Francis Nash Francis Nash ( c . 1742 – October 7 , 1777 ) was a brigadier general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War . Prior to the war , he was a lawyer , public official , and politician in Hillsborough , North Carolina , and was heavily involved in opposing the Regulator movement , an uprising of settlers in the North Carolina piedmont between 1765 and 1771 . Nash was also involved in North Carolina politics , representing Hillsborough on several occasions in the colonial North Carolina General Assembly . Nash quickly became engaged in revolutionary activities , and served as a delegate to the first three Patriot provincial congresses . In 1775 , he was named lieutenant colonel of the 1st North Carolina Regiment under Colonel James Moore , and served briefly in the southern theater of the Revolutionary War before being ordered north . Nash was made a brigadier general in 1777 upon Moore ' s death , and given command of the North Carolina brigade of the Continental Army under General George Washington . He led North Carolina ' s soldiers in the Philadelphia campaign , but was wounded at the Battle of Germantown on October 4 , 1777 , and died several days later . Nash was one of only ten Patriot generals to die from wounds received in combat between 1775 and 1781 . He is honored by several city and county names , including those of Nashville , Tennessee , Nashville , North Carolina , and Nash County , North Carolina . Early life and family . Nash was born around 1742 in Amelia County , Virginia ( in an area that would later become Prince Edward County ) to John and Ann Owen Nash . His parents were originally from Wales , and several of his seven siblings , including at least one brother , were born there . One of Nash ' s brothers was Abner Nash , who later became a statesman in North Carolina . By 1763 , Francis Nash had moved along with Abner to Childsburgh , which later became Hillsborough . There Francis started a law practice , and became a clerk of court in 1763 , a position which paid an annual stipend of £100 sterling . The Nash brothers also owned substantial property in the town , and established a mill on the Eno River , while Francis invested in a local store . From 1764 to 1765 , he served his first term in the North Carolina Assembly representing Orange County . In 1770 , Nash married Sarah Moore , the daughter of colonial jurist Maurice Moore , niece of James Moore , and sister of future United States Supreme Court Alfred Moore . Their union would produce two daughters : Ann , who died as a child , and Sarah , who went on to marry John Waddell , the son of North Carolina colonial soldier Hugh Waddell , and was the grandmother to American Civil War Confederate blockade runner James Iredell Waddell . Nash had two children out of wedlock , one of whom some scholars identify as a son also named Francis Nash , possibly born in 1770 or 1771 . The mother of one of the children was reported as Hillsborough barmaid Ruth Jackson . The elder Nash provided Jackson with property west of Hillsborough , and several slaves . War of the Regulation and pre - Revolution politics . Nash showed an interest in military affairs while living in Hillsborough , and received informal military training from a retired English soldier living there . He worked his way up through the Orange County militia ranks until he eventually became its commanding colonel . During the War of the Regulation , in 1768 , he ordered the militia to put down several riots incited by the Regulators , but the militiamen were sympathetic towards the rioters and refused . Nash entered into a pact with others including Edmund Fanning , Adlai Osborne , and future governor Alexander Martin , to protect one another ' s property against Regulator threats , but the parties to that agreement lived at