George Tucker was born on December 13, 1745 in Amelia County, Virginia. When a young child, George’s family moved to Onslow County, North Carolina, where he lived for 12 or 15 years. He later traveled with an elder brother to Wilkes County, Georgia, where they worked to “improve” and settle a piece of land and in 1773 or 1774 brought their father’s family there to join them.
In about the spring of 1775, Indian unrest became “troublesome” and George and other residents were forced to build forts in order to live in safety. With the Revolution’s outbreak Georgia’s Governor Habersham directed the raising of a “horse company” (cavalry) to “guard the frontier as rangers” and appointed John Dooly, commanding the Wilkes County Militia, as its colonel. George recalled that “[w]e served six months and were then paid for our services in Georgia paper money which was depreciated in value and was worth nothing to us.”
Eventually receiving a lieutenant’s commission, following his first six months of service in the militia, George volunteered to rejoin Dooly’s militia regiment to serve as “spies to be employed to range the frontier,” during which he was “constantly engaged in that service but under no regular commission until Savannah was captured by the British,” which occurred on December 29, 1778. Hearing that the British were moving to take Augusta, the last Patriot-controlled city in Georgia, Tucker and Dooley’s militia “went to join Gen’l Ash[e] but before we reached his command, he was defeated. After that the British under Col. Brown took possession of Augusta,” which had happened on January 29, 1779. George wrote that “Sometime after, Col[onel] Elijah Clark[e] raised as many men as he could, and I was one of these, and went and attacked the British in Augusta for several days, but could not dislodge them. We had to raise the siege and leave the place on the appearance of a reinforcement of British troops appearing in sight.” Tucker had taken part in Clarke’s September, 14 1780 failed surprise assault on British-held Augusta, and after a four-day siege they retreated, beginning on September 18, 1780.
With their home state of Georgia now completely occupied by the British, Clarke and his Georgia militia—including George Tucker–retreated to South Carolina, where they struggled to find local support, leading Colonel Dooley to join forces with South Carolina Colonel Andrew Pickens, who assumed command of the combined force. During the eight months Tucker served under Pickens and Clarke, he took part in some of the Southern Theater’s most significant actions, including:
— The Battle of Blackstock’s Farm, in today’s Union County, South Carolina on November 20, 1780. This small action marks the first time American militia defeated British Regulars, commanded by the infamous Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton. Although Patriot militia chief Brigadier General Thomas Sumter was wounded, this led Washington to assign Major General Nathaniel Greene as his replacement commanding the Department of the South.
— The Battle of Cowpens, under Virginian Major General Daniel Morgan’s command, on January 17, 1781 inflicting on the British—again commanded by Tarleton—their greatest loss since the surrender at Saratoga in 1777.
— The Battle of Earle’s Ford (which Tucker calls “Big Hogskin” in his pension application), South Carolina, on July 15, 1780, a Patriot militia victory that pushed British and Loyalist forces back 40 miles. They did not, however, capture British commander Major James Dunlap, as Tucker later claimed.
— The Battle of Long Cane, South Carolina, during which on December 12, 1780 a British force of 400-500 men defeated Colonel Elijah Clarke’s 100-man American force, an advanced detachment of a larger Patriot force commanded by Colonel Benjamin Few. During the fighting Colonel Clarke was wounded.
Following this battle Tucker and his comrades in Pickens’ 400-man Militia force maneuvered between Augusta and Ninety Six, South Carolina, preventing the British outpost at Ninety Six from moving to reinforcing isolated British troops in Augusta, Georgia, who were besieged by Patriot forces beginning on April 16, 1781. On May 15, by-then recovered Colonel Clarke and his men had cut the British supply lines and moved to join in besieging Augusta. When the British surrendered the city on June 1, 1781 George Tucker’s Revolutionary War service ended.
George recalled that “[o]ur discharges were all given to us by Col. Clark” and he returned home to Wilkes County, Georgia, adding that “after we returned home we had very troublesome times with the Tories and Indians,” a continuation of troubles that had plagues the country throughout Tucker’s absence during his wartime service. Unfortunately for his 1834 pension claim, George recorded that “[m]y discharge and commission were burnt in my house some years ago.”
Following the war George married twice, first to Rebecca Leverett and later to Martha Nichols and had four sons, moving first to Marion County and ultimately to Fayette County, Alabama. George died there on January 16, 1852 at age 106 and is buried in Hopewell Cemetery.
- All quotes and other details derived from Revolutionary Pension Roll, Vol. XIV, Senate. Doc. 514, 23rd Cong., 1st sess., 1833-1834. Also resided in Marion County {Alabama}– Pension Book, State Branch Bank, Mobile.
