Tradition has it that Moses Cavett served as a Captain in the Sullivan County
Militia under Colonel Isaac Shelby, and led a Company during the battle at
Kings Mountain on 10/7/1780. This assertion appears to be primarily based on
Moses Cavett's son, Richard Cavett's, deposition given in an attempt to secure a
Revolutionary War Pension. Richard Cavett stated that "He [my father, Moses
Cavett] was a captain under Col. Isaac Shelby and fought under him at Kings
Mountain in the fall of 1780".
Probably the most carefully researched list of participants in the Battle of
Kings Mountain is found in Bobby Gilmer Moss's "The Patriots at Kings
Mountain", Scotia Press, 1990. Moss presents apparently well-researched dossiers on
871 men who fought at Kings Mountain, and also lists 81 men who were in the
campaign but did not actually fight at Kings Mountain. He also lists 1,214 men
whose name appears on some list or other as having fought at Kings Mountain,
but that he cannot independently prove were actually there.
In compiling his "purified list", Moss accepted without question (1) those
who in their application (or an application put forward by their widow or
children) for a federal pension stated that they participated in the battle, (2)
Those who filed for state pensions or pay and listed the battle in their service
record, (3) Those whose name appeared as a participant in the application of
others who applied for either a federal or state pension, (4) Those who Draper
accepted as participants and included in his definitive study of the battle,
(5) Those who appeared as participants in Heitman's list of Continental
officers, and (6) Those who appeared on existing muster rolls (attested to by the
signature of an officer) which are housed in either a federal or state
depository. He rejected those supported only by tradition or that appeared on lists
that he could not document.
Relying on Richard Cavett's pension application, Moss indicates that Moses
Cavett participated in the battle of Kings Mountain under Shelby, and further
indicates "at sometime, he was a captain under Shelby and was succeeded by
Benjamin Clark when he was promoted to the rank of major".
Intrigued, I reviewed the dossiers on all 871 men who Moss was able to
definitively document as having actually fought at Kings Mountain. Including Isaac
Shelby and his son Moses, Moss was able to document only 46 men (33 enlisted
men and 13 officers) in Shelby's command that actually fought at Kings
Mountain; that is about 19.2% of the total men that history indicates Shelby commanded
at Kings Mountain. Most of the 33 enlisted men indicated who their captain
was; none indicated that Moses Cavett was their captain.
While Moss was able to document less than 20% of Shelby's force, I believe it
is instructive that none of the enlisted men indicated that Moses Cavett was
their captain at Kings Mountain. I believe that it is most probable that
Moses Cavett was not a captain at Kings Mountain.
That raises the question of whether Moses Cavett was ever a captain under
Shelby. The only independent proof that I have been able to locate indicates
that, indeed as Moss stated, at some time Moses Cavett did serve as a captain
under Shelby. That independent proof lies in the deposition given by Thomas
White on 9/4/1832 in Monroe County, Kentucky Court, wherein White made application
for a Revolutionary War pension (see S31474, Maryland). After describing his
enlistment in Fredrick County, Maryland, and service in Delaware,
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, and subsequent enlistment as a substitute in
Pennsylvania and service there, he eventually moved to Sullivan County, then in
North Carolina. Quoting his deposition, "The claimant further states he
volunteered under Captain Moses Cavet from the county of Sullivan in the Territory of
the United States South of Ohio River (now Tennessee) and [with] Colonel
Shelby we marched through North Carolina and into South Carolina to General
Marion's camp on the Santee River where we remained a few days and went to a ho[u]se
surrounded by dogs & where we took upwards of one hundred prisoners and
returned to his encampment having traveled nearly all night until near day the
prisoners was sent across the river Santee as we expected the enemy to follow us
which they did until they came to a swamp and sounded a charge while we lay in
ambush waiting for them. They retreated back toward their Fort but the
claimant, now being old and infirm and badly crippled, he cannot recollect the year
in which he served this tour but is of the opinion that he served two months
and returned home."
White's deposition appears to leave little doubt that Moses Cavett did indeed
serve as a captain under Shelby at some time during the Revolutionary War.
Is there anyone out there that has unearthed more definitive proof as to
when Moses Cavett served as a captain under Colonel Isaac Shelby?
Howard Roach