As we continue to move toward our nation’s semiquincentennial, I’m still focusing on elements of the Revolutionary War effort of attaining independence and the related contributions and connections of families of the Fork, the Knox County lands between the French Broad and Holston Rivers.

This one makes my heart hurt.

Last week, we looked at the Bounds family Patriots and learned that in 1826, descendant Ellen Bounds married James Luttrell. He was the namesake of yet another local Revolutionary War veteran.

In 1837, aging Patriot James Luttrell of Knox County applied for a pension in accordance with the 1832 Act of Congress that provided partial pay benefits for soldiers who had served for at least six months. James was born in 1755 in Virginia, where he was drafted at Amherst and served as a minuteman in 1780 under Captain James Dillard and Colonel Peter Rose.

James’ unit marched to Hillsboro, but General Horatio Gates’ men were defeated at Camden before they could arrive at the battle. After he was discharged at Hillsboro, he was again drafted in 1781 under Captain Charles Christian, who marched them toward Guilford Courthouse. However, by the evening of the battle, they were still a mile out from their destination. The next day, their company joined Colonel Charles Lynch in pursuit of the British. Discharge papers he then received at Guilford Courthouse were later lost in a house fire.

James lived in Amherst County, Virginia, until 1795, when he moved to Knox County. Although his military records were probably part of those that burned in fires at federal buildings in 1800 or during the War of 1812, Joseph Laine, another Amherst soldier who had moved to Bradley County, Tennessee, came forth with a sworn statement that he and James Luttrell had both been drafted at those two times but had served in separate companies. However, he distinctly remembered that James came home a few days after his own return the first term and that James, too, was gone again the entire time of the second term, and he didn’t see him again until that term ended. Joseph Laine was receiving a pension.

Sadly, even though James was a Patriot who had served as a minuteman and a private in service of our fledgling nation, Laine’s testimony that James had, indeed, served at least six months was not enough to persuade officials to grant James Luttrell a pension.

James was 82 years old. He died in 1848 at age 93.

Caledonia Cemetery stone erected by descendants in memory of Patriot James Luttrell’s brother William Luttrell (1765-1813), who owned about 300 acres in the Fork, where William and wife Elizabeth Witt (1770-1863) were actually “buried on the homestead,” adjoining the lands of James Luttrell, William Bell and H.M. Aiken

James Luttrell’s early descendants were prominent civic leaders, including Knoxville mayors, and subsequent generations have continued to live between the French Broad and Holston rivers; however, for many, their Patriot ancestor’s service has been forgotten in the Fork.

Jan Loveday Dickens is an educator, historian, and author of Forgotten in the Fork, a book about the Knox County lands between the French Broad and Holston Rivers, obtainable by emailing ForgottenInTheFork@gmail.com.

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