Benjamin Nevil is drafted into the 17th Light Dragoons

Those familiar with the British army know that only two cavalry regiments were sent to serve in the American Revolution, the 16th (Queen's) Light Dragoons and the 17th Light Dragoons. Seldom discussed is how those regiments were changed for American service, and the diversity of individual soldiers who served in them.

Compared to an infantry regiment, a dragoon regiment was small; infantry regiments consisted of ten companies each with three officers and 44 serjeants, corporals, drummers and private soldiers, while dragoon regiments consisted of six troops each composed of three officers and 36 serjeants, corporals, trumpeters and private soldiers. When the 17th Light Dragoons was ordered to America in early 1775, each troop had only about 24 of that number on its actual strength. Besides having to add the men to meet its normal establishment, a serjeant and 17 private men were added to the desired size of each troop. But later in 1775 when it became clear that this would be a long war requiring a stronger army, even more changes were ordered.

For infantry regiments, the size of each company was increased by half, adding a serjeant, a drummer and 18 private soldiers to each company. The 16th Light Dragoons was ordered to America, and both the 16th and 17th were increased substantially in size. The number of troops remained the same, but the size of each troop was increased by one officer and thirty private men - in addition to the increase that had been made the previous year. These new men were dismounted, that is, they were to fight on foot rather than on horseback (although the term "dragoon" originally described soldiers equipped to travel on horseback but fight on foot, by the time of the American Revolution dragoons were, in general, the same as other cavalry and configured to fight on horseback).

All these men had to come from somewhere, and filling the ranks with new recruits would be counterproductive; the purpose of the size increase, after all, was to make the regiments more effective on campaign. For both the infantry and cavalry regiments, men were drafted (that is, transferred) from other regiments to fill the ranks of those going to war; for the two cavalry regiments bound for America, almost all of the required men were drafts rather than recruits. One man drafted into the 17th Light Dragoons was a trooper from the 1st (Royal) Dragoons, Benjamin Nevil.

When Nevil joined the army has not been determined. It is our good fortune to have a detailed description of him, because at the beginning of 1774 he was advertised as a deserter:

Deserted, on the 2d of January, 1774, from a Party of his Majesty’s First (or Royal Regiment of Dragoons) commanded by the Earl of Pembroke, quartered at Boston, Lincolnshire,

                Benjamin Nevil, five Feet eight Inches high, thirty-one Years old, long brown Hair, grey Eyes, dark Complexion, gloomy Countenance, marked with the Small-Pox, strait and well-made, has lost the first Joint of his Left Thumb; born at or near Arlington, in Berkshire, by Occupation a Labourer. Went off in his Regimental white Jacket, laced Hat, and Leather Breeches, and has a Woman with him who passes for his Wife.

                Whoever secures the above Deserter, shall receive Twenty Shillings Reward above the Allowance by Act of Parliament, for apprehending Deserters, on Application to the commanding Officer of the Regiment; or to Mr. Lamb, in Golden-Square, London.

[St. James’s Chronicle (London), 29 January 1774]

The circumstances of this disciplinary digression are not known. What is clear is that Nevil was back with his regiment in time to be drafted into the 17th Light Dragoons in March 1776. He probably arrived in America six months later, when a large convoy carrying recruits and reinforcements arrived in New York in late October. Whether he fought on horseback or on foot is not known, but he appears to have gone quickly into the fight. His regiment was very active in the campaign across New Jersey in late 1776 and the many skirmishes there throughout the early months of 1777.

Service in New Jersey in the first few months of 1777 was very hard on British troops. Quartered in a number of small towns stretching from Fort Lee to Trenton, they spent nights in barns and outbuildings; days were occupied with procurement of desperately-needed forage from the countryside, and protecting the fragile string of outposts from attack by American troops. Soldiers succumbed to illness and wounds, including Benjamin Nevil. He died on 11 March 1777, but the cause of his demise is not known.

