The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.
State of Service: VA/SC
Qualifying Service: Lieutenant Colonel
Photos used with permission of Compatriot Mitchell Anderson, 229001, KYSSAR
Directions to Cemetery / Gravesite:
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Author: President Gen John Thomas Manning M.Ed.
Colonel William Washington was born on 28 February 1752. He was a second cousin of George Washington and trained to be a minister as a young man. When the Revolution broke out, he joined the local minutemen and became a Captain in the Continental Army.
William saw extensive combat during the war. He fought with his Lieutenant, future President James Monroe, at the Battles of Harlem Heights and Trenton, where they were both injured. He fought at Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. Due to his superb horsemanship, he became a major in the Light Dragoons (soldiers on horseback). After an attack at Old Tappan, New Jersey, in which he was severely injured, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and made the head of the 3rd Light Dragoons.
In 1779, William went to join the Continental Army in the south, where he met his nemesis, Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton, on the battlefield many times. In 1780 and 1781, he was in continuous battle. He fought with Tarleton at Rantowle's Bridge, South Carolina, on 26 March 1780 and again at the Rutledge Plantation on the 26th. On 14 April, Tarleton won the Battle of Monck's Corner, but Washington escaped. His dragoons were defeated by Tarleton again at Lenud's Ferry on 5 May. Washington escaped again, but the dragoons were so decimated they had to withdraw to regroup.
In August, William joined General Daniel Morgan in the interior of South Carolina. He defeated Loyalists at Rugeley's Mill, tricking them into surrendering by using a fake cannon made of a log. Then, he won another battle with Loyalists at Hammond's Old Store, which led General Cornwallis to instruct Tarleton to find Morgan and his cavalry at any cost.
In January 1781, Morgan trapped Tarleton and his dragoons at the Battle of Cowpens. William was instrumental in the battle and chased Tarleton as he tried to escape. During the escape, William became surrounded by several of Tarleton's men. He was nearly killed by a saber blow, but a black servant shot the sword-handler. Tarleton finally shot William's horse from under him and got away.
On 8 September 1781, at the Battle of Eutaw Springs, after being instructed to attack the British in a dense thicket, William ordered a retreat when he realized the thicket was too dense for his cavalry. The cavalry was decimated by British fire, and William's horse was shot from underneath him. He was bayoneted, captured, and taken prisoner to Charleston, where he remained until the end of the war.
Back in Charleston, he married wealthy heiress Jane Elliott. When the war came to an end, they stayed in Charleston and managed Jane's extensive plantations. William served in the South Carolina legislature from 1787 to 1804 and turned down the governorship several times.
He became a Brigadier General of the South Carolina militia in 1794. In 1798, President John Adams appointed him a Brigadier General in the US Army during the Quasi-War with France.
The Patriot died in 1810; his contribution to the American Revolution can be summed up by a comment allegedly made by Lord Cornwallis after surrendering at Yorktown – "There could be no more formidable antagonist in a charge, at the head of his cavalry, than Colonel William Washington."
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