Thomas Posey
Bio
From Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia
Thomas Posey (July 9, 1750 - March
29, 1818) was a officer in the American Revolution, a General during
peacetime, Lt. Gov. of Kentucky, Governor of the Indiana Territory, and
a Louisiana Senator.
Early
Life
Posey was born on the banks of the
Potomac River on a farm adjacent to Mt Vernon in Fairfax County,
Virginia on July 9th, 1750. He received a plain English education and
at 19 he moved to Virginia frontier where he intended to engage in a
trade or farm. Life on the frontier would not quiet down though 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 a armed expedition against the Indians who threatening
the frontier settlements. The expedition would succeed in suppressing
the Indians for the short term.
The
Revolution
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. Posey Corps would then be involved in the
battle to drive Gen. Howe back to New York City. In 1778 Lt. Posey
replaced Col Morgan as head of a force of riflemen and was promoted to
Major. In 1779 Posey was detached from Washington and joined General
"Mad" Anthony Wayne in defending the frontier against Indians and
Tories that were terrorizing the settlements there. Having dealt with
the threat on the frontier, Posey's forces marched toward Charleston
where they would join in the siege of General Clinton. During 1781-1782
he would serve with General Wayne again, this time in Georgia against
the forces in Savannah. He was promoted to Lt. Col. in 1782
Serving in the United States Army
after the Revolution, he rose to the rank of brigadier general in 1793
and served with "Mad" Anthony Wayne campaigning against the Indians
beyond the frontier in the Northwest Indian War.
State
Senator
In 1794 he resigned from the army and moved to Kentucky, where his
service in the army provided the popularity for him to be elected as a
state senator. First elected in 1804 as a senator, he presided over the
body as president from 1805 to 1806. He was later elected lieutenant
governor in 1806.
In preparation for possible
hostilities with the French and British, in 1809 Congress authorized an
army of 100,000 men to be mobilized. Kentucky was assigned the task of
providing five thousand men. Posey returned to the army as a Major
General in command of the Kentucky Volunteers. He again resigned from
the army in 1810 just before the outbreak of the War of 1812.He then
moved to the Attakapas region of Louisiana, and served as a U.S.
Senator from that state in 1812-1813 to fill the vacant seat of John N.
Destrehan after his resignation.
Governor
of Indiana Territory
The Posey House, where Gov. Thomas
Posey briefly lived while he was in the Indiana Territory. After he was
defeated for re-election to his senate seat, he was appointed by
President Madison to be Governor of Indiana Territory in February 1813
where he succeeded William Henry Harrison who had accepted a new
position to lead the army against Indians in the Northwest Territory.
When he arrived he relieved General Gibson of his duties as Acting
Governor.
Posey was considered to be a
charitable and personally likable man in the territory. He was an
active member of the Presbyterian Church and became president of a
Bible Society, who distributed free bibles to the poor in the
territory. In 1815 Posey called a special assembly to meet in Corydon
to create a new territorial judiciary to replaced the existing one
whose authority was questionable due to the status of the territory
when it was created. Posey presided over the assembly which ultimately
divided the territory into three judicial districts and appointed
several judges.
Posey disliked the current
territorial capital of Corydon, because he had poor health he wanted to
be closer to his personal physician in Louisville, Kentucky. In the
fall of 1813, Posey moved to Jeffersonville where he remained for the
remainder of his tenure, and from there conducted office of governor.
He communicated with the legislature in Corydon by courier. He was
widely disliked by the legislature for his "inaccessibility", but his
pro-slavery sentiments were also at odds with that of the anti-slavery
dominated legislature. When Indiana became a state in 1816, he ran
unsuccessfully for Governor and was defeated by Jonathan Jennings. A
key election issue to the dislike of Posey was that he was in favor of
slavery in Indiana, which much of the legislature, Dennis Pennington,
and Jonathan Jennings opposed.
After Indiana was granted statehood
in 1816 Posey ran for the position of Governor but was defeated by the
popular Jonathan Jennings. The central theme of the campaign was
slavery and the contrast could not have been greater between Jennings
and Posey.
Posey's
Wives
Posey married Martha Matthews in
1772. They had three sons, one of whom lived to adulthood. Martha died
in 1778. Posey remarried Mary Alexander Thornton, the widow of George
Thornton, in 1784. Posey had nine children by her. He remained married
to her until his death. His second wife died in 1837.
The
Washington Rumor
Throughout his life Posey was dogged
by rumors that he was the illegitimate son of George Washington. Posey
grew up on land adjacent to Mt. Vernon, the Posey and Washington
families were close, and Posey benefited from Washington's patronage
early in his career. However, the rumors are dismissed by General
Posey's biographer, John Thornton Posey.
Death
In the last two years of his life, he
served as an Indian agent in Illinois. He was appointed Indian Agent of
Helios's in 1816. He died of Typhus fever on March 19, 1818 in
Shawneetown, Illinois, aged 67, and was buried in the Westwood Cemetery.
Posey County, Indiana is named in
honor of Thomas Posey.
