Proud to be an American

So while I listen to the fireworks exploding in my neighborhood, I find I am grateful.  I love this land for a lot of reasons.  I find it hard to say that at times.  Today it is more popular to point out the flaws in America and to ignore all of the good that this country has done.  But I am proud of my heritage and the culture that I have been given by those that came before me.  Some came here to escape religious persecution.  Others sold themselves into servitude in the hopes they could build a better life afterwards.  Some came to the New World for adventure, others to try and build a better life than they might have been able to obtain where they were born.  And others were already here when Europe began colonizing this land.  This holiday, I want to share some of my family history focused on the Revolutionary War, which began with the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

When the War began, we were there on both sides of the conflict.  Joshua Perry came from a family of Royalists and with few exceptions did not fight on the American side in the Revolution.  However, they were distinctly military, serving prior to and enlisting immediately after the Revolution began. Meanwhile James Billingsley, was a patriot who lost his life when loyalists to the British cause invaded his home in April 1776. These Tories who had been harassing him asked for money. On being told there was none. They took him to a nearby tree and hung him. (This statement came from his wife Elizabeth Crabtree Billingsley who made notes in the family Bible.)

Gabriel D. Smith, entered the service of the U.S. Militia of North Carolina in Mongomery County August 1780 under Captain Thomas Childs and was marched to Mays Ferry where we had a battle or skirmish with the Tories. Childs was wounded by a ball through the arm and placed under the command of Captain Samuel Pond, and marched to Drowning Creek & Betties Bridge and had another skirmish with the Tories there.  He returned home and remained a few days.  Then having been reinforced marched to Betties Bridge and had another fight with the Tories. He was taken prisoner by the Tories in the fall of 1781, and kept about 3 weeks when he made his escape from them and returned home.

And now for perhaps my favorite story:

Ezekiel Billington, enlisted in the service of his country in the spring of 1776 (he was seventeen years old), and served as a private.  Later he enlisted in Capt. Camp's Company and was in a skirmish with the British near Newark.  He was taken prisoner and held in the Old Sugar House in New York until sometime in 1777, when he was removed to a British prison ship in New York harbor.  Rather than remain in prison, the soldier enlisted in the British Army during June and July and was stationed on Staten Island. He was afterwards put on the man-of-war ‘Experiment,' removed in two months to the 'Badger' and transferred to the transport ‘William.' Still with the Tories, he marched to Augusta, GA., and from there to Ninety-six, South Carolina, where he deserted from the British Army.  He joined Gen. Greene's army, served 12 months in Capt. Field's company and was in the battle of Eutaw Springs. Gen. Greene gave him a discharge and a recommendation explaining is imprisonment. He was 21 years of age at the time.  As he started homeward, he stopped in Cumberland Co., North Carolina, ‘in order to work to get clothing.'  It was here that he also seems to have met and taken a wife.

So, this Independence Day I want to say thank you to my ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War.  Thank you for fighting to hand freedom to myself and my sister.  Thank you for taking action to secure liberty for my parents and cousins.  Thank you for sacrificing to give us a place where I can believe what I am persuaded to be true without fear of death, a culture that is working to see all people treated equally, even if we don't all agree about what that looks like.  I'm very grateful to live in a land that people still want to come to as a place where they can find some hope for a better tomorrow. 

Another day, we can argue about the way forward.  There will be time to discuss and fight and debate later.  We live in uncertain times, we live in an imposing world with problems that seem insurmountable.  So have others that came before us.  The American Revolution was a rebellion against the largest power the world had known at the time.  They faced an impossible task and ultimately they won.  And for all the bounty that I have been blessed to enjoy just by being born an American I am thankful.  Below are the names of the known revolutionary soldiers from my own ancestry.  Their sacrifice helped to make my life what it is today.

Peter Klingman	Richard William Oldham	Samuel Shannon
James Gilliam	William Absolom Littlefield Sr.	Aaron Freeman
William Mitchell Clay	Jacob Pyeatt	Benjamin Rush
Abia Clay	Richard Walker	John Cross
Simon Bright	John Webb Jr.	John Bethea
James Billingsley	Sgt. Arthur Hickman	Captain Moses Cavett
George Hiram Jewell	Drury Erastus Smith	John Hardin
Jacob Breyvogle	John Pyron	Capt. William "Indian Bill" Hardin
Ezekiel Billington	William Littlefield Jr	Richard Muse
Jacob Pyeatt I	Andrew M. McWilliams	Moses Hamilton Runnells
Samuel Smith	John Haile Mead	Joshua Perry
Isham Joham Huckaby	John Tankersley Sr.	Theophilus Easton
Moses Stephens	Gabriel D Smith
	Lt. Christopher Smith