{"id":3472,"date":"2019-07-03T02:28:17","date_gmt":"2019-07-03T02:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/?p=3472"},"modified":"2019-07-03T14:40:07","modified_gmt":"2019-07-03T14:40:07","slug":"history-mystery-john-axlines-revolutionary-war-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/history-mystery-john-axlines-revolutionary-war-service\/","title":{"rendered":"History Mystery: John Axline\u2019s Revolutionary War Service"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Axline<\/a><\/p>\n

By Edward Spannaus<\/b><\/p>\n

For some years, I have been puzzled by the oft-repeated story of Lovettsville\u2019s John Axline in the Revolutionary War: that he alternately served in Lt. Col. Posey\u2019s Battalion of the 3rd Virginia Regiment, and went home to manufacture gunpowder for the Continental Army, and that, as a consequence of this, the British Army raided his house and terrorized his wife. (This story is found, for example, on page 18 of Lovettsville: The German Settlement<\/em>.)
\nWhat is confusing about this, is that the British Army was nowhere near Loudoun County during the Revolutionary War, this being a highly-patriotic frontier area. Unless they were moving in large numbers, British soldiers stayed close to the Loyalist areas on the eastern seaboard. But Axline had moved to this area before the War, and he served in a Virginia regiment. Moreover, there was no gunpowder manufacturing in this area, as far as I know.
\nSo how to explain the story of John Axline?<\/p>\n

Answer:<\/strong><\/p>\n

John Axline was born as Johannes Oeschlein in 1739 in Chester County, Pennsylvania, the son of George Christian Oeschlein who had emigrated from Alsace to Philadelphia in 1727. Around 1770, Johannes and his older brother Adam came to Loudoun County, to the area then known as the \u201cGerman Settlement.\u201d The brothers acquired property on what is today known as Axline Road, part of which today is the site of Hiddencroft Vineyards.
\nAdam later moved to Bedford County, Pennsylvania, and a number of John\u2019s children later moved to Ohio. The family name was Anglicized as \u201cExlein,\u201d \u201cExline,\u201d and \u201cAxline;\u201d local church records spell it all those ways for the same families.
\nI found that a grandson of John Axline, Gen. Henry A. Axline (1848-1914) of Columbus, Ohio, had done a lot of research on his grandfather\u2019s military service. Gen. Axline was known as the \u201cFather of the Ohio National Guard,\u201d having served as its Adjutant General for many years. Henry reportedly found Revolutionary War payroll records in which there was a notation \u201cfor special services\u201d next to John\u2019s name.
\nLater, this Henry Axline found an old chest which contained a diary kept by John\u2019s wife Christena, in which she had written: \u201cEverything is in confusion around me. Since John made the last gunpowder, the British have confiscated everything we have.\u201d
\nHenry Axline then searched the Army supply records, and found a record of the gunpowder that John had made. Out of this, the story grew up that John would fight for a time in the Continental Army, and then go home and make gunpowder, then go out and fight again.
\nThe \u00a0Centennial History of Columbus, and Franklin Co., Ohio, by William Alexander Taylor, contains a biographical sketch of Gen. Henry A. Axline, which includes the following:<\/p>\n

On the paternal side he [Henry] comes of Prussian ancestry. His great-grandfather, Christopher Axline, was a native of Prussia and served with distinction in the Prussian cavalry under Frederick the Great. While the United States was still numbered among the colonial possessions of Great Britain he came to America and during the period of the Revolutionary war engaged in the production of nitre for the manufacture of gunpowder for the American troops. In consequence of this, his property was confiscated by the British. His son, John Axline, removed to Loudoun County, Virginia, where he died in 1832 at the age of ninety-three years. He was the first settler of this family in that county. He was born in 1739 and was a farmer by occupation. He served as a captain in the Virginia line in the Revolutionary war.<\/p>\n

The biographical sketch says that John\u2019s family included Henry, born 1788, who removed to Ohio. He would be the father of Gen. Henry Axline. Now, this sketch is a second-hand account, and is clearly somewhat confused, since Christoff\/Christopher died in 1768, and thus could not have made gunpowder during the Revolutionary War and had his property confiscated by the British. But Christoff\u2019s son John Axline could have done this \u2013 and it seems highly probable that this would have been done near his father\u2019s home, in Chester County, Pa., and not in Loudoun County, Va.
\nPennsylvania gunpowder mills<\/strong>
\nPennsylvania was the center of gunpowder manufacture, at least in the early years of the war; Virginia was not.
\nAt the beginning of the Revolutionary War, there were only three gunpowder mills available to the Continental Army \u2013 two in southeastern Pennsylvania, and one near Morristown, New Jersey. Additional mills were then established in New York State, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.
\nAlthough by early 1776 there were a number of gunpowder mills operating in the area around Philadelphia, the Committee of Safety of Pennsylvania wasn\u2019t satisfied, and so, with the approval of the Continental Congress, it authorized the creation of the first state-funded and state-operated gunpowder mill in the colonies. This was a Continental Powder Mill, on French Creek in Pikeland Township in Chester County.
\nPikeland Township is precisely where Christoff Axline and his sons Adam and John were living at the time of Christoff\u2019s death in 1768.
\nIn December 1776, British raids forced the removal of the powder and military supplies from French Creek to Lancaster; after the threat blew over, manufacturing was resumed at French Creek with a company of militia stationed there. In March 1777 an explosion ended production at French Creek. Three others mills went out of production by the end of that year, leaving five mills operating in southeast Pennsylvania.
\nThe mills which kept operating in southeast Pennsylvania up to the end of the war (which would be relevant if we are talking about John Axline making gunpowder as late as 1782) were Oswald Eve\u2019s mill in Frankford, just north of Philadelphia, Lorch\u2019s mill in Philadelphia County, and Lush\u2019s mill in Norriton, near King of Prussia and Valley Forge, in Montgomery County. (The latter location is close to where John\u2019s older brother George was married and lived for a while, before going to live near his father in Chester County.)<\/p>\n

\"Axline<\/a>
\nJohn Axline\u2019s military service<\/strong><\/p>\n

The military service records that I found for John are:<\/p>\n