Revolutionary War widows like Anna Smith Custar didn’t make casual requests when they stepped forward decades after the battles ended and their husbands had passed. Instead, they were survivors seeking long-overdue recognition! The war shaped the entirety of their adult lives, which were marked by uncertainty, frontier hardship, and persistent instability. Still, formal acknowledgment of their husbands’ service often came only at the very end of life, if it came at all.

For every general issuing orders during the American Revolution, there were countless forgotten laborers hauling supplies, guiding teams, and keeping the army alive one wagonload at a time. John McConnell was one of them. Pieced together, oral tradition reveals a young man thrust into the brutal logistics of war at an age when most of us are still figuring out who we are.