Person:Isaac Shelby (1)

A List of Captain Evan Shelby’s Company of Volunteers From The Watauga Valley in The Fincastle County Battalion.

Officers

Evan Shelby, Captain - Assumed chief command on the field of battle after Colonels Lewis, Fleming, and Field had fallen.)
Isaac Shelby, Lieutenant - (Took command of his father's company, who had assumed command on the field.)
James Robertson, Sergeant
Valentine Levier (Sevier), Sergeant

Privates
James Shelby, John Sawyer, John Findley (Finley), Henry Shaw (Span), Daniel Mungle (Mongle), Frederick Mungle, John Williams, John Carmack (Wounded at Point Pleasant), Andrew Terrence (Torrence), George Brooks, Isaac Newland, George Ruddle (Riddle), Emanuel Shoatt, Abram Bogard, Arthur Blackburn, Robert Herrill (Handley), George Armstrong, William Casey, Mark Williams, John Stewart (Wounded at Point Pleasant), Conrad Nave, Richard Burck, John Riley, Elijah Robinson (Robertson), Reece Price (Wounded at Point Pleasant), Richard Holliway, Jarrett Williams, Julias Robison, Charles Fielder, Peter Torney (Forney), William Tucker, John Fain, Samuel Vance, Samuel Fain, Samuel Hensley (Handley), Samuel Samples, Benjamin Grayum (Graham), Andrew Goff, Hugh O’Gullion, Barnett O’Gullion, Patrick St. Lawrence, Joseph Hughey (James Hughey), John Bradley, Bazaleel Maxwell.

-Total 49-
The Adversary was Chief Hokoleskwa Cornstalk

SHELBY, GOV. ISAAC, Farmer, Soldier, and Patriot, son of Gen. Evan Shelby, was born December 11, 1750, near the North Mountain, a few miles from. Hagerstown, Maryland, where his father and grandfather had settled on their emigration from Wales. He received quite an ordinary English education, and, like his father, was reared to labor, and taught the use of firearms and the pursuit of game. He learned surveying, and at the age of twenty-one settled in Southwestern Virginia, where he engaged in farming, and feeding and herding cattle. He was a lieutenant in his father’s command in the battle fought at the mouth of the Kanawha, October 10, 1774. In that engagement the officer in command was killed, when his father, Gen. Evan Shelby, took command of the troops, and both his father and himself were conspicuous in the battle.

He first came to Kentucky in 1775, and was employed as a surveyor by Henderson & Co., who had established a land office in that territory under their purchase from the Indians, but in the following year he returned to Virginia, having been appointed captain of a minute company; in 1777, was appointed, by Gov. Plenry, of Virginia, as commissary of supplies for militia defending different parts of the frontier; was in the commissary department of the army for several years, and supplied some of the expeditions against the Indians on his individual responsibility. In the Spring of 1779, he was elected to the Virginia Legislature from Washington; in the same year was commissioned major by Gov. Jefferson, in the escort to the commissioners for determining the line between Virginia and North Carolina. By that survey his own land was found to be within the boundary of North Carolina. He was then a citizen of that State, and was soon after made colonel of the new county of Sullivan, formed by the territory added to the State by the expedition. In 1780, he came to Kentucky to look after the lands located for himself on his former visit. On his return home he was requested by Gov. Charles McDowell to furnish all the aid possible, and march to check the progress of the British, then overflowing the South. He soon gathered a considerable force, and displayed great skill in conducting his retreat after two brilliant engagements, against great odds, at Cedar Spring and Musgrove’s Mill. He originated the pursuit. of Ferguson, which terminated in the battle of King's Mountain, October 7, 1780, in which he was one of the commanders, and in which the brave and impious Ferguson was killed, and new zeal added to the Republican cause. On account of this battle the Legislature of North Carolina voted thanks to him and other officers, and ordered a sword to be presented to each; which resolution was carried out in his case in 1813, when he was leading his troops from the State of which he was then Governor to participate in the second war with Great Britain. In the Fall of 1781, he served under Gen. Marion, and during that campaign the British post at Fairlawn surrendered to him. He was at that time a member of the North Carolina Legislature, and attended its sitting in the Winter of 1781, highly commended by Gen. Marion. In 1782 he was again a member of the Legislature, and was appointed one of the commissioners to settle the pre-emption claims on the Cumberland river, and lay off the lands allotted the North Carolina soldiers, south of Nashville. He returned from that service, and in the Spring of 1783 settled in Kentucky on the first pre-emption granted in the State, and on which he continued to live until his death.

