Appendix – Colonial and Revolutionary American Patriots in the Henry Null, Sr. (1735-1816) and brother, Nicholas Null, (~1720-~1765) families

Before examining the records of these ancestors, some overview about Revolutionary Soldiers, in general, will provide some useful context. In addition, a summary of the service of the Augusta County and Rockingham County Militias in the war provides some idea of the overall participation of many men from the western part of .

The Militia and the Continental Army1

“There were two main groups of soldiers who fought on the American side during the Revolutionary War.

“One group was the militia. The militia was made up citizens who were ready to fight in case of an emergency. Most cities and communities in the colonies had a militia in order to fight off Indian war parties and bandits. Most of the men between the ages of 16 and 65 were members of the militia. They only trained a few times a year.

“The other group of American soldiers was the . The Continental Congress established the Continental Army as the first real army of the . They made George Washington the commander. The army was made up of paid volunteers who enlisted for a period of time. At first the enlistments were for shorter periods like six months. Later on in the war, the enlistments were as long as three years. The soldiers in the Continental Army trained and drilled as fighting men.

How many soldiers were there?

“As many as 150,000 men fought as part of the Continental Army over the course of the Revolutionary War. However, there were never nearly that many serving at the same time. The largest the army was at one time was around 17,000 soldiers.

Were the soldiers paid?

“When soldiers signed up for an enlistment period they were promised to receive a bounty at the end of the time. The bounty was either money or land. They also received a monthly salary: privates earned $6, sergeants $8, and captains $20. Soldiers had to buy their own uniforms, gear, and weapons with their own money, however.

Who joined the Continental Army?

“People from all walks of life and from all the different colonies joined the Continental Army. This included farmers, tradesmen, preachers, and even slaves. Some slaves were offered their freedom for fighting. Many poor people saw the bounty of land as a way to better themselves.

1 American Revolution: Life as a Revolutionary War Soldier, http://www.ducksters.com/history/american_revolution/life_as_a_revolutionary_war_soldier.php How old were the soldiers?

“The soldiers were of all ages from young boys to old men. The majority of the soldiers, however, were ages 18-24. Young boys in the army worked as messengers, water carriers, and drummers.”

The paragraphs, below, which review the overall service of the Augusta/Rockingham Militias, are from the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Volume 30, pages 399 through 401.

“In October, 1777, the militia of Augusta County were divided into four battalions, three of which were in the Valley proper and the fourth “over the mountains” --i.e., in the present counties of Bath, Highland, Allegheny and a portion of present Pendleton County, WV.

“The men of the upper battalion resided in the southwestern portion of the present County of Augusta and in Rockbridge County, Virginia. The middle battalion's men lived in Staunton and in central, western, and northern portions of present Augusta County. The lower battalion consisted of men from present day Rockingham County, VA. Captains included Anthony Rader, Abraham Lincoln, Reuben Harrison, Robert Cravens, George Pence and Michael Coger.

“The number of men eligible for service in Augusta County in 1781 was about 1200. It was only a small subset of this number that partook in any one military action of the Augusta Militia.

“The principal engagements and military movements of the Revolutionary War in which the Augusta/Rockingham Militia participated were as follows: 1. The expedition against the Cherokee Indians in 1776. 2. The expedition against the Ohio River Indians in 1778. The militia went to Fort Pitt, present day Pittsburgh, PA 3. Guard duty at the Virginia Convention of 1779. 4. Battle of Guilford Court House, N.C., in 1780. 5. , S.C., in 1781 6. A tour of duty when Virginia was invaded by Gen. in 1781. 7. Battle of Jamestown, VA in 1781. 8. A tour of duty in 1781 when Col. raided Albemarle, Co., VA. 9. The , VA in 1781. 10. Performed garrison duty at several forts in what is now West Virginia in 1778 and dispersed an assemblage of Tories near McGaheysville, in Rockingham Co.” There were several Null family members from Virginia who served in the Revolutionary War. In some cases, however, it is impossible to identify with certainty just which member of the Null family the records refer to. For example, we know that a Henry Null served in Capt. Nalle's Rockingham Militia and also Capt. Hull's Augusta County Militia. Henry Null, Sr., 1735-1816, is a possibility as well as his son, Henry Null, Jr., 1760-1809 and his nephew Henry Null, 1754-1835. Did one “Henry” serve in both units at different times? On the other hand, was it father and son in the different units or cousins, instead? This article will attempt to identify specific family members as closely as possible and provide reasons for the conclusions.

