Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 11:31, 5 June 2013

Francis Nash (c. 1742 – October 7, 1777) was a brigadier general from North Carolina in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Prior to the war, Nash was a lawyer, public official and politician in Hillsborough, North Carolina, and was heavily involved in opposing the Regulator movement, an uprising of settlers in the North Carolina piedmont between 1765 and 1771. Nash was also involved in North Carolina politics, representing Hillsborough on several occasions in the colonial Assembly for the Province of North Carolina.

Nash quickly became engaged in revolutionary activities, and served as a delegate to the first three Patriot provincial congresses. In 1775, Nash was named lieutenant colonel of the 1st North Carolina Regiment under Colonel James Moore, and he served briefly in the southern theater of the Revolutionary War before being ordered north. Nash was made a brigadier general in 1777 upon Moore's death, and commanding the North Carolina brigade of the Continental Army under General George Washington. Nash led North Carolina's soldiers in the Philadelphia campaign, but was mortally wounded on October 4, 1777 at the Battle of Germantown. He died from his wounds several days later. Several city and county names honor Nash, including those of Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville, North Carolina, and Nash County, North Carolina.

Early life and family

Nash was born around the year 1742 in Amelia County, Virginia (in a portion that would later become Prince Edward County) to John and Ann Owen Nash. Nash's parents were originally from Wales, and several of his seven siblings, including four brothers, had been born there. One of Nash's brothers was Abner Nash, who later became a statesman in North Carolina. By 1763, Nash had moved along with Abner to Childsburgh, which later became Hillsborough. Nash had a law practice in Childsburgh, and became a clerk of court in 1763, which position paid an annual stipend of £100 sterling. The Nash brothers also owned substantial real property in the town, and established a mill on the Eno River, while Francis individually invested in a store in town. From 1764 to 1765, Nash served his first term in the North Carolina Assembly representing Orange County.

In 1770, Nash married Sarah Moore, the daughter of colonial jurist Maurice Moore, niece of James Moore, and sister of Alfred Moore (later a United States Supreme Court justice), with whom he would go on to have two daughters, Ann, who died as a child and Sarah, who went on to marry the son of North Carolina colonial soldier Hugh Waddell, John Waddell, and was the grandmother to American Civil War Confederate blockade runner James Iredell Waddell. Nash had an illegitimate child, possibly a son, by Hillsborough barmaid Ruth Jackson, and another illegitimate child for whom records are lacking. At least one of Nash's illegitimate children was also named Francis Nash, and was possibly born in 1770 or 1771. For the child born to Jackson, at least, he provided the mother with property west of Hillsborough, and several slaves.

War of the Regulation and pre-Revolution politics

During the War of the Regulation between about 1764 and 1771, Nash was, along with his personal friend Edmund Fanning, accused of extorting money from Hillsborough's residents. A later trial found Nash innocent of public corruption. In September of 1770, a group of Regulators took control of the town of Hillsborough, and Nash, along with other public officials, was forced to flee for fear of bodily harm at the hands of the protestors.

Nash showed an interest in military affairs while living in Hillsborough, and had received some form of informal military training from a retired English soldier living in Hillsborough. He worked his way up through the Orange County militia ranks until eventually becoming its commanding colonel. Nash commanded the Orange County militia during the War of the Regulation, and in 1768, he attempted to use the militia to put down several riots incited by the "Regulators". These attempts failed due to sympathy for the rioters among the mustered militiamen. Nash, among others including Edmund Fanning, Adlai Osborne, and future governor Alexander Martin, agreed to a pact of mutual protection against Regulator threats to their property, but the various parties to that agreement lived at great distances from each other, rendering the pact almost illusory. Nash participated in the Battle of Alamance alongside Governor William Tryon, fighting against the Regulator militia. In 1771, and again in 1773–1775, Nash served again in the colonial Assembly as a representative for Hillsborough.

