Richard Lushington: "Having Been Dangerously Ill"

A Revolutionary War Experience Primary Source
This is a sketch of three soldiers operating a cannon.

Richard Lushington is briefly mentioned in Josiah Smith Jr.'s diary. Smith recorded the experiences of twenty-nine citizens who had been captured and paroled by the British when they captured Charleston. These paroled citizens were put on a ship and exiled to Florida. This brief entry about Lushington notes some of the hardships he endured for his support of the American cause.

 

Monday 5 March [1781].

Mr. Richard Lushington one of our Mess having been dangerously Ill of the Flux but now on the Recovery, and apprehending that the spending of a few days at Mr. Fish's Island wou'd greatly contribute to a speedy reEstablishmet of his health he requested of Mr. Brown the Commissary, to obtain the Commandants leave for that purpose, upon whose application to Col. Glazier, receiv'd an absolute denial of so small an Indulgence, saying the Air in Town was a good as that on the Island.—This Officer having for a great number of Years enjoyed a perfect Scene of Health, seems to have become Callous to the Feelings of others in a different scituation.

 

Source:

"Josiah Smith's Diary, 1780-1781," edited by Mabel L. Webber, The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, Vol. 33, No. 2 (Apr., 1932).