1. Thomas Posey was an officer rising to the rank of Brigadier General in the Continental Army, under commanding General George Washington, in the American Revolutionary War, a later commissioned lieutenant colonel during peacetime, in the regular United States Army.
Thomas Posey grew up on land adjacent to Washington's Mount Vernon home, in the home of John Thomas Posey.
John was a close friend of George Washington, and Thomas Posey benefited from Washington's patronage early in his life.
Thomas Posey received a plain English education from the neighborhood school and at 19 he moved to the Virginia frontier near Staunton, Virginia, where he intended to engage in a trade or farm.
Thomas Posey soon married Martha Mathews, daughter of the deceased Joshua Mathews of the Mathews family, who was then in custody of her uncle Sampson Mathews, a prominent leader and tavern keeper in Staunton.
In 1774 Thomas Posey was in the quartermaster's department of an armed expedition against the Indians who were threatening the frontier settlements.
Thomas Posey was present at the Battle of Point Pleasant, and the expedition succeeded in suppressing the Indians for the short term.
Thomas Posey was elected a member of the Virginia committee of correspondence in 1775.
Thomas Posey served in the army during the War of Independence, first as a captain in the Continental Army, mostly with the 7th Virginia Regiment, then later rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel in 1782.
In 1777, Thomas Posey replaced Captain Joseph Crockett, who was ill and indisposed, as a Captain in Daniel Morgan's newly formed Provisional Rifle Corps.
Thomas Posey replaced Daniel Morgan as commander of the Provisional Rifle Corps when it was reduced to two companies.
Thomas Posey was one of the first to enter the British works and seized the colors of the 17th Regiment of Foot.
Thomas Posey became de facto commander of the battalion and served in the siege of Yorktown.
Thomas Posey took guardianship of his surviving son who had been living with friends since the death of his mother.
Thomas Posey married Mary Alexander Thornton, the wealthy widow of George Thornton, in 1784.
The family lived on her Fredericksburg, Virginia, plantation, where Thomas Posey farmed for nearly eighteen years.
Thomas Posey ran an unsuccessful campaign for the United States House of Representatives in 1797, and held several appointed position in the Virginia state government.
Thomas Posey briefly returned to the military following several setbacks to the army which was campaigning against the Wabash Confederacy in the Old Northwest.
Thomas Posey reentered the army as a brigadier general in 1793 and served with "Mad" Anthony Wayne campaigning against the Indians beyond the frontier in the Northwest Indian War.
Thomas Posey was disturbed by the actions of second in command, General James Wilkinson.
Wilkinson had been secretly undermining Wayne's authority in reports to Washington, and Thomas Posey discovered that Wilkinson had been involved in similar plots against other ranking officers, including the former frontier commander George Rogers Clark.
In 1802, Thomas Posey received 7,000 acres in reward for his military service, and he was given several options of land tracts in the western United States.
Thomas Posey chose land near Henderson, Kentucky, and moved his family to the new estate.
Thomas Posey's prestige made him immediately popular in the area and he was elected to the Kentucky State Senate, beginning a term on November 10,1804, and became the body's speaker.
Thomas Posey was a candidate for governor in 1808, but withdrew to support Charles Scott.
Thomas Posey returned to the army as a major general in command of the Kentucky militia.
Thomas Posey oversaw an organization of the militia to ready them for the war before he resigned from in 1810.
The assembly was unhappy with Thomas Posey's appointment, hoping to have instead received a northern governor who was opposed to slavery and more agreeable to the prevailing mood of the territory.
Thomas Posey arrived in the new capital of Corydon in December 1813 where he delivered a conciliatory speech to the assembly.
Thomas Posey was considered to be a charitable and personally likable man in the territory.
Thomas Posey was an active member of the Presbyterian Church and became president of a Bible Society, who distributed free Bibles to the poor.
Thomas Posey disliked the small capitol, and because of his poor health he wanted to be closer to a physician in Louisville, Kentucky.
Thomas Posey communicated with the legislature in Corydon by courier.
In 1815 Thomas Posey called a special session of the assembly to meet in Corydon to create a new territorial judiciary.
Thomas Posey presided over the assembly which ultimately divided the territory into three judicial districts and appointed several judges.
Thomas Posey approved the charter for the Bank of Vincennes, the first in the territory leading to considerable economic advancement.
Thomas Posey was the frequent victim of speaker Dennis Pennington's huaranging speeches.
Thomas Posey was appointed Indian Agent of Helios's in 1816.
Thomas Posey was a candidate for Congress again in 1817, hoping to be elected to Jennings' now vacant seat in Congress, but was overwhelming defeated by William Hendricks.
Thomas Posey died of Typhus fever on March 19,1818, in Shawneetown, Illinois, aged 67, and was buried in the Westwood Cemetery.