The Null family emigrated from Alsace-Lorraine, Germany to Pennsylvania on the Loyal Judith and arrived on September 25, 1732. Henry Null, Sr. was born several years later in 1735, probably about twenty miles west of present day Reading, PA. His father Johan George Null was listed as a resident of Heidleberg Township, Berks Co., PA in 1734. Nicholas Null, brother of Henry Null, Sr., migrated to the Shenandoah Valley in 1739 (near Elkton).

Below: Land on Naked Creek, about three miles north of Elkton on Rt. 340 that Henry Null, Sr. purchased in 1754. The chart, below, is intended to show the male members of the respective Null families in western Virginia during the Revolutionary War era (1774-1781).

Johann George Null (~1690->1753)2 | m. Catrina ? | ______| | Nicholas Null (~1720-~1765) Henry Null, Sr. (1735-1816) m. Margaret Pence m. Margaret Harmon | sons below | sons below a) George, 1742-1789 g) George, ~1758-~1787 b) Nicholas, Jr., ~1744->1765 h) Jacob, ~1758-1780 c) John, ~1746->1781 i) Henry, Jr., ~1760-~1809 d) Jacob, ~1748-<1784 j) Charles, 1768-1844 e) John Henry, 1751-? k) Christian, 1772-1832 f) Henry, 1754-1835 l) Adam, 1775-~1824

Our direct descent is from George Null, ~1758-~1787, son of Henry Null, Sr., shown in “bold,” above. The descent from Henry Null Sr. is: Henry Null, Sr.1, George Null2, Leonard Null3, George Henry Null4, Josepha Ann Null Saufley5, Thomas Jefferson Saufley6, Lorena Saufley Sipe7.

Following are the surviving, individual Revolutionary War records of the Nulls of Rockingham and Augusta Counties. It must be noted that Rockingham County was formed in 1778 from Augusta County. It is, therefore, possible that a person could have been in the “Augusta Militia in 1775 and in the Rockingham Militia in 1779 without having moved.

The 1787 censuses for Rockingham and Augusta County each show a Henry Null. The Henry Null in Rockingham County is shown with two sons between the ages of 16 and 21. Henry Null, Sr. meets this criteria with sons Christian (1772) and Charles (1768) falling within that age range. All of Henry Sr.'s other sons fell outside the 16-21 age range in 1787. In addition the 1789 Militia Roll for Rockingham County lists Henry Sr. and sons Henry, Jr. Charles and Christian. The Henry Null in Augusta County is likely to have been the son of Nicholas Null. Records indicate that Nicholas Null's sons began moving from, what is now, eastern Rockingham County to present Summer County, WV, which was a part of Augusta County at that time. There are no other Henry Null's known to have been in western Virginia during this period.

2 The information for this chart was taken from, “The Beckett, Null, Arthur and Roberts Families of Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia” by Christos Christou, Jr. and John Barnhouser, November, 1994 and “The Null Family Line” by Robert M. Sharp, published on-line at http://members.core.com/~sharprm/library/null.htm and last revised, 2000. Ensign George Null (letter “g” on chart above)

In 1833, a John McComas applied for a Revolutionary War pension. In his deposition McComas stated that he served from December, 1780 to March, 1781.3 A partial transcript of his deposition reads as follows: “... again entered into the service of the United States as a private soldier in the Militia in the month of December, 1780 and marched from the County of Rockingham under the command of Capt. Michael Cogar across the Blue Ridge to Richmond which had been burned up some few days before our arrival, from thence below Williamsburg, and then we crossed to the south side of James River from thence down the same to Mackyer Mills which had been set on fire some time before our arrival there, from thence we marched to Gen'l Gregery's4 camp in at which time and place we were all discharged, having served a tour of three months.”

McComas was asked to name the officers in charge of his unit. He replied that, “..I was commanded by Col. William Nall, Major Guy (Gawen) , Capt. Michael Cogar and Ensign George Null.”

This is the only record we have of the service of George Null. He does not appear in any other surviving records of the war.

It is the writer's opinion that this George Null is the son of Henry Null, Sr. George, son of Henry, Sr., was born about 1759 and would have been about twenty-one years old at the time of this service. He died before 1788, and records show that his widow, Elizabeth Miller Null, was still living in Rockingham County, where this company had been raised.5 The other officers of the company, Michael Cogar, Gawen Hamilton and William Nalle were from the Rockingham County area.

