.[8]  In a depo­si­tion sup­port­ing his appli­ca­tion, the not­ed Clark County attor­ney, Samuel Hanson, stated

He was one of two men who bore from the field of bat­tle dur­ing the Revolutionary War the late President of the United States, James Monroe, after he was injured in the bat­tle.[9]

Eighteen-year-old Lt. James Monroe was wound­ed in the Battle of Trenton on December 26, 1777, while serv­ing in Virginia’s 3^rd Regiment.  This was the famous bat­tle in which Gen. George Washington led his army across the icy Delaware River on Christmas night and fell on a Hessian gar­ri­son the next morn­ing tak­ing near­ly a thou­sand cap­tives, while los­ing only two of his own men.  John Sidebottom played a cru­cial role.

Lt. James Monroe lat­er wrote that when Capt. William Washington was shot “the com­mand fell on me.  Soon after, I was shot through the shoul­der by a ball which grazed the breast.  I was car­ried by two or three sol­diers to the room where Captain Washington was under the care of two sur­geons.”[10]  The ball actu­al­ly pierced his chest and sev­ered an artery.  His col­lect­ed papers do not name his res­cuers.[11]

Support for John’s part in the res­cue is found in a 1982 let­ter from one of Monroe’s kins­men, George King:

I have a long account and most inter­est­ing of one Sidebottom of this area help­ing to car­ry wound­ed James Monroe, then colonel [sic], from the field of bat­tle.  Uncle JM nev­er for­got Sidebotto [sic], a mulat­to.  I have much of the sto­ry.[12]

I have been unable to locate the rest of King’s sto­ry.  A stronger piece of evi­dence is a 1914 let­ter from the Commissioner of the U.S. Pension Bureau stat­ing that John Sidebottom

was one of two men who bore from the field of bat­tle dur­ing the Revolutionary War, the late President of the United States, James Monroe, after he was wound­ed in some bat­tle.[13]

John received his dis­charge at Valley Forge in February 1778 after serv­ing in the Continental Army for two and a half years.  He and his broth­er Joseph returned to Prince William County.  Things did not go well for them there.

In 1779 Joseph was charged with pass­ing forged mon­ey.  The court found him guilty. Then he was jailed in Shenandoah County for being “a noto­ri­ous horse thief.”  In July 1780, a wit­ness went to Shenandoah to give evi­dence against Joseph, but found he had bro­ken out of jail before his tri­al.[14]

John also had prob­lems back home.  In July 1780 he was brought to court on charges of threat­en­ing the lives of Lewis Reno and Vester Moss.  He was dis­charged upon pro­vid­ing bond for his good behav­ior.  Reno came from a wealthy and well-known fam­i­ly in Prince William and had been an offi­cer in the war.  One writer ven­tured that

John Sidebottom and his broth­er Joseph were “two col­ored men.”  Thus Reno and Moss’s actions become a lit­tle clear­er.  Reno would not have looked with favor on any attempt to harass him by some­one not of his social equal, and espe­cial­ly not by a free col­ored man, even if he was a veteran.

It [seems] like­ly that Sidebottom was harass­ing Moss who may have got­ten into a slang­ing match with the 3^rd Virginia vet­er­an over the way Moss had spent his entire enlist­ment “sick at home.”  Sidebottom would have had lit­tle patience for Moss.[15]

In October, John found him­self in court again, this time charged with steal­ing a sad­dle val­ued at 200£.  He was freed, sub­ject to a large appear­ance bond.[16]  John’s prob­lems with Reno con­tin­ued and oth­er issues kept him before the court. 

In November 1780, [John] Sidebottom and oth­ers, among them Charles Lenox, were hauled into Court yet again, this time for incit­ing a riot.  It appears that the incite­ment to riot had some con­nec­tion to Lewis Reno Jr. whose life Sidebottom had threat­ened in July.  Another large appear­ance bond was levied.

Meanwhile, mat­ters went from bad to worse for John Sidebottom.  In November 1780, he was indict­ed for pur­chas­ing and receiv­ing stolen goods.  He plead­ed not guilty to the charges and request­ed time for his defense.  The Court grant­ed this upon his enter­ing into a recog­ni­zance with secu­ri­ty for his per­son­al appear­ance at the next Court term.[17]

John’s last appear­ance in Prince William court records was in June 1783 on an unspec­i­fied charge.

His indict­ment was dis­con­tin­ued....  In anoth­er sep­a­rate indict­ment against John Sidebottom and oth­ers, the Court also decid­ed to dis­con­tin­ue any fur­ther pros­e­cu­tion....  The Commonwealth Attorney may have dropped the charges because John Sidebottom was mov­ing to Kentucky.[18]

Endnotes

[1] Purdie and Dixon’s Virginia Gazette, February 25, April 22, May 6, 1773.

[2] Prince William County (VA) Order Book, 1778–1784, 21.

[3] West was pro­mot­ed on February 1, 1777.  “Virginia’s Soldiers in the Revolution,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography (1912) 20:186.

[4] John Sidebottom’s Revolutionary War pen­sion fold­er, W.8775, online at www.fold3.com.

[5] Charles Lander’s Revolutionary War pen­sion fold­er, S.31198, online at www.fold3.com.

[6] John Sidebottom’s Revolutionary War pen­sion folder.

[7] Catharine Davis’ depo­si­tion, in Joan W. Peters, Third Virginia Regiment of Foot, 1776–1778, Vol. 2: Biographies (Bowie, MD, 2008), 382.

[8] John Sidebottom’s Revolutionary War pen­sion folder.

[9] Statement of Samuel Hanson, in John Sidebottom’s Revolutionary War pen­sion folder.

[10] James Monroe let­ter, reprint­ed in Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine (1923) 57:726.

[11] Papers of James Monroe, University of Mary Washington, online at https://academics.umw.edu/jamesmonroepapers/search-the-letters/.

[12] George H. S. King let­ter, November 25, 1982, in the George Harrison Sanford King Collection, Virginia Historical Society, quot­ed in Eric G. Grundset, edi­tor, Forgotten Patriots: African American and American Indian Patriots in the Revolutionary War (Washington, DC, 2008, 2^nd edi­tion), 503.

[13] John Sidebottom’s Revolutionary War pen­sion folder.

[14] Peters, Third Virginia Regiment of Foot, Vol. 2, 379.

[15] Joan W. Peters, “Captain Philip Richard Francis Lee’s 3^rd Virginia Company 1776–1778,” Prince William Reliquary (2009) 8:9–10.

[16] Joan W. Peters, “Prince William County in the Revolution:  Identifying the Revolutionary Soldiers,” Prince William Reliquary (2006) 5:4.

[17] Ibid, 5:87.

[18] Peters, Third Virginia Regiment, Vol. 2, 374.