American Revolution - Long Ago?

Tennessee Flag

I haven't blogged in a while about the American Revolution in my year-long celebration of the semiquincentennial. That is a word you don't see very often (except maybe this year) meaning half of five hundred years (250th anniversary). Today, though, seemed like a good day to revisit the topic.  This evening the Public Broadcasting Station (PBS) will begin showing Ken Burns' The American Revolution. He promises to highlight the story in a similar vein as I have been presenting the subject - through the eyes of the populace. He has been working on the project for around 10 years with a team of historians - so the revelations it will highlight should be truly educational.  No doubt it will provide nuanced narratives and provocative perspectives that we never saw in our school aged history classes.

Today, I'm looking at one of my wife's ancestors through her adoptive line.  This ancestor is NOT an unsung hero. The lineage runs like this:  Tammy daughter of Jim, son of Zora Lancaster, daughter of Will Bob, son of James, son of Roxalina Cowan, daughter of Ira, son of Catherine Trousdale, daughter of James Trousdale.

James Trousdale was a Captain under the command of General Francis Marion (a.k.a The Swamp Fox). As such, James marched to Charleston, SC to defend the town and port from the British. He was wounded by a saber to the face at the Battle of Guilford Court House in March of 1781 and captured at the Battle of Hillsborough that September. However, he was able to witness the surrender of Cornwallis following the Siege of Yorktown in October.

Because of his service to the Revolutionary Army and its cause, he was granted 640 acres in North Carolina.  That part of North Carolina became part of Davidson County, TN.  Specifically, his farm is the town of Gallatin. His son, William, went on to become the thirteenth Governor of Tennessee from 1849 to 1851.

William died at the age of 81 in 1872.  We like to think of ourselves as far removed from those days 250 years ago.  But, I met my great grandmother, Wilma Moore Rose, who was born only 10 short years after William, the son of James Trousdale, died in 1872.  In the early 1970s, I sat on the lap of a celebrated American Indian, Chief Red Fox, who was born two years before William died.  Yes, I know, I'm getting up there - but our country's founding wasn't that long ago.