Our ancestor, James Thomas, Sr. became a Revolutionary War patriot when he joined the North Carolina Continental Army. The date was May 12, 1781. He was 19 years old.
James was one of more than 17,000 men from North Carolina who enlisted to fight the British. He was assigned to General Nathaniel Greene’s army. Colonel Abraham Shepherd was in overall command of the troops, and James served in the 10th Regiment of Captain Thomas Donoho’s company.
At the time of his enlistment, young James had been spurred by news of the Battle of Cowpens on January 16 of that year, which had been fought just across the line in South Carolina. Then on March 15, the war came to North Carolina for real when General Greene fought a losing battle at Guilford Court House.
Much of young James’ service was with General Greene in skirmishes against the British in South Carolina. It has been said that General Greene’s contribution to bringing the war to an end was his army’s conquest of most of South Carolina and Georgia that perilous but decisive year of 1781.
The war had begun at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts on April 19, 1775 when James was only 13, an action since called “the shot heard ‘round the world.” It ended officially at Yorktown, Virginia on October 19, 1781 with the surrender of General Cornwallis’ army to General George Washington.
The surrender did not officially end hostilities however, and James remained in the army until May 12, 1782 at which time he was discharged and returned home to the family plantation on the Cashie River in Bertie County, North Carolina, at the age of 20.
By Edison Thomas, The TBA Newsletter, October, 1981.
THE LINEAGE:
(James Thomas, Sr. is the trunk of this family tree.)
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