Thomas Posey

Thomas Posey (July 9, 1750 – March 19, 1818) was an officer rising to the rank of Brigadier General in the Continental Army, under commanding General George Washington (1732–1799, commanded 1775–1784) in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783). Posey was later commissioned lieutenant colonel in the regular United States Army during peacetime, and became involved in the Northwest Indian War (1785–1795).

Posey later served in the Kentucky Senate as a Kentucky state senator (1804–1806), subsequently becoming the third lieutenant governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky (1806–1808). After a brief tenure as senator of the newly admitted state of Louisiana (1812–1813), Posey was appointed by the fourth President James Madison (1759–1836, served 1809–1817) as the third and final Governor of the Indiana Territory (1813–1816), serving during the last three years of the Territory's existence before admission to the federal Union as the state of Indiana.

Thomas Posey was born on the banks of the Potomac River on a farm adjacent to Mount Vernon in Fairfax County, Virginia, on July 9, 1750. According to his own account, he was "born of respectable parentage." Throughout his life Posey was dogged by rumors that he was the illegitimate son of George Washington; the rumor persisted even after his death and was the subject of several newspaper articles. Most historians are unsure of who his parents truly were as there is little recorded of them. Posey grew up on land adjacent to Washington's Mount Vernon home, in the home of John Posey. John was a close friend of George Washington, and Thomas benefited from Washington's patronage early in his life. The rumors were dismissed by Posey's biographer, John Thornton Posey.

Posey received a plain English education from the neighborhood school and at 19 he moved to the Virginia frontier near Staunton, Virginia, where he intended to engage in a trade or farm. He opened a business producing saddles. He soon married Martha Mathews, daughter of the deceased Joshua Mathews of the Mathews family, who was then in custody of her uncle Sampson Mathews, a prominent leader and tavern keeper in Staunton. The couple had three sons, although only one survived to adulthood. Martha died in 1778 while giving birth to the third son. Life on the frontier was tumultuous, and the Indians' continual raiding led to a reprisal by the Virginia's Royal Governor, Lord Dunmore. In 1774 Posey was in the quartermaster's department of an armed expedition against the Indians who were threatening the frontier settlements. He was present at the Battle of Point Pleasant, and the expedition succeeded in suppressing the Indians for the short term.

Posey was elected a member of the Virginia committee of correspondence in 1775. He served in the army during the War of Independence, first as a captain in the Continental Army, mostly with the 7th Virginia Regiment, then later rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel in 1782. Some claimed his quick rise was due to the patronage of George Washington. During the war Posey led campaigns against Lord Dunmore who was fortified on Gwyn's Island and drove him and his naval support out of the area. Lord Dunmore had been the officer he served under during the Indian war. In the winter of 1775 the 7th Virginia Regiment marched to join with General George Washington in New Jersey. It was at this time that Washington promoted Posey to the rank of captain. During the winter of 1776, Posey commanded the pickets guarding the Valley Forge encampment and led skirmishes almost daily. The following campaigning season, his corps was involved in the battle to drive Gen. Howe back to New York City, and played a critical role in the Battle of Monmouth. In 1777, Thomas Posey replaced Captain Joseph Crockett, who was ill and indisposed, as a captain in Daniel Morgan's newly formed Provisional Rifle Corps. In 1778 Capt. Posey replaced Daniel Morgan as commander of the Provisional Rifle Corps when it was reduced to two companies. His small unit was sent to upstate New York to help secure that frontier flank of the Continental Army's Highland Department. He was promoted to major and given command of the 7th Virginia Regiment on December 20, 1778.

In July 1779 Posey was assigned to command a battalion of light infantry in Corps of Light Infantry commanded by Brig-Gen. Anthony Wayne. As part of the provisional 1st Regiment under Col. Christian Febiger, he led his battalion in a bayonet night assault to storm Stony Point, a key British position on the Hudson River near West Point. Posey was one of the first to enter the British works and seized the colors of the 17th Regiment of Foot.

In his absence, the 7th Virginia regiment was ordered on December 8, 1779, to join the rest of the Virginia Line to march to Charleston, South Carolina, to join the Southern Army. When the Corps of Light Infantry disbanded in December, Posey was sent to join his regiment, but the army surrendered on May 12, 1780, before he could rejoin it. As one of the few uncaptured Virginia officers, Posey had few duties until exchange of captured soldiers occurred in early 1781, at which time Col. Febiger recruited him to help reconstitute the Virginia Line in a new "18-month" battalion. He became de facto commander of the battalion and served in the siege of Yorktown. During 1781–1782 he served with General Wayne again, this time in Georgia against the forces in Savannah. He was promoted to Lt. Col. in 1782.

When the war ended, Posey returned to Virginia having resigned from the army on March 10, 1783. In the same year he became an original member of the Virginia Society of the Cincinnati.