"Kathryn, your scholarship and careful research make this book authentic and meaningful. I was amazed at the details and particulars of your record."
". . . a wonderful genealogy source."
Judge, 22nd Annual Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards
"A must have for family history!!"
Martin Martindale
Heroes in the Family Fight for War Pensions contains remarkable biographical stories about Revolutionary War soldiers who fought in the war and who, after the war, had to fight to obtain the war pensions they deserved. All of these soldiers are ancestors or relatives of Amherst Douglas Wait, a Civil War soldier, who was in the cavalry on Sibley's Expedition as they chased the Indians out of Minnesota and across the Dakota Territory.
The ancestors in these biographical stories include Gardner Wait who was one of the sentinels at the Bennington Meeting House the night the British and Hessian prisoners attempted to escape; Henry Fillmore who was only in the service six weeks before he was wounded at the Battle of Monmouth; Cyrus Fillmore who was on General Sullivan's Expedition to stop the Indian attacks in the northern part of New York State; Doctor Eliphalet Downer who killed a British soldier immediately after the Battle of Concord; Henry Scott who was only a teenager when he hid in the fort during the Cherry Valley Massacre; Stephen Van Tassel who survived imprisonment at the Liberty Street Sugar House; Simeon Rowley who struggled to keep possession of his land after the rich and powerful John Van Rensselaer died; Colonel Simon T. Rowley who committed suicide after the war; Phebe Purdy Adsit Reynolds, widow of Samuel Adsit, who tried to deceive the Pension Department to obtain James Reynolds' pension benefits; John Kenyon who was caught in the terrible rush for the boats during the American retreat from the Battle of Rhode Island; Benjamin June who served under Colonel Rudolphus Ritzema at Harlem Heights when Ritzema deserted to the British; Shubael Newman, Silas June and Abner June who belonged to one of the last units that retreated from New York City with General Washington; Israel June and Isaac Briggs who saw action at the Battle of Assunpink Creek and the Battle of Princeton; and, finally, Reuben June who was a member of the Stamford Guards.
The soldiers all fought for America; however, when they were old and destitute they found they also had to struggle with the War Department to obtain their war pensions. James L. Edwards who was in charge of the Pension Office of the War Department required that the soldiers prove their service time even though many of them had not received official discharge papers. Some of the soldiers' battles with the War Department lasted for over a decade, but the soldiers did not give up during this their latest fight.