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John Battin, 17th Light Dragoons, is Photographed

I don't post pictures on this blog because I write about common soldiers as individuals. There are many images of British soldiers dating from the era of the American Revolution, but they're "generic"; they show us typical soldiers, but not specific men. As such, it's not worth the extra effort to get the necessary permissions to use them, even though we all like pictures. For a common soldier to have been represented in a picture, there'd have to be something very special about him.

Looking at the military career of John Battin, a trooper in the 17th Light Dragoons, we don't find anything remarkable. He arrived in America in October 1776, one of many new men who expanded the 17th from a typical cavalry regiment to a legion with a contingent of foot soldiers to augment its dragoons. It's not clear whether the 24-year-old was among the mounted or dismounted men when he joined his regiment on the campaign that took him into New Jersey in the closing months of 1776. In fact, all we know about his service is what we can discern from the regiment's muster rolls, which do not distinguish between mounted and dismounted dragoons. As the war progressed, he is frequently listed on the rolls as "on duty" or "on command", nebulous terms that indicate that he did some sort of special duty. This was quite common among men of the 17th LD who were used as messagers, escorts, and all sorts of detached duties. But it could mean something as simple as that he was off cutting wood somewhere, too. The rolls give us no hints about the specific service he saw in America.

Perhaps Battin was one of the many well-educated middle-class Britons who joined the army in hopes of advancement, having the educational qualifications but not the connections or patronage to enter the army as an officer. But it's more likely that he had learned the trade of stocking-making in his native Bristol, England, and joined the army in pursuit of a more interesting life, just and many of his fellow soldiers had done.

As the war wound down, John Battin appears to have tired of his military career just as he may have tired of his pre-service trade. He deserted with two other men on 26 March 1782, one month and 24 days after his thirtieth birthday. He avoided capture and remained in New York after the British evacuated the place in November 1783. 

Battin had some entrepreneurial spirit. In May 1786 he opened a porter house and tavern "at the sign of the Blue Bell" in Sloat Lane, present-day Beaver Street. The following year he advertised that "he draws the best Porter at Nine-Pence per Quart, and makes no doubt but the excellence of his Porter (and having the advantage of a cool Cellar) will insure him the continuance of the customer of those who may honour him with their Company."

By the summer of 1788 he had moved up town a ways, to John Street. In late July or early August John Battin married "the agreeable Miss Margaret Amelia Frauncis, daughter to Mr. Samuel Frauncis, of said street." She was seventeen years younger than him. The following year he was offering pickled oysters for sale from 27 John Street, and in 1790 was advertising that "Parties of gentlemen can be accommodated with dinners and suppers in the genteelest manner, and at the shortest notice" in addition to preparing "Oysters and Lobsters for exportation, in pots and kegs."

His business apparently prospered; in 1796 he purchased a large house on five acres of land in Jamaica on Long Island, a dozen miles outside of the city. He opened a tavern in Jamaica. But apparently he'd overextended himself; three years later he was forced to sell the house at auction, although he continued business "in his well-known Tavern, where every exertion in his power shall be made to give satisfaction."

He had children. By 1810 he had moved his family back into the city, and in that year he sold off some property that he owned in partnership with others. The following year the family was living in a three-story brick house at 41 Nassau street; they advertised for boarders and operated a coffee house. His son John joined him in business, but apparently things went sour. For reasons unknown they disolved their business partnership in 1815; the elder Battin put the building up for lease and sold off the furniture. This may be the same building that he'd operated as a tavern years before; perhaps he'd never sold it.

It's not clear what happened next, except that Battin remained in the city. He may have opened a stocking shop in the Third Ward that he continued to operate for the rest of his life. And a long life it was. Locals recalled him walking along the Battery at Manhatten's south end every morning before breakfast, maintaining this routine for decades, clinging to his old conservative fashion of knee breeches and stockings. His turning 100 years old was noted in newspapers around the region, which reported that "He attributes his longevity and continued health to his frugal living and avoidance of all luxuries." But he died soon after, on 29 June 1852, having lived for just over 100 years. Besides making the bold move to join the army and sail to America, he had barely ventured beyond the bounds of New York City. But he did do one remarkable thing before he died. In 1845, at the age of 93, he joined a group of surviving veterans of the Revolutionary War. And, responding to a new trend of the times, he had his photograph taken.

