Colonel Isaac Bledsoe

A Patriot of the American Revolution for NORTH CAROLINA with the rank of FIRST MAJOR. DAR ancestor #A011217

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6508539/isaac-bledsoe

Colonel Isaac Bledsoe was killed on Cumberland in the month of April and on the 20th of the month a skirmish took place between twenty Indians and eight white men at Laurel river in Kentucky in which skirmish the white people were all killed except McFarland who escaped and a number who were wounded." History of Southwest Virginia, 1746-1786, Washington County, 1777-1870 http://books.google.com/books?id=DSUSAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v...

Info added per the DAR's "Lineage Book of the Charter Members" by Mary S Lockwood published 1895 saying he "was a pioneer of Tennessee, a famous Indian fighter (called by the Indians 'Tullituskee' - the waving corn-blade - or perpetual motion, because they never caught him napping), and also a soldier of the Revolution." http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6508539

http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=101

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http://genforum.genealogy.com/bledsoe/messages/1163.html

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Bledsoe's Station (also called Bledsoe's Fort) was an 18th-century frontier fort located in what is now Castalian Springs, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The fort was built by long hunter and Sumner County pioneer Isaac Bledsoe (c. 1735–1793) in the early 1780s to protect Upper Cumberland settlers and migrants from hostile Native American attacks. While the fort is no longer standing, its location has been verified by archaeological excavations. The site is now part of Bledsoe's Fort Historical Park, a public park established in 1989 by Sumner County residents and Bledsoe's descendants.

Sources:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bledsoe%27s_Station
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longhunter

In April of 1793 the Indians mounted their largest-ever concerted attack in Sumner County upon [ ledsoe] Greenfield’s Fort. Eighteen-year-old William Hall, who had lost his father, two brothers, two brothers-in-law, a sister, and her child by the Indians was there. His story of how 4 men stood off an attack by 260 warriors breathes through his own words.

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Note: some items in this memorial from Find a Grave disagree with what the family reported in its DAR application.

Revolutionary War Militia Officer, Frontiersman.

The younger brother to Colonel Anthony Bledsoe, he was born in Culpeper County, Virginia. He was one of the adventures referred to as the “Long-hunters”, believed to be the first explorer of the Cumberland Valley. He discovered salt and sulfur springs in 1772 and named it Bledsoe's Lick. He was reported to have said, "There were so many buffalo I was afraid to get off my horse for fear of being trampled". He was appointed Major of the militia in Davidson County, when it was formed. He also served as a member of the judiciary in that county. He accompanied his brother in all his military endeavors. In 1778 he accomplished the dangerous mission of re-supplying a number of towns and settlements along the Ohio River. Alone with his trusted Negro slave were gone several months a noticed a large number of Indian movements. He moved to Sumner County in 1780. Became its first Justice of the Peace in Sumner and Davidson counties. On the 9th of July 1793 Colonel Isaac Bledsoe and several others were clearing a field for planting when a war party attacked. He was shot and mortally wounded, with the Indians scalping him while he was still alive near Fort Bledsoe.

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A Patriot of the American Revolution for NORTH CAROLINA with the rank of FIRST MAJOR. DAR Ancestor # A011217

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• Reference: Ancestry Genealogy - SmartCopy: Aug 30 2021, 20:51:44 UTC