The Kentuckian

It is time we turn our attention to the South once more. The region is full of first patriots whose names were legendary to the generations after the struggle for independence but are now faded into the mists of time. The Southern struggle is most remembered for the exploits of Marion and Sumter. Yet countless others played roles both big and small. Not the least of these were those tough fighters called the “Over Mountain Men.” Hard-nosed and tough-fisted settlers west of the Appalachian Mountains, experienced in hunting, fighting, and hard liquor. This edition profiles one of these: Isaac Shelby.

Family of Migrants

Isaac Shelby was born in Hagerstown, Maryland, on December 11, 1750. His father, Evan Shelby, from Tregaron, Cardiganshire, Wales, had come to America in 1734. Around 1773, Evan moved his family to the Holston region of what is now upper East Tennessee, which was then part of Virginia.

In mid-18th century, the Alleghenies
were the western frontier

Raised on the Range

Young Isaac grew up immersed in the rough and tumble world of frontier life and fighting. He quickly learned to use arms and became familiar with the hardships of Western life. He received a solid education, worked on his father's plantation, occasionally surveyed land, and became a deputy sheriff at age eighteen.

Frontier cabin

Big Strong Man

Isaac Shelby was a large man, standing six feet tall, strong, and well-proportioned, with a striking face and a ruddy complexion. He could endure long hours of work, physical hardships, and great fatigue. Dignified and impressive in manner, he was also friendly and charming. In short, he was a natural leader. Additionally, he was intelligent and had clear executive skills that helped him both in peace and in war.

Shelby in later life

 Lord Dunmore's War

When the Earl of Dunmore, Virginia's Royal Governor John Murray, went to war with the Shawnee under Chief Cornstalk, Shelby joined the local militia as a lieutenant, serving under his father. On October 10, 1774, young Shelby fought in the Battle of Point Pleasant. He scored an early victory in the fight by charging the high ground on the Indian flank, causing them to leave the field. This was just a preview of what was to come.

John Murray,Royal Governor of
Virginia

A Rebel Goes West

The American Revolution intensified in 1775, and by 1776, Shelby had rejoined the militia, this time as a captain. Virginia’s governor, Patrick Henry, appointed him to a position on Virginia’s western frontier. There, he provided direct support to Colonel George Rogers Clark’s campaign into the Illinois Territory. Isaac also contributed to his father’s victory over the Indian chief Dragging Canoe in a battle on the Tennessee River in 1779.

Shelby provided logistic support to
George Rogers Clark's western campaign

Me? A Tar Heel?

Eighteenth-century boundaries in this region were mostly informal. When he discovered that his homestead was actually in North Carolina, Isaac became a militia colonel there. He also earned a seat in the state assembly. 

Although a newly minted Tar Heel, Shelby was in Kentucky when Charleston fell to the British in 1780, and the victorious and exuberant redcoats began to overrun his state. Upon hearing of the new threat, he rushed home and gathered around 200 men for the cause. He quickly teamed up with Colonel Joseph McDowell to try to stop the advance of British General Charles Cornwallis and his Loyalist supporters.

The Fall of Charleston opened up the Carolinas
to the Southern Strategy

Guerrilla Days

His first major test came on July 31 when Shelby and his men managed to surround Thickety Fort on the Pacolet River. His confidence and cleverness allowed him to persuade the commander to surrender his 94 men. Shelby then joined forces with a group of partisans led by Lieutenant Colonel Elijah Clarke. With a combined force of 200 men, they attacked a Loyalist outpost at Musgrove Mills. Although outnumbered nearly two to one, they drove off the Loyalists in a fierce skirmish.

Enter the Counter Guerrilla

These activities threatened Cornwallis’s security, leading the British general to send arguably the army’s top guerrilla fighter, Major Patrick Ferguson. However, after the patriot army under General Horatio Gates was defeated at Camden on August 16, 1780, nearly all resistance broke down across the south. It appeared that the British “southern strategy“ was about to succeed.

Major Patrick Ferguson

 Run Away

For his part, Shelby retreated west with McDowell, and their forces disappeared into the frontier hinterland. There, they waited out the events. However, local atrocities committed by Loyalist bands angered the Southerners, leading to a series of partisan and guerrilla actions, and they continued to resist.

