The Tar Heel Hero
of Germanlown
IVnnsvl v;ini;ius Mill honor llio .young
(Tirol iiii.tn who led his troops uorlli-
waril to join Washington.
By HELEN R. WATSON
"My dear Sally.
I have almost lost all hopes of
hearing from you. . . . Surely
some strange fatality has attended
your letters, for I cannot persuade
myself that you have been so ne¬
glectful of me. ... I flattered my¬
self that I should now and then
get a line from some other of my
friends in North Carolina . . .
however, in that I have also been
disappointed."
These lines were written to his wife
July 25. 1777, by the young soldier.
Francis Nash, as he awaited in Trenton
General George Washington’s orders.
The day following. July 26. an ex¬
press from the general directed him
and his brigades to Philadelphia with
all possible dispatch. The long summer
of waiting was almost at an end. And.
although he could not know it. this
young officer s life. too. was almost at
an end. On October 4. 1777, Briga¬
dier General Francis Nash, age thirty-
five, would be fatally wounded at the
Battle of Germantown in Pennsylvania.
General Washington ordered him
buried with military honors, requiring
the presence of all officers at his
interment and calling him a valuable
officer and a brave man who died in
defense of his country . Governor Rich¬
ard Caswell would say that his loss to
the slate was irreparable, and Dr.
Thomas Burke, later to be governor of
North Carolina, said that he was one of
the most respected and regretted offi¬
cers of the Continental l.inc. For him
the county of Nash in North Carolina
and the town of Nash-Villc (Nashbor-
ough), later to be the capital of Ten¬
nessee. would be named.
Francis Nash, the son of a well-
known Virginia planter, was consid¬
ered to be handsome, industrious, gen¬
erous. and though high-spirited, warm
hearted and gentle. At twenty-one
years old. in 1762. he was living in
Hillsborough. North Carolina.
He must have combined enterprise
with the King’s favor as within a dozen
years he served as Justice of the Peace.
Clerk of the Court of Orange County,
Town Commissioner for Hillsborough.
Judge of the Hillsborough district,
member of the Colonial Assembly, and
officer in the militia. He may also have
been a merchant.
When the regulator movement came
to a climax with the Battle of Ala¬
mance on May 16. 1771. Francis Nash,
captain of a militia company, served
under Governor Try on's direction. He
displayed courage and ability in action
and was shortly afterwards promoted
to colonel.
A patriot from the beginning. Colo¬
nel Nash was a delegate to the Second
and Third Provincial Congresses when
they met at Ncwbcrn in April 1775,
and August 1775. at Hillsborough. It
was at the latter Congress that the call
for troops by the Continental Congress
was answered and. besides several bat¬
talions of minute men, two regiments
of 500 men each were authorized for
the Continental Line.
Nash was made Lieutenant Colonel
of the First Regiment of North Caro¬
lina and from that time on civil affairs
for him yielded to the military. In
April of the following year, 1776, he
was promoted to full colonel, a position
formerly held by James Moore, his
wife’s uncle, and Nash’s regiment took
Thit monument otci tK«
910»*
of General Frooci*
Nojh. erected by PcnntyNonio citiiens in 1844.
been the i«Kr>pt»on in Lotm: "My proyen (ore»
lor my country.**
Noth
и
buried m the well-kept churchyard of
the Towomencm Mennonite Church, in Kulpnille,
Po. obout 15 mile* from Philadelphia.
part in the repulse of the British at
Charleston in June 1776. In February
1777. Nash received the rank of Briga¬
dier General.
The March North
At this time the North Carolina
troops, with General James Moore as
ranking officer, were ordered to the aid
of General Washington in the north.
Moore, however, was of delicate health
and died at Wilmington before this
could be accomplished. Nash assumed
command of the Continentals.
Their route of march took them to
Halifax. North Carolina, where they
were joined by any other troops of the
line in the stale, and then to Alexan¬
dria, Virginia, which they reached at
the end of May and where the troops
were detained to be inoculated against
smallpox.
General Nash and the Continentals
arrived in Philadelphia in time for the
о
THE STATE. NOVEMBER 197*4
