{"id":2787,"date":"2013-01-31T16:16:47","date_gmt":"2013-01-31T16:16:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=2787"},"modified":"2013-01-31T16:16:47","modified_gmt":"2013-01-31T16:16:47","slug":"1800s-newspaper-ad-reward-for-army-deserters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/1800s-newspaper-ad-reward-for-army-deserters.html","title":{"rendered":"1800s Newspaper Ad: Reward for Army Deserters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fort Johnson in South Carolina was no different from Army bases across the country. From time to time soldiers deserted, as these men did on 3 January 1810. Captain A.B. Armistead wanted them back\u2014and so he ran a newspaper ad offering \u201cONE HUNDRED DOLLARS REWARD for six Deserters, who deserted from this post on the 3d instant\u201d and promising to pay \u201call expenses.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2788\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2788\" style=\"width: 543px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/city-gazette-daily-advertiser-newspaper-0106-1810-deserters.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2788\" title=\"city-gazette-daily-advertiser-newspaper-0106-1810-deserters\" src=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/city-gazette-daily-advertiser-newspaper-0106-1810-deserters.png\" alt=\"reward ad for Army deserters, City Gazette &amp; Daily Advertiser newspaper article 6 January 1810\" width=\"543\" height=\"193\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/city-gazette-daily-advertiser-newspaper-0106-1810-deserters.png 543w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/city-gazette-daily-advertiser-newspaper-0106-1810-deserters-300x106.png 300w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/city-gazette-daily-advertiser-newspaper-0106-1810-deserters-500x177.png 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 543px) 100vw, 543px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2788\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The City Gazette &amp; Daily Advertiser (Charleston, South Carolina), 6 January 1810, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Armistead\u2019s reward ad provided descriptions of the Army deserters.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2789\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2789\" style=\"width: 712px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/city-gazette-daily-advertiser-newspaper-0106-1810-deserter-description.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2789\" title=\"city-gazette-daily-advertiser-newspaper-0106-1810-deserter-description\" src=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/city-gazette-daily-advertiser-newspaper-0106-1810-deserter-description.png\" alt=\"description of Army deserters, City Gazette &amp; Daily Advertiser newspaper article 6 January 1810\" width=\"712\" height=\"619\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/city-gazette-daily-advertiser-newspaper-0106-1810-deserter-description.png 712w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/city-gazette-daily-advertiser-newspaper-0106-1810-deserter-description-300x260.png 300w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/city-gazette-daily-advertiser-newspaper-0106-1810-deserter-description-345x300.png 345w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 712px) 100vw, 712px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2789\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The City Gazette &amp; Daily Advertiser (Charleston, South Carolina), 6 January 1810, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In a note at the end of his 1800s newspaper reward ad, Armistead asked all of the newspapers in Georgia, North and South Carolina to print \u201cthis advertisement six times\u201d and to send him the bill.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2790\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2790\" style=\"width: 695px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/city-gazette-daily-advertiser-newspaper-0106-1810-expenses.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2790\" title=\"city-gazette-daily-advertiser-newspaper-0106-1810-expenses\" src=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/city-gazette-daily-advertiser-newspaper-0106-1810-expenses.png\" alt=\"reward ad for Army deserters, City Gazette &amp; Daily Advertiser newspaper article 6 January 1810\" width=\"695\" height=\"253\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/city-gazette-daily-advertiser-newspaper-0106-1810-expenses.png 695w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/city-gazette-daily-advertiser-newspaper-0106-1810-expenses-300x109.png 300w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/city-gazette-daily-advertiser-newspaper-0106-1810-expenses-500x182.png 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 695px) 100vw, 695px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2790\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The City Gazette &amp; Daily Advertiser (Charleston, South Carolina), 6 January 1810, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Here are some of the descriptions of the Army deserters:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Charles Merul was \u201ca native of South-Carolina, twenty three years of age, five feet ten inches high, has light complexion and dark hair; went off in citizens clothes\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Daniel Holloway was \u201ca native of Virginia, twenty three years of age, five feet nine inches high, has fair complexion, blue eyes, and dark hair\u201d<\/li>\n<li>John Wynne \u201cwas born in Georgia\u201d; the ad gives\u00a0 a physical description of him, but the key identifiers were the pistols he was carrying, described as: \u201cuncommon, particularly with respect to the locks and the fixing of the ramrod\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/explore\/newspapers\/ads-classifieds\">Old newspaper reward ads<\/a> like this one, published in an attempt to reclaim military deserters, can be rich sources of genealogical information\u2014often providing the names, origins, ages and physical descriptions of the missing soldiers. Historical newspapers had all the news of the day. Every day I am surprised by what I find doing genealogy research in the archives!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fort Johnson in South Carolina was no different from Army bases across the country. From time to time soldiers deserted, as these men did on 3 January 1810. Captain A.B. Armistead wanted them back\u2014and so he ran a newspaper ad offering \u201cONE HUNDRED DOLLARS REWARD for six Deserters, who deserted from this post on the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12713],"tags":[3120,3121,3119,3116,3114,3113,3125,1658,2233,3118,884,427,465,3123,3112,4580,3122,1070,963,5366,2020,27,964,5430,3117,636,573,3115,1676,1094,3124],"class_list":["post-2787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-genealogy-research-tips","tag-a-b-armistead","tag-armistead","tag-army-bases","tag-army-deserters","tag-charles-merul","tag-daniel-holloway","tag-desertion","tag-family-history-2","tag-family-research","tag-fort-johnson","tag-ga","tag-georgia","tag-historical-newspapers","tag-holloway","tag-john-wynne","tag-johnson","tag-merul","tag-military","tag-nc","tag-news","tag-newspaper-archives","tag-newspapers","tag-north-carolina","tag-research","tag-reward-ads","tag-sc","tag-south-carolina","tag-u-s-army","tag-va","tag-virginia","tag-wynne"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2787\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}