Gen. George Washington, re: Cowpens

General George Washington, to the President of Congress:

17 February 1781. 

General [Daniel] Morgan's signal victory over Colonel [Banastre] Tarleton [at Cowpens] with the flower of the British Army reflects the highest honor upon our arms, and I hope at least be attended with this advantage, that it will check the offensive operations of the enemy until General [Nathanael] Greene shall have collected a much more respectable force than he had under his command by the last accounts from him. I am apprehensive that the Southern States will look upon this victory as much more decisive in its consequences than it really is, and will relax in their exertions. It is to be wished that the gentlemen of Congress who have interests in those States would remove such ideas, if any such should be found to exist, and rather stimulate them to redouble their efforts to crush an enemy, pretty severely shaken by the two successful strokes upon [Patrick] Ferguson [at Kings Mountain] and Tarleton.

(Letter dated 17 Feb 1781 from Gen. George Washington to the President of Congress, excerpt)

Tryon Safety Committee Meeting, 14 Aug 1775

From manuscript records, State of North Carolina, Office of Secretary of State; Vol. x-11; Colonial Records:

Proceedings of the Safety Committee in Tryon County.
Met according to adjournment. [14 August, 1775.]
Present: John Walker, Chairman; Thos Beatey, David Jenkins, Jacob Forney, Thomas Espey, Valentine Mauney, James Coburn, Robert Alexander, Joseph Harden, Benjamin Harden, Frederick Hambright, James Logan, Andrew Hampton, John Morris, Charles McLean, John Robinson, William Graham, James McAfee, George Paris, John Beeman, George Black, Andrew Neel, James Baird and David Whitesides, who took the necessary Oaths for their Qualification.

Andrew Neel was duly elected Clerk of the Committee.

Resolved, That Col. Charles McLean serve as Deputy Chairman in the absence of Col. Walker.
Resolved, That each Company elect three members of Committee for this County who on a Debate, are each man to have his vote.
Resolved, That this Association be signed by the Inhabitants of Tryon county, [viz]
AN ASSOCIATION. The unprecedented, barbarous and bloody actions committed by the British Troops on our American Brethren near Boston on the 19th of April & 20th of May last, together with the Hostile operations & Traiterous Designs now Carrying on by the Tools of Ministerial Vengeance Despotism for the Subjugating all British America, suggest to us the painful necessity of having recourse to Arms for the preservation of those Rights & Liberties which the principles of our Constitution and the Laws of God, Nature, and Nations have made it our duty to defend.
We therefore, the Subscribers Freeholders & Inhabitants of Tryon County, do hereby faithfully unite ourselves under the most sacred ties of Religion, Honor & Love to Our Country, firmly to Resist force by force in defence of our Natural Freedom & constitutional Rights against all Invasions, & at the same time do solemnly engage to take up Arms and Risque our lives and fortunes in maintaining the Freedom of our Country, whenever the Wisdom & Council of the Continental Congress or our Provincial Convention shall Declare it necessary, & this Engagement we will continue in and hold sacred ‘till a Reconciliation shall take place between Great Britain and America on Constitutional principles which we most ardently desire. And we do firmly agree to hold all such persons Inimical to the liberties of America, who shall refuse to subscribe to this Association.

[Signed by]
John Walker, Charles McLean, Andrew Neel, Thomas Beatty, James Coburn, Frederick Hambright, Andrew Hampton, Benjamin Hardin, George Paris, William Graham, Robt. Alexander, David Jenkins, Thomas Espey, Perrygreen Mackness, James McAfee, William Thompson, Jacob Forney, Davis Whiteside, John Beeman, John Morris, Joseph Harden, John Robison, James McIntyre, Valentine Mauney, George Black, Jas. Logan, Jas. Baird, Christian Carpenter, Abel Beatty, Joab Turner, Jonathan Price, Jas. Miller, John Dellinger, Peter Sides, William Whiteside, Geo. Dellinger, Samuel Carpenter, Jacob Mauney, Jun., John Wells, Jacob Costner, Robert Hulclip, James Buchanan, Moses Moore, Joseph Kuykendall, Adam Simms, Richard Waffer, Samuel Smith, Joseph Neel, Samuel Loftin

