Background
He was born on July 9, 1750 in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, and grew up as a country boy with few educational advantages.
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Thomas Posey Edit Profile
Education
Posey received a plain English education from the neighborhood school.
Career
At the age of nineteen he removed to the Virginia frontier. A little later, trouble with the Indians opened the way to a military career, and he enlisted in the Virginia militia that Lord Dunmore and Andrew Lewis led against the Indian tribes beyond the western frontier in 1774.
With the outbreak of the Revolutionary War he became a member of the Committee of Correspondence. He was a captain and later major in the 7th Virginia Regiment and saw arduous service in various campaigns and engagements, including the battle of Saratoga and the operations against the Indians on the Pennsylvania frontier. At the storming of Stony Point he was one of the first to enter the fort. On September 8, 1782, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel.
He retired from the service on March 10, 1783. Ten years after the Revolution, on February 14, 1793, he became a brigadier-general, and he was again with his old commander, Wayne, in the campaign against the Indians of the Northwest but seems to have returned to the East before the battle of Fallen Timbers. He resigned on February 28, 1794.
At the close of the Indian war he settled in Kentucky, where he was elected to the state Senate. He was chosen speaker in 1805 and 1806 and, by virtue of that office, lieutenant-governor of the state. In 1809, when there was a call for troops owing to complications with France and Great Britain, he was assigned to the command of volunteers with the rank of major-general. Later he removed to the Attakapas region of Louisiana, where he was living when the War of 1812 broke out, and at once he raised a company of volunteers, though he is not credited with active military service during that conflict.
He was appointed United States Senator from Louisiana and served from October 8, 1812, to February 4, 1813, when he was appointed governor of Indiana Territory by President Madison to succeed William Henry Harrison. He served until Indiana became a state in 1816. His health was so impaired that he lived at Jeffersonville, a place more convenient to medical attendance than Corydon, the territorial capital. This caused some legislative inconvenience and some criticism, but at the end of his service the law-making body complimented him highly as having won its "perfect approbation".
He became a candidate for governor of the new state but was defeated by Jonathan Jennings. In 1817 he lost the election for representative to Congress. He was agent for Indian affairs for Illinois Territory from 1816 until his death at Shawneetown, Illinois.
Achievements
Religion
He was a member of the Presbyterian Church, interested in the promulgation of religion, and a member of the Masonic fraternity.
Personality
Posey was considered to be a charitable and personally likable man.
Connections
He was twice married: first to Martha Mattews of Augusta County, Virginia, and, second, to Mary (Alexander) Thornton. He left a large family of children.
References
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Born
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Died
March 19, 1818 (aged 67) -
Nationality
American -
Religion
Presbyterian Church