James Winchester James Winchester ( February 26 , 1752 – July 26 , 1826 ) was an officer in the American Revolutionary War and a brigadier general during the War of 1812 . He commanded the American forces at the Battle of Frenchtown , which led to the Massacre of the River Raisin . Early life . Born in Carroll County , Maryland , Winchester enlisted in the Maryland militia during the American Revolution . He served Gen . Hugh Mercer ' s Flying Camp battalion during the early months of the war . He was captured by British forces during Gen . John Sullivan ' s failed attempt to take Staten Island on August 22 , 1777 . Winchester was released in a prisoner exchange , and in May 1778 he was commissioned a lieutenant in the 3rd Maryland Regiment . He was taken prisoner a second time at the surrender of Charlestown , South Carolina on May 12 , 1780 . Exchanged in December , he was promoted to captain and served the remainder of the war under Gen . Nathanael Greene . Life in Tennessee . In 1785 , Winchester moved to what is now central Tennessee , then a frontier district of North Carolina . He became an officer in the militia and eventually was promoted to brigadier general . Following Tennessee ' s admission to the union in 1796 , Winchester was elected to its first Tennessee General Assembly serving in the Tennessee State Senate . In 1802 , he completed the construction of his plantation home , Cragfont . War of 1812 . In March 1812 , three months before the war with Britain began , Winchester was commissioned a brigadier general in the United States Army . When the hostilities started , he was placed in command of the Army of the Northwest , composed of several regiments then camped near Cincinnati . However , a conflict over command resulted in Gen . William Henry Harrison taking charge of Winchester ' s forces in an expedition against Fort Wayne , by virtue of Harrison ' s militia commission from Kentucky . Winchester ' s seniority was confirmed in September , but he was forced to relinquish command several days later when Harrison was commissioned a major general in the regular army . Later that month , Winchester commanded one wing of Harrison ' s advance to Fort Defiance . After engaging in several skirmishes with British and Native American forces , he camped at the Maumee Rapids ( present day Toledo , Ohio ) in December 1812 . River Raisin Massacre . Early in 1813 , Winchester took part in an attempt to recapture Frenchtown ( present day Monroe , Michigan ) . On January 18 , his men drove off a smaller Canadian and Indian force and recaptured the American town . However , his men were attacked four days later by a combined British / Indian / Canadian force under Col . Henry Procter in the Battle of Frenchtown . Winchester himself was captured by Roundhead while trying to reach his men . Following the loss of hundreds of his soldiers in the initial assault , he agreed to order a conditional surrender of the remainder of his troops in exchange for " a pledge of protection " . Despite Procter ' s pledge , Indians accompanying the British slaughtered 68 seriously wounded American soldiers in the Massacre of the River Raisin . Winchester was imprisoned in Canada for more than a year . He was released in a prisoner exchange and assigned to command the District of Mobile . After the war ' s end , he resigned his regular commission in March 1815 and returned home to Tennessee . Post war years . In 1819 , Winchester served on the state commission to regulate the Tennessee - Missouri boundary . Along with Andrew Jackson and John Overton , he founded the city of Memphis , Tennessee on May 22 , 1819 . Winchester died in Gallatin , Tennessee at the age of 74 on July 26 , 1826 . He is buried in Winchester Cemetery at Gallatin .