WILLDEN Family--HOLLOWAY Patriot of 1776

Crossing the Delaware

Valley Forge, PA

Six-Mile Cemetery, TN

Billy Holloway headstone, TN

We will start the WILLDEN history in this blog at with the gravesite of a Revolutionary War veteran named Billy HOLLOWAY. Only 22 miles from our house, Tonya and I stood in the Six Mile Baptist Church Cemetery in Blount County, Tennessee, and marvelled at the upright unmarked fieldstones that had survived the Smoky Mountain winters for almost two centuries.
There is more than one Patriot of the American Revolution in this little cemetery, but our interest is William "Billy" HOLLOWAY, Tonya Willden's 1st cousin, five times removed...or, more directly, the nephew of Tonya's maternal 4th great-grandmother, Agnes HOLLOWAY.
Billy was born in 1754 Virginia, at a time when conflicts with native Americans seemed more important than Independence from the British. Growing to manhood in these exciting and dangerous times was a battle with the odds, but Billy met and married Nancy Senter around 1774, and two years later found himself 22 years old at the start of a Revolution. In Cumberland Co., Virginia, Billy enlisted on February 14, 1776 into the Continental Army, led by General George Washington. Billy was assigned to the 7th Virginia Regiment commanded by Colonel William Dangerfield, in Capt. Fleming's Company. In September, he was transferred to the 5th Virginia Regiment commanded by Colonel Charles Scott, in Capt. Gross Scruggs' Company.
Billy HOLLOWAY was about to embark on a great and memorable journey.
On a cold and windy Christmas night in Pennsylavania, 1776, Billy Holloway boarded a boat and crossed the Delaware River with the rest of General Washington's troops, and participated in a complete surprise attack on the Hessian troops at Trenton, New Jersey. It was a total one-sided victory for the Patriots, and a badly needed boost for the young nation-to-be. The celebration would have to last awhile, as Billy and the Continental Army would be bottled up by the British in Pennsylvania for the next 9 months. On September 11, 1777, Billy Holloway found his back facing Philadelphia, and his rifle facing the British coming from Chesapeake Bay toward Brandywine Creek. When the smoke cleared from the battlefield, Gen. Washington and his troops were in retreat as the victory went to the British, who marched into the revolutionary capitol of Philadelphia, shortly after the Patriot leaders had abandoned the city.
On October 4, 1777, Billy Holloway was part of General Washington's attempted surprise attack on the British at Germantown, Pennsylvania, which failed due to delays while marching in the fog, and the Patriots were forced to retreat once again. Billy and the others avoided the British for the next few weeks, and finally settled down for the winter at a place called Valley Forge. Billy remained through that difficult winter of disease and hunger at Valley Forge, and was discharged from the Army on June 19, 1778. He would return to fight for a brief period with the Continental Army again in 1781, the year the British would be defeated.
After the War, Billy Holloway and his family moved into what would become Tennessee, and were among the first settlers in Blount County, south of Knoxville. In 1811 he was a founder of the Six Mile Baptist Church, and in 1812 became an ordained Baptist Minister for the remainder of his life. When he died, his will stated that he left "to my wife Nancy, 1/3 of all I have of all kinds, to my son Barnes Holloway the remaining 2/3, and my pension if any due me after September, 4, 1829, to be divided as my friends see best". Patriot, Pioneer, Minister....a good story from the Willden family past. Comments/questions to graveyardgossip@gmail.com