REVOLUTIONARY WAR PENSION APPLICATION - JEFFERY BRACE aka STILES

Contributed by: John U. Rees [ju_rees@msn.com]

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Revolutionary War Pension File: Jeffery Brace a.k.a.
Stiles. (African-American soldier, 6th Connecticut
Regiment)



For a complete list of J.U. Rees's articles, with
selected articles posted, see www.revwar75.com.

My thanks to J.L. Bell for bringing Brace to my
attention. Brace's memoirs were published in 1810 as
follows: For the Blind African Slave, OR MEMOIRS OF
BOYREREAU BRINCH, NICK-NAMED JEFFREY BRACE.
Containing an account of the kingdom of Bow-Woo, in
the interior of Africa; with the climate and natural
productions, laws, and customs peculiar to that
place. With an account of his captivity, sufferings,
sales, travels, emancipation, conversion to the
christian religion, knowledge of the scriptures, &c.
Interspersed with strictures on slavery, speculative
observations on the qualities of human nature, with
quotation from scripture. BY BENJAMIN F. PRENTISS,
ESQ. ST. ALBANS, Vt. PRINTED BY HARRY WHITNEY. 1810.
Jeffrey Brace's published narrative can be accessed
on the following website:
http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/brinch/brinch.html

Jeffery Brace's application for a veteran's pension
ran into trouble when his name could not be found on
company muster or pay rolls. Most of the
supplementary depositions serve to confirm his
identity and name change, and corroborate his
service. These depositions also introduce some
interesting information, such as the existence of
segregated black companies in predominately white
regiments. As for blacks in the Connecticut
regiments, we have brigade returns for August 1778
showing 148 black soldiers in Parson's brigade and
62 in Huntingdon's brigade. At that time the 6th
Connecticut Regiment was serving under Brigadier
General Parson. (John U. Rees, "'The number of
rations issued to the women in camp.': New Material
Concerning Female Followers With Continental
Regiments," The Brigade Dispatch, vol. XXVIII, no. 1
(Spring 1998), p. 9, endnote 9, "Return of the
Negroes in the Army," 24 August 1778. Charles H.
Lesser, ed., The Sinews of Independence: Monthly
Strength Reports of the Continental Army (Chicago,
Il., 1976), p. 80. 

For anyone wishing to know more of Brace's war
service I recommend reading Private Yankee Doodle,
the excellent memoir of Joseph Plumb Martin, 8th
Connecticut Regiment. Martin's service largely
mirrors Brace's as they served in the same brigade
from 1777 until 1779 or 1780.

Supplementary deposition: "On this 3 day of March
1821 before me Seth Wehman one of the Executive
Council & [illegible word] for the whole State of
Vermont, personally appearing Ansel Patterson, late
of [Barree?] in this State now residing in Georgea
in the County of Franklin & State of Vermont aged
fifty six years who being by me first duly sworn do
depose & say that he was a Soldier in Col. Butlers
regement of Infantry & of the sixth Company in the
Connecticut line for three years commencing about
the year 1780 and that the deponent has this day
seen & conversed with a Colored Man calling his name
Jeffery Brace who says he was in Col Meigs Regement
afterwards Col. Butlers Regement of Infantry the
deponent can not at this lenght of time Identify
this person as Capt Barkers Company in said Regement
was composed of Colored persons & the deponent had
but little intercourse with said Company this
deponent does not recollect the name of the Captain
who commanded the Colored men  the deponent had the
impression it was Capt Potter of this the deponent
may be mistaken  the deponent says that the Company
of Negroes was generally paraded on the right of the
sixth Company  this deponent thinks he has a clear
recollection of the name of Jeffery as belonging to
the Negro Company this deponent in conversing with
Jeffery is well persuaded that he was a Soldier of
Col. Butlers Regement & belonged to the Negro
Company from his narrating so many transactions
which took place in the service which he could not
have done had he not been in the service he narrates
the transaction of a mutiny in the Regement the
place where the Regement lay the ring leader and
especially of one Gaylor [or Gayles] being hung as
supposed to be one of the leaders  the place of his
execution  he also narrates the [circumstances?] of
many tricks performed by a Negro boy necked named
the Cat he also states many circumstances of the
Negro [boxing?] which the deponent recollects  also
the diferent movement of the regement that I have no
doubt in my mind but what he was a Soldier in said
Regement  After conversing with him & a [illegible
word] impression in my mind as to the name of Stiles
I think he may have gone by the name Jeffery Stiles
[signed] Ansel Patterson" In an appended note
Patterson "further states in addition to the above
that Jeffery is now blind and aged which may be the
reason of the deponent not being able to Identify
him he also shows me a Wound which he received which
I have a clear recollection of some one Negro having
such a Wound " 

