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Portrait of John Sevier. (Courtesy of the State of Tennessee)

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Gen. John Sevier

Soldier, Frontiersman Became Tennessee's First Governor

By Bethanne Kelly Patrick
Military.com Columnist

John Sevier had established himself as a brave militia captain under the command of George Washington in Lord Dunsmore's War, a 1774 frontier conflict between Indians and settlers. On Oct. 7, 1780, he confirmed that reputation with his heroism in the Battle of King's Mountain, S.C. The victory there greatly advanced the patriot cause in the Carolina campaign.

At King's Mountain, bands of frontier riflemen under Sevier and his fellows -- including Isaac Shelby and William Campbell -- surrounded British Maj. Patrick Ferguson's raiding party. Ferguson soon fell, and his men surrendered. This victory presaged Gen. Nathanael Greene's campaign in North Carolina, which set the stage for the Yorktown campaign.

Before the Revolutionary War began, Sevier had been one of the first white settlers of Tennessee and a strong supporter of states' rights as they benefited the common man. Made a hero by his King's Mountain service, Sevier became prominent in North Carolina affairs. He was elected governor of the short-lived State of Franklin (1785-88), which had a government, militia, counties, and a system of taxes. However, in 1788 the government of North Carolina declared Franklin, located in what is now western Tennessee, a state in revolt -- and declared Sevier a disturber of the peace. Later cleared of this charge, Sevier became a congressman from North Carolina.

In 1791, Sevier was named a brigadier general in the "Territory South of the Ohio River" and later appointed to its council. When Tennessee was organized out of this area, Sevier was elected its first governor, ultimately serving six terms (1796-1801, 1803-09). He then served three further terms in Congress. In fact, he died on Sept. 24, 1815, while on congressional business, serving as a commissioner to determine the boundaries between Georgia and Creek Indian lands in Alabama. The ghost of "Nolichucky Jack," as Sevier was known from his early settler's days, is still said to haunt an area along North Carolina's Nolichucky River -- wearing buckskin, carrying a flintlock musket, a champion of the common man even in death.