Partisan militia

 The Lord's Prayer

Seeking to bring the Carolinas under British control, Lord Cornwallis marched an army into North Carolina in a risky move that would end up backfiring. Alongside him was Ferguson, who issued a bold challenge to the “Over Mountain Men,” as the frontier rebels were called. The message was clear: submit to the crown, or their homes would be destroyed. But the men of the west were not impressed. In fact, this only motivated the frontiersmen.

Major General Charles Cornwallis

Band of Brothers, Tough Mothers

Shelby, along with another Overmountain man from Tennessee, John Sevier, assembled a force of 200 volunteers, gathered at Sycamore Shoals, and soon headed into war-torn North Carolina. There, they joined forces with Colonel William Campbell. Driven by a desire for revenge, the Overmountain men fiercely advanced to confront Ferguson. The feeling was mutual. The famed counter-guerrilla led a force of about 900 Loyalists eager to suppress the rebels.

John Sevier - another
Over Mountain Bad Ass

Go Tell it to the Mountain

But the tide turned against Ferguson, who was trapped on a high ground called King’s Mountain (just over the border in South Carolina) and cut off from the main British column under Cornwallis. Withering and accurate fire from the western rifles devastated the Loyalists. Ferguson was shot while trying to rally a defense and soon died. The few who did not taste lead eventually surrendered. Shelby played a key role in planning and executing the operation and soon became a local hero.

Kings Mountain was a turning point in the South

 Draining the Swamp, with the Swamp Fox

After King’s Mountain, Cornwallis’s strategy began to fall apart. However, there was still more fighting to be done. Shelby teamed up with the famous partisan general Francis Marion and helped capture Monk’s Corner. Fighting continued throughout the South even after Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown in October 1781. Nonetheless, the British and their loyal allies were defeated.

Francis Marion and his partisan militia

The Kentuckian

After the war, Shelby retired to private life, where his heroics during the conflict paved the way for a successful political career. He moved to Kentucky and helped organize the territory, build infrastructure, and strengthen defenses against the Indians and their British allies. On April 19, 1783, at Boonesboro, he married Susannah Hart, the daughter of Captain Nathaniel Hart, one of Kentucky's earliest settlers. Susannah eventually bore him eleven children.

Susannah Hart Shelby

 Politician, Pundit, and Warrior

In 1792, he was elected governor of the recently admitted state. He criticized President Washington’s foreign policy. Many westerners wanted a more aggressive stance against the British forts to the west and the Native Americans. 

However, he provided unwavering support to Major General Anthony Wayne’s Legion during the Indian campaigns of 1794. In 1812, Shelby was elected governor once again. His military and organizational skills were put to work mobilizing Kentucky’s militia for war. In 1813, he personally led a force of 3,500 mounted riflemen north to support General William Henry Harrison’s army near Thames, Ontario. After the war, Congress struck a gold medal in his honor.

Gen Anthony Wayne's American Legion

 Diplomat to the Indians

 In 1817, he turned down President James Madison’s offer to serve as Secretary of War. His last major contribution to the Overmountain region came in 1818 when he, Andrew Jackson, and others negotiated the “Jackson Purchase,” which transferred control of the western districts of Kentucky and Tennessee from the Chickasaw Indians. This opened the western region to settlement. To honor this service, the Tennessee General Assembly named Shelby County (Memphis) after him.

President James Madison

 A Model for the West

The fighting governor died near Danville, Kentucky, in July 1826. He was mourned as a distinguished public servant and soldier. One of the nation’s most notable frontiersmen, Shelby served as an example for future frontiersmen who would help establish the Republic of Texas and strengthen America’s westward expansion.

Shelby Cemetery is a KY historic site

The King's Rake

Beauing, belling, dancing, drinking,

Breaking windows, cursing, sinking

Every raking, never thinking,

Live the Rakes of Mallow,

Spending faster than it comes,

Beating waiter's bailiffs, duns,

Bacchus' true begotten sons,

Live the Rakes of Mallow.

