In 1777, Christopher Jefferson Loving Jr., a 14- season- older child, enlisted in the Continental Army. Christopher was my parental mother’s great- father. Before suffering lasting scars a month before the triumphant Siege of Yorktown, he would participate in six of the southern campaign’s most significant wars. On July 4, we honor his memory in addition to the many different patriots who fought for our freedom.
A translation of Loving’s obedient services in the battle for American freedom was provided in the 1819 sworn declaration. This charter is also referenced in Alan Pell Crawford’s new guide, This Fierce People: The Untold Story of America’s Revolutionary War in the South.
Pension application of Christopher Loving ( Loveing ):
On this eighth day of October 1819, the Subscriber, one of the Judges of the General Court and assigned to the Circuit of the Superior Court of Justice made the statement that Christopher Loving, 56 years old, citizen of the County of Nelson &, State mentioned, who being by me first duly sworn, according to law, doth make the following charter in order to get the delivery made by the late Act of Congress entitled” An action providing for certain individuals engaged in the land and naval company On the heels of General Moultrie, who had been serving as a slave for three years, he was a member of the 6th Regiment of South Carolina forces on the Continental formation for three decades, serving as Colonel Thomas Sumpter’s commander for the Battle of Savanna and the Siege of Charleston, South Carolina, where he was taken prisoner by the British and held there for nine months while he made his escape from the City of Charleston ( in an American army of 6, 577, Loving and later joined Colonel Lacy &, Lt. Col. McGriff as a charity despite his now recalling recruitment having expired. That he joined Captain Montgomery’s Company of Mounted riflemen under the command of Genl Morgan &, that he was with them at King’s Mountain and there had a battle, that he later joined General Thomas Sumter and was in a skirmish at Blackstock’s on Tyger River, that he then joined a volunteer Company under the command of Captain Jacob Barnett in a Regiment led by Colonel Henry Hampton and that he was at the ( September 1781 ) battle of ( In an American force of 2, 000, Loving would have been one of 382 wounded, with an additional 119 killed ). He was severely injured during his said services, having virtually cut off his right hand with a broad sword, and having severely injured his left arm in many places, so that they rendered him minor service.
Luckily, Loving was granted his income in acknowledgment of his distinguished company. Following the war, Christopher Jefferson Loving Jr. ( 1763- 1830 ) married Judith Seay ( 1775- 1831 ), a granddaughter of Seay II, in 1792. Consider the future in which a 17-year-old person awaited the marriage of a 29-year-old farmer who had only the use of his arms. By 1813, they may have 11 children, with the exception of one who was born two years apart.
In the award- winning 2023 movie” The Holdovers”, the character played by Dominic Sessa twice mentions the threat that, if he did n’t succeed at Barton Academy, he’d be sent to Fork Union Military Academy. Unlike Barton Academy, Fork Union Military Academy ( FUMA ) is not fictional but was founded in 1898 in Fork Union, Virginia, about midway between Charlottesville and Richmond.
A historical marker was erected in the cemetery of Fork Union Baptist Church in 1987 by the Daughters of the American Revolution ( DAR ) and FUMA, which is located across the street from FUMA’s entrance. It honors Austin Seay ( 1758- 1836), who fought in the Revolution. His father Abraham Seay II ( II ) is mentioned in the marker’s ( ca. 1690- 1771/8 ), whose Huguenot papa had emigrated to the Colony of Virginia from France via England. These many hundred newcomers were given the names Richardson’s Huguenot Memorial Bridge and Huguenot High School. Seay II, who lived in and around Fork Union, where the River James Rivers meet, was granted a 345-acre royal award in 1745.
The DAR historic symbol does not mention that Seay II had a second relative who had fought in the Revolution. Christopher Jefferson Loving Jr. was that person.
We can nonetheless respect him by identifying his grave, or at least the place of his tomb, in addition to honoring his remembrance of his services. There is no place for the tomb by the given name ( Big River Mountain House or, more likely, Pigg River Meeting House ), but one source claims that both Christopher and his family Judith are interred in the Floyd, Floyd County, Virginia area. Another cause says Judith is buried in Culpeper County, Virginia. To honor Christopher Jefferson Loving Jr., I may be happy to discuss all of the information I have about these alleged burial sites with anyone who would like to go on the search.