The other possibility is George Null (1742-1789), son of Nicholas Null. Most of the Nicholas Null's sons had moved by 1780 to present day West Virginia in the area from White Sulphur Springs, west to Beckley. The militia company in this particular instance, having been raised in Rockingham County, did not, likely, include George, son of Nicholas.

Private Jacob Null (letter “h” on chart above)

Private Jacob Null of the 11th VA Continental Line enlisted for three years as a private and rose to the rank of corporal.6 The 11th VA Continental Line was a part of the regular service and not the militia. Jacob died in 1780 while in the service, but we do not know under what circumstances.7 He was about twenty-two years old. At the time, his unit was engaged in the campaign at Chareston, SC. As a result of his enlistment, Jacob was entitled to a 100 acre land bounty. This bounty was claimed in Ohio in 1812 by his brother-in-law, Adam Harnsbarger, on behalf of Jacob's deceased father, Henry Null, Sr.8

Wikipedia provides the following information about the 11th Virginia's service.9 3 www.fold3.com/image/#25342177 4 Isaac Gregory, militia general in the area of Elizabeth City, NC. 5 Wayland, John W., Virginia Valley Records, Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, MD, 1985, p. 116. 6 Gwathmey, op cit. p. 590 7 Sharp, Robert M., “The NULL Family Line, http://members.core.com~sharprm/library/null.htm, page 3. 8 Brumbaugh, Gaius Marcus, Revolutionary War Records: Virginia Army and Navy Forces with Bounty Land Warrants For Virginia Military District of Ohio, Washington, D.C., 1936, p.483. 9 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/11th_Virginia_Regiment “Authorized by the Second Continental Congress on 16 September 1776, it was organized on 3 February 1777 and consisted of four companies from the Virginia counties of Loudoun, Frederick, Prince William, and Amelia; Captain Daniel Morgan's Independent Rifle Company from Fauquier County; and five companies from the state's portion of the Maryland and Virginia Rifle Regiment. “On 15 April 1777 Captain George Price's company (organized on 18 January 1777 in the Virginia State Troops with volunteers from Frederick and Augusta Counties) was transferred to the regiment. On 11 May 1777 the regiment was assigned to the 3rd Virginia Brigade of the Main Army and was reorganized to eight companies on 1 November 1777. The regiment saw action at the , Battle of Germantown, and the . The unit was reassigned to the 2nd Virginia Brigade on 22 July 1778, and it was reorganized to nine companies and re-designated as the 7th Virginia Regiment on 12 May 1779. It was relieved from the 2nd Virginia Brigade on 4 December 1779 and assigned to the Southern Department. “The unit was captured on 12 May 1780 at the and subsequently disbanded on 1 January 1781.” Christian Null (letter “k” above) The story of Christian Null's service is an interesting one. Born in 1772, he would be considered far to young for service during the war (1775-1781). The record that we have of his service states that he served in the Lancaster County, PA County Militia, 4th Company, 7th Battalion, in 1782 for three separate enlistments.10 The family record of Christian Null having moved from Rockingham County, VA to Ohio is very well documented in the accompanying footnote, below.11 There is no doubt that the Christian Null, who is