And so begin the lyrics of the mid-18th-century song that remains in today's culture as an international classic, "The Rakes of Mallow." This song tells of the rakes from the farming town of Mallow, about 20 miles north of the city of Cork. What exactly is a rake? Although Mallow is a farming town, we aren't talking about the gardening tool. The other rake is an old-fashioned term for a person who indulges in drinking, gambling, womanizing, and rowdy behavior — traits both celebrated and condemned in Georgian England. This brings us to the rake in this story—the complex and never uninteresting George Hanger...

The Rake at Dawn

George Hanger was born near Berkshire, England, around 1751. His father was Gabriel, the 3rd Baron Coleraine, an Irish peer. As the third son of an upper-class noble, it was almost destined that he would pursue a military career. Hanger was educated at Eton and then spent a year at the University of Göttingen in Hannover, Germany. 

A bright student, Hanger had a rakish appearance and enjoyed the proverbial wine, women, and gambling—not necessarily in that order. He allegedly fought three duels by the age of 20 and was reputed to be an excellent shot. While in Germany, Hanger observed the legendary Prussian Army of Frederick the Great during maneuvers and decided then and there to follow a military path. 

In January 1771, he was appointed an ensign in the 1st Foot Guards, a prestigious regiment of the household troops. Hanger performed well but resigned after being passed over for a promotion just four years later. Early signs of his lifestyle began to surface.

George Hanger

Soldier for Hire

Hanger's German contacts served him well, and he soon received a captain's commission in the Feldjäger Korps of the forces of the Landgrave (Elector) of Hesse-Kassel, another elite unit. I think we know where this is going... It was as part of this group of young Teutonic aristocrats that Hanger sailed for America when the Landgrave "rented" his troops to King George III. 

Leaving Portsmouth in March 1776, young Hanger arrived just in time for some of the most "fun" episodes for crown forces during the entire eight-year struggle. He played a role in the relentless campaigns that swept the rebels from New York and the Jerseys in 1776, as well as in the less glamorous but equally brutal skirmishes of 1777. His performance was so impressive that he took command of an elite Hessian Jaeger (light infantry) company recruited from all the Hessian regiments in the army. 

According to reports, Hanger distinguished himself in the months that followed. His unit undertook much of the screening, patrolling, and small-scale fighting around Kingsbridge, Spuyten Duyvil, and Westchester. Around this time, he learned that his estate back in Britain had gone into foreclosure, and through a series of misfortunes, he found himself in dire financial straits. Our young hero had become a self-proclaimed "soldier of fortune,"

Hanger became a master of light infantry

An Unlikely Spy

When the British occupation of Newport, Rhode Island, ended in 1779, Hanger was chosen by the British commander in chief, General Henry Clinton, to undertake a daring reconnaissance mission to see if the American occupiers had left their defenses vulnerable for reconquest. He sailed 150 miles north from the mouth of New York Harbor on a frigate and led a twelve-man longboat into dangerous waters during a bold night raid. He captured a prisoner and returned to New York with him. Hanger was later criticized in American papers when the prisoner unexpectedly fell ill and died.

An unlikely Hanger sails on a secret mission
 to Rhode Island: espionage

Moving South

Patrick Ferguson
 - a badass

Later, Hanger took command of a mix of rifle and musket units and was seconded to the renowned "counter-guerrilla" Major Patrick Ferguson, one of the tough British officers of the war whose death at King's Mountain signaled the beginning of the end in the South. But I digress. With Ferguson, Hanger sailed to the Carolinas under General Henry Clinton in the spring of 1780, marking the start of the "southern strategy." After a brief stint as Clinton's aide-de-camp and then inspector of militia under Ferguson, the ever-adaptable Hanger managed to transfer to Banastre Tarleton's British Legion. The two hard-drinking, rough-and-tumble aristocrats hit it off, and Tarleton made Hanger his deputy. Hanger joined the green-jacketed band of Loyalist regulars that would become infamous under Tarleton.

Infamous Banastre Tarleton
Hanger's mentor and commander

The Legion

Lord Charles Cornwallis

The Legion led Major General Charles Cornwallis's invasion of North Carolina. When Tarleton was struck down by yellow fever, Hanger took command. Although an accomplished infantry fighter and dependable deputy, Hanger struggled with the cavalry, which was the vital strike force of Tarleton's Legion. 