In 1774, Royal Governor Josiah Martin attempted to prevent the North Carolina Assembly from convening to select delegates to the proposed Continental Congress that was itself to convene in Philadelphia in September. In response, members of the Assembly, among others who would soon become Patriot supporters, convened the First North Carolina Provincial Congress in August 1774. Nash and his brother Abner were both elected to that body, along with 69 other North Carolinians, who then selected delegates to the Continental Congress. In an attempt to quash the work of the Provincial Congress, Governor Martin attempted to call a session of the Colonial Assembly for April 5, 1775, but the Second North Carolina Provincial Congress convened several hours before the Assembly was set to convene, and many of the congressional delegates, including Nash, voted in the Assembly to support the work of the Continental and Provincial Congresses. This triumph for the nascent Patriots resulted in Martin dissolving the Assembly. The Royal government would never again call an Assembly to session in North Carolina.

American Revolutionary War

Southern theater

In 1775, Nash served in the Third North Carolina Provincial Congress, which organized eight regiments of soldiers pursuant to instructions from the Continental Congress. Later in that year, the Provincial Congress voted for Nash to become lieutenant colonel of the 1st North Carolina Regiment under the command of then-colonel James Moore. In November, the 1st North Carolina was formally integrated into the Continental Army organization. Nash served as an officer under Moore during the maneuvering that led up to the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge in February 1776, but like Moore, did not participate in the battle, arriving after its conclusion.

In April 1776, Nash was promoted to colonel to replace Moore, who had received a promotion to brigadier general. Nash took part in the expedition to aid Charleston in 1776, which culminated in the Battle of Sullivan's Island. Immediately prior to that engagement, Nash had been ordered by Major General Charles Lee, at the time commander of the Southern Department, to relieve William Moultrie's South Carolina troops on Sullivan's Island, but the British assault prevented that relief. Moultrie would go on to successfully defend the island from a much larger British force, while Nash's unit guarded the unfinished rear of Fort Sullivan.

Philadelphia campaign

Nash returned with his regiment to North Carolina in anticipation of being ordered to join General George Washington's army in the north, but fears of British and Indian attacks in Georgia prevented Nash from being ordered to join the main Continental Army. On February 5, 1777, Nash was promoted to brigadier general by the Continental Congress. Additionally, Nash was tasked with recruiting more Continental Army soldiers from the western part of the state. He was forced to abandon that task after the death of James Moore on April 15, 1777. Nash was placed in command of the North Carolina Brigade since Robert Howe, whose commission as a general predated Nash's, was forced to remain in command of a force defending South Carolina. Nash marched north to join Washington's army and commanded the all nine North Carolina Continental Army regiments at the Battle of Brandywine.

Battle of Germantown and death

After the British capture of Philadelphia on September 11, 1777, Washington took to the offensive and struck at the British forces in the Battle of Germantown. Initially, the North Carolina brigade was intended to serve in the Continental Army's reserve, but Washington, out of a desire to defend his flank, had ordered Nash into action. Nash was mortally wounded while leading his brigade in that engagement on October 4, 1777 when a cannonball injured him severely in the hip, and killed the horse on which he had been mounted. The same cannonball that injured Nash killed Maj. James Witherspoon, son of John Witherspoon, the president of Princeton University and a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence. A musket ball struck him in the head, causing him to be blind. When he received his wound, Nash was commanding a fighting retreat, slowly moving his unit backwards in order to stall the British advance. Thomas Paine, who saw Nash taken off the battlefield, later stated that the general's wounds had rendered him unrecognizable.

Nash was treated by Washington's personal physician, James Craik, but Craik could not staunch his bleeding, which was reported to have fully soaked through two mattresses. Nash succumbed to his wounds on October 7 at a private residence near Kulpsville, Pennsylvania. His final words are alleged to have been "From the first dawn of the Revolution I have been ever on the side of liberty and my country." Nash was then buried in the Towamencin Mennonite Meetinghouse Cemetery in Towamencin Township, Pennsylvania on October 9, 1777 along with other officers who had perished at Germantown. Alexander Martin, who later became Governor of the State of North Carolina and had witnessed Nash's wounding, later composed a funeral poem in the fallen general's honor.

