The French and Indian War (1754-1763) was the first war fought by residents of the newly established Anson County.
Read about this forgotten war involving Anson County men in, “History of Anson County N.C.” by Mary L. Medley, Chapter 5, pages 20-28.
The following document gives proof of two Anson County men who fought in the French and Indian War, whereas one man died and the other man lived to come back to Anson County to record the document — Anson County Will Book 1 page 7: The Noncupative Will of John Moore, August 6, 1760.
(What does noncupative will mean? A verbal Will that must have two witnesses and can only deal with the distribution of personal property. A nuncupative will is considered a “deathbed” will, meaning that it is for people struck with a terminal illness and robbed of the ability or time to draft a properly written will.)
From the will:
“Deceased was killed at the battle in Eakown in the middle settlement of the Cherokee Nations of Indians taken by me, Peter Kockindolph, at the time, before the said John Moore died, he sent for me and told me he wanted me to know how he would have his estate disposed of, which John Moore then said, it was his will and desire that his brother Moses, son of John, should have the place he bought of Jeremiah Potts in Anson County and the remainder of his estate of all kinds he left to his own wife, Mary. In witness whereof, I the said Peter, have set my hand this 6th day of August, 1760.”
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the worldwide conflict known as the Seven Years’ War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war.
The war was fought primarily along the frontiers separating New France from the British colonies from Virginia to Nova Scotia, and began with a dispute over the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, the site of present-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The dispute erupted into violence in the Battle of Jumonville Glen in May 1754, during which Virginia militiamen — under the command of George Washington — ambushed a French patrol. British operations in 1755, 1756 and 1757 in the frontier areas of Pennsylvania and New York all failed, due to a combination of poor management, internal divisions, and effective French and Indian offense. The 1755 capture of Fort Beauséjour on the border separating Nova Scotia from Acadia was followed by a British policy of deportation of its French inhabitants, to which there was some resistance.
After the disastrous 1757 British campaigns (resulting in a failed expedition against Louisburg and the Siege of Fort William Henry, which was followed by significant atrocities on British victims by Indians), the British government fell, and William Pitt came to power. Pitt significantly increased British military resources in the colonies, while France was unwilling to risk large convoys to aid the limited forces it had in New France, preferring instead to concentrate its forces against Prussia and its allies in the European theater of the war. Between 1758 and 1760, the British military successfully penetrated the heartland of New France, with Montreal finally falling in September 1760.
Steve Bailey is employed with the Anson County Historical Society and has specialized in local African-American family history for 20 years.