I don't remember where I caught this piece of information but I find it interesting. My grandmother told me one of her great- or great-great-grandfathers owned 5000 acres, more or less, of land. That was all I remember about the conversation. The following may help gather insight about just where that 5000 acres came from.
Continental soldiers (or their heirs) qualified for acreage as follow:
privates 640 acres;
noncommissioned officers 1,000 acres;
subaltern 2,560 acres;
captain 3,840 acres;
major 4,800 acres;
lieutenant colonel 5,640;
lieutenant colonel commandant 7,200 acres;
colonel 7,200 acres;
brigadier 12,000 acres;
chaplain 7,200 acres;
surgeon 4,800 acres;
and surgeon's mate 2,560 acres.
In 1783 an act reduced the amount of land according to length of service and allowed privates 225 acres for two years’ service or 274 acres for three years’ service. Pruitt, A.B. Glasgow Land Fraud Papers 1783-1800: North Carolina Revolutionary War Bounty Land in Tennessee (Albert Bruce Pruitt: n.p., 1988).
