Kentucky Colonel significant person Isaac Shelby
History
From the early 20th century, it was widely believed, at least since the 1930s, "that when the Kentucky Militia was deactivated following the War of 1812, Governor Isaac Shelby commissioned Charles Stewart Todd as one of his officers in the campaign, made him an aide-de-camp on the governor's staff with the rank and grade of colonel in 1813". The story was proven to be a myth based in state folklore from the "Derby Colonels" which was challenged in U.S. Federal Court in 2020, when it was shown  Chas. Stewart Todd was made a captain of U.S. Army infantry in 1813, there he served as aide to General William Henry Harrison in the Battle of the Thames. In 1815, Captain Todd became Inspector-General of the Michigan Territory under General Duncan McArthur who decommissioned him with the retiring rank of colonel before returning to his home in Kentucky. There he met Governor Isaac Shelby's daughter, and subsequently wrote Governor Shelby a letter to ask for Leticia's hand in marriage. Marrying the Governor's daughter garnered him enough influence to become the youngest Secretary of State several months later under the successive Kentucky Governor George Madison.