At Boonsborough he married Susannah Hart, second daughter of Captain Nathaniel G. T. Hart, one of the land proprietors called Henderson & Co., and one of the early distinguished settlers of Kentucky. He was a member of the various conventions held at Danville, looking to separation from Virginia; was a member of the Convention of 1792, which framed the Constitution by which Kentucky was made a State; and in May, 1792, was elected the first Governor of the State, serving four years with great distinction, both as to State and National affairs. At the close of his gubernatorial term he retired to his farm, where, as in public affairs, he was distinguished for his judgment and success. He was several times chosen Presidential Elector, and voted for Jefferson and Madison. In 1812, he was again elected Governor, and, after sending supplies and aiding in every possible way to put the army of the Northwest in a good condition, the Legislature requested him to lead the additional troops of the State. Accordingly, four thousand men rallied to his call in thirty days, with their own horses, and with them he marched to the aid of Gen. Harrison. Although his authority as Governor ceased after crossing the Ohio at the head of his volunteer army, yet he was regarded by Gen. Harrison as the senior General of Kentucky troops, the two divisions of his force being commanded by Gens. Henry and Desha. The Legislature of the State and the Congress of the Nation expressed their sense of his gallant and patriotic conduct, and Congress voted Gen. Harrison and himself each a gold medal on account of the victory of the Thames. Throughout the war he was active in his devotion to the Government, using great exertion for the defense of the country in the North, and at the same time sending troops to the aid of Gen. Jackson at the South.

In 1816, at the expiration of his term of office, he again retired to his farm; and although in the following year President Madison offered him the position of Secretary of War in his Cabinet, he declined. In 1818 he was commissioned, with Gen. Jackson, to treat with the Chickasaw Indians. This mission was conducted with satisfaction to the Government, and was his last public service. Gov. Shelby’s career was marked by great wisdom, justice, economy, and skill; and he was one of the best Governors, and one of the most able, upright, patriotic, and valuable men Kentucky has ever had. In 1820, he was attacked by paralysis, which disabled his right leg and arm, but his mind remained unimpaired to the last.

He died July 18, 1826. For this event he was prepared, being a member of the Presbyterian Church, and having lived a Christian life conscientiously and faithfully. He had a vigorous constitution, was symmetrical in person, agreeable in manners, of dignified bearing; was a man of great natural ability, and his great energy and perseverance were largely instrumental in making him one of the first and most successful men of his times.

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Isaac Shelby (December 11, 1750 – July 18, 1826) was the first and fifth Governor of Kentucky and served in the state legislatures of Virginia and North Carolina. He was also a soldier in Lord Dunmore's War, the American Revolutionary War, and the War of 1812. While governor, he led the Kentucky militia in the Battle of the Thames, an action that was rewarded with a Congressional Gold Medal. Counties in nine states, and several cities and military bases, have been named in his honor. His fondness for John Dickinson's "The Liberty Song" is believed to be the reason Kentucky adopted the state motto "United we stand, divided we fall".

Issac Shelby's military service began when he served as second-in-command to his father at the Battle of Point Pleasant, the only major battle of Lord Dunmore's War. He gained the reputation of an expert woodsman and surveyor and spent the early part of the Revolutionary War gathering supplies for the Continental Army. Later in the war, he and John Sevier led expeditions over the Appalachian Mountains against the British forces in North Carolina. He played a pivotal role in the British defeat at the Battle of Kings Mountain. For his service, Shelby was presented with a ceremonial sword and a pair of pistols by the North Carolina legislature, and the nickname "Old Kings Mountain" followed him the rest of his life.

Following the war, Isaac Shelby relocated to Kentucky on lands awarded to him for his military service and became involved in Kentucky's transition from a county of Virginia to a separate state. His heroism made him popular with the state's citizens, and the Kentucky electoral college unanimously elected him governor in 1792. He secured Kentucky from Indian attacks and organized its first government. He used the Citizen Genet affair to convince the Washington administration to make an agreement with the Spanish for free trade on the Mississippi River.

At the end of his gubernatorial term, Isaac Shelby retired from public life, but he was called back into politics by the impending War of 1812. Kentuckians urged Shelby to run for governor again and lead them through the anticipated conflict. He was elected easily and, at the request of General William Henry Harrison, commanded troops from Kentucky at the Battle of the Thames. After the war, he declined President James Monroe's offer to become Secretary of War. In his last act of public service, Shelby and Andrew Jackson acted as commissioners to negotiate the Jackson Purchase from the Chickasaw Indian tribe. Isaac Shelby died at his estate in Lincoln County, Kentucky on July 18, 1826.