The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.
State of Service: SC
Qualifying Service: Non-Commissioned Officer
Lanman served twice in the Continental Army of the Southern Colonies enlisting in July 1776 at Charleston SC and March 1781 in North Carolina.
3. Military Rank(s) & Service Units:
Lanman’s first enlistment was with the 1st South Carolina Regiment of Rifle as an Orderly Sargent. His second enlistment with the 1st South Carolina Regiment of Horse as an Orderly Sargent.
4. Service Area(s) & Battles:
Lanman served in the Guilford Courthouse and Eutaw Springs battles of 1781.
5. Patriots Revolutionary War Service Story: (500 words maximum)
James Lanman, born in Fairfax County Virginia in 1752, was the Son of George Lanman a tobacco plantation owner from a 4th generation Virginia family who arrived in the colonies from England about 1640 as part of the “Flouridan Hundred” tobacco plantation investment cooperative.
The Son of America’s pioneer founders, James took up the Patriot’s cause in July 1776 enlisting in Charleston, SC as an Orderly Sargent with the 1st Regiment of Rife of the South Carolina Colonial Army.
Serving under General Williams, his service included battles against members of the loyalist Cherokee Nation including the fierce battle of Valley Town on the Tennessee River.
Following his service with the Regiment of Rifle, James reenlisted in March 1781 in Hillsborough, NC with the 1st Regiment of Horse (cavalry) of the Southern Army in time to see action in two major battles of the Southern campaign; Guilford Courthouse and Eutaw Springs.
At Guilford Courthouse NC, 2,000 battle hardened Redcoats commanded by General Cornwallis met and defeated Nathanael Greene’s Southern Army of 4,000 regulars and militia on March 15, 1781.
The cost of the victory, however, was exorbitantly high for the British with a loss of a quarter of their army and leading to a statement by British MP James Fox that “Another such victory would ruin the British Army”.
Following the Guilford Courthouse battle, James served in the last major battle of the Southern campaign at Eutaw Springs, SC on September 8 1781.
Under the command of Revolutionary War greats including General Greene, “Swamp Fox” Francis Marion and “Light Horse” Harry Lee, the armies were equally matched at about 2,000 troops each.
The fighting was fierce and the causalities were high on both sides. While the battle was technically a draw, it was actually a loss for the British since they failed to stop General Greene’s Southern campaign.
James was wounded during the Battle along with his commander Colonel John Henderson. Both were transported to the farm of a Quaker widow named Nelson where they were nursed.
Following James recuperation he was discharged from the army and moved back to his home in Caswell County NC.
Soon thereafter he joined his half-brothers Smith on their journey with Daniel Boone to Washington City KY and then crossing the Ohio River to settle in Tell City IN where he acquired his revolutionary war land bounty.
James married Sythe Blake Sommers, raised seven children and became a farmer and local community leader. In 1955 the Lafayette Spring Chapter of the DAR honored his Revolutionary War service with a grave marker.
Send a biographical sketch of your patriot!
Patriot biographies must be the original work of the author, and work submitted must not belong to another person or group, in observance with copyright law. Patriot biographies are to be written in complete sentences, follow the established rules of grammar, syntax and punctuation, be free of typographical errors, and follow a narrative format. The narrative should unfold in a logical manner (e.g. the narrative does not jump from time period to time period) or have repeated digressions, or tell the history of the patriot's line from the patriot ancestor to the author. The thinking here is that this is a patriot biography, not a lineage report or a kinship determination project or other report published in a genealogy journal. The biography should discuss the qualifying service (military, patriotic, civil) of the patriot ancestor, where the service was rendered, whether this was a specific state or Continental service, as well as significant events (as determined by the author) of the patriot's life. This is the entire purpose of a patriot's biography.
Additional guidelines around the Biography writeup can be found here:
Send your submission1, in a Microsoft Word compatible format, to patriotbios@sar.org for inclusion in this space 1Upon submission of a patriot biography, the patriot biography becomes the property of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, and may be edited to conform to the patriot biography submission standards.
