June 22, 2023

Capt. Joseph Haden, Patriot

My initial attempt to join the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) resulted in my first-choice family-line being rejected (for lack of a proven connection between a particular generation of Garnetts). Fortunately, the DAR allows prospective members to re-apply with an alternate patriot-ancestor. In October 2014, my application through Captain Joseph Haden was approved.

Joseph Haden (abt 1752 – 1820) was active in the local militia in colonial Virginia. He lived his adult life in the portion of Albemarle County which became Fluvanna County on July 1, 1777. [Haden is sometimes spelled Hayden or Hadden. Joseph had an uncle named Joseph Haden; researchers need to be careful to follow the correct man.]

Virginia Militia

The Library of Virginia categorizes Revolutionary War service by Virginians as:

Continental Line (regiments that served under the authority of the Continental Congress)
Virginia State Line (3-year terms under the authority of the state, originally intended to serve within Virginia)
County Militia (tours of duty up to 3 months, multiple tours were possible)

Each county had its own militia. All “free male persons, hired servants, and apprentices” (apparently restricted beginning in 1777 to free white and “mulatto” males) aged 16 to 50 were considered part of the militia unless exempted.

1777: September

Joseph Haden took an oath as a Captain of Fluvanna County, Virginia Militia on September 4, 1777.¹ According to the testimony of James East, Capt. Joseph Haden commanded East’s militia company for three months in 1777.²

1777: Autumn

Another soldier, Dilmus Johnson, was also under the command of Captain Joseph Haden. In his pension application, he swore:³

“That he [Johnson] resided in Fluvanna County State of Virginia in September 1777. He entered the militia Service for three months. Drafted private under the command of Captain Joseph Hayden in a Virginia Regiment commanded by Colonel Ennis. We rendezvoused at Old Williamsburg. There was another Regt. laying there commanded by J. Cabell. We were here held in readiness in consequence of some British vessels comming [sic] into the Chesapeake Bay – York River – and we lay there for about six weeks at which time we were verbally discharged.”

David Clarkson’s wagon and team of horses went with Captain Joseph Haden from Fluvanna to Williamsburg in September of 1777. The next year, he petitioned the Virginia House of Delegates for an additional allowance (above the 10 shillings per day that he received).⁴

1777: December

After being discharged, Joseph Haden returned home. On December 9, 1777, Virginia Commonwealth Governor Patrick Henry appointed 19 men as Justices of the Peace. These men were

“required to keep the Peace in the County of Fluvanna and required to keep, or cause to be kept, all Ordinances and Laws of the said Commonwealth, made for the Good of the Peace and for the Conservation of the same, and for the Quiet, Rule and Government of the People, in all and every the Articles thereof, in the said County, according to the Force, Form and Effect of the same; and to chastise and punish all Persons offending against the Forms of those Ordinances and Laws of the said Commonwealth, or any of them, in the County aforesaid; and to cause to come before you, or any of you, all those Persons who shall threaten the good People, either in their Bodies or burning their Houses, to find sufficient Security for the Peace, or for their good Behaviour [sic] towards the said Commonwealth and the People, and if they shall refuse to find such Security, then to cause them to be kept safe in Prison until they find such Security.”

1780: April

Captain Joseph Haden returned to militia service. From the sworn testimony of Daniel Thacker: Captain Joseph Haden’s Company marched from Fluvanna County to Hillsborough NC in the spring of 1780.⁵

1780: Battle of Camden

In July of 1780, American Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates marched his army into South Carolina in order to release the state from British control. Cornwallis, the British commander, heard of Gates’ approach. The two armies fought one another north of Camden on the morning of August 16, 1780.

Was Captain Joseph Haden at the fateful Battle of Camden?