The daguerreotype photograph was brought to my attention by its current owner, who gave permission for an image to be published here. This is a rare image of a man who served as a British private soldier in the American Revolution.

Richard Alan Wood collection

Battin came to the attention of Benson J. Lossing, a 19th-century historian of the American Revolution, who recorded this biography:

Mr. Battin came to America with the British army in 1776, and was engaged in the battles near Brooklyn, at White Plains, and Fort Washington. After the British went into winter quarters in New York, and Cornwallis’s division (to which he was attached), returned from Trenton and Princeton, he took lessons in horsemanship in the Middle Dutch church (now the city post-office), then converted into a circus for a riding-school. He then joined the cavalry regiment of Colonel Birch, in which he held the offices of orderly sergeant and cornet. He was in New York during the "hard winter" of 1779-80, and assisted in dragging British cannons over the frozen bay from Fort George to Staten Island. He was always averse to fighting the Americans, yet, as in duty bound, he was faithful to his king. While Prince William Henry, afterward William the Fourth, was here, he was one of his body-guard. Twice he was sent to England by Sir Henry Clinton with dispatches, and being one of the most active men in the corps, he was frequently employed by the commander-in-chief in important services. With hundreds more, he remained in New York when the British army departed in 1783, resolved to make America his future home. He married soon after the war, and at the time of his death had lived with his wife (now aged eighty-three) sixty-five years. For more than fifty years, he walked every morning upon first the old, and then the new, or present Battery, unmindful of inclement weather. He always enjoyed remarkable health. He continued exercise in the street near his dwelling until within a few days of his death, though with increasing feebleness of step. The gay young men of half a century ago (now gray-haired old men) remember his well-conducted house of refreshment, corner of John and Nassau Streets, where they enjoyed oyster suppers and good liquors. The preceding sketch of his person is from a daguerreotype by Insley, made a few months before his departure.

Much of this information correlates with what we know from muster rolls. "Colonel Birch" was Lt. Col. Samuel Birch of the 17th Light Dragoons. Cannon were dragged across New York harbor during one cold winter, and Prince William visited New York in 1781, probably receiving an escort of dragoons. But Battin never rose above the rank of private, and there's no evidence that he retruned to Great Britain, especially not carrying dispatches. These are the sort of fanciful tales that often creep into family lore. But we cannot deny that this man who ventured to enlist in the British army at the onset of the American Revolution, only to desert and pursue various business ventures, had a life that deserved to be recorded. Having a photographic image of him makes that record all the more remarkable.

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Francis Boole, Farrier, 17th Light Dragoons

The British army sent only two cavalry regiments to America, the 16th and 17th, both Light Dragoon regiments. The composition of these regiments was somewhat different than that of infantry regiments; instead of being organized into companies, cavalry regiments were composed of troops. In one of the troops of the 17th Light Dragoons was a private soldier named Francis Boole.

Boole's background isn't known. He first appears on the muster rolls of the regiment prepared in early 1777, suggesting that he was one of the many reinforcements the regiment received in October 1776, but the rolls do not explicily indicate when or how he joined the regiment. There are indications that he had joined the army in 1772, meaning that he may have been one of many drafts from another cavalry regiment that joined the 17th; Light Dragoons; his name, however, has not been found on any other regiment's muster rolls to support that assumption. About 31 years old in 1776, Boole was a "smith and farrier," an essential artificer in a cavalry regiment. Each troop of the 17th Light Dragoons was supposed to have at least one such man, but they are not listed separately on the muster rolls; instead they are included among the other private soldiers. We only know about Boole's specialty because he wrote a petition years after the war.

Besides that he served "on the expedition to the Southward" in 1780, we nothing specific about Boole's service during the American Revolution. At the close of hostilities he was one of the soldiers who was discharged and accepted a land grant in Nova Scotia. He obtained 200 acres of land on the Sable River about 15 miles outside of Shelburne. He settled there with his wife Catherine (it is not known when they met or married; possibly it was after arriving in Nova Scotia); over the next dozen years they had seven children. 

