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.
Served 17 months 25 days, 25 Dec 1779 - 03 Sep 1783
25 Dec 1779 - 26 Mar 1780 Rowan Militia
1 May 1780 - Jan 1781 Rowan Militia
December 1781 - end of war, Rowan Militia
Additional References:
Rev War Pension file: W3891
Spouse: Anna Hughes Children: William; Joahua;
Members Who Share This Ancestor
None*
*This means that the NSSAR has no applications for this Patriot on file.
Instead the information provided is best effort, and from volunteers who have either researched grave sites, service records, or something similar. There is no documentation available at NSSAR HQ to order.
Image photos taken by and provided with permission from compatriot Ben Setser member 207489 NCSSAR.
Directions to Cemetery / Gravesite:
Is on a logging road off the end of SR-1281 which is off Hwy 126
From the old courthouse in Morganton travel Hwy. 181 north, turn left on Independence Blvd. And then right on Hwy 126, travel 17.3 miles to SR 1281 (dirt), turn left and travel to end of road. Gate is locked, and the house on the right has key. Obeth church no longer is standing and the cemetery is down this logging road about a mile on the left in the wooded area
Photo: 1 of 2
Photo: 2 of 2
Author: SN Bennett Lee Setser
Lawrence Unger was born in 1753 in what is today Germany. Little is known about Unger before the war. Lawrence entered service to our cause on 25 December 1779 at 26 years of age as a substitute for three months in the Rowan County Militia under Capitan Graham. Unger marched with his unit to reinforce Charleston, South Carolina but was not engaged in the conflict there. With the completion of his enlistment, Lawrence was dismissed on the 26th or 27th of March 1780 and returned home.
General Henry Clinton began his siege of Charleston on 1 April 1780, which fell to the British two weeks later. Lawrence Unger stated in his application for a pension that he learned of the surrender of Charleston a short time after returning home.
Unger volunteered on May 1st, 1780, with the Company of Captain John Loop and served about eight months under the command of Colonel Franklin Locke. This force combined with General Gates near Greensboro, North Carolina, and went on to engage the British at the Battle of Camden, August 15 & 16, 1780. Laurence Unger stated that his entire company fled from the defeat of Camden and ran home. Captain Loop regathered his forces in Rowan County and returned to Colonel Locke’s Command. Lawrence Unger was dismissed at the North Carolina and Virginia state line late in January 1781 with no formal discharge and returned home to find the Tories had raided his home and taken his horse.
Lawrence was captured by the Tories near his home and taken as a prisoner to the camp of Cornwallis on 12 March, three days before the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. He remained a prisoner and was marched to Cross Creek (Fayetteville, North Carolina), and then on to Wilmington, North Carolina, where after six months as a prisoner, Unger was traded for a British prisoner and returned to Raleigh, North Carolina.
Stating in his Pension Application, after reaching Raleigh nearly naked, he enlisted again to receive proper clothing in September of 1781, under the command of General Griffith Rutherford, and served about six weeks.
Lawrence Unger’s final enlistment began in late 1781 in Capitan Sharpe’s Company under the command of Major Blount and Colonel Lytle and served for about 12 months until the end of hostilities.
Lawrence Unger married Anna Hughes on 30 December 1796, and they had at least two children; William, 1804-1850, and Joshua, 1817-1889. Lawrence passed away on 15 February 1840 near Morganton, North Carolina, and Anna passed away on 1 April 1849. Both are buried at Obeth Cemetery near Lake James in Burke County, North Carolina.
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