Colonel William Campbell was the quintessential commander for the tough, independent-minded riflemen who formed the militia units from Campbell’s home in the mountains of the southwest Virginia. Tall, muscular and dignified (although he had a fiery temperament when aroused), Campbell resembled a Scottish clan leader straight from a Sir Walter Scott novel, even carrying his Scottish grandfather’s broadsword, for which he had “… an arm and a spirit that could wield it with effect.”[1]

Educated at Augusta Academy (a forerunner of Washington and Lee University)[2] and holder of valuable lands in Southwest Virginia,[3] Campbell often performed both civic and military duties, including service as a justice for the local courts and captain of militia in Lord Dunmore’s War against the Shawnee and Mingo nations in 1774, all in service to the British Governor of Virginia. Campbell broke openly with British governance and established his Revolutionary credentials in January 1775 when he was one of thirteen members of the local Committee of Safety to sign the Fincastle Resolutions, which included an early expression of support for armed resistance to the British Crown.

Campbell joined the war effort against the British in September 1775 when he led a company of volunteers to Williamsburg, then the capital of Virginia. He received a captain’s commission in Virginia’s Provisional Forces and was assigned to the Frist Virginia Provisional Regiment, commanded by Patrick Henry, with whom he became friends Campbell was transferred from the Virginia command to the Continental Army five months later, and was commissioned a captain in the First Virginia Continental Regiment on February 3, 1776. He remained with his command in the Williamsburg area until the autumn of 1776, and found enough time away from soldiering to court Patrick Henry’s sister Elizabeth; they were married on April 2, 1776.[4]

With the dangers of Tory and Indian incursions on the frontier, Campbell requested that he be released from Continental service to return to southwest Virginia to help protect that region. His request was granted on October 6, 1776, after which he and his bride traveled home to their Aspen-Ville estate.[5] In the ensuing years, William Campbell moved back and forth frequently between civic and military duties. For example, he was elected to the House of Delegates in 1780, but when the Governor of Virginia directed the commanding officers of Washington, Montgomery, Botetourt, Rockbridge and Greenbrier Counties to plan an expedition against “the Enemy Indians on the North West side of the Ohio,” the group recommended that Campbell be given command of the expedition.[6] The House of Delegates granted him leave to be absent for the remainder of the session on Wednesday, June 21,[7] and Governor Thomas Jefferson gave Campbell orders for this expedition in a letter dated the next day (“…you are hereby authorized to take command…”).[8] However the Governor soon countermanded those orders and directed Campbell to support Colonel William Preston in defending the lead mines [9] in the region and quashing a Tory insurrection.[10]

The Battle of King’s Mountain

By September 1780 Campbell was leading the men who marched to western North Carolina to confront Major Patrick Ferguson, a British Army officer who commanded a rampaging force of Loyalist militia. There were several units of riflemen that had assembled to confront Ferguson and they decided to name Campbell the overall commander, supported all the Colonels of the various units who would meet in council every day. Therefore, although he was the least experienced of the senior officers present, William Campbell was considered the commander of the army of riflemen that overwhelmed Ferguson on October 7, 1780 at the Battle of King’s Mountain.[11] His military reputation soared with this important victory.

There was a fierce side to William Campbell’s personality. In the fighting around his home in Virginia, he had hanged, without trials, British agents who incited tribes to harass the frontier settlements. After the Battle of King’s Mountain, he authorized the trials that resulted in the hanging of nine men who had served with Ferguson,[12] and British commander Lord Charles Cornwallis was thought to have threatened to put Campbell to death if he was captured, for his “rigour against the Tories.” Not the least intimidated, Campbell resolved that “… if the fortune of war would place Cornwallis in his power, he should meet the fate of Ferguson”[13] who had been killed on the battlefield.

Campbell returned home to southwest Virginia after the King’s Mountain battle, and faced once again the threat of attacks by bands of Cherokees and ardent Loyalists. Whenever frontiersmen like William Campbell left home to fight the British, they worried about the danger to the families they left behind.

The Guilford Courthouse Campaign

In January 1781, after the American victory at Cowpens, Nathanael Greene was leading his small army north from the Carolinas toward the safety of Virginia, pursued every step of the way by the aggressive Lord Charles Cornwallis and his professional British army. Greene wanted desperately to turn and face Cornwallis in open combat, but he was far too weak to do so. He reached out in all directions for reinforcements, which included a series of urgent requests to William Campbell to bring 1,000 mountain riflemen to his aid.

While Greene was intensely focused on his hope for a large reinforcement of frontier rifle militia, William Campbell was beset by problems back home that undermined his recruiting efforts. Greene was understandably focused solely on the British troops that were pursuing him, but the frontiersmen had to defend the lead mines, keep one eye on the Cherokees, another on the local Loyalists, and be ready to defend against their attacks while considering what resources they could spare to support Greene and his Continental Army. Because of these conflicting priorities, Campbell was able to lead only sixty men to reinforce Greene, instead of Greene’s hoped-for 1,000 riflemen. Campbell and his small detachment arrived in Greene’s camp on March 4, 1781, and were involved in the skirmish at Weitzel’s Mill two days later where they fought with their accustomed skill.

