Joshua Hawkins The Revolutionist
A Tribute to a Veteran of the Revolution of 1776
By Warren D. Chapman1832
Published in The Carolina Spartan
Wednesday, April 29, 1891
...Joshua Hawkins, the hero, the veteran Revolutionist...served about five years in the war of the Revolution; he fought under General Washington; he was in four or five pitched battles, besides numerous skirmishes. He fought like a tiger upon the ever memorable battlefield of Brandywine, where the Americans, commanded by Washington, Green and Lafayette, fought with a spirit of undaunted bravery and gallant bearing unsurpassed in the annals of history.
[He]...received a musket ball in his leg which brought him to the ground; he still continued to fire, crouched down as he was upon his wounded leg, and while thus sitting, taking aim, an ounce ball struck him in the arm, his piece fell from his hands the gallant and brave soldier being now wounded in both leg and arm, could no longer shoot. He was taken in care by the British surgeons who wanted to cut off his leg: he told them he would rather die than have his leg amputated by the enemies of his country.
The ball remained in his arm till his death. He gave orders that it should be cut out by Memory N. Chapman and Coleman Wood when life should forsake him as he did not want to be buried with British lead in him. It was done, Memory N. Chapman kept the ball till his death. It was then transferred to the Rev. H. Hawkins, the son of the "old soldier," who now has it.
He was buried amid the roaring of musketry and the rattle of the drum. Sleep, gallant hero, till the notes of Gabriel's trump shall thrill an echo throughout eternal space, when thou wilt behold a greater battle than Brandywine, when the platform of heaven will be crowded in dazzling array with the armies of the "King of Hosts," preparing to descend on the winged clouds of the air, mid meteors and flashing scintillations of fire and brimstone to the Judgement Seat. May you there be gathered with Washington, Lafayette, and others round the eternal and ever dazzling throne of God.
| (Signed) Warren D. Chapman |
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