He allowed himself to be ambushed at Wahab Plantation on September 21, 1780, where a partisan force under American Colonel William Davie attacked early in the evening. Surprised and overwhelmed, Hanger suffered 12 killed, 47 wounded, and almost 100 valuable horses captured. 

Tasked with leading the British advance against Charlotte less than a week later, he faltered again. This time, he let his horsemen become separated from their supporting infantry. Once more, Davie outmaneuvered him when Hanger's cavalry charged recklessly into the town without support. 

Hanger led several assaults against Davie's American riflemen, who were defending behind a wall. Hanger's men started to fall to the precise fire. Cornwallis himself had to step in to stabilize the situation. Hanger was severely wounded during the fight and later contracted yellow fever. Sick and injured, he was sent to the Bahamas (of all places) to recover.

Hanger led the Legion's cavalry to savage fighting and defeat
at Charlotte

Dead Ender?

Guy Carleton

When he recovered sufficiently, Hanger returned to New York in the summer of 1781 and resumed garrison duties. As the key to Britain's control over North America, New York was the center of attention, and Hanger found himself right back in the middle of things. He also returned to a city filled with bars, brothels, and rooms for him to enjoy during his downtime from drilling troops or patrolling the outskirts. 

One might think our young rake had the best of both worlds during this time. Ever the soldier, he sailed with General Clinton's relief force, aiming to rescue Cornwallis's trapped army at Yorktown. Upon hearing of the surrender, he went back to the city with the rest of the fleet. 

As peace negotiations settled on terms, Hanger took on another role: resettling members of the Legion. For that, he made a trip to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to find land and housing for the loyalists who chose not to go to England. Mission accomplished, he returned to New York. One has to see George as a proverbial dead-ender. He stayed with one of the last British units to evacuate the city, sailing with the final British commander and governor in North America, General Guy Carleton.

Hanger, "Forrest Gump-like," manages to
witness the American Revolution's climax

The Bad Boy of Georgian England

Once home, Hanger resumed the life of a flamboyant party boy. He became a social companion to another rake, the Prince of Wales, who later became King George IV. The prince enjoyed Hanger's rakish ways. Hanger seemed to have become famous simply for being famous — the subject of much satire and ridicule in what would be today's tabloids. His reckless lifestyle landed him in debtor's prison, where he spent two years (1798-1800). While in prison, he turned to writing and produced his memoirs there.

Hanger and his buddy, the Prince of Wales
attended many a party

When he left, he became a coal merchant (in which he was quite successful) but continued his addiction to gambling and partying around London. Throughout, Hanger flaunted contemporary mores, cavorting openly with women of all kinds, keeping a peculiar collection of dogs, cats, and monkeys, and generally thumbing his nose at the upper crust and middle class. One of his celebrated exploits was arranging a cross-country race between a flock of turkeys and a flock of geese!

Cartoon satire of Hanger

At the same time, he learned to leverage some of his strengths as a pamphleteer—similar to bloggers today. Reinventing himself as a subject matter expert, he published pamphlets on military topics, gambling, hunting, and shooting. Hanger engaged in public disputes over military policy during the Napoleonic Wars. He also wrote humorous advice columns on various subjects, most famously about the fairer sex. His antics and opinions were closely followed by the media of his time. In 1814, he was offered the barony of Coleraine but declined it to continue his "celebrated" lifestyle in London.

Cartoon satire of Hanger

The Legacy

Cartoon satire of Hanger

Despite his hard lifestyle, Hanger kept up his reputation as a notorious figure in town, a military expert, and a celebrated eccentric until his death in London on March 31, 1824. He left behind a second wife, possibly his housekeeper, and their son, who was denied his father's peerage. George Hanger was undoubtedly one of the more complex men of his era and certainly one of the most intriguing, if not amusing.

 Eventually, his notoriety caught up with him. The king distanced himself from him, high society shunned him, and the press ridiculed him. Yet, in many ways, he embodied his class and era: a curious mix of breeding, talent, courage, rapacity, and culture. It's a pity he didn't settle in America...

George Hanger, 4th Baron Coleraine?