The McKenzie Banner
June 13, 1979

Captain John McKenzie -later Colonel

    John McKenzie was a Revolutionary War soldier born in Albemarle County, Virginia 
September 17, 1757.  He was residing in Halifax County, Virginia in 1776 when he volunteered
for army service.  In his six-page declaration made in Carroll County Court (Tennessee) in 
1831-32 in applying for a pension, he gave many details of his service in the southern 
campaigns of the war in Virginia and the Carolinas.  This declaration is in the National 
Archives in Washington and a copy is in the library of the Carroll County Historical Society
in McKenzie Tennessee.  His declaration mentions many actions and battles in which he took 
part in the Carolinas and also states that he was acquainted with some of the well-known off
icers of the American army, including General Nathaniel Greene to whom he serviced as Aide 
in the battle of Guilford Court House, North Carolina, in March 1781.  John McKenzie stated
that he was given a commission as Captain by General Sumter in 1778 or 1779 and was known in
the army as "The Big Virginia Captain."  The pension records show that in 1777 or 1778 he 
was Captain in Colonel Thomas Sumter's South Carolina Regiment and was also Contractor for 
Salisbury District under General Davidson.  He was Captain of Light Dragoons in Colonel 
William Hill's South Carolina Regiment and Captain in Colonel Maledy's North Carolina 
Regiment and was in the battles of Rocky Mount, Hanging Rock, Camden (South Carolina), 
Rugley's Mills, Ironworks, Torrence's Tavern, Guilford courthouse, New Market, Boattie's 
Ford, and Orangeburg, and was discharged in 1782.  In his declaration John McKenzie stated 
that from 1791 to 1795 he was engaged in building forts for the defense of the country 
against the raids of the Creek Indians and in 1792 was in command of the fort at Rock 
Landing, Georgia.  He was surely a hardy and courageous man and by his own description a 
"big" man.  There is a record that when some blacks were captured by Indians, John went to 
the Indian's camp, confronted the chief, and demanded that the men be handed over to him, 
but they had already been transported away.
    After the war John McKenzie settled in the State of Georgia near the present town of 
Sparta, where he became a member of the General Assembly, a member of the Commission on 
Peace and Judge of County Court.  He was commissioned a colonel in the militia and was there
after known as Colonel McKenzie.  From a declaration made by his wife, Martha (Patsy)Bonner
McKenzie, we learn that she and John married in Washington County, Georgia December 20, 1792
She was 17 and he was 35.  The census records show that she too was born in Virginia 
(January 8, 1775, thus she was only one year old when John joined the army.)  In 1816 or 
1817 they moved from Maury County, Tennessee and in about 1828 they moved to Carroll County.
In his declaration John McKenzie stated that while he was in the army he met Benjamin 
Gilbert who was also a soldier.  After the war Benjamin Gilbert married John's sister Emily
McKenzie in Virginia and the Gilberts settled in the same area in Georgia as the McKenzie's.  
Later both families resettled in Carroll County, Tennessee, the Gilberts arriving first, in
the early 1820's.
Fifty years after the war, in 1832, John McKenzie then 75 years old, applied for a pension 
and Benjamin Gilbert testified for him in Carroll County Court.  The pension of Forty 
Dollars a month was approved and appears to have been paid for the remaining 10 years of 
John McKenzie's life until his death in 1842.  Martha survived him and she applied for and 
was granted a widow's pension.  The pension records show that in 1843 three sons were 
living:  Jeremiah H. (born 1793); Alexander A (born 1799); and James M. who stated he was 
"the youngest son."
A newspaper obituary in 1842 stated that John McKenzie's Masonic funeral was to be "preached
at Caledonia", but no mention was made of the place of burial.  Later a marker was placed in
Mt. Olivet Cemetery in McKenzie, Tennessee.  The town of McKenzie, formerly called Dundas, 
is named for a member of John's family.
A reading of John McKenzie's long declaration will attest to his courage, uprightness, and 
devotion to the cause he so strongly believed in.  See also The American Revolution In The 
South written by the American General Henry Lee, which describes many of the actions and 
landmarks and tells of the same officers referred to by John McKenzie in his declaration.  
See particularly the account of the battle of Guilford Court House, North Carolina, in 
chapter 27 and of Rocky Mount, hanging Rock, Camden, Rudgeley's Mills, and of Thomas Sumter
in Chapter l7.
As another interesting sidelight, the Encyclopedia Britannica states that at Hanging Rock in
August 1780 the boy Andrew Jackson, then 13 years old, participated in the battle.  It is 
interesting to speculate whether Captain McKenzie was acquainted with the 13-year-old future
president.  Certainly no one present would have believed that in a second war with England
35 years later the lad, as a General, would be the hero of the Battle of New Orleans and go
on to the Presidency.  A year after Hanging Rock the boy Jackson was captured and mistreated
by the British at nearby Waxaha, near his birth place in Virginia of John McKenzie. See 
also the declarations and correspondence in the pension files, Washington D.C. of Benjamin 
and Emily Gilbert, Robert Gilbert, Martha Bonner McKenzie, Jeremiah, Alexander, and James 
McKenzie, and Samuel Winn; also the military records of South Carolina.  This brief summary
only gives a few of the facts about this heroic Revolutionary War veteran who lived out his
last years in Carroll County.