A Revolutionary War Veteran of Valley Forge

One mile north of this marker lies the grave of a man who carried the full weight of the American founding on his shoulders.

He is said to have enlisted early in the Revolutionary War. He survived Valley Forge, the encampment in Pennsylvania where General Washington's Continental Army endured one of the cruelest winters of the war, short on food, short on shoes, short on almost everything. Out of roughly twelve thousand people who entered Valley Forge in December of seventeen seventy-seven, nearly two thousand died before spring.

This veteran fought through numerous battles, then turned west after the war to fight in frontier conflicts against Native nations. He is said to have been honorably discharged at Pittsburgh and eventually made his way to what would become Tennessee, carrying with him the scars and the quiet authority of a man who had been present at the creation.

The Tennessee Historical Marker stands here so that passing drivers might remember where that history finally came to rest.