Perry Countians in the Revolutionary War

The Revolutionary War lasted from 1775 to 1783, beginning in 1775, followed by the declaration of independence in 1776, the end of fighting at Yorktown in 1781, and recognition of U.S. independence in the Treaty of Paris in 1783. Many Perry Countians served during the eight-year war in numerous battles, often hundreds of miles from home, under various captains and commanders. A prominent early settler, Colonel Frederick Watts, commanded several battalions of Perry Countians in battle. About ninety men, mostly riflemen, volunteered for Watts' Flying Camp Battalion in 1776 and marched to New York City, where they witnessed the Battle of Long Island; one local later recalled, "We could see the smoke of the guns where they were firing on each other." In November 1776, Watts was among the 3,000 Americans in Fort Washington in northern Manhattan who held off the British attack for a time before being forced to surrender, and he is said to have been taken prisoner before being exchanged. In 1778, Perry Countians fought with Watts' regiment at the Battle of Crooked Billet, about twenty miles above Philadelphia, where a surprised militia retreated quickly and left everything in camp as the British won a complete victory, with approximately one hundred militia killed, wounded, or taken prisoner and ten wagons destroyed. Besides commanding militia, Frederick Watts served in Pennsylvania government, being elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1779 and then named in 1787 to the Executive Council, where he served for three years. He lived on a farm near the mouth of the Juniata and died in 1795. Watts Township, formed in 1849, was named for his son David Watts, a prominent lawyer. John Pickens of Shermans Valley also served under several different commanders; in 1777 he joined the same militia group as his drafted younger brother to look after him, and later, while on guard at an unknown location, he stopped General George Washington from proceeding along a potentially dangerous road and was praised the next day before the militia for his quick thinking. Daniel Peifer, a soldier of the American Revolution, died on May 13, 1814, at age 92 and was buried in his army uniform with brass buttons in a lone grave along Kistler Road in Little Germany.

Pennsylvania · United States