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Isaac Carter: Determining the Identity of Same Name Rev War Soldiers, Part 4

Part 3 of this series was part of the original work I did on trying to identify Private Isaac Carter of North Harlowe, Craven County, North Carolina, whose family during the American Revolution lived along the South Side of Neuse River and West Side of Clubfoot Creek. You can find the following related posts here:

I had examined Revolutionary War Pension Files only to discover that none of the three found at Fold3 or Ancestry.com belonged to this particular Isaac Carter.


Go back to START

Going back to the entry for Isaac Carter in, African-American Patriots in the Southern Campaign of the American Revolution, by Bobby G. Moss and Michael C. Scoggins, I skipped past the claims that:
  • he was probably the son of Isaac Carter who served in a Craven County Militia Regiment commanded by Colonel Edward Griffith [Isaac Carter was the son of Abel Carter who served in the Craven County Regiment under Major John Tillman in 1754];
  • he enlisted on September 1, 1777 [this was the date of enlistment for Isaac Carter of Gates County who served in Captain John Walsh's company, 8th North Carolina Regiment];
  • that he deserted from his regiment on June 13, 1783 [I couldn't find evidence of a deserter in any of the pension files].

Claims left to investigate

  1. Isaac Carter enlisted as a private in the 10th North Carolina Regiment under Captain Silas Stevenson and Colonel Abraham Sheppard for three years, or the duration of the war;
  2. He served under Captain John Tillman in the garrison of Fort Hancock at Cape Lookout, North Carolina, along with Joshua Carter, William Dove, and Isaac Perkins;
  3. That Tillman's men were enlisted for one year, but remained on duty for two years; and, 
  4. He received certificate number 4409 for militia service in the Wilmington District.

Research Strategy

The first thing I always do when undertaking a new research question is to check the references for all sources I have consulted. Then, I gather evidence based on the sources' citations, and if citations are lacking, I focus on the claims being made and ask myself where I might be able to find supporting documentation. The third thing I do is go back to Ancestry and Fold3 to locate all service records and muster rolls for Isaac Carter, and look for the names of those who also served from his community (see number 2 above), ruling out any same-name individuals who could have served in the same company. 

But the key to determining if Isaac Carter served in the Craven County Regiment of Militia, a regiment on the Continental Line, or both, is dates. So, in the analysis phase, I'll focus on regimental histories, commanding officers' service records, and the history of Fort Hancock on Cape Lookout, North Carolina. 

Actually, much of this research is finished. The sources have all been archived, and now it's time for the analysis phase.

Source list

Angley, Wilson. "An Historical Overview of the Beaufort Inlet: Cape Lookout Area of North Carolina." Queen Anne's Revenge Project: North Carolina Natural and Cultural Resources, 1982.

Lewis, J.D. NC Patriots 1775-1783: Their Own Words, 3 vols., Clara G. Harper, 2021. (See online: Carolana.com).

Clark, Walter (ed.). The State Records of North Carolina, 16 vols., Goldsboro, N.C., 1895-1914. (See online: Documenting the American South, https://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/).

Haun, Weynette Parks. North Carolina Revolutionary Army Accounts, Journal "A" (Public Accounts) 1775-1776. Durham, N.C.: 1989.

Haun, Weynette Parks. North Carolina Revolutionary Army Accounts, Vol. I, Vol. II, Part II. Durham, N.C.: 1988-1999.

Haun, Weynette Parks. North Carolina Revolutionary Army Accounts, Vol. III, Vol. IV, Part III. Durham, N.C.: 1990-1999.

Haun, Weynette Parks. North Carolina Revolutionary Army Accounts, Book K, Part XVIII. Durham, N.C.: 1990-1999.

Kell, Jean Bruyere. Coastal North Carolina's Carteret County During the American Revolution: 1765-1785. Carteret County Bicentennial Commission: 1975.

Stick, David. The Outer Banks of North Carolina: 1584-1958. University of North Carolina Press, 2015.

U.S. Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783, NARA M246, Fold3.com.

U.S. Revolutionary War Service Records, 1775-1783, NARA M881, Fold3.com.


A note of special thanks to Victor T. Jones, Jr., Special Collections Librarian of New Bern-Craven County's Kellenberger Room for assisting me in lookups for North Carolina sources not available in Massachusetts. His expertise has been invaluable to me for nearly twenty years!
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