General William Lenoir
General William Lenoir was born in Brunswick County, Virginia, on the 20th of May, 1751. He was of French (Huguenot) descent and the youngest of a family of ten children. When he was eight, his father moved near Tarboro, North. Carolina.
When about twenty years of age, he married Ann Ballard of Halifax, N.C.-a lady possessing, in an eminent degree, those domestic and heroic virtues which qualified her for sustaining the privations and hardships of a frontier life, which it was her lot afterward to encounter.
In March 1775, General Lenoir moved with his family to Wilkes County (then a part of Surry) and settled near the place where Wilkesboro now stands. Before leaving Halifax, he signed the paper known as the Association, containing a declaration of patriotic principles and means of redress relative to the existing troubles with Great Britain. Soon after his removal to Surry, he was appointed a member of the Committee of Safety. He took an early and active part in repelling the depredating and murderous incursions of the Cherokee Indians upon the frontier settlements. He was actively engaged in this kind of service until the celebrated expedition under Gen. Rutherford completely subdued the Indians and compelled them to sue for peace. From the termination of this campaign, in which he acted as a Lieutenant under Captain Benjamin Cleaveland, to the one projected against Major Ferguson, he was almost constantly engaged in capturing and suppressing the Tories, who, at that time, were assuming great boldness, and molesting the persons and property of the Whig inhabitants.
In the expedition to King's Mountain, General Lenoir held the appointment of Captain in Colonel Cleaveland's regiment, which united with the other Whig forces at the head of the Catawba River. It was impossible to overtake Ferguson, now evidently showing signs of fear, with the footmen; a council of the officers decided that as many as could procure horses should do so and thus, as mounted infantry, advance rapidly upon the retreating enemy. Accordingly, General Lenoir and his company offered their services, joined the select Spartan band of nine hundred and ten brave spirits, and pressed forward without delay to the scene of action.
In the brilliant achievement on King's Mountain Mountain, General Lenoir was wounded in the arm and the side, but not severely, and a third ball passed through his hair, just above where it was tied. He was also at the defeat of Colonel Pyles on Haw River, where his horse was shot and his sword broken. At a later period, he raised a company and marched towards Dan River with the hope of joining General Greene, but was unable to effect a junction in time. He performed many other minor but essential services, which is unnecessary to enumerate.
General Lenoir served as Major General of the militia for about eighteen years. At different times, he filled the offices of Register, Surveyor, Commissioner of Affidavits, Chairman of the County Court, and Clerk of the Superior Court for Wilkes County. He was one of the State University's original Trustees and the board's first President. He was also a member of the State Conventions, which met to consider the Constitution of the United States. He served for many years in both branches of the State Legislature. During the last seven years of his services in the Senate, he was chosen as Speaker of that body. He performed the duties of that important station with great satisfaction, firmness, and impartiality.
General Lenoir was no less distinguished in private life for his moral worth and generous hospitality than in public life for his unbending integrity and enlarged patriotism. His mansion was open at all times, not only to a large circle of friends and relatives but to the stranger and the traveler. To people experiencing poverty, he was kind and charitable and, in his will, made liberal provisions for those of his neighborhood.
During his last illness, he suffered much pain, which he bore with Christian resignation. He often said & that he did not fear dying-death had no terrors for him. He died, with calm composure, at his residence at Fort Defiance on the 6th of May, 1839, aged eighty-eight years.
Sketches of Western North Carolina, Historical and Biographical by C. L. Hunter
Quoting from Hero Implants by Jeannette Holland Austin:
" General William Lenoir. In the expedition to King's Mountain General Lenoir held the appointment of Captain in Colonel Cleaveland's regiment, which united with the other Whig forces at the head of the Catawba river. When it was ascertained it would be impossible to overtake Ferguson, now evidently showing signs of fear, with the footmen, it was decided by a council of the officers, that as many as could procure horses should do so, and thus, as mounted infantry,advance rapidly upon the retreating enemy. Accordingly, Gen. Lenoir and his company offered their services, joined the select Spartan band of nine hundred and tenbrave spirits, and pressed forward without delay to the scene of action. General Lenoir was wounded in the arm and in the side, but not severely, and a third ball passed through his hair, just above whereit was tied.
He was also at the defeat of Col. Pyles, on Haw River, where hishorse was shot and his sword broken. At a later period he raised a company and marched towards Dan river with the hope of joining General Greene, but was unable to effect a junction in time. General Lenoir served as Major General of the militia about eighteen years. "