Richard Terry (1721-1791)

Richard Terry (1721-1791)

Children

 * Richard Terry (1748-1794)

Revolutionary war
"I am the widow of Richard Terry, who was a Militia soldier in the Revolutionary War & served in defense of the United States from the beginning to end of said war. The particular details of his service, have most of them escaped from my memory, & I can only give a journal outline, as my recollection may serve me. Most of his comrades have died & the few who remain are very aged ... Soon after the war broke out, Captain Nathan Luse, who was our near neighbour, enlisted a company of men, who were most of them his neighbours, to serve for five months as then I understood & believed. Constant Victor King, also a near neighbour, was one of the officers, & I believe at first he was an Ensign. William Hagan & one Hagan, I think were Lieutenants. My husband, Richard Terry, according to the best of my remembrance enlisted & served in this company. They marched off in the spring season about corn planting time, directly past our house toward Morris town, the drum beating & fife playing Yankee Doodle, & I remember my oldest child Phebe, then about 4 or 5 years old, attempted to sing the tune with the fife. I had prepared his clothes, blanket & knapsack, with provisions for several days, & he left me to take care of the children & manage our farm as well as I could. I sometimes heard from him, but I did not see him again till late in the fall or winter in cold weather. He was marched, as I was told by him often, to Elizabeth town – was a time in New York City – then was taken to Long Island – was in the battle with the enemy there – was marched to White Plains – had various skirmishes, & in one of them, a musket ball was shot through his neck handkerchief, passing so near the skin as to graze his neck. He was in the retreat through Jersey, with Genl. Washington’s army, called the ‘mud rounds,’ of which I have often heard him speak. He was in the battle at Trenton with the Hessians, & in the Princeton battle, as I believe from his own story, and when he returned home, it was cold winter weather, sometime after the Holidays. I have often heard him speak of Col. Munson, Lord Stirling, Genl. Sullivan & Genl. Washington as officers of the army during this campaign; & altho’ it is my impression that it was called the 5 months service, yet I only believe he was absent from home, & actively engaged in this duty, not less than six months. In the latter part of this winter (77), he was absent from home, & engaged in performing militia duty near New Brunswick & Amboy not less than six weeks under General Winds & Captain Luse, or Captain Nathaniel Terry his brother, or perhaps Captain Nathaniel Horton, as he performed militia duty under each of them, at different times ..."