EBERHARDT/EVERHART IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

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SGT. LAWRENCE EVERHART An Immigrant Son's Fight for Liberty           The Everhart (Eberhardt / Eberhard / Everheart) families came over to America in the mid-1700?s to seek a better opportunity for themselves.  They were from the Paltz Province, Wurtemburg, Germany.  The areas of Germantown, Pennsylvania and then Middletown, Maryland became the new homelands of the families.  Christian Everhart and his wife, Maria Sybilla Geier Everhart came to America to start their family.  Their oldest son was Lawrence Everhart, born on May 6, 1755 in Frederick County, Maryland. (Note: His birth location so recorded by Lawrence Everhart in the Federal Government Pension papers of April 7, 1834.)  He understood enough to know the reasons why his parents wanted to leave their ancestral home and begin in a new land.  In the coming few years as he matured he realized even more so the importance of being one's own person, of personal independence and freedom.  He grew up with the flames of revolution swirling around him between Pennsylvania and Virginia.
        With the 13 American colonies declaring their independence from England in July 1776, Lawrence was a strong and brave young man ready to help secure the colonies' independence and become a new nation.  He enlisted as a private on August 1, 1776 at Taneytown in Maryland with the Militia Company, The Flying Camp, headed by Capt. Jacob Goode.  The next day began his great adventure and his chance to be a part of history in the making.  He first marched to Annapolis, Maryland and then to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for training.  Lawrence was then assigned to General Beall in New York.  His first battle was at White Plains in New York and his first taste of retreat as the forces backed off and headed for Ft. Washington.  But after reaching the Fort,  Lawrence was taken prisoner along with the other troops.  No one was going to hold this patriot, so along with several others he escaped from the British guards and made it to Ft. Lee.

        After Ft. Lee he went onto Hackensack.  That was when Lawrence met with General George Washington, on a front porch.  The General was extremely upset with the lack of trained soldiers and supplies provided by the Continental Congress.  Lawrence stated that Washington was to the point of tears.  Later Lawrence was sent to Morristown and then onto Elizabethtown where he was discharged from The Flying Camp because he had served his  required enlisted time.  But he came back very shortly to regiment and remained with the officers to give assistance to them.
        After General George Washington was successful at Trenton, Lawrence arrived in Philadelphia again to be of any assistance to the officers and lingered until the spring of 1777.  Lawrence returned to his home in Frederick County, Maryland  to be of service to his family and stayed during harvest time of 1778.   But the American colonies were still fighting the British and Lawrence wanted to return.
        He enlisted again under Captain Swan with the Cavalry Regiment commanded by Lieutenant Colonel William Washington ( a cousin of General George Washington) in Fredericktown, Maryland.  By March 1779, Lawrence was marching towards Fredericksburg then to Petersburg with Lt. Col. Washington.  He served as a Sergeant of the Cavalry and as an aide to Washington .  When Lt. Col. William Washington had to go farther north for meetings, Sgt. Everhart was an aide to Capt. Stith.  At the end of 1779 Sgt. Everhart was again Lt. Col. Washington's aide.
        In April 1780 the Cavalry was in Charlestown, South Carolina and in Dorchester when Lawrence had major problems.  There were skirmishers with the British led by Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton and Lawrence was slightly wounded at Stony Church.   Other battles included those at Monks Corner, Buford's Defeat, and Rugley's Mill.  But the end of 1780 and into January of 1781 set the stage for a major conflict between the patriots, the loyalists and the British forces.
        Lt. Col. Tarleton was pushing General Daniel Morgan's patriot forces from the backcountry of South Carolina during terrible rainstorms in mid-January.  A stand was finally made by General Morgan at Cowpens, a crossroads and grazing area near the Green River Road.   Morgan put the call out for the militia to assist him at Cowpens.  By the morning of January 17th, Lt. Col. Tarleton had his artillery ready and his Dragoons on either side.  He pushed the British regulars forward and followed by the feared Dragoons with their sabers.  It was then that Lt. Col. William Washington's cavalry came charging into the battlefield.  The British Dragoons were taken by surprise and the British in the clash suffered several casualties.

BATTLE OF COWPENS (painting by William Ranney - 1845)

        Sgt. Everhart was with the Cavalry in that charge when a bullet hit him in the right elbow and his horse was shot from under him.   He subsequently received a smashing blow to the head from a British soldier with a saber. He was captured that early morning by quartermaster Wade of the British Army.  He was taken and put in front of  a  British officer.   Sgt. Everhart asked if General Morgan and Lt. Col Washington had been captured.  Everhart expressed his belief that the fighting would continue even if there were only 200 men left and that he "hoped to God that it would be another Tarleton defeat".  To that the British officer replied, " I am Colonel Tarleton, Sir!"  The American patriot's retort being, "and I am Sgt. Everhart!"  A standoff of words met these two men as they looked each in the eye.  With open bleeding head and elbow wounds evident he was then dismissed to be cared for by the British surgeon.  Afterwards he was released and returned to Lt. Col. Washington's camp.  There he learned how Morgan's forces had broken the British charge and had turned the tide of battle.  Many British redcoats surrendered and Lt. Col. Tarleton with some of his men fled down the Green River Road.  It was Lt. Col. Washington who pursued Tarleton, even fighting hand to hand combat.  But Tarleton managed to escape and headed back to General Cornwallis' camp with news of the defeat.
        Sgt. Everhart went on with the cavalry to Guliford Courthouse for further medical care. By March, there was the Battle at Guliford Courthouse with hundreds of British soldiers killed or wounded.  But he was still recovering from his wounds.  Everhart was later sent to Yorktown, Virginia  and had the opportunity to meet the General LaFayette from France.  He remained during the surrender period between General Washington and General Cornwallis on October 18, 1781.

        Everhart returned to his home in Frederick County, Maryland at the end of October.  Within the next month he received a letter from Colonel Bayler to return to his former regiment to assist Bayler at Petersburg, Virginia.  Before going he did marry the sweetheart he had been away from for so long, Mary Anna Beckenbaugh,  in Middletown, Maryland.  Lawrence Everhart wasn't discharged until late summer of 1782 and was back to Frederick County, Maryland by September.
        Lawrence Everhart was not a "sunshine patriot" but one who stayed and returned again when needed.  He stood his ground even when faced eye to eye with the enemy.  He was and remained a true soldier for independence.

  The illustration of Sgt. Lawrence Everhart - about 1800.

 

A proud and brave young American served his new country, not only for himself but his future descendants. This was his gift to the Everhart family of Maryland.

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NOTE:  The source of most of the information on Sgt. Lawrence Everhart's military service came from his U. S. Federal Pension papers in 1794 where he recounted his time served between 1776 and 1782.
              One interesting family legend was that Sgt. Everhart was the personal aide to General George Washington, but Lawrence Everhart's own recalling of his military service had him the aide of Lt. Col. William Washington.

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