Jeffery Brace's depositions: "On the fourth day of
April 1818 before me the subscriber one of the
Judges of Franklin County Court personally appears
Jeffery Brace aged, about seventy eight-years
resident in Georgia in said County of Franklin who
being by me first duly sworn according to Law doth
on his oath make the following declaration in order
to obtain the provisions made by the late act of
Congress entitled 'An Act to provide for certain
persons engaged in the land and naval service of the
United States in the revolutionary War.' That said
Jeffery Brace enlisted in Woodbury in the State of
Connecticutt in the fall of the year  but the year
does not recollect but thinks it was in the year
1777 in the Company Commanded by Capt Granger in
Col. Meigs Regiment in the Connecticutt line
afterwards was transfered to Capt Bakers Company he
enlisted for three years as he thought but was
returned for during the War that he continued in
said Corps until the summer 1783 when he was
discharged from said service in West Point by
receiving an honorable discharge with a badge of
Merritt which discharge is lost that he was in the
battles of White Plains at Stamford, West-chester at
Mud-Fort [Fort Mifflin] in New Jersey and received a
Wound in his leg at the Capture of Mud-fort and
retreated with the American Army to red Bank he says
although he supposed he enlisted for three years yet
as he was returnd for during the War he cheerfully
served five years & nine months  and that he is in
reduced circumstances and stands in need of the
assistance of his Country for support " his [signed]
Jeffery X Brace Mark An attached deposition by
Frederic Bliss, assistant judge Franklin County
Court, states that Bliss was "personally acquainted
with the said Jeffery Brace that the said Jeffery
Brace['s] reputation for truth & veracity stands
unimpeached & will give Credit where ever he is
known "

In a 3 July 1821 signed statement Brace notes "I
have no property of any kind and have been supported
for a number of years by Public & private Charity I
have no family I am by occupation a farmer or
Labourer but have been totally blind for about Seven
years and unable to do any thing for my Support" A
final statement by Jeffery Brace explains his name
change. "On this 9 day of May 1820 before me Seth
Wehman Judge for the district of Georgia in the
State of Vermont personally appears Jeffery Brace of
the town of Georgia in said County  aged between
seventy & eighty years a man of Color who being by
me first duly sworn according to law he was a slave
to Benjamin Stiles Esq of South bury in Connecticut
that he went by the name of Jeffery Stiles
afterwards he altered his name to Jeffery Brace he
[formerly] had the impression that he altered his
name at the time of his enlistment, but upon more
mature reflection he thinks that he must have
altered his name at the time of his discharge the
reasons for altering his name was that he was
imported from Affrica when a lad that his Fathers
name was Brace after he considered himself
discharged from his master he concluded to take the
name of his Father  Brace was the reason of his
altering his name"

More supporting depositions: "On this 9 day of May
1820 before me the subscriber Judge of Probate
personally appears Jonathan Brooks of Swanton in the
County of Franklin & State of Vermont aged seventy
four years that previous to the commencement of the
American Revolution he resided in South-bury in
Connecticut he knew a slave by the name of Jeffery
his masters name was Benjamin Stiles Esqr. the slave
was called Jeffery Stiles  he is now present & known
by the name of Jeffery Brace  the deponent saith
that a short period before the commencement of the
revolution he removed from South-bury  in the year
1776 he was at South-bury on a Visit, & then
understood from several persons at South bury that
Jeffery was then in the service for his freedom  I
have known Jeffery about ten years I this County
and was informed by Jeffery that he had altered his
name to Jeffery Brace, and assigned the reason by
stating that after he obtained his freedom took the
name of his father Brace / Jeffery at Connecticut &
in this County sustained the Character of an honest
Man -[signed] Jonathan Brooks"

