Following is a transcript of depositions taken from brothers Jacob and John Fulbright, when testifying on behalf of a neighbor, John Perkins. When attempting to decipher the old handwritten script the original spelling was maintained as nearly as possible.

Note: [For a look at a copy of Jacob's affidavit, click HERE. It's a big file and will take a few minutes to load.]

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Note: [For a look at a copy of John's affidavit, click HERE. It'is a big file and will take a few minutes to load.]

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The above depositions obviously indicate that Jacob Fulbright was a participant in the Battle of Ramsour's Mill as a Loyalist -- bearing arms on the side of the British!

Brother John, apparently, while present in the vicinity was not an active participant on either side or he surely would have been questioned in that regard during the deposition.

Jacob's affidavit is especially interesting when one considers the Jacob Fulbright Pension Application, recorded in Haywood County, North Carolina and which may also to be found in the National Archives (Revolutionary War Pension Applications) under #3826. The copy obtained is transcribed below. Again an attempt is made to retain the original spelling.

A declaration in order to obtain the benefits of an Act of Congress passed the 7 June 1832.

On this 2 day of January 1833 personally appeared in open court before the Justices thereof Jacob Fulbright, a resident of the County of Haywood and State of North Carolina, aged 85 on the 22 day of December 1832 as it appears from the record in my fathers families bibels (sic.), who being first duly sworn according to law doth on his oath make the following declarations in order to obtain the benefits of an Act of Congress passed June the 7, 1832. I entered the services of the United States in the year 1776, but it might of been 1778 or 1779 as I have lost my recollection, in the month of August and came home in the month of October making done a three month tour. I was drafted. I was under the command of Col. Balemar, Capt. Conrad, Lieutenant Abraham Anthony, Ensign Henry Holman, Lieutenant Col. Charles McDaniel and General Rutherford. I was bearing in Lincoln County, N. Carolina and march against the Cherokee Indians threw what was called the Frenchbroad, Pigeon, Tuckasegee(?), Tennessee River countries and on what is now call Buncumbe, Haywood and Macon counties N. Carolina and or in what is yet the Cherokee Nation on the waters of the Hiwassee, and Vallies, rivers and we took the Vallies towns in no engagements of moment we burned and destroyed the towns and crops. I was discharged by Capt. Conrad but it is lost or destroyed. I entered into the Services again in the year of 1780 or 1781 bearing in Lincoln County N Car under the command of the following officers, Col. McDaniel, Lieutenant Col. Brevard, Capt. Smith, Lieut. Col. Brevard got the small pocks and dyed and Daniel McKissick was put in his place and afterwards Col. McDaniel was made a general after I had enlisted and entered into the service. The officers thought proper as I was a blacksmith by trade to take me out of the army and put me to work in the blacksmith shop to showing and repairing the shoes of the horses that was in the service and I remained there two years working thusly for all the horsemen that was passing about. The work was all of ____ __ and often I had to board the men and horses for several days at a time while they were getting their work done and I never got anything for either work or boarding. I remained there working at the close of the war and I never got a discharge. I have no documentary evidence and I know of nobody by whom I can prove my services by without I can by Jacob Shoock who lives in Haywood County, N. Carolina and I don't know whether he is acquainted with the particulars of my service. I was born in the year 1747 in the month of December the 22 day in the State of Pennsylvania in the County of Northampton. I moved from there to Lincoln County N. Carolina in the year 1769 and lived there until after the war was over and moved from there to Haywood County N. Carolina and have lived there ever since.

However, the application was denied, the reason given being that Jacob Fulbright was not in the military service. Apparently shoeing horses was not good enough to qualify him as 'Military'. Later, Jacob's son, Abraham, tried to correct the inequity per the following transcription of the original documents:

From the above we may deduce that Jacob Fulbright's military service was first in the Cherokee Indian Wars, then with the Tories at Ramsour's Mill, and later as a blacksmith with the Revolutionary forces. This seems an unusual and unlikely series of events needing further clarification. Taken in their order of occurrence it will be interesting to first consider the Indian engagements.

Ms Joeline Webber has shared valuable historical insight into some of the conflicts between the Cherokee Indians and early North Carolina settlers. She has made an extensive study of the history of those early days because of her own Cherokee background as well as her intense interest in our family genealogy. Carrying Cherokee blood and a being a registered member of the Native American Tribal rolls she could be expected, on a personal note, when studying this period of history to have some major difficulty in maintaining complete impartiality. Also as a exacting genealogist she sometimes finds it hard to fathom the behavior of her Indian and European ancestors in relationship to one another. However, she has proven to have a strong conviction that she must not, in any way, seem to rewrite history to favor of either side.

Beginning with her offer to share some background information, she writes:

"As of 1776 settlers were still forbidden to enter Cherokee territory west of the Appalachian crest. In defiance of this order, settlers led by members of the Bean family from Virginia, had established a settlement at Watauga. In an effort to be accommodating, the Cherokee had leased these lands to the settlers with an understanding that the Cherokee would continue to hunt in the area. Needless to say settlers kept pouring in, defying the treaties that established the area boundaries and soon tensions arose. Dragging Canoe, son of a principal chief of the Cherokee, took exception to further cessation of land to the settlers. At roughly the same time war broke out between the British and the colonists. An ultimatum was sent to the Cherokee to "control Dragging Canoe and oust the British advisors, or face an invasion of Cherokee country."