10 The Official Roster of the Soldiers of the American Revolution Buried in the State of Ohio. p. 265. This book uses as its source the “46th National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR) Report.” 11 Sharp, op. Cit., p. 3. Sharp cited as his source “Found in the Null file in Lancaster, PA. The following narrative was prepared by "Aunt Sarah" in 1915: "Great Grandfather, Henry Null, was born in Germany in the year 1735. In 1740, his parents came to America. They settled on a stream in Pennsylvania, named the Swatara. There were seven children in the family; five sons, and two daughters. Their names were John, Nicholas, Balser [Henry]; and one brother that Father did not know his name. The sisters were Mrs. Brenner and Mrs. Gunckel. Great Grandfather was the youngest of the family. When he was 20 years old, he left Pennsylvania and went to Rockingham County, West Virginia. He married Miss Harmon; and his children were born and brought up in Virginia. He had had sons, Jacob, George, Henry, Charles, Christian (Grandfather) and Adam. There were four daughters; Mrs. Hoffman, Mrs. Keyser, and Mrs. Handspiger. One daughter, named Elizabeth, a girl of 15, perished in a storm on the Blue Ridge mountains. The oldest son, Jacob, died in the Revolutionary War. "In 1792, Great Grandfather (Henry Null, Sr.) gave Christian (Grandfather) $500 and told him to travel until he found a better farming country than Virginia. He went to a town on the Monongahila River where the emigrants loaded their flat boats to float down the Ohio River to settle on the Kentucky shore. When he arrived at the town, a number of families were loading a boat to go to Kentucky. He asked them to take him along, and he would help them work; but they refused as he was a stranger. Their last excuse was that they had no room for his horse; and he could not go without it. The women spoke up and told the men they could make room for his horse, and take him on board. The men on the flat boat knew but little how to manage it, and Grandfather was on but 3 days until he had the helm of the boat. One day, the horses got to fighting and kicked a board loose at the water's edge. The water poured in; the women screamed; the men were frightened. When Grandfather saw the board was not quite knocked off the pins, he let himself down over the side of the boat, and told a man to hand him an ax. With the first lick, he knocked it back on the pins. He pounded the board back into place, and told the men to caulk the seam and bail out the water. "He went with the boat as far as Maysville, Kentucky. There, he left them and stopped to visit with some friends. He stayed there for several years, working his way. When the Indians were defeated by General Wayne and it was safe to go to Ohio, Grandfather went there and traveled over part of the country, and bought land near Springboro, Warren County, Ohio. He cleared some land, built a log house, and sent word to his Father that he had a home for him. His father sent word that he verified as a Revolutionary soldier by the Ohio Daughters of the American Revolution (see footnote #24) is the Christian Null born in Virginia in 1772. Christian is buried in the Eyer Cemetery, Warren Co, OH. There are several obvious questions concerning Christian Null's military service. First of all, Christian would have been eight years old when his brother, Jacob, died in 1780. Family lore was that it was his brother's death that motivated him to join the army, but he would have been a very young soldier. Would the militia actually have accepted the services of such a young volunteer? Secondly, the enlistments for for Christian were in a Pennsylvania Regiment, and his family was living in Virginia during the Revolution. How did a young boy of nine or ten years of age get from Virginia to Pennsylvania to enlist? No answers to either query are apparent. Regardless, the evidence is compelling that young Christian Null of Virginia, and later of Ohio, did serve near the end of the Revolutionary War. Jacob Null (letter “d” or letter “h”) Jacob Null served in Capt William Nalle's Augusta County Militia in 1774 at the Battle of Point Pleasant.12 This company also included Lt. Jacob Pence (see earlier reference in this article), Adam Harnsbarger, brother-in-law to Jacob Null, letter “h”, and John Null, letter “c”. Was this the Jacob Null, brother of John Null who was in the same company? Or, was it Jacob Null, letter “h”, the brother-in-law of Adam Harnsbarger? The writer has not been able to make a determination. Please see earlier section on Jacob Pence, Jr. for description of Captain William Nalle Augusta Militia Company participation in the 1774 Battle of Point Pleasant. During October, 1776 Capt. Nall’s Company was stationed in Tygart's Valley at Jacob Westfall's Fort, a stockaded blockhouse located 1/4 mile south of Beverly, West Virginia on Files Creek.13 Henry Null (letter “e”, “f” or “i”) Henry Null enlisted in the 2nd Battalion, Augusta Militia, commanded by Captain Peter Hull in 1779.14 This source states that many of the names on the muster were from present day Highland County, VA and adjoining Pendleton County, WV. This fact would tend to rule out Henry Null (letter “i”), who was living in Rockingham County with his father, Henry Sr., in 1789.15 Peter Hull's company also served at the Battle of Green Springs (Jamestown), VA in September,1781.

would not come to Ohio unless Christian would come back to Virginia, help him sell out and move him to Ohio. Grandfather rode back to Virginia, helped his Father sell out, loaded the wagons; and started for the Ohio home. After some weeks of travel, they arrived safely at the new home. His [Christian's] brother, George, died in Virginia, and his wife and children stayed there. Two sisters, Mrs. Keyser and Mrs. Handspiger, remained in Virginia. one sister, Mrs. Hoffman, and the other brothers went to Ohio." "I write this from hearing Father tell about the Null family." Signed: "Sarah A. Null" granddaughter of Christian Null.

12 Bockstruck, Lloyd, Virginia's Colonial Solders, Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, 1988. p. 151-152. 13http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tqpeiffer/Documents/MILITARY%20%20Vets%20- %20Units/Military%20Units/Augusta%20County%20Virginia%20Militia.htm#_Regimental_History_ 14 McAllister, J. T., Virginia Militia in the Revolutionary War: McAllister's Data, McAllister Publishing Co., Hot Springs, VA, 1913, p. 148-149. 15 Wayland, op. cit. p. 116. Below: Map showing Battle of Green Spring (Jamestown). Drawn by French army engineer around the time of the battle.