Gone for Soldiers: Samuel L. Avery (1790 - 1853), Soldier

This paternal third great grandfather was born in Cumberland County, North Carolina, but grew up across the border in Chesterfield County, South Carolina, where his family moved when he was very young.

[In 1814 Chesterfield was in the Cheraw District (outlined in blue in this map). The State of South Carolina: from the best Authorities, By Samuel Lewis. W. Barker, sculp. Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.]

And that's where Samuel L. Avery and Mary Thornton were married on June 18, 1808. Two years later he appears at the top of the first of these two pages from the 1810 U.S. Census. (Note that his surname is spelled Avera here; the shift to using Avery appears to have occurred a few years later.)

[Year: 1810; Census Place: Chesterfield, Chesterfield, South Carolina; Roll: 60; Page: 571; Image: 00293; Family History Library Film: 0181419. Ancestry.com. 1810 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Third Census of the United States, 1810. (NARA microfilm publication M252, 71 rolls). Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

Sources* agree that Samuel, together with two of his younger brothers, Thomas and William, served as privates in the 3rd (Alston's) South Carolina Militia. during the War of 1812. Here's a general description of the role played by South Carolina's troops:

"The troops in the War of 1812 were basically of two kinds - the regular army, known as regulars, and the militia. The regulars were entirely volunteers. All men belonged to the militia, but not all militias were called into service. Those who were actually enrolled were known as the detached militia; they were obtained preferably by volunteers from the total militia or by conscription if not enough volunteered. The militia in the past had been thought of as a body of men only used for home defense, but in the War of 1812 they were not only used at home but were also sent out of the state to aid at other danger points."

Samuel's name is also on the 1814 muster rolls for Craven County, South Carolina, but it appears that he could afford to hire a substitute.

[Section: Muster roll of the detached militia, organized in August, 1814. Ancestry.com. Muster rolls of the soldiers of the War of 1812 : detached from the Militia of North Carolina in 1812 and 1814 [database on-line]. Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. Original data: Muster rolls of the soldiers of the War of 1812 : detached from the Militia of North Carolina in 1812 and 1814. Raleigh, N.C.: C.C. Raboteau, 1851.]

[Pitt County Genealogical Quarterly, August 1996, page 4. Copyright Pitt County Family Researchers. This item is presented courtesy of Farmville Public Library for research and educational purposes only.]

[Historical Study: The Personnel Replacement System in the United States Army,

Department of the Army Pamphlet,  Leonard L. Lerwell, 1954. (PDF)]

By 1819 the Avery family had left South Carolina for Alabama and moved on to Winston County, Mississippi, by 1835 where my great great grandfather John Warren Avery was born.



*Two online sources are South Carolinians in the War of 1812 and Alston's 3rd Regiment SC Militia on RootsWeb.


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