Alexander McMillan was born in County Derry, Ireland, August 12, 1749. He emigrated from Ireland to America in 1775 and upon landing at Boston offered himself immediately to the Service of the Colonies. Dr. J. G. M. Ramsey, the noted historian of Tennessee, says of him, "Alexander McMillan on landing at Boston in 1775 immediately joined the Army of the Rebels, starting on the hazardous expedition against Quebec (1776). This was the first service he performed in the cause of American freedom and this was before the Declaration of Independence. His last military service rendered to that glorious cause, was in the hard-fought, but most decisive battle of the Revolutionary War, ending in the defeat and death of Ferguson, and the capture of his whole Army, October 7, 1780. (King's Mountain)."

During his Revolutionary service, probably in the Quebec Expedition, Alexander McMillan had his fingers frozen while holding his gun on picket duty, so that they came off at the first joint. He refused to accept a pension, however, saying, with characteristic decision, that he "did not need it, having ample, means of his own."

Alexander McMillan left Ireland to join the McMillan relatives who had preceded him and were settled in Virginia. His service in the Quebec campaign delayed his arrival in Virginia, but only for g few years and before the close of the Revolution he did join these relatives in Augusta County (Washington County) Virginia, and there married his first cousin, Margaret McMillan, in 1778.

Alexander and Margaret McMillan moved to Tennessee soon after their marriage and he was probably settled in the eastern part of the state (which was then a part of North Carolina), shortly after the Battle of King's Mountain, in which he was a participant, but his name is given as one of the soldiers in that battle from Washington County, Virginia.

Alexander McMillan, not content with an excellent record in the Revolution, volunteered again and fought with General Jackson in 1812 at New Orleans, though he was already past military age, being then sixty-three years old. His descendants, therefore, are eligible to the Society of 1812, as well as the Societies of the Revolution. Returning to his home in East Tennessee he lived quietly upon his home place, near McMillan's Station on west side of Tennessee River where the Holston and French Board meet, and there died in 1837. His grave is at the Philip Sherrod farm, top of hill on east side of the two rivers near Strawberry Plains, near the Old Caledonia church, and is marked with his name and age. His wife predeceased him by a year and is buried beside him. In his will he left a half bushel of coined silver to each of his children, except James and John, cutting them off with the proverbial shilling—one dollar each.

Margaret McMillan, who married her first cousin, Alexander McMillan, in Augusta County, Virginia, in 1778, was born April 2, 1762. She was the daughter of William McMillan, brother to Alexander's father, and his wife, Mary Leeper McMillan.

References:  Find a Grave #109802644