Joseph Martin (general)

Joseph Martin (general)

Joseph Martin (1740–1808) was a brigadier general in the Virginia militia during the American Revolutionary War, in which Martin's frontier diplomacy with the Cherokee people is credited with averting Indian attacks on the Scotch-Irish American and English American settlers who helped win the battles of Kings Mountain and Cowpens. Martin was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, and later lived on his plantation Scuffle Hill near the Smith River in Henry County, Virginia, not far from the 10,000-acre (40 km2) Leatherwood plantation of his friend Governor Patrick Henry, who appointed him Virginia's agent to the Cherokee in 1777. Martin served in the legislatures of several Southern states, and was a longhunter, pioneer, Indian trader and real estate speculator who attempted one of the earliest settlements of what became the state of Tennessee. The city of Martinsville, Virginia, is named for him.