Dr. Luther Waterman–Revolutionary War Surgeon ~ Borne From the Field of Battle

In a previous post I shared the fact that my 4th Great-Grandfather, Dr. Luther L. Waterman, was a surgeon in the Revolutionary War.  Many years ago, I learned of this fact while reading about Luther in The Waterman Family by Donald Lines Jacobus.1 In this book, Mr. Jacobus states the following regarding Luther's service, which he gleaned from Luther's Revolutionary War pension file (I added bold text to one sentence):

"…Phebe Waterman repeated her testimony, 5 Jan. 1839, and added that Luther entered service as a Surgeon under Dr. Spaulding, in Col. John Durkee's Regiment, in Cambridge, Mass., for nine months.  He then joined the Brigade of Horatio Gates, in Col. William Bond's Regiment, as Surgeon with Dr. Vinal, as his mate, for one year.  In 1776 he was at Lake Champlain, and was borne from the field, unable to perform his duty.  He was in the battles of White Plains, Stamford, Horseneck, and Rye.  This information was derived from Dr. Luther Waterman, himself."

In 1997 I ordered and received a copy of Luther Waterman's pension file. Unfortunately, this copy is quite difficult to read and only contains 12 of the 63 pages in the pension file.  I subscribed to Fold3.com, and happily I found Luther Waterman's full pension file containing all 63 pages on the website. Another bonus is that it is much easier to read on Fold3. The pension file copy I received in 1997 was inverted or reversed (black background with white writing). It also did not contain the page from the pension file that Mr. Jacobus used for his summary quoted in this post. With access to the full pension file, I was able to find the page from which Mr. Jacobus summarized Luther's war service, including the account of his being "borne from the field, unable to perform his duty."  This information was taken from the deposition of Mrs. Phebe Waterman, Luther's widow. Below is the pension file page containing Phebe's deposition:


The entire page above is probably difficult to read, so I cropped it into three parts as follows:

At the bottom of her deposition Phebe signed her name. What a treasure it is to see her signature. Phebe was 82 years old at the time of this deposition.

I wonder what happened to Luther Waterman at the Battle of Lake Champlain that caused him to be taken from the field of battle unable to perform his duties? Unfortunately, I don't know the answer.  And there doesn't seem to be any elaboration about this fact in Luther's pension file. It is and may remain a mystery. The fact that I learned about this from Luther's full pension file shows that it is important to obtain the full pension file of our ancestors if possible.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jana

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^{1 Donald Lines Jacobus, The Waterman Family Vol. 1,1939, (Reprint by Higginson Book Company, Massachusetts), 294, 295}