Legacy

After his death, on April 29, 1784, Nash's heirs received a land grant representing 84 months of Continental Army service, which exceeded Nash's actual service time. The cities of Nashville, Tennessee and Nashville, North Carolina, as well as Nash County, North Carolina, were named in his honor. In 1938, a historical marker was placed near Nash's home in Hillsborough commemorating his life and service. Nash's home in Hillsborough is now commemorated as the Nash-Hooper House, as it was purchased by William Hooper, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, after Nash's death.

References

Notes

1. ^ Siry 2012, p. 70.
2. Davis 1981, p. 4.
3. ^ Reed 1991, p. 358.
4. ^ Davis 1981, p. 5.
5. Nash 1906, p. 294.
6. Nash 1906, p. 293.
7. Davis 1981, p. 7.
8. Waddell 1885, p. 200.
9. Davis 1981, p. 8.
10. Davis 1981, p. 9, though this source cites that the illegitimate child with Ruth Jackson was a daughter
11. Siry 2012, p. 71.
12. Kars 2002, pp. 183–184.
13. Nash 1906, p. 296.
14. Nash 1903, p. 14.
15. Nash 1903, p. 19.
16. Siry 2012, p. 71–73.
17. ^ Siry 2012, p. 73.
18. Rankin 1971, p. 74–75.
19. Rankin 1971, pp. 88–89.
20. Rankin 1971, p. 113.
21. ^ Siry 2012, p. 79.
22. Rankin 1971, p. 115.
23. Nash 1906, p. 292.
24. Rodenbough 2010, pp. 51–52, 174.
25. Babits & Howard 2004, p. 193.
26. ^ "Marker: G-10 – FRANCIS NASH". North Carolina Highway Historical Marker Program. North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources. Retrieved January 30, 2013.
27. "The Town of Nashville, North Carolina". Town of Nashville. Retrieved January 30, 2013.
28. "History of Nash County". Nash County, NC – Official Website. Nash County. Retrieved January 30, 2013.

Bibliography

• Babits, Lawrence; Howard, Joshua B. (2004). "Fortitude and Forbearance": The North Carolina Continental Line in the Revolutionary War 1775–1783. Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Department of Archives and History. ISBN 0-86526-317-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Davis, Louise Littleton (1981). Nashville Tales. Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing Co. ISBN 978-0-88289-294-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Kars, Marjoleine (2002). Breaking Loose Together: The Regulator Rebellion in Pre-Revolutionary North Carolina. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-4999-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Nash, Francis (1903). Hillsboro, Colonial and Revolutionary. Raleigh, NC: Edwards & Broughton. OCLC 6407838. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Nash, Francis ("Frank") (1906). "Francis Nash". In Ashe, Samuel A'Court (ed.). Biographical History of North Carolina from Colonial Times to the Present. Vol. Volume 3. Greensboro, NC: C.L. Van Noppen. OCLC 4243114. {{cite encyclopedia}}: |volume= has extra text (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Rankin, Hugh F. (1971). The North Carolina Continentals (2005 ed.). Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-1154-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Reed, John F. (1991). "Nash, Francis". In Powell, William S (ed.). Dictionary of North Carolina Biography. Vol. Volume 4 (L-O). Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-1918-0. {{cite encyclopedia}}: |volume= has extra text (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Rodenbough, Charles D. (2010). Governor Alexander Martin: Biography of a North Carolina Revolutionary War Statesman. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-1684-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Siry, Steven E. (2012). Liberty's Fallen Generals: Leadership and Sacrifice in the American War of Independence. Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, Inc. ISBN 978-1-59797-792-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Waddell, Alfred (1885). A Colonial Officer and His Times, 1754–1773: A Biographical Sketch of Hugh Waddell. Raleigh, NC: Edwards & Broughton Co. OCLC 16153240. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

• Photographs of grave monuments of Nash

Template:Persondata

• 1742 births
• 1777 deaths
• People from Prince Edward County, Virginia
• American people of English descent
• Continental Army generals
• Continental Army officers from North Carolina
• Military personnel killed in the American Revolutionary War
• North Carolina lawyers
• People from Hillsborough, North Carolina
• People of North Carolina in the American Revolution