Maj. Daniel Bedinger, Revolutionary War veteran

DAR Ancestor #: A008430

Daniel Bedinger served as a lieutenant with the Virginia Line from 1776 to 1783. (1)

Rev War Pension Number: *W8138

notes

He is unknown today, but he was one of the great heros of the American Revolution.

Daniel Bedinger was a 14-year-old Virginia farm boy. When his two older brothers left to join Washington's army, Daniel had to stay behind, tending chickens and the fields. But a year later he ran away to join his brothers. He walked the long miles from Virginia to New York City, where the young American army had assembled at Fort Washington.

On Novemeber 14, 1776, the British attacked. Daniel fired his heavy musket seventeen times that day, shouting, "Take that, you bastards!" But the British and their Hessian hirelings came in wave after wave, and the Fort could not be held. Daniel saw his brother lose a finger and his friends die all around him. Finally, Daniel himself was captured.

Imagine how that fifteen-year-old boy must have felt. They locked him aboard a stinking ship in New York harbor. It was full of rats and crawling lice and swarming flies. Daniel had only three ways out:

• Join the British army
• Wait for a prisoner exchange that might never come
• Or die of disease and starvation.

Daniel did not join the British army. He waited and survived. He endured the misery of the blackened hold, the rotten food and the brutish guards, and when they finally did exchange him, 52 of the 79 prisoners in Daniel's company had died.

That fifteen-year-old boy was lucky to be alive.

So what did he do? Did he rejoin Washington's army and face death again? Or return to the farm -- to the peace, the quiet, and the safety? What would you have done? Would you have quit?

Daniel didn't quit. He resumed the fight and was commissioned for his bravery. Then, eight months later, in the battle of Brandywine, the Redcoats captured him yet again. This time he spent two years in harsh confinement.

And even that was not the end.

Exchanged once more, Daniel, now a wizened veteran of 20, fought with General Morgan at the Battle of the Cowpens in South Carolina. He helped smash Tarleton's army and started the Redcoats on the road to Yorktown.

How proud he must have been on that day of final victory.

Source: Steve Dasbach (2)

Ran away and joined his two older brothers Henry and George Micheal in George Washington's army as a young boy was captured and held prisoner by the English twice ended his service as a Captain. Returned to Shepardstown West Virginia family home

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• 1790 - Daniel Bedinger constructed a brick three-story building on the vacant portion of the lot. It butted against the museum building and adjoined the Princess Street building. He now owned all of the "hotel" property. (3)

Sources

1. Swearingen-Bedinger Papers 1759-1948)
2. Steve Dasbach, Executive Director, Libertarian Party fundraising mailer, 2002
3. http://users.stargate.net/~hsc/chronology.html

Links

• http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mysouthernfamily/...

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GEDCOM Note

Was a Lieutenant of the US Navey Ship Yard at Norfolk Va. Built a home near Shepheards town called Beford in 1800

From 382v3

Daniel joined Capt. Shepards rifle co. in June 1776 "Heitmans Historic Register" lists him as a first lieutanent in November 1776 at the time he was captured. Daniel was released from captivity in January, 1777. (More dead than alive) He was confined in the old "Sugar House" prison in New York. He first arrived in Norfolk to take over his duties as Navy Agent at the Coustom House in the sunner of 1784.

Bedinger, Lieut. Daniel. He was born in 1761 near York, Pa. The following year his father moved to Shepherdstown. In June, 1776, Daniel ran away from home and enlisted in Captain Shepherd's company of riflcmen. Was an expert marksman, and fired his rifle 27 times at the British ascending the hill to storm Fort Washington. This was considered an astonishing feat in those days. Although taken prisoner his gallantry in action won him an ensigncy. He was confined first in the old Sugar House Prison in New York and afterwards on board a prison ship. Although exchanged in about two months he never regained his health.* After the Revolution, during which he won the reputation of being an intrepid and valuable soldier, Daniel Bedinger went to Norfolk, where he obtained a situation in the Custom House. During Jefferson's administration he was appointed Navy Agent, and took entire charge of Gosport Navy Yard. He constructed the wall and government building is still in use. In his old age he lived on his estate, "Bedford." near Shepherdstown, the home of hospitality. He died in 1818, leaving a widow and a large family of children. No man in the neighborhood was more loved and respected. His earnest patriotism made him some enemies, and his poem, "The Cossack Celebration," is still remembered by many as one of the strongest examples of satirical writing ever produced in America. One of his daughters married the Hon. William Lucas. Another married Thornton [301] Washington, a grand-nephew of General George Washington. A third married Edmund J. Lee, Esq., a cousin of Gen. R. E. Lee. His son, Henry Bedinger, represented this district in Congress a number of years, and was sent as United States Minister to Denmark in 1853. He returned home in 1858, and took cold at a large public dinner tendered him by his friends and neighbors, in honor of his return, dying in a few days of pneumonia.