"Although the following quotation is written from the Cherokee point of view and does not deal very much with the white folks involved; The book, "Footsteps of the Cherokees", subtitled: "A guide to the Eastern Homelands of the Cherokee Nation" and written by Vicki Rozema, states, in part, that:

"In response, seven hundred warriors headed north in mid-July to attack the Watauga and Nolichucky settlements, Long Island on the Holston River, and Carter s Valley (west of present-day Kingsport, Tennessee).

"Nancy Ward, in an attempt to prevent another war with the white settlers sent a warning to Lieutenant John Sevier, leader of the Watauga militia. Accordingly, Sevier abandoned Fort Lee, then under construction, and the settlers moved to Fort Watauga.

"The Cherokee burned the uncompleted Fort Lee then split their forces. The Raven, of Chota, went to Carter's Valley and burned and destroyed all the cabins and crops there. Dragging Canoe encountered a combined force of Virginia and local militia and was defeated when he was wounded in the thigh at Long Island. Old Abram laid siege to Fort Watauga."

Elsewhere in the same book are found the paragraphs quoted below:

"Most of the losses to the settlers were due to carelessness. In one incident, James Cooper and a youngster named Tom Moore were sent out to collect boards to repair a roof. Cooper was shot and scalped trying to swim across a stream, while Moore was captured and taken to the village, Tuskeegee, where he was burned at the stake. By the time Colonel Evan Shelby arrived to relieve Fort Watauga, Old Abram and his warriors had left the scene."

"In late July, Georgia, Virginia and Carolina militias marched into Cherokee country and attacked the Lower, Middle, and Valley towns.

"In October, over twenty-one hundred militia, under the command of Colonel William Christian, left Fort Patrick Henry on Long Island for the Overhill towns, where they met with no opposition. The Virginians burned Tuskeegee, where young Moore had been burned alive a few weeks before. They then sacked three towns loyal to Dragging Canoe before returning home."

Ms Webber adds the following comments: "I'd say that the preceding excerpts describe the exact type of Cherokee campaign that Jacob Fulbright would have been engaged in; the months fit, and the fact that they met with no opposition also fits...

"One possible problem with the particular service as described above is that there was no clear-cut British vs. Colonist situation until 1777, in North Carolina. It was not until 1777 that the British agents, Alexander Cameron and John Stuart, offered the Chickamaugan Cherokees, under Dragging Canoe, supplies to fight the American Rebels.

"Again, I point out that these earlier campaigns were more in the nature of all of the white settlers, regardless of political position, against the Cherokee. The nature of the campaigns was territorial encroachment precisely in the mold of the rest of the 'Indian Wars' rather than any direct relationship to the Revolution.

"I suspect that the militia serving against the Cherokee in 1776 were not considered to be Revolutionary War troops...although many of the leaders later served with the American Revolutionary Forces. I also point out again that if it were true that the Cherokee Campaign in which Jacob Fulbright served had been considered Revolutionary War service, then his later service at Ramsour s Mill would indeed have been high treason.

"The Cherokee treaty of 1776 in which the Cherokee agreed to remain neutral, but made it clear that they could not speak for Dragging Canoe, was later upheld by Congress...but neither the Federal Government nor the Government of VA or NC could control the settlers."

And again quoting from the book, which goes on to say:

"In 1784 North Carolina, unable to control John Sevier or the western settlers, ceded the lands of the Wataugan and Nolichucky settlements to Congress.

"This, of course, led to the well known proclamation of the State of Franklin by the Wataugan settlers. Some of the most shameful episodes in the history of the relations of the citizens of Tennessee and the Cherokee Nation took place as a result of these events.

"The Chickamaugan Cherokees joined forces with their ancestral enemies, the Creeks, and raided into Tennessee, Kentucky, and parts of western North Carolina. Unable to catch the offenders, members of the militia, led by Colonel John Sevier, took revenge by burning Hiwassee and the Overhill towns which were occupied by the peaceful Cherokee. Then in 1788 Old Abram and Old Tassel along with Old Abram s son and three other villagers, all known to be friendly to the whites, were murdered under a flag of truce at Chilhowee by the State of Franklin militia under the command of Major James Hubbard, one of Sevier s men. It should be noted that Colonel John Sevier had no knowledge of these plans."

Note that the dates of these later campaigns do not coincide with those in Jacob Fulbright's pension application.

The following is another viewpoint on the Cherokee campaign of 1776 and, again it is offered by Ms Webber:

"From the book, "History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees " by James Mooney which is definitely written from a white man's viewpoint. His writing is also a bit more contemporary with the events than the previous source as it was originally written in 1891. At that date it would seem that Mooney had access to some of the original oral history as well as documents that may no longer exist.

"Mooney somehow set himself to 'save' the culture and oral history of the Cherokee before it was totally lost. According to his biographers he started his research in the early 1880's and his historical research seems to be about as accurate as one can find anywhere. The bibliography and footnotes have reference to contemporary documents, etc., should anyone wish to research this further.

