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Colonel
Arthur Campbell
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Information from this article was extracted with
permission from Dr. Miller McDonald's book Campbell County Tennessee
USA: A History of Places, Faces, Happenings, Traditions, and Things,
Vol. 1.
- Campbell County was named
for Colonel Arthur Campbell, a soldier of the Revolutionary War
and Indian Wars. He was born in 1742 in Augusta County, Virginia
and was the son of David Campbell. At age fifteen, Campbell joined
the Virginia Militia to help protect the Virginia Frontier. While
stationed at a Dickerson's Fort on the Cowpasture River in Bath
County, VA, he and several others were out picking plums when
a group of Wyandotte Indians surprised the group. A skirmish followed,
and Campbell was captured after being slightly wounded in the
knee. He spent the next three years as a prisoner of the Indians
and spent much of the time wandering through the Great Lakes territory.
Eventually, an Indian chief took him under his protection and
then took him to the French fort located near present-day Detroit.
With his knowledge of the western frontier, he was eventually
able to escape the Indians and make his way to a group of British
soldiers more than 200 miles away. The British were on a campaign
into Western Indian Territory and engaged Campbell as a guide.
Campbell was later awarded a grant of 1000 acres near present-day
Louisville, KY as reward for his services.
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- During his lifetime, he was involved in many aspects of military
and political life. Some of which include
- January 1775 - He served as a member of the comitte that
drfted the Address of the Freeholders of Fincastle, VA.
- 1776 - He was chosen to represent Fincastle County, VA in
the General Assembly.
- January 1777 - He was appointed county lieutenant and commander
in chief of the militia.
- During the Revolutionary War, Campbell enlisted in the Virginia
Militia and became commander of the 70th Regiment of the Virginia
Militia.
- During 1781, Campbell was tone of the commissioner responsible
for negotiating the Indian Treaties of 1781.
- After the wars, Colonel
Campbell settled on an estate on Yellow Creek, at the present
site of Middlesboro, KY. He married his cousin, Martha Campbell.
He lost two of his sons in the war of 1812: Captain James Campbell
died at Mobile, AL and Colonel John B. Campbell fell at the battle
of the Chippewa. Colonel Campbell died August 8, 1811 at the age
of seventy-three.
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