After the affair at Weitzel’s Mill, Campbell was assigned to a “Corps of Observation” with Light Horse Harry Lee, and they participated in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse on March 15, 1781, which Campbell described in a letter written two weeks after the Battle:

we had Intelligence of the Enemy being in Motion and marching towards us, upon which Colo. Lee with his Legion, and about 30 of my Riflemen under the Command of Captain Fata[14] of the Augusta Militia, went out to meet them, while the rest of the Riflemen, and Colo Washington’s Horse, formed at our Encampment to Support them in their Retreat back They met with the Van of the Enemy about two Miles from where we were formed, and immediately began to Skirmish with them, and continued retreating and fighting with them near half an hour, which disconcerted and retarded the Enemy very Considerably In the mean time the main Body of our Army was formed about three quarters of a Mile in rear of us, and upon the Legions reinforcing us, we were ordered back to take our Position in the Line of Battle[15]

After these initial skirmishes, Lee and Campbell fell back to the left flank of the army where they became separated for a time from the American lines, and eventually rendezvoused with Greene after his army had retreated from the battlefield. Because he held the field, Cornwallis claimed that the Battle of Guilford Courthouse was a victory, but it was a Pyrrhic victory indeed. The British had received a brutal mauling that had cost Cornwallis one-fourth of his men. This battle was an important factor in Cornwallis’ decision to move north to Virginia, and eventually to his surrender at Yorktown.

Greene’s general orders the day after the battle gave generous praise to William Campbell and others:

The Gallant Behaviour of the Corps of Observation consisting of the Detachments of Cavalry and Infantry commanded by L(t). C(ol). (William) Washington & the Legion commanded by L(t). C(ol), (Henry Lee in Conjunction with the Rifle men & Light Infantry commanded by Collo (William) Campbell & (Charles) Lynch.[16]

In addition to this public praise, Greene wrote personally to Campbell shortly after the battle to extol his contribution and to give him permission to return home to southwest Virginia:

Sir: Your faithful Services and the Exertions which you made to second the efforts of the Southern Arms, on the 15th inst. claims my warmest thanks. It would be ungenerous not to acknowledge my entire approbation of your conduct, and the spirited and manly behavior of the Officers and soldiers under you. Sensible of your merit, I feel a pleasure in doing justice to it.

In this concluding sentence, Greene told the Colonel:

Most of the riflemen having gone home, and not having it in my power to make up another Command, you have my permission to return home to your friends; and should the Emergency of the Southern Operations require your further Exertions, I will advertise you.[17]

Service in the House of Delegates; Promotion to Brigadier General

As William Campbell returned home Virginia was, as always during this War, beset by the needs to defend against British incursions, stave off Indian and Tory raids on the frontier, protect the lead mines, and support Nathanael Greene’s re-entry to North and South Carolina. The British threat was growing since Benedict Arnold had raided Richmond in January. General Phillips now led a force of about 2,000 men in Portsmouth, and Lord Cornwallis was moving north into the colony from Wilmington, North Carolina, where he had gone to regroup after the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. Questions of military recruiting, organization, and assignment dominated government deliberations.

Campbell regained his seat in the Virginia House of Delegates. He returned to the legislature in tumultuous times, when the members were under constant threat of capture from invading British forces. Accordingly, Campbell and his fellow delegates had to change the location of their meetings several times to avoid this danger. On May 10, 1781, the House of Delegates decided to leave Richmond because “of the approach of a hostile army” (Cornwallis) and to meet on May 24 in Charlottesville. The House then met in Charlottesville until June 4, when they decided to move their deliberations to Staunton, “…there being reason to apprehend an immediate incursion of the enemy’s cavalry to this place…”[18] (Banastre Tarleton was conducting a raid that was designed to capture the Legislature and Governor Jefferson.)

On June 12 the House received a letter from the Marquis de Lafayette requesting support for his efforts to protect Virginia from the British incursions. Two days later Campbell’s fellow delegates elected him to be a Brigadier General.[19] The short time between Lafayette’s request and Campbell’s promotion may suggest that the subject had been discussed previously, and that the House was only looking for a proper opportunity to enact the promotion. With British forces roaming freely, the colony needed its best soldiers in the fight, and Campbell’s reputation, demeanor and commanding physical presence must surely have made an impression on his fellow Delegates in this time of danger. The influence of Delegate Patrick Henry, Campbell’s brother-in-law and friend, was presumably also very helpful.

On Saturday, June 16, the House granted the newly minted Brigadier General Campbell permission to be absent for the remainder of the session.[20] Campbell moved quickly, and Lord Cornwallis reported only two weeks later that Lafayette had “..received considerable reinforcements of militia and about 800 mountain riflemen under Campbell.”[21]

Campbell’s Service in the Yorktown Campaign; His Illness and Death

Sadly, William Campbell was not able to serve for an extended period as a Brigadier General. He commanded the rifle corps in Lafayette’s army[22] during the early stages of the Yorktown campaign that would result in the surrender of Lord Cornwallis’s army, but to the great regret of his comrades Campbell did not live to witness the surrender. He became ill with chest pains and fever, and died near Richmond at the home of his wife’s half-brother, Colonel William Syme, on August 22, 1781. By the order of Lafayette, he was buried at that location with full military honors (his body was later moved to Aspen-ville in southwest Virginia by his son-in-law, where he was re-interred in a family cemetery under an impressive headstone). Lafayette wrote that Campbell was “an officer whose service must have endeared him to every citizen, and particularly to every American soldier.”[23]

William Campbell’s death from illness at age thirty-six was a loss to the army, to Virginia and to the nation. Had he lived, he surely would have risen to roles of prominence and civic leadership, as did his peers who survived the war years.[24] Lafayette said that Campbell’s name should have “everlasting honor and insure him a high rank among the defenders of liberty in the American Cause.”[25] [FEATURED IMAGE AT TOP: Portrait of William Campbell. Source: Virginia Society, Sons of the American Revolution]