I represent John Ratcliffe. I was a private in the Maryland Loyalists Regiment, Capt. Patrick Kennedy‘s company. The regiment was raised in 1777. We saw action at the Battle of Monmouth in 1778 before being sent later that year to West Florida to defend Pensacola and Mobile against the Spanish. In 1779, with both regiments depleted due to disease and desertion, the Maryland and Pennsylvania Loyalists regiments were merged. I was moved into Captain Walter Dulany‘s company, and on the muster rolls for January and February 1780, I and six other Loyalists were marked as “on board the sloop Charlotte.” There is a gap in the record, so it’s hard to tell if I was taken prisoner by the Spanish on the Charlotte during my voyage or during the siege of Pensacola in spring of 1781. Either way, I and several others from the Loyalist regiments were sent to Havana, rather than directly to New Town, Long Island with the rest of the survivors of May 1781. In June 1782, we were exchanged and finally sent to New York with the rest of our regiment. I appear on the last muster roll of my company a year later.
Sources: 59, 129, 131