Military Service
Hardin’s first documented military service shows his appointment as a major of the 2nd North Carolina Minute Men (of the Salisbury District) in 1775. That same year, he appears in the rolls as a captain in the Tryon County Colonial Light Horse Rangers. Hardin took part in Moore's Cherokee Expedition into the Washington District late the following year. Beginning in 1777, Hardin carried a captain’s commission in Locke's Battalion (part of General Allen Jones' Brigade) seeing action against Britain and its Native American allies.
It was during this time that Hardin moved his family to the western settlements for safe keeping. As a member of the Overmountain militia, he fought in the Battle of Ramsour's Mill, between the Tories (Loyalists to the Crown) and the Whigs (American Patriots) on June 20, 1780 and later that year at the Battle of Kings Mountain, on Oct 7.
After the cessation of the ground war with Britain (1783), Hardin was appointed colonel of the North Carolina Militia for "The Western Counties" (Re.: Tennessee) due to the continuing hostilities with the Chickamauga Indians.
Read more about this topic: Joseph Hardin, Sr.
Famous quotes containing the words military and/or service:
“There was somewhat military in his nature, not to be subdued, always manly and able, but rarely tender, as if he did not feel himself except in opposition. He wanted a fallacy to expose, a blunder to pillory, I may say required a little sense of victory, a roll of the drum, to call his powers into full exercise.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I can counterfeit the deep tragedian,
Speak, and look back, and pry on every side,
Tremble and start at wagging of a straw,
Intending deep suspicion. Ghastly looks
Are at my service like enforced smiles,
And both are ready in their offices
At any time to grace my stratagems.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)