Duncan Campbell (Killochronan, Island of Mull).
Extract from the Memorial of Captain Duncan Campbell, American Loyalist Claims.
“Humbly Sheweth, that he was a native of Great Britain and he was appointed Ensign in the 42nd Highlanders 26 January 1756, in which Corps he served the war before last in America and the West Indies. And in August 1763 the Regiment was ordered on an expedition to the relief of Fort Pitt, then invested by the savages.
On the march he was severely wounded at the battle of Bushy Run, and for a long time rendered unfit for service. (In this skirmishing warfare the troops suffered much from the want of water and the extreme heat of the weather) which occasioned his retiring on half pay in 1764.
He soon thereafter settled at Fredricksburg, Dutchess Co. in the Prov. of New York (in 1769) and purchased a valuable track of land from Colonel Beverly Robinson and others on good terms. In 1775 he was Colonel of Militia and Magistrate for the said county.
That at the commencement of the troubles he took an early and decided part in favor of His Majesty’s government, which rendered him so obnoxious to the popular party where he dwelt that he was obliged to fly to New York, to save his life, from the family and abandon his property in June 1775. That soon after his arrival there he engaged as an officer in the 2nd Battalion Highland Emigrant’s in which he continued doing duty until the cessation of hostilities, and consequent reduction of the Regiment in Nova Scotia, in which Province he now dwells. (2 January 1784).
That early in June 1775 he got on board the Asia ship of war (64 gun frigate) then stationed in New York and soon after was joined by some recruits he had engaged to follow him. In July thereafter he went to Boston where Gen. Gage then Commander-in-Chief, gave him command of an armed transport in which he returned to New York where he enlisted and received on board about 60 more recruits. That in September he returned again to Boston where he left all his recruits except 26 which were left on board as Marines, on the 8 October he was sent back on the same service. But on the 16 of the same month was unfortunately shipwrecked on the coast of New Jersey.
On this service he lost all his money and baggage to the amount of £100. This loss His Excellency Sir William Howe, then Commander-in-Chief, would not think of reimbursing at the time. In consequence of the shipwreck he and his party had the misfortune to be made prisoners and was carried to Philadelphia where he was fourteen months in a small apartment of the dismal gaol where he contracted a sickness which was likely to prove fatal to him.
How soon he was taken his family were turned out of doors and deprived of everything they had except some wearing apparell. The distressed situation of the family so driven from their home may be easier felt than described. It brought on for a beginning the untimely death of an amiable wife, and deprived his five infant children of a mother’s care whereby they for some time became objects of compassion which he was unable to rescue them from. Until he was exchanged and joined his Regiment (in January 1777) he thereafter continued to serve during the war.