Roster Iowa Soldiers - War of Rebellion Vol 2
Nuckolls, Ezra. Age 18. Residence Anamosa, nativity Iowa. Enlisted Aug. 16,
1861, as Fourth Corporal. Mustered Aug. 16, 1861. Promoted Second Sergeant
March 17, 1862; Second Lieutenant March 15, 1863. Mustered out Oct. 21,
1864, expiration ofterm of service.
The Virginia Revolutionary War
Public Service Claims Court Booklets
An Introduction
The documents known as the court booklets in the Public Service Claims, Record Group 48, Virginia State Library and Archives, came into being following the Revolutionary War. At various times during the War the General Assembly of Virginia had required the citizens individuals or the county governments acting as local procurement agencies, to provide livestock, foodstuffs, arms, and other supplies for the use of the militia and for the Virginia and Continental armies. When the scene of action shifted to Virginia and the south during the second half of the war, military officers borrowed, bought, impressed, or sometimes simply took necessary supplies from the citizens. Many of the officers provided certificates, or receipts, for the articles they took so that the owners could seek reimbursement from the state government or from the Congress.
The hurried and sometimes haphazard nature of the impressment rendered difficulty. Some officers provided inadequate one. Some certificates did not accurately describe the articles impressed. Some certificates gave the values of the impressed articles in depreciated currency or assigned no monetary value at all. Some People lost their certificates. The resulting confusion made it virtually impossible for Virginia to settle its accounts and pay its claims. Consequently, during the first assembly session following the British surrender at Yorktown in October 1781, but before a treaty of peace had been agreed upon between Great Britain and the United States, the General Assembly Passed "An Act for Adjusting Claims for property impressed or Taken for Public Service." The informative preamble to the statute of 5 January 1782 stated "that sundry of the inhabitants of the several counties throughout this commonwealth, have labored under many hardships and inconveniences from the mode which has lately been pursued in impressing their property, insomuch that the auditors of public accounts have in divers instances refused to grant warrants upon certificates given for such impressment."
The law required that persons with claims against Virginia or against the United States first submit their claims aid documentary evidence to the local county court. In each instance the court was to inquire into the accuracy of the claim, ascertain the fair market value of the livestock or commodities, and adjust all disputes before sending the claims to Richmond for payment. The statute also required that each claim indicate which branch of the service acquired the supplies in order that the state government could in turn seek reimbursement from Congress for supplies furnished to the Continental Army and to the French Army. Although many delays followed, and the assembly extended the time allowed for filing claims, this procedure was followed during the years immediately after the Revolutionary War.
The reports that the county courts compiled and sent to Richmond are called court booklets and are the heart of the Public Service Claims files. They contain information about supplies and services furnished to the armed forces chiefly during the years 1779-1781. The county court booklets vary considerably in completeness accuracy, and legibility, and some court booklets also have certificates and various other related documents filed with them. Full or partial reports still survive for sixty-nine of the seventy-five Virginia counties then in existence. The counties without any claims on file in Richmond are Accomack (on the Eastern Shore-the record in this series of Accomack County were taken from the county law order books), and the western counties of Fayette, Jefferson, Lincoln (all now in Kentucky), Washington, and Yohogania (now part of southwestern Pennsylvania).
The court booklets contain interesting and useful information about the contributions of ordinary People to the Revolutionary War. They provide some details of people's service in the militia or as guards for prisoners of war; they indicate where some bodies of troops were at particular times; and they identify providers of horses, wagons, cattle, grain, or other supplies. Much of the information in the booklets cannot be found anywhere else, which makes the surviving records particularly valuable.
This publication of the court booklets, each with its own index, will facilitate access to the information that the records contain. One cautionary note is in order. Not everyone who supplied articles to the armies is listed in the surviving records, and not everyone who supplied articles to the armies did so willingly. The appearance of a name in the Public Service Claims is no positive proof that person voluntarily contributed to the American military effort, and the absence of a name from the Public Service Claims is no sure proof of loyalism or even of inactivity.
As useful as these records are for documenting some of the contributions of individual persons during the final years of the Revolutionary War, the records also contain other important information. Among other things, it is clear from an examination of almost any one of the court booklets that even after the demands of the early years of the Revolutionary War had been met, Virginia farmers could still make available substantial quantities of corn, wheat, oats, hay, pork, beef, draft animals, saddle horses, and other necessary supplies. The almost complete absence of civilian complaints about starvation, hunger, or serious hardship as a result of the impressment and purchase of supplies for the armies indicates that farmers in almost all parts of Virginia could produce more than was required for subsistence and for local markets. Moreover, the paucity of complaints about shortages in the military camps suggests that supplies furnished to the army were probably adequate most of the time and that transportation and distribution problems that had hindered supply efforts during the French and Indian War a generation earlier were evidently no longer serious obstacles to the movement of large quantities of supplies by the time of the American Revolution. All this points to a diversification in the production of agricultural commodities and to an increased sophistication in the available networks for distribution.
The Public Service Claims provide persuasive evidence of the productivity of Virginia's farms, both large and small. Even if the quantities of supplies that most households provided to the war were small, the aggregates for most of the counties were large, showing beyond any doubt that the state of agriculture in Virginia was generally sound and productive, ready to take advantage of peacetime markets on a fairly large scale. During the Revolutionary War, that productivity was an important source of national strength.
Brent Tarter, VA State Archives
NUBILL JAMES HALIFAX COUNTY
NUCHOLS ISIAH NORFOLK COUNTY
NUCKOLD JAMES LOUISA COUNTY
NUCKOLDS, CHARLES, HEZEKIAH, JAMES, WILLIAM LOUISA COUNTY
NUCKOLES, WILLIAM GOOCHLAND COUNTY
NUCKOLLS, JAMES, KEZIAH, WILLIAM LOUISA COUNTY
NUCKOLLS NATHANIELL HANOVER COUNTY
NUCKOLS, CHARLES, NATHANIEL HANOVER COUNTY
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