The 10th. Regiment was authorized by the North Carolina General Assembly, April 1777 �under the command of Col. Abraham Sheppard.� (NORTH CAROLINA THROUGH FOUR CENTURIES, by William S. Powell, page 191). The 10th. Regiment was the last Regiment to be organized, but not nearly as �organized� as it could have been. We find in the book, THE NORTH CAROLINA CONTINENTALS, by Hugh F. Rankin, a number of references to the 10th. Regiment and Col. Abraham Sheppard, commander of the �Tenth.� �Abraham Sheppard�s Tenth Regiment, who, to fill their own quotas, made promises that all those who enlisted in their regiments would not be required to leave the state.� (Page 127) �By early August (1777), Abraham Sheppard�s Tenth Regiment was being assembled and organized at Kinston (then Kingston); 328 men had been enlisted, but they were, in general, the sickly off scouring of the back country.� (Page 129) �...on June12, 1777, the Tenth Regiment had been placed on the Continental establishment. Sheppard was ordered to march forward to join Washington as soon as he had enlisted three hundred men.� (Page 129) �By late August Governor Caswell was beginning to demonstrate his displeasure with Sheppard�s seeming procrastination and �endeavored to excite Colonel Sheppard and his officers to a discharge of their duty by urging them on every principle of honor, love of liberty and their country...� Only three companies had appeared at the rendezvous at Kinston and they were troops from the immediate area.� (Page 130) �The governor complained of the lethargy of the officers of the Tenth, saying, �For God�s sake, and your Country�s sake, for your own honor and that of your Regiment, let me entreat you, nay order and command, immediately to order your officers to repair to Head Quarters at Kingston...� (Page 130) �On September 15, Caswell, his patience exhausted, ordered Sheppard to march northward no later than Thursday, September 25. With Vance�s artillery company to be attached to the Tenth Regiment until it joined the main army. Although Sheppard was supposed to march directly to Richmond to await further orders from Caswell, by October 6, he had moved no further than the Roanoke River, two miles from Halifax. Sheppard, for some unexplained reason, left his troops encamped on the banks of the river and returned to his home in Dobbs County. Ordered back to his regiment by the governor, he returned in a few days with a memorandum from his officers, complaining of their treatment. Bread was scarce, and the men of the Tenth were near naked; Sheppard�s command had received only 111 pairs of breeches, not a single pair of stockings, no hats, and less than half of their assigned supply of tents, blankets, and shoes. Yes they had received more than similar units. Already the men were grumbling and accusing the officers of �breach of promise.� When Sheppard finally began his march he was forced to leave forty-seven behind who were too ill to take the rigors of a long march.� (Pages 130-131) November, 1777: General Assembly ap-pointed �...a committee to look into the con-duct of the officers of the Tenth Regiment...� (Page 132) �The conduct of Abraham Sheppard and the officers of the Tenth Regiment also fell under the scrutiny of Archibald MacLaine�s senate committee and a similar group in the House headed by Willie Jones. In general, the committee reports charged Sheppard and his officers with procrastination, and there was the suggestion that they had been more than reluctant to march northward to join the Grand Army. And the assembly seemed to be quite willing to accept the word of Thomas Craike, commissary of stores, that the critical supply situation within the Tenth Regiment had been more the fault of Sheppard than of any state agency. There had been two rather shocking revelations. Benjamin Sheppard, paymaster of the Tenth, and Alexander Outlaw, the quartermaster, were declared unworthy of holding office when they were suspected of counterfeiting.� (Page 133) �The conclusion of the committee was that Colonel Sheppard and the officers under his command have disobeyed orders on frivolous and insufficient reason; that their conduct casts a shade, not only on themselves, but in some measure draws a reflection on the State.� (Page 134) Mid February 1778:�...Abraham Shep-pard�s Tenth Regiment, by mid-February ... was no further north than Tottopomey Creek in Hanover County, Virginia.� (Page 138) �To many observers it was already clear that Sheppard�s Tenth Regiment would be more of a hindrance than any great aid to the war effort. The unit was soon to fade into obscurity as a result of continued desertions. The pitiful few who finally reached Valley Forge were disbanded and attached to the First and Second Regiments.� (page 138) For further information and details on North Carolina Regiments see: THE NORTH CAROLINA CONTINENTALS, by Hugh F. Rankin (especially pages 124-148); published by The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC QUESTION: How these Johnston brothers joined the Tenth North Carolina Continental in 1781 is a mystery since the men of the Tenth, by 1778, were �attached to the First, Second and Sixth Regiments,� after it was disbanded in 1778, and they did not enlist until 15 June 1781? In the book, NORTH CAROLINA RESEARCH, GENEALOGY AND LOCAL HISTORY, edited by Helen F. M. Leary, pages 381-384, an explanation on the �Tenth� and how to research muster rolls is delineated It is suggested that one consult J. R. B. Hathaway�s NORTH CAROLINA HISTORI-CAL AND GENEALOGICAL REGISTER, Volume I (July, 1900, No. 3) for roster of those Regiments into which men of the �Tenth� were assigned after deactivation. Hathaway published only the officers of the various Regiments in the above reference. There is no �Captain Samuel Johnston� listed on the muster roll of officers in the �Tenth.� (Hathaway, page 425). Clark in THE STATE RECORDS OF NORTH CAROLINA, Vol. XVI, page 1093, lists the three Johnson men as being in Capt. Jones� Company. However, we know now that this is an inaccurate entry. In Vol. II, of four volumes, INDEX TO WAR SERVICE RECORDS, E-K, page 1463 compiled by Virgil D. White (from National Archives microfilm Series #M860) the following is recorded: �JOHNSON, Ephrim, 2nd. N. C. JOHNSON, Solomon, 2nd. N. C. JOHNSON, Soasby, 2nd. N. C.� Xerox copies of �Index Cards,� and �Enlistment cards,� from compiled records received from National Archives shows that the Johnson brothers were in the 2nd. North Carolina Continental Army, in Capt. Coleman�s Company, rather than in the �10th.� Also, in the file is a letter from the State of North Carolina, dated 1844, stating that Solomon was in the 10th Regiment even though Regimental Records show otherwise. This letter may be what has confused researchers in the past. We are convinced, based on the evidence, that all three brothers served in the 2nd. North Carolina Continental under Capt. Benjamin Coleman. (See attached NARA cards). What military activity or action the Johns(t)on brothers were engaged in has not been determined -YET! It is our feeling that these three Johns(t)on men where in the Battle of Eutaw Springs, SC (September 8, 1781), and Yorktown, VA (October 10, 1781). We have found no evidence of them �deserting� or �going home� early, like so many other soldiers. BIBLIOGRAPHY Clark, Walter. The State Records of North Carolina, Vol. XVI, 1782-1783, Wilmington, N. C. Broadfoot Publishing Co., 1993. Daughters of the American Revolution, National Society, Washington, D. C. Application of Fredda Sue Fender, National No. 567357 et al, including copy of marriage bond. Hathaway, J. R. B., Editor. The North Carolina Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. 1, July 1900, No. 3. Edenton, N. C. Heitman, Francis B., Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army During the War of The Revolution, April, 1775 to 1783, with addendum by Robert H. Kelby, Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Co., 1993. Leary, Helen F. M., Editor, North Carolina Research, Genealogy and Local History, Raleigh, N. C., North Carolina Genealogical Society, 1996. National Archives, Washington, DC. Xerox copies of complied military records. North Carolina Daughters of the American Revolution, Durham, NC, Roster of Soldiers From North Carolina in the American Revolution, 1932. Reprinted for Clearfield Publishing Co., 2000, by Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, MD.,