In his pension record, Ancil Manley avers that:⁶

“he [Manley] entered the Service of the United States under the following named officers and served as herein stated:

Brigadier General Stephens, Col. Spencer Commander of 2nd Regiment of the Virginia Militia, Capt Joseph Haden of Fluvannah [sic] County Virginia 18th June 1780. He entered the service of the United State under the above named Captain and discharged from said service 7th November 1780. Was at the battle of Camden 16th August 1780 under Captain Thomas Leftwich, Lieutenant Austin Leftwich, my former Captain Haden having been discharged from service.”

Joseph Haden was not at the devastating Battle of Camden.

1781: Yorktown

Some researchers claim that Joseph Haden and his brother Captain Anthony Haden were at the Battle of Yorktown. To date, I have no contemporary documents placing Joseph in that engagement.

The Virginia Militia certainly aided in the effort at Yorktown. Anthony Haden was in Col Dabney’s Regiment, according to the pension record of Daniel Thacker.⁷

1820: Death of Joseph Haden

Departed this life on the the 25th ultimo [October 25], in the 69th year of his age, Capt. JOSEPH HADEN, of Fluvanna county, who having served his country in the revolutionary war in several campaigns in the character of a captain, was a member of the Virginia Convention, and for a great number of years served the county in which he lived and died, as one of its representative in the State Legislature – lived to see a numerous family of children raised to manhood. This venerable patriot, for several of his last years, experience much affliction; but these afflictions were but for a season – and it is hope they were not spent in vain, but produced the most happy effects in preparing him to meet his approaching end, and leading him to look alone to Him, who in the trying hour of death can give support and consolation, and disarm death of its sting, and the grave of its victory. It is hoped that he died in the fear and favor of his God, and is at rest.⁸

I am indebted to these Haden researchers:

Dorothy Kabler Haden (1909-1977), author of John Haden of Virginia (1968)
Kay Haden, researcher and blogger at Leaves of the Tree and More Leaves
Mark Hayden, map maker and Find a Grave Member/Contributor for John Haden and others

SOURCES

1
Gwathmey, John H. Historical Register of Virginians in the Revolution. Dietz Press, Richmond, Va., 1938. page 336.
2
McAllister, J.T. Virginia Militia in the Revolutionary War. McAllister Publishing, Hot Springs VA: 1913. page 67.
3
Case Files of Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Applications Based on Revolutionary War Service, compiled ca. 1800 – ca. 1912, documenting the period ca. 1775 – ca. 1900, Record Group 15, Roll 2361, Johnson, Dilmus, pension # S. 2662.
4
Virginia General Assembly. House of Delegates. Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Petition date November 4, 1778, page 42.
5
Case Files of Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Applications Based on Revolutionary War Service, compiled ca. 1800 – ca. 1912, documenting the period ca. 1775 – ca. 1900, Record Group 15, Roll 2361, Daniel Thacker, pension # S. 7707. “… that in the spring of the year 1780 about the 1st of April he [Thacker] marched from the said county of Fluvanna as a substitute for Samuel Smithson in a company under captain Joseph Hayden to Hillsborough in the state of North Carolina.”
6
Case Files of Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Applications Based on Revolutionary War Service, compiled ca. 1800 – ca. 1912, documenting the period ca. 1775 – ca. 1900, Record Group 15, Roll 2361, Manley, Ancil, pension # W 959.
7
Case Files of Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Applications Based on Revolutionary War Service, compiled ca. 1800 – ca. 1912, documenting the period ca. 1775 – ca. 1900, Record Group 15, Roll 2361, Daniel Thacker, pension # S. 7707. “… returned to Richmond that he then joined a company under Captain Anthony Hayden from Fluvanna and Served his own tour of three months therein, marching through the lower part of Virginia & thence pursuing the enemy through the counties of Culpeper Orange Louisa & Fluvanna to York Town from thence they returned to Richmond and was discharged at West Ham near Richmond. That Colonel Dabney commanded the detachment with which he served.”
8
Obituary for Joseph Haden. Richmond (VA) Enquirer. November 10, 1820, page 3, column 4.

Author: Karrie Blees

Filed Under: Haden