Background
Charles was born probably in 1739 in that part of Goochland County, Virginia, United States, which later became Powhatan County.
Charles was born probably in 1739 in that part of Goochland County, Virginia, United States, which later became Powhatan County.
Scott had only an elementary English schooling.
In his seventeenth year Charles Scott served as a non-commissioned officer under Washington in the Braddock campaign. At the commencement of the Revolution, he raised the first companies of volunteers from south of James River to enter actual service, and commanded them at Williamsburg, Virginia, in July 1775.
He was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the 2nd Virginia Regiment, February 13, 1776, became colonel of the 5th in May, was transferred to the 3rd in August, and on April 2, 1777, was commissioned brigadier-general in the Continental Army. A great part of the winter of 1777-78 he spent at Valley Forge. He rendered gallant service at Trenton, Germantown, Monmouth, and Stony Point, and in 1780 was captured at Charleston, South Carolina, remaining on parole thereafter until his exchange near the close of the war.
He was brevetted major-general September 30, 1783, and was one of the original members of the Society of the Cincinnati. By an act of the Virginia legislature in October 1783, Scott was designated one of a deputation of officers of the Continental line to appoint superintendents and surveyors to locate and survey the western lands given by law to the officers and soldiers on the Continental establishment.
He removed to Kentucky two years later and settled in that part of Fayette afterwards taken to form the county of Woodford. In 1789 and 1790 he represented Woodford County in the Virginia Assembly. In April 1790 he was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general.
Between May 23 and June 4, 1791, with Colonel James Wilkinson as second in command, he conducted an expedition against the Indians on the Wabash River, and in the fall, advancing from Cincinnati with a force of Kentuckians, he was with General Arthur St. Clair at the disastrous defeat of November 4, 1791.
On October 24, 1793, with 1, 000 mounted Kentuckians, he joined General Anthony Wayne for another projected campaign against the Indians, but the operation was abandoned. In the following summer, however, at the head of about 1, 500 mounted Kentucky volunteers, Scott took part with Wayne's army in the battle of the Fallen Timbers in August 20, 1794.
A type of the strong man of the frontier whose military leadership led to leadership in politics, he was chosen presidential elector from Kentucky in 1793, 1801, 1805, and 1809, and in August 1808 was elected governor of the state. He served in that capacity four years. In his public utterances before the War of 1812 he boldly declared the duty of his fellow countrymen in the emergency, and one of his last official acts was to commission General William Henry Harrison of the United States Army a major-general of the Kentucky militia in order to give him unquestioned authority over Kentucky troops participating in the northwestern campaign.
Scott died at her home, "Canewood, " in Clark County, Kentucky.
Charles Scott represented Woodford County in the Virginia Assembly, took part in the expedition of against the Indians on the Scioto, was a member of the local board of war and commandant of the Kentucky district. He also took part in the battle of the Fallen Timbers (August 20, 1794), which resulted in a decisive victory over the Indians. He was the governor of Kentucky. In 1792 Scott County, created out of Woodford County, was named for him.
Scott had naturally sound judgment and good sense. He was frank and direct in speech, simple and unaffected in social intercourse.
Scott married, February 25, 1762, Frances Sweeney of Cumberland County, Virginia, by whom he had several children. She died in October 1804, and on July 25, 1807, he married Judith Cary (Bell) Gist, widow of Colonel Nathaniel Gist and daughter of Captan. David Bell, formerly of Buckingham County, Virginia. She survived him, dying in 1833.
