Constitution Day Transcription

In honor of Constitution Day and the National Archive's Citizen Trancrisption Initiative, help History Department professors transcribe the Revolutionary War pension of Lemuel Fling. This veteran:

• In later life, resided with his wife, Ruth, in Potsdam, and is buried in Bayside Cemetery
• Served with the Continental forces from 1775-1782
• Pension application includes a letter reporting on Lemuel’s experience at Bunker Hill
• Lemuel got a pension from New Hampshire in 1818
• Sarah’s children were denied a widow’s pension because her husband was reported as a deserter (he claimed he overstayed a furlough because he was sick)
• Their son, Calvin, was impressed into the British Navy in 1812; the family’s experience is the basis for an article, “An Old-Time Grievance,” in The Atlantic (November 1885)

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