"To the Right Honourable William Wyndham, Secretary at War.
"At the commencement of the American rebellion, I was an inhabitant of the Province of South Carolina, and major of a regiment of the King's Militia in Cambden District.
"The insurgents formed a camp in Ninety-six district, and were recruiting men, declaring that as soon as they had forces sufficient for their purpose they would burn and destroy the houses and property of all persons who refused to join them in opposing the King and the authority of Great Britain.
"I then waited upon Lord William Campbell, the Governor of the Province, and received written orders from his lordship to levy forces and march against the rebels, in consequence of which I advanced with about 2,000 men, and found them fortified at Ninety-six Court-house. We defeated them and destroyed their fortifications.
"But in the meantime the violence of the insurgents obliged Lord William Campbell to depart from his Province, and our small army of Royal Volunteers was left without further orders, money, or military stores; wherefore, with much reluctance, I was under the necessity of desiring the men to return to their respective habitations, and by all means not to suffer any false pretences of the rebel party to deceive them, or to efface their principles of loyalty, until we should enjoy a more favourable opportunity.
"A reward being then offered for my life, personal safety induced me to retire to the Cherokee Indian nation, afterwards to the Creek Indians, and, passing through many dangers and suffering various hardships, at length arrived at Saint Augustine, in the Province of East Florida, in the year 1777. Soon afterwards, a party of about 300 men, being some of those I formerly commanded in South Carolina, joined me there.
"I formed the regiment, which was styled the South Carolina Royalists, of which General Prevost appointed me lieutenant-colonel, and soon after I received my commission from Sir Henry Clinton, the Commander-in-Chief.
"The said regiment acted in East Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, in the course of which service I was in several engagements against the enemy—viz., at the Alligator Bridge, in East Florida; at Doctor Brimstone's Plantation, in Georgia; at New Port Meeting-house, in Georgia; at New Port Bridge, in Georgia; at Stone Ferry, in South Carolina; and afterwards at the reduction of Sunbury Fort, in the Province of Georgia, and the fortifications of Charlestown, in South Carolina. The order from the office of the Secretary at War was not seen or known by me until the 24th of April, 1797; and that I am now fifty-five years of age.
(Signed) "Joseph Robinson,
"Lieut.-Colonel of the late South Carolina Royalist Regiment.