Mecklenburg-Wake County NcArchives Military Records.....Polk, William 
Revwar - Enlistment 
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Colonial Records
Declaration by William Polk concerning his military service in the 
Revolutionary War 
Polk, William, 1758-1834 
Volume 22, Pages 152-154
 
WILLIAM POLK.

He was residing in April 1833 in Wake County, N. C., and stated that he was 
born in Mecklenburg County, N. C., July 9th, 1758, wehere he was living when 
he entered the service. In 1785 he removed to Davidson County, Tenn., "There 
occasionally living for three years," then returned to Mecklenburg County, 
where residing until 1799, since which time he has lived in Wake County as the 
Mayor of the City of Raleigh, where now living. He has lost his commission as 
2nd Lieutenant and as Lieutenant Colonel Commandant. His papers were seized at 
Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, by the British. He died January 14th, 1834.

In April 1775 he entered the service of South Carolina as 2nd Lieutenant in 
the Company of Capt. Ezekiel Polk in 3rd S. C. Regiment, mounted Infantry, 
commanded by Colonel William Thompson, which marched from the rendezvous in 
York District to Ninety-Six, Dorchester and Granby, where they were joined by 
the Militia of S. C. The object was to oppose the embodied Tories at Ninety-
Six, to which place they marched and pursued the Tories, to the great cane 
break, where an engagement occurred December 22nd, 1775. In this action he 
received a wound in his left shoulder with which he was confined 8 or 9 
months. Immediately after his recovery, he was appointed Major November 26th, 
1776, in the 9th N. C. Regiment of the Continental line, he having held his 
commission of Lieutenant in South Carolina troops from April 1775 to November 
26th, 1776. He joined his regiment at Halifax, N. C. in April 1777, he having 
been on duty in the interior by the command of General Moore at Charleston, S. 
C., and Wilmington, N. C. The Colonel of the 9th regiment was John Williams 
and the Lieutenant Colonel John Luttrell. The command of the regiment from the 
absence of the Colonel and Lieutenant Colonel devolved on Major Polk, which he 
marched to Georgetown, Md., now in the District of Columbia, where they were 
inoculated with the small pox; from thence, after recovery, they went to 
Trenton, N. J., to join the army under General Washington, which was going to 
the head of the Elk to meet the enemy's advance toward Philadelphia. He was in 
the battle of Brandywine (Delaware, 11 Sept., 1777) and Germantown 
(Pennsylvania, 4 October, 1777) in which latter he was wounded by a musket 
ball in the cheek. He continued with the army at Valley Forge until the 
regiments were reduced, when he, with other officers, returned to North 
Carolina to superinted the recruiting service to fill up the regiment. The 
particular length of this service he cannot recollect, nor the precise day of 
its termination, but upon a further reduction of the regiment, in the Spring 
or Summer of 1779, he was put out of the service. 

The length of his service as Major was certified by the Secretary of the State 
of N. C. as 33 months, to which Mr. Polk referred as on the Continental 
establishment. He served after this as an occasional Volunteer in the Militia 
until the fall or winter of 1780, the day and month not recollected, when he 
received a commission as Lieutenant Colonel of the 4th and then the 3rd 
regiment of South Carolina, signed by John Rutledge, then Governor of that 
State. His regiment was first mustered under the command of General Thomas 
Sumter on Broad River in S. C. The first active service under his new 
commission was an attack upon a Block House near Granby on the Congaree, which 
was carried by his own and Colonel Wade Hampton's regiments. He was at the 
siege and reduction of Fort Motte and Orangeburg (the respective dates are 
probably Orangeburg May 11th, 1781; Fort Motte May 12th, 1781; Fort Granby May 
15th, 1781). He was in the battle of Eutaw Springs (September 8th, 1781) where 
his horse was killed under him; at the reduction of Wathoo (or Mathoo-badly 
written) and the battle at Quimby (probably late in July, 1781) making his 
service as Lieutenant Colonel Commandant in S. C. State troops, ten months. On 
one occasion he was a Volunteer in the Militia between the fall of 1779 and 
the date of his commission at Lieutenant Colonel and as aid to General Caswell 
at the battle of Gates' defeat near Camden (August 16th, 1780).




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