Resolved, That we will Continue to profess all Loyalty and attachment to our Sovereign Lord King George the Third, His Crown & Dignity, so long as he secures to us those Rights and Liberties which the principles of Our Constitution require.
Resolved, and we do Impower every Captain or other Officer in their Respective Companies to raise sufficient force in order to detain and secure all powder and Lead that may be removing or about to be Removed out of the County; and that they do prevent any of such powder and Lead from being sold or disposed of for private uses; but to be under the direction of this Committee until the Delegates shall return from the provincial Convention; Provided nevertheless that this Resolution is not meant to hinder any persons Inhabitants of other County’s from Carrying powder and Lead through this County to their respective abodes unless there is just Cause to suspect that they Intend such Powder and Lead for Injurious purposes; then and in such case notice is to be given to the Committee of the County in which such person resides, that they make such order thereon as to them shall seem proper.
Resolved, that Mr Daniel MeKissick do make application to the Council of Safety of Charles Town for 500 weight Gun powder 600 weight Lead, and 600 Gun Flints to be distributed under the direction of this Committee when it shall be judged necessary.
Resolved, That we do Recommend to the Captains of the Several Companies in this Regiment to call together their men in order to collect what money they can conveniently to provide powder and Lead, And that they make due return of what money is received to the Committee at next meeting.
Resolved, That this Committee meet at the Court House of this County on the 14th Day of September next there to Deliberate on such matters as shall be Recommended by Our Provincial Convention.
[Signed by]
John Walker, Chairman.

Maj. Gen. Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee

Henry Lee III, called "Light Horse Harry", (29 January 1756 – 25 March 1818) was a cavalry officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. He was born near Dumfries, Virginia, the son of Maj. Gen. Henry Lee II of "Leesylvania" and Lucy Grymes, the "Lowland Beauty".
Lee and his younger brother Charles entered The College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in the summer of 1770 when they were fourteen and twelve, after a ten-day journey from Virginia by stage and on horseback, along with their friend James Madison. With a view to a legal career, Lee graduated in 1773, but on the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, he joined the Continental Army. In 1776, Lee became captain of a Virginia Dragoon detachment, attached to the 1st Continental Light Dragoons. In 1778, he was promoted to major and given the command of a small irregular corps, with which he earned great reputation as a leader of light troops.
Lee came into prominence in 1779 when, as a 23-year-old major, he led the capture of the British fort at Paulus Hook, New Jersey. He later became cavalry commander in the Southern campaign under General Nathanael Greene. Lee served notably at Guilford Court House, Camden, and Eutaw Springs. He was present at Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown, but afterwards left the army owing to ill health.
From 1786 to 1788, Lee was a delegate to the Continental Congress, and in the last-named year in the Virginia convention, he favored the adoption of the U.S. Constitution. From 1789 to 1791, he served in the General Assembly and, from 1791 to 1794, Lee was Governor of Virginia. In 1794, Lee accompanied George Washington to help suppress the "Whiskey Rebellion" in western Pennsylvania.
Henry Lee served as a major-general in the U.S. Army in 1798-1800, and from 1799 to 1801, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is credited with writing the phrase used by Chief Justice John Marshall in his address to Congress on the death of Washington–"first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
Lee had been at his best as a dashing cavalry officer in the Revolution– "a Rupert in battle," Woodrow Wilson called him, "a boy in counsel, highstrung, audacious, wilful, lovable, a figure for romance." He was less well fitted for civil and domestic life, and his later years were marred by financial reverses and long periods away from home. He lost heavily in land speculations and spent a year in debtor's prison when Robert E. Lee (his fifth child by his second wife) was only two. While in prison he wrote his memoirs of the Revolution. In 1812, in Baltimore, he was seriously injured while in the company of a group opposed to "Mr. Madison's War," who were under attack by an angry mob. Madison denounced the rioters as barbarians and offered Lee a commission as major-general in the army, but he was too weak to accept. Ill and impoverished, he spent his last years in the West Indies in a vain effort to regain his health.

(Source: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Lee_III, and A Princeton Companion, by Alexander Leitch, pub. 1978, Princeton University Press)

William Henry Drayton (1742-1779)