With great effort he worked the land and supported his young family. By 1795 this hard-working veteran had formulated a plan to build a saw mill, but recognized that with no meadow land on his acreage he could not feed the draft animals needed to work the mill. He saw a way out of this dilemma. He discerned that another parcel of land was not allocated because it was marshy and not tenable for farming. The enterprising veteran wrote a petition to the government explaining that he could obtain fodder from the marsh land, enabling him to build and work his saw mill, making good use of land that had no other value.

Francis Boole was granted permission to survey and make use of 400 additional acres. He and his family thrived; he lived until 1835, and his wife survived him by five years.

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Orson Jewitt, 47th Regiment of Foot, 17th Light Dragoons

One chapter of British Soldiers, American War focuses on cavalry troopers who volunteered to serve in infantry regiments for the war in America. Only two British cavalry regiments, the 16th Light Dragoons and the 17th Light Dragoons, were sent to America; twenty-three others (three regiments of Dragoon Guards, four regiments of horse, and 16 regiments of dragoons and light dragoons) remained behind in Great Britain, but not all of these horse soldiers were content to miss out on a foreign war. About 200 cavalrymen volunteered to join the infantry and served on foot in America.

And, in America, some foot soldiers managed to get transferred into the light dragoons. Although the 16th and 17th Light Dragoons had been augmented to a strength that far exceeded their peacetime footing, attrition in America soon took its toll. As escaped prisoners of war made their way into British lines they were put into other regiments, and some of them, even though they had served in infantry regiments, were drafted into the dragoons.

One such man was Orson Jewitt, a labourer from Norfolk who had joined the army in 1765 when he was 23 years old. His early career is unclear; the muster rolls of the 47th Regiment indicate that he was drafted from the 15th Regiment of Foot, but we were unable to find him (or a number of other drafts) on the rolls of the 15th. Regardless, he joined the 47th Regiment in Canada in 1776. With that regiment, he had the misfortune to be incarcerated in 1777.

Hundreds of British prisoners of war eventually escaped and made their way to British garrisons. We don't know how Jewitt did it, but by June 1781 he had gotten to New York and joined the 17th Light Dragoons. Three other men from his regiment joined the same troop of the 17th on the same day.

The 5-foot-6-inch soldier remained in the 17th Light Dragoons through the end of the war and took his discharge when he had completed twenty years of service. He was discharged in April 1785 “being worn out by Fatigue & Climate in America.” Unable to write his own name, he marked his discharge certificate with an X and went before the Chelsea Hospital board of examiners who granted him an out pension.

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Trumpeter John Philip Aulenbach, 17th Light Dragoons, and Dorothea Aulenbach

Those who follow this blog already know that most British regiments received a number of German (and other European) recruits; these men arrived in America in October 1776 as part of a large augmentation of each regiment. The augmentation of 180 private soldiers per regiment (only a portion of whom were Germans) was made so that regiments could maintain an effective operational strength in spite of wartime attrition. Besides the infantry regiments, the two cavalry regiments sent to America were also augmented. 

One German recruit who stands out is John Philip Aulenbach. He is the only one identified so far to serve in a cavalry regiment, and the only one to take up a musical instrument rather than a musket. Aulenbach was born in Gottingen, Hanover in 1755, the son of a lawyer. His parents died when he was very young, leaving him to be raised by his mother's two spinster sisters. He was educated, and at 14 years of age was confirmed in the Lutheran church. Soon after, he found work as a servant to a wealthy gentleman. During this time, he learned to play several musical instruments. 

Early 1776 brought profound changes to Aulenbach's life. On 28 March he married Dorothea Magdalena Herbst, daughter of a blacksmith. For reasons that he did not record, he then joined the German recruits being raised for the British army. In the middle of May, the young couple boarded a transport loaded with German recruits and sailed to England. There the 5' 11" Hanoverian's musical skills earned him an appointment as a trumpeter (equivalent to a drummer in the infantry) for the 17th Light Dragoons; he joined the augmentation of about 200 men for that regiment that had gone to America over a year before. 

