University of Virginia Library

GENERAL WM. CAMPBELL.

Was a native of Augusta county, of the true Caledonian race by the maternal
line as well as by that of the father. Being an only son, he received
a liberal education under the best teachers of the times. He had an ardent
mind, very susceptible of literary improvements, and acquired early in life
a correct knowledge of the English language, of ancient and modern history,
and of several branches of mathematics. Nature had formed him for
a commander in military capacity. His personal appearance was grave
and masculine, being something about six feet high and well proportioned;
in conversation rather reserved and thoughtful; in his written communications
expressive and elegant. His patriotism was not of a timid cast. He
never balanced between his military duty and prudential maxims. When
his ire was excited he showed in his countenance the fury of an Achilles.
The trusty Andreferrara, the sword he wore on the day of battle, was once

the property of his grandfather from Scotland, and he had an arm and a
spirit that could wield it with effect. In the year 1775 he was of the first
regular troops raised in Virginia, being honored with a captain's commission
in the first regiment. Here he acquired a practical knowledge of tactics
and the discipline of an army. In the latter part of the year 1776 he
resigned his position on account of the Indian war breaking out, by which
his family and friends were exposed to immediate danger. Soon after he
was promoted to be lieutenant-colonel of the militia of Washington county,
and the next year, on the resignation of Evan Shelby, Sr., to that of colonel
of the regiment. In this rank he remained until after the battle of King's
Mountain and of Guilford, when he was appointed by a vote of the Legislature
of Virginia to rank as a brigadier-general, and was ordered to join the
Marquis LaFayette, to oppose the invasion of the enemy in 1781. After
the defeat of Ferguson, the British general, Cornwallis, imbibed a personal
resentment, and had the temerity to theaten that if General Campbell fell
into his hands he would have him instantly put to death for his rigor
against the Tories. This, instead of intimidating, had the contrary effect,
and in turn the American general resolved, if the fortune of war should
place Cornwallis in his power, he should meet the fate of Ferguson. This
at the battle of Guilford had nearly been the case, for had all the militia
behaved with the same firmness and courage as on the wing where General
Campbell commanded, the British army must have met with a total defeat.
On forming the army in Virginia, under Marquis LaFayette, in 1781,
General Campbell became a favorite of that gallant nobleman, who gave
him command of the brigade of light infantry and riflemen. A few weeks
before the siege of Yorktown he took sick of a complaint in his breast,
which obliged him to retire from the army to a friend's house in the country,
and there, after a short sickness, to end his days, in the thirty-sixth
year of his age, much lamented by the friends of liberty who knew him.
Of his military character we have given a short sketch. His moral sentiments
and social demeanor in civil life were exemplary. Although an only
son and heir to a considerable property, he never gave way to the fashionable
follies of young men of fortune. He well knew that vice at any time
of life, or in any shape, darkens the understanding, perverts the will, and
thus injures social order in every grade of society. He kept a strict guard
on his own passions, and was by some deemed too severe in punishing the
deviations of others. His military career was short, but brilliant. Warren
and Montgomery acted at a conspicuous stage, and deserved the eulogisms
so often repeated. Campbell undertook a no less arduous task, with an
inferior number of undisciplined militia. He marched in a few days nearly
two hundred miles, over vast mountains, in search of the enemy, who were
commanded by an experienced officer, of known bravery and military skill,
and who had chosen his field for battle. It was at (King's Mountain) rather
a fortification than an open space for combatants to meet upon. The assault
of the Americans was impetuous and irresistible, and the event was a
victory to a wish. This victory resulted in the retreat of the main British
army a considerable distance and their relinquishment of the scheme of
invading Virginia that year. It also reanimated all the friends of liberty
in the Southern States, and was the prelude of adverse events to the enemy,
which, in the course of the next campaign, terminated in their final overthrow.[1]