Braddock's Defeat
Braddock's Battlefield History Center"We know that he (John Shepherd) served as a soldier during the French and Indian War. He was with Washington's troops at the celebrated battle of Braddock's Defeat. The Cleveland Leader in an article published in (1913) says that:
"John Shepherd was undoubtedly the last survivor of the troops who were present at Braddock's Defeat."
John Shepherd was 25 years old when he was in this battle as a Military Drummer.
WikiPedia: Drummer-military“Drums were used for the men to march in step and were also an important part of the battlefield communications system...”
“By the second half of the 18th century, most (if not all) Western armies had a standardized set of marches and signals to be played...”
“Drummers were more often adult men, recruited like the common soldiers.”
From the John Shepherd testimonial: “...that in the French war I enlisted and served in Capt Beaslys company of Pennsylvania, during the campaign in which Gen Braddock was defeated, at when defeat I was present as a soldier, and acted the part of a drummer in said company.”
2nd Pennyslvania Battalion
A small booklet about the 2nd Pennsylvania Battalion under Colonel Arthur St. Clair
John Shepherd's Payslips 1776-1777 in Captain Bayard's Company
Pension Documents
In June of 2010 a man named Charles Phebus, asked the town of North Royalton, Ohio to help celebrate the life of John Shepherd. He had a website, JohnShepherd.us, online and claimed that he was related to John Shepherd. Unfortunately Mr. Phebus was not interested in the genealogy work that I had done previously, and I was unable with the info I had, to connect him to the family tree.
The JohnShepherd.us website is no longer online, but I was able to download all of the pages and information from the website in 2010. I found several documents about John Shepherd but could not find the sources for any of them. I have transcribed them as best I am able.
Some of his descendents also tried unsuccessfully to secure John's military pension, which had been denied.
John Shepherd's Testimonial re: Revolutionary War service