Anthony Bledsoe
Colonel, U.S. Army

Anthony Bledsoe was born in 1739 in Culpeper County, VA.

Bledsoe moved to the wilderness of southwestern Virginia and northwestern North Carolina. A prominent citizen in Fincastle County, he became a member of Virginia's House of Burgesses, a Justice of the Peace, and served as a military leader in the French and Indian Wars. In 1760, Anthony Bledsoe married Mary Ramsey, of Augusta County.

At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, he was commissioned a Captain by the Virginia Commission of Safety, under Governor Patrick Henry. He led a force to rescue Ft. Watauga from the British-led Indian force. Governor Caswell of North Carolina promoted him to Colonel in the North Carolina militia. Anthony, his brother Isaac, and the Shelby and Desha families settled in the Holston River Area.

During the struggle for Independence he was sent to defend the Wyoming Valley against the Indians, who allied themselves with the British and it was feared they might cause another slaughter of the defender's families. At the same time he sent a subordinate, Capt. Isaac Shelby on to King's Mountain. Colonel Bledsoe moved to Greenfield in 1781, following his brother Isaac who settled there in 1780.

In 1781 at his daughter's wedding to Robert Desha, Bledsoe met and later married Susan Hart, daughter of General Nathaniel Hart, Jr. In 1785, Col. Anthony was elected as Sumner's Representative to the North Carolina Legislation.

During 1787 the natives began attacks on the settlers along the Cumberland. Many wished to move back to the Holston. In defense of staying, he was reported to have said: "If we perish here others will sure to follow to avenge our death and complete the work which we have begun. If they find not our graves nor our scattered bones, they will at least revere and lament our memories as having deserved a better fate."

On 20 July 1788, he and his friend, John Campbell, spotted a party of Indians near Bledsoe's Lick in the evening. Rushing to warn their fellow settlers, a stampede was created - either by the Indians or the noise of both parties - rushing towards the settlement. Trapped in the open, both men were shot.

Death and Burial

Colonel Anthony Bledsoe was killed on 20 July 1788 in Castalian Springs, TN. He is buried at the Pioneer Cemetery in Castalian Springs, TN.