Lieutenant Colonel Elijah Isaacs was Colonel Benjamin Cleveland’s second in command of the Wilkes County Regiment of militia during the American Revolution. In August 1780, Isaacs led the Wilkes County regiment under Brigadier General Griffith Rutherford, commander of the Salisbury District Brigade of militia in western North Carolina. Two days before the Battle of Camden (South Carolina) Isaacs’ regiment was detached from Major General Horatio Gates' army to reinforce Colonel Thomas Sumter. Elijah Isaacs was captured when Lieutenant–Colonel Banastre Tarleton defeated Sumter’s forces at the Battle of Fishing Creek on August 18, 1780.