Private Jacob Gaster, whose family homeplace later fell within the boundaries of Lee County when the General Assembly created it in 1907, is now the only known Revolutionary War veteran tied to the land the county occupies today. More than two centuries after his service, his remains rest at the Lee County Courthouse, re-interred there during the county’s 100th anniversary celebration in 2007.
As Lee County pauses to remember the struggle of the thirteen colonies to cast off British rule and form a new nation, it can take pride in the one soldier known to have served from the land that would one day become the county.
Gaster’s brief but well-documented service appears in his later pension application, which details his experiences as a young volunteer during the final campaigns of the war.
A volunteer at 16
On July 4, 1776, while delegates in Philadelphia signed the Declaration of Independence, an eleven year old boy in central North Carolina listened eagerly — along with millions of others — for word of what had taken place. That boy, Jacob Gaster, would grow up during the birth of the nation whose creation he would later help secure.
Just under five years later, as British General Charles Cornwallis marched his Redcoat army across North Carolina, Gaster volunteered for service. In March 1781, at age 16, he joined the Cumberland County Regiment of Militia, first under Captain Daniel Buie and later under his father, Captain Henry Gaster, both serving under the command of Philip Alston.
As Cornwallis pushed toward Wilmington, Captain Buie’s mission was to harass the British column, slowing its progress and launching nighttime raids on its encampments.
Captured at Barbecue Church
On March 28, 1781, a detachment of Cornwallis’ troops stopped to rest at Barbecue Presbyterian Church in present-day Harnett County. Captain Buie led a small group of four militia soldiers, including young Jacob Gaster, in an attempt to disrupt the British position.
Only one of the four escaped. Gaster and the other two were captured and taken as prisoners of war.
The British marched them to Cross Creek (known today as Fayetteville), where they were placed aboard a ship on the Cape Fear River, then transferred to another vessel in Wilmington and carried to Charleston. There, Gaster spent roughly two months confined aboard a prison ship in the sweltering summer heat.
He was eventually exchanged for British prisoners and made his way home to Cumberland County around late July or early August 1781 – just 10 weeks before Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown on October 19, 1781.
Return to service
Gaster re-entered service in January 1782 for a three month term, this time assigned to guard military supplies at Cross Creek against Tory raiders. He was discharged in April and returned home.
His pension application – approved in 1833 for an annual payment of $23.33, which he received until his death in 1855 – includes sworn statements from friends and neighbors attesting to his service.
One of them, Daniel McIver, testified that he served alongside Gaster in 1782 and knew of his earlier capture in 1781. McIver described him as “a man of good Character for Truth and Veracity” and noted that Gaster had been “frequently Elected a member of the Legislature of this state from this County.”
A local soldier in a national story
Today, Jacob Gaster’s resting place at the Lee County Courthouse allows the community to tell his story—one woven into the final, decisive months of the American Revolution.
The nation’s independence was secured not only by generals and statesmen, but also by young men like Gaster: farmers, militiamen, and future civic leaders who helped build the new republic they had fought to create.
— by Richard Sullins