Aulenbach and the other recruits joined their regiment in New York in late October. He dutifully served the regiment on many major campaigns - in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia and the Carolinas. Although he must have experienced many adventures, we have no details whatsoever of his wartime service except his own statement that he became Trumpet Major for the regiment. 

War's end brought the opportunity for men who joined the army after the onset of hostilities to be discharged if they'd served three years. Aulenbach accepted this offer; he and his wife were among the discharged soldiers who accepted land grants in Nova Scotia, disembarking in Port Roseway (now Shelburne) late in 1783. 

Early in 1784 a Lutheran congregation was established in Shelburne. Aulenbach, now all of 29 years old, was elected an elder and led the singing. He worked to secure space in town and money to build a church, but the new congregation did not coalesce. The pastor left after a few months, and Aulenbach took over conducting the services in a rented house. Some of the elders moved away. The treasurer absconded with funds. To make matters worse, jobs were scarce. 

In 1785 Aulenbach was advised that the town of Lunenburg needed a teacher for their parochial school. He arrived in the new town on 15 August, began his work, and quickly established himself in the Lutheran congregation there. He led the singing and conducted services when the pastor was ill. He taught Catechism and presided over funerals in town and the neighboring countryside. He and Dorothea lived alone in the school house. 

16 years and one day after arriving in Lunenburg, his faithful wife Dorothea who had followed him from Germany to America, died at the age of 52. 46 years old and childless, the teacher and sometime pastor quickly found a new connection. Just three months after his wife's death, John Philip Aulenbach married Catherine Barbara Hahn (or Horne, depending on the source), daughter of a Lunenburg blacksmith who was 23 years his junior. The couple had two sons and four daughters; their descendents still inhabit the region. 

Age gradually took its toll on the old soldier turned teacher. His left leg grew lame. His hearing failed as a result of ringing the church and school bell. In February 1819 he had a bad fall and broke his right leg, an injury that left him crippled. He nonetheless continued to teach, but his days serving the congregation were over. 

Although one source says that John Philip Aulenbach died in 1820, others suggest that he lived much longer. In 1836 the man who had once been a servant, who had presided over 142 funerals in his lifetime, was himself laid to rest. He had requested that the bell, which had claimed his hearing, not be rung at his funeral; it remained silent. His wife Catherine survived him by 29 years.

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John Clayton, 20th Regiment of Foot and 17th Light Dragoons

When John Clayton was discharged from the 17th Light Dragoons in September 1783, he received a standard printed discharge form with his own personal details filled in. This important document was his proof that he was legally released from military service. It states simply that Clayton had served nine years in the regiment along with standard language that he had no debts to the army or arrears due from it. But Clayton's career was considerably more interesting than the brief discharge document reveals.

Clayton was born in January 1758 in Manchester, England. He did not learn to write but did learn the trade of a butcher; like many young tradesmen he soon sought a more adventurous life. With the outbreak of war in America he enlisted as a soldier, joining the 20th Regiment of Foot at the young age of 16 or 17. He was soon bound for America. The 20th was among the regiments sent to Quebec in early 1776 to relieve the siege of that city and turn the momentum of the war in Canada back in favor of British arms. Clayton's regiment participated in a series of actions that reclaimed posts extending from Quebec down to Lake Champlain.

The following year brought the ill-fated campaign led by Lt.-General John Burgoyne that sought to secure the waterways from Quebec to Albany. In concert with troops operating out of New York city, the goal was to effectively divide the colonies into two regions that could be more easily pacified. The campaign began with splendid success including the capture of strategic Fort Ticonderoga. The young Clayton must have been full of ardor from his army's progress, but as the summer waned so too did their fortunes. A series of setbacks led to the capitulation of the army at Saratoga in October. John Clayton became a prisoner of war, but his war was far from over.

After spending a winter in crude barracks outside of Boston, followed by a long march to Albemarle, Virginia, the young Clayton had had enough of captivity. He followed the example of hundreds of other prisoners from Burgoyne's army and slipped away in July 1779 with the goal of returning to British lines. It took him longer than he'd hoped.