William Henry Drayton, born in 1742, was the oldest son of John Drayton and his second wife, Charlotta Bull, daughter of John Bull, the colony's Governor. Afer spending early childhood on his father's South Carolina plantation, Drayton Hall, William lived in England from age nine until twenty-one, and, while there, studied at Oxford University. His first political writings appeared in the mid 1760s under the name "Freeman," and his most famous early piece was the 1774 pamphlet Letter from Freeman of South Carolina to the Deputies of North American Assembled in the High Court of Congress at Philadelphia. The pamphlet, addressed to the Continental Congress, discussed in detail America's grievances and included a suggested bill of American rights.
In 1775, Drayton was appointed to the South Carolina Provincial Congress and became its president. As president, he oversaw the formation of South Carolina's first constitution and issued the state's first order to fire on the British when, on November 9, 1775—almost eight months before the colonies would officially declare their independence—he ordered Colonel William Moultrie to fire from Fort Sullivan on British ships as they tried to enter the harbor.
In fact, William Henry Drayton was one of the first South Carolinians to openly call for a break from England. Speaking before the South Carolina Provincial Congress in February of 1776, Drayton declared that the British "hand of tyranny" threatened to "spoil America of whatever she held most valuable" and that America needed to decide quickly between "independence or slavery!"
Later appointed first chief justice of South Carolina, Drayton led the colony further along its path to independence with a series of charges to South Carolina's grand juries. According to his famous April 23, 1776 charge, "Under color of law, the king and parliament of Great Britain have made the most arbitrary attempts to enslave America," and "true reconcilement never [could] exist between Great Britain and America." Printed in newspapers throughout the colonies, Drayton's charge was also read by Arthur Middleton, another South Carolina patriot, to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia and has been credited with inspiring the delegates to push forward with the Declaration of Independence.

(info: Drayton Hall, http://www.draytonhall.org/research/people/drayton.html)

Gen. John Sevier (1745-1815)

John Sevier, pioneer, soldier, statesman and a founder of the Republic, was Tennessee's first governor and one of its most illustrious citizens. Married and on his own at sixteen, he was in the vanguard of frontier life and accomplishment from his late teens until his death. First and only governor of the short-lived State of Franklin, six-term governor of Tennessee, and congressman for four terms from the eastern district, Sevier was also a formidable soldier, having risen to the rank of general in the North Carolina militia.
Born near the present town of New Market, Virginia, Sevier was the oldest of seven children of Valentine and Joanna Goad Sevier. His forebears–the Xaviers–were Huguenots who had fled France for England, anglicized their name, and become prosperous farmers. By 1740 Valentine had arrived in Virginia and settled in the Shenandoah Valley on Smith's Creek.
By 1773 he lived on the Holston River, but three years later he had moved to a farm on the Watauga River near the present town of Elizabethton, Tennessee. In the same year, North Carolina authorities created the Washington District, which included the Watauga settlements, and Sevier was sent to the Provincial Congress of North Carolina as representative.
When the Revolutionary War began in 1775, Sevier was named a lieutenant colonel of the North Carolina militia, and was initially assigned to protecting frontier settlements. He ultimately distinguished himself as one of the commanding officers of the Overmountain Men at the Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780, which took down the forces of British Col. Patrick Ferguson and figured prominently in turning the tide towards Patriot victory at Yorktown.
Soon after the Revolutionary War, Sevier became involved in a movement designed to secure separate statehood for the people living in Washington, Sullivan, and Greene Counties. The Continental Congress in 1780 had urged that lands claimed by North Carolina and Virginia should become states soon after hostilities might end. Thomas Jefferson had presented a plan whereby eighteen new states might be carved from the western territories. But North Carolina authorities objected vehemently when western leaders assembled in Jonesborough in August 1784 to make plans for statehood. When they chose Sevier as governor and drafted a constitution, claiming an "inalienable right" to form an independent state, Governor Alexander Martin threatened to "render the revolting territory not worth possessing" if North Carolina did not retain sovereignty over it. Attempts at conciliation divided the Franklin people into factions, and border warfare developed. Several men were killed or wounded, and two of Sevier's sons were captured, threatened, and held briefly.
Sevier's term as governor of Franklin expired in the spring of 1788, and for all practical purposes the state came to an end. Sevier was arrested and charged with treason but never tried. Within less than a year he had taken an oath of allegiance to North Carolina and was elected to the state Senate. A few months later he was restored to his rank of brigadier general in the North Carolina militia.
In March, 1809, a few months before his final term ended–Sevier ran before the legislature for the U.S. Senate but was defeated by Judge Joseph Anderson. Later in that year, voters in Knox County sent him to the state Senate. Then, in 1811, he was elected to Congress. His advanced years and his unfamiliarity with federal procedures resulted in his being an ineffective legislator on the national level, however.
John Sevier died on September 24, 1815, while on a mission to the Alabama territory where he had gone with U.S. troops to determine the proper location of the Creek boundary. He was buried on the eastern bank of the Tallapoosa River near Fort Decatur.

(Source: The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, Tennessee Historical Society, Nashville, Tennessee; http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=S023#)