"This book takes the viewpoint that the Tories were already inciting the Cherokee and maintains that Tories were fighting with the Cherokee who were "stripped and painted like Indians". [Reference for this statement is, "Winning of the West " by Roosevelt...I, pp. 293-297, 1889. However, being familiar with this work I am doubtful of it's absolute veracity as it tended to quote newspapers of the era, which were notorious for their rather inflammatory and incorrect statements regarding conflicts with Indians.] However, that there were numerous half and quarter breed Cherokees living with, supporting, and fighting with, the Cherokee at this point is undisputed. The same paragraph says that thirteen of the Tories were captured, yet I can find no reference anywhere else to those Tories.

"Keeping in mind that Mooney's description is that of the white historians of the period while proceeding to pages 48 and 49 we find:

"Realizing their common danger, the border states determined to strike such a concerted blow at the Cherokee as should render them passive while the struggle with England continued. In accord with this plan of cooperation the frontier forces were quickly mobilized and in the summer of 1776 four expeditions were equipped from Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, to enter the Cherokee territory simultaneously from as many different directions.

"In August of that year the army of North Carolina, 2400 strong, under General Griffith Rutherford, crossed the Blue ridge at Swannaona gap and following the main trail almost along the present line of the railroad, struck the first Indian town, Stika'yi, or Stecoee, on the Tuckaseegee, near the present Whittier. The inhabitants having fled, the soldiers burned the town, together with an unfinished townhouse ready for the roof, cut down the standing corn, killed one or two straggling Indians, and then proceeded on their mission of destruction. Every town upon Oconaluftee, Tuckasegee, and the upper part of Little Tennessee, and on Hiwassee to below the junction of Valley river--thirty six towns in all--was destroyed in turn, the corn cut down or trampled under the hoofs of the stock driven into the fields for that purpose, and the stock itself killed or carried off. Before such an overwhelming force, supplemented as it was by three others simultaneously advancing from other directions, the Cherokee made but poor resistance, and fled with their women and children into the fastnesses of the Great Smoky mountains, leaving their desolated fields and smoking towns behind them. As was usual in Indian wars, the actual number killed or taken was small, but the destruction of property was beyond calculation. At Sugartown, (Kulsetsi'yi, east of the present Franklin) one detachment, sent to destroy it, was surprised, and escaped only through the aid of another force sent to its rescue. Rutherford himself, while proceeding to the destruction of the Hiwassee towns, encountered the indians drawn up to oppose his progress in the Waya gap of the Nantahala mountains, and one of the hardest fights of the campaign resulted, the soldiers losing over forty killed and wounded, although the Cherokee were finally repulsed. One of the Indians killed on this Occasion was afterward discovered to be a woman, painted and armed like a warrior. . ."

Ms Webber concludes: "I'd say this is undoubtedly the campaign in which Jacob Fulbright took part...the dates and descriptions are a perfect match. Further, Jacob s description of fighting the Cherokees ties in with the historical facts. In that area the British depended on their Cherokee allies to harass the Rebels . The Cherokee were not very discriminating about who was a friend and who a foe so this turned many a loyalist against the crown by 1777. While loyalties may have been torn with regards to supporting the crown, the Cherokee were a mutual enemy they could all agree on. . .

Further enlightenment regarding the above may be found in still other work of Ms Webber as follows:

"Old Abram, was a principal WAR Chief of the Cherokee, his name would indicate that he had at one time or another been 'christianized', as had many of the Cherokee to varying degrees. This was a somewhat nebulous process at best since the Cherokee, like other Native Americans, tended to incorporate Christianity into their own beliefs rather than 'converting'. Numerous documents have been published where Christian Missionaries bemoan this fact. Under Catholic Spanish rule this led to the decimation of tribes in some areas, particularly in California, where the priests adopted the practice of torturing prominent Indians until they professed Catholicism, baptizing them in front of their followers to encourage conversion, then strangling them immediately to 'guarantee their salvation'.

"Additionally it is important to know the difference between a WAR Chief and a PEACE Chief. While a Peace Chief might actively go to war, he was rarely the leader of a warring force. Unfortunately, Peace Chiefs and War Chiefs were going separate ways in the Revolutionary War period as the cultural system of the Cherokee was breaking down under European territorial pressures and influence.

"Dragging Canoe was a WAR Chief, although his father was a Peace Chief. Since these positions were somewhat determined by the clan system of the Cherokee this is not illogical. The clan of Dragging Canoe would have been that of his mother, not his father.

"The clan system and its effect on Cherokee behavior during the Revolutionary War would be an interesting study. Certainly it had an effect on the break off of the Chickamauga band of Cherokee from the main valley and middle towns and this break off, which would have been mostly of younger men, had a detrimental effect on the ability of the remaining peaceful Cherokee to defend themselves."

Returning to Jacob's experience as a Tory, one may find an enlightening article about the events at Ramsour's Mill in the book, "The Annals of Lincoln County" written by Sherrill, which is available in most genealogy libraries.