It took him only a few days to get to Winchester, Virginia, but there he was caught and put into jail. After a year of confinement he managed to break out and get to Fredericktown, Maryland - only to be caught and jailed once again. After a week in that town's jail, he was put in irons and marched to Fort Frederick which, in spite of the similar-sounding same, was over 150 miles from Fredericktown. Fort Frederick was used to detain British prisoners of war, but those men had become adept at escaping from it, and Clayton managed to abscond after a week or so.

He made his way to Philadelphia, where once again he was captured and put into jail. His course so far had been harrowing but hardly unique; hundreds of British prisoners of war went through similar ordeals of escape and recapture. He remained in the Philadelphia prison until the summer of 1781. He and six fellow soldier prisoners tunneled under the foundation of their cell and escaped, this time finding their way to the network of British sympathizers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey that helped countless escapee make the perilous journey to the garrison in New York. They worked their way to Barnegat Point on the New Jersey shore where a boat took them to their destination. After almost two full years as a prisoner of war, John Clayton joined the 17th Light Dragoons in late August 1779.

Although he had served in the infantry, the 5 foot 9 inch Clayton along with a number of others from Burgoyne's army joined a cavalry regiment. The 17th did include a dismounted component and it is possible Clayton served in that capacity. He also may have begun his army career in the cavalry and volunteered for the infantry in order to serve in America; several hundred cavalry men did so, but we have not found Clayton's name on any cavalry muster roll to confirm this. Regardless, he served the remainder of the war in the 17th Light Dragoons in the New York City area.

When the war ended, the army was reduced in size by disbanding some regiments and decreasing the established size of others. Soldiers eligible for discharge were given several options: return to Great Britain and be discharged there, with the possibility of receiving a pension; be discharged in New York and either re-enlist in a regiment bound for continued overseas service in Canada or the West Indies, or take a land grant in Canada and settle there; or be discharged in New York and remain in America. Clayton chose Nova Scotia, sailing there on a fleet that made its way to Port Roseway (present-day Shelburne) at the end of September 1783.

For reasons unknown, Clayton did not stay long on the rugged shores of Canada. In 1784 he made his way to Hallowell, Maine, took possession of a plot of land, planted potatoes, and married a woman named Susanna Cowan. Their first child was delivered by the famous midwife diarist Martha Ballard, who recorded that she was called for the delivery at 11PM on 15 August 1787, and the next day “put mrs Claton to Bed with a Son at 3 PM.” But tragedy soon followed; on 20 August Ballard wrote,

mr Hinkly brot me to mr Westons. I heard there that mrs Clatons Child Departed This life yesterdy & yt Shee was thot Expireing. I went back with mr Hinkly as far as there. Shee Departed ys Life about 1 PM. I ascisted to Lay her out, her infant Laid in her arms. ye first such instance I ever saw & ye first woman that died in Child bed which I Deliverd.

Susanna Clayton and her infant were interred together two days later. It appears that John Clayton was out of town when all of this occurred, for Ballard wrote on the 24th that "Claton & David Came inn from Sandy river," a plantation some distance inland from Hollowell where he apparently worked.

John Clayton soon remarried; Sally Austin was 7 years his junior and over the next 21 years the couple had at 10 children including a set of twins. After their first child was born they moved to Sandy River, and Clayton was among those who petitioned that Sandy River be incorporated as the town of Farmington.

Although he was unable to sign his discharge from the army, instead making an X mark, local lore has it that he was "quite a poet in his own way." In addition, he remained intensely proud of his English heritage and continued to revere his former commander General Burgoyne. When a number of his children were ill at the same time, under the care of the oldest two, he composed a whimsical verse that likened his large family to his former comrades:

As my two daughters did combine,
To nurse the army of old Burgoyne;
Their nursing was good but not very lasting,
For they were granddaughters of old granny Asten.

Clayton clearly had great respect for his wife's mother "Granny Austin." Sally died in 1821, and John Clayton survived her by a decade, expiring in September 1832 at 74 years of age.

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