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Thomas Gordon
A descendant of the Huntley Branch of the Gordons of Scotland, Thomas Gordon
was born in the County of Down, near Newry (Ulster) North Ireland, about the year 1745.
He was the only child of Scotch-Irish parentage who came originally from Scotland, his
father being a descendant of the Huntley Gordons. In 1750, at the age of five, young
Thomas Gordon came to America with his mother, Jane Stewart Gordon and established
their home in the northeastern edge of Albemarle County, Virginia, near the town of
Gordonsville. Here he grew to manhood and resided for more than three decades. Soon
after the death of his beloved mother, a woman of great courage and indomitable will
power, he met his future wife, Miss. Sarah Wilson and in 1770 they were married. To
this union were born seven children.
Thomas Gordon was a revolutionary war solider. The patriotic response of
Thomas Gordon to the Declaration on Independence was made on May 11, 1777, when
he left his young wife, Sarah Gordon, and five year old son, John at his home in
Albemarle County, Virginia and voluntarily enlisted in the Grayson 16th Virginia
Continental Regiment for a period of three years. Colonel William Grayson of Prince
William County, Virginia, who in later years became United States Senator from
Virginia, organized this regiment.
Thomas Gordon was assigned as a private soldier to the company commanded by
Captain Cleon Moore, where he served two years. He participated in the battles of
Brandywine on September 11, 1777, Germantown on October 4, 1777 and fought under
the personal direction of General Washington. The winter of 1777-1778 was passed at
Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Here the regiment was given military instruction and
training under General Baron Von Steuben. On June 28, 1778, the battle on Monmouth
in New Jersey was fought with temperatures of 98 degrees in the shade. It was here that
General Washington suspended Major General Charles Lee from command of the troops
in battle and taking charge, saved the day, forcing Lord Cornwallis’s troops to retreat. In
this battle the Grayson Regiment played an important part and Colonel Grayson was
highly commended for various conduct in action.
Washington’s army spent the winter of 1778-1779 at Camp Middlebrook in
Somerset County, New Jersey. On April 22, 1779 the Grayson and Gist Virginia
Continental Regiments were united and Colonel Nathaniel Gist was made its commander,
Colonel Grayson was assigned to other important duties. Thomas Gordon was
transferred to the company in the “Gist Regiment” captained by Strother Jones. The
records of the War Department of the United States Government show the name of
Thomas Gordon last appeared on payroll of Captain Strother Jones’ company during
November 1779.
Prisoner of War: The tradition of Thomas Gordon, Junior family is to the effect
that Private Thomas Gordon and fourteen other Continental Soldiers, were captured by
the British and held for some time as prisoners of war until rescued by the mounted
American Forces. During the imprisonment their wrists were bound by green hickory
withes which, when hardened and dried upon their wrists, cut deep wounds leaving scars
as permanent remainders of their painful sufferings inflicted by the British Soldiers.
Soon after the close of the Revolutionary War, Thomas Gordon with his family
joined the tide of immigration and with the Herring, Creed and Davis families moved to
Surrey County, North Carolina. We find Thomas listed on the Surrey Count tax lists in
1782, along Stewart’s Creek between Mount Airy and White Plains.
This certificate is based upon information furnished by the War Department of
The United States Army, dated April 8, 1940, in a letter from Mayor General E.S.
Adams, adjutant general, addressed to Charles Ulysses Gordon, Chicago, Illinois. It is
further substantiated by tradition handed down by Thomas Gordon, Jr. family of St.
Joseph, Missouri. That information was gathered through the efforts of Mrs. Ethel Hagirs
Gordon of the Daughters of the American Revolution. From an original certificate,
copied by Ollie Faulkner.
Retyped March 6, 2001, by Padget McGuire, West Columbia, SC.