The Colonels of Tryon County

Many of the officers who were involved in the Revolutionary War suffered greatly on a personal level. They used their own funds to pay their soldiers, they used their farm produce and animals as well as having their own families be a target for the enemy. It truly was a time of great heartbreak, sadness, and terror. While they served, they worried about their own families, if they had enough food, if their family had been taken captive, if the enemy had come and burned their buildings. When the war began, there were about 10,000 inhabitants in the Mohawk Valley and at the end, there were only about 3,000. Life went on, somehow. The people hung on and waited for the war to end. The officers and families suffered as much or more than others in the area. They were perceived to be the greater problem by the enemy