Tryon County militia
military unit
The Tryon County militia was a Colonial militia formed in Tryon County in the Province of New York. It was created following a March 8, 1772, bill of the Provincial Congress authorizing the establishment of organized militia in each county in the colony. By the 1775 start of the American War of Independence, the Tryon County militia had in effect become an army of rebellion under the control of the Tryon County Committee of Safety. It would go on to fight at the important battles of Oriskany and Johnstown (among others) during the war.
Militia regiments
Early in 1772, the Province of New York passed a bill for the establishment of organized militia in each county. In 1775, the Tryon County militia comprised four regiments, organized according to geographical location:
1st regiment: Canajoharie District
2nd regiment: Palatine District
3rd regiment: Mohawk District
4th regiment: German Flatts & Kingsland Districts
Expansion
A 5th regiment from the Harpersfield area was created under the command of a local resident, Colonel John Harper, on March 3, 1780. Three companies were designated, falling under the commands of: Captain Alexander Harper, Captain Daniel McGillevrey, and Captain Lodwick Breakman. Before they fled to the Canadian Provinces in 1775, Daniel Claus, Sir John Johnson and Guy Johnson were each colonels in command of these regiments.
On August 22, 1775, by order of the New York Provincial Congress, the militias of Tryon County and Albany County were joined to form a brigade. One fourth of each company were selected as minutemen.
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This entry incorporates text from “Tryon County militia” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.