4 April 1818: "I Samuel C. Booge of [Tairpan?] in
the County of Franklin & State of Vermont aged sixty
three years being duly sworn depose & say  that
Jefrey Brace now of Georgea in sd County was in the
American Service in the years 1777 & 1778 was known
to hire & belong to Cap Bakers Company & Col Meigs
Regiment this deponent saith that he [the deponent]
was in the American Service in the Capacity of Lt.
in Col. Chandlers Col Durgees [Durkee] & Col. Webbs
Regiment that this deponent was knowing that the
said Jeffery Brace was a faithful Soldier and can
say there was no better Soldier in the Army  the
deponent has resided in the same Town of the said
Brace for several years and now resides on an
adjoining Town  and can say that he is a man of
Truth. that he is poor & blind and has depended on
the Town of Georgea & his friends for support for
about two years last past  and without the
assistance of the Public & friends he must suffer "
"On the 30 day of Decr 1820 before me the subscriber
Judge of the Court of Probate for the District of
Georgea personally appeared Silas Strong aged sixty
seven years resident in St Armand Province of Lower
Canada who deposes & saith that he in the year 1778
& 1779 resided in Southbury in the State of
Connecticutt was well acquainted with given name can
not recollect Stiles Esq[uire] that he was the owner
of a Negro slave called Jeffery Stiles, was well
acquainted with Jeffery  that he then well
understood that Jeffery has enlisted in the army to
obtain his freedom  but what Regiment Jeffery
belonged to does not now recollect but remembers
that he saw Jeffery a number of times after his
enlistment in a soldiers Uniform with a Leather Cap
he further recollects that some time in the War but
the year does not recollect but thinks it must be in
the year 1780 he was in the State of New York near
West Point  met a Seargeants Guard all in Uniform
among the Guard was Jeffery & conversed with him  I
am now acquainted with a Colored man calling himself
Jeffery Brace & know him to be the same person then
known by Jeffery Stiles  Jeffery sometimes was
necked named [i.e., nicknamed] Pomp London "

It is interesting to note the veracity of many such
depositions when they can be checked against known
facts. In 1777 the Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs 6th
Connecticut Regiment did have leather caps issued to
them. The caps were noteworthy, so much so that
several times during the war they were mentioned as
exemplary examples to be copied.

6th Connecticut Regt. 1777-1781. "In July 1779
Colonel Walter Stewart of the 2nd Pennsylvania
Regiment sent one of his officers to Middletown,
Connecticut, there to have leather caps made for his
regiment. The caps were to have white leather
binding around the edges, and came in different
patterns for light infantry, grenadiers, battalion
[troops], sergeants and musicians, and officers. In
his letter of instruction to his officer, Stewart
wrote, the [caps] must be made in the form of the
Battalion [caps] w[hi]ch is the same Pattern as
Colo. Megg's. The only colonel in the Continental
Army at the time with a name anything like Meggs,
was the 6th Connecticut Regiment's Colonel Return
Jonathan Meigs." Philip Katcher, Uniforms of the
Continental Army, p. 75.

The commander in chief also mentioned the 6th
Connecticut's caps in 1781. George Washington to the
Board of War, 10 January 1781: "We have so
constantly experienced the want of Hats, than which
no part of dress is more essential to the appearance
of a soldier, that I have been endeavouring to find
out a subsitute for them, which could be procured
among ourselves. I have seen none so likely to
answer the purpose, and which at the same time of so
military an air as a leather Cap which was procured
in the year 1777 for the 6th. Connecticut Regt."
John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George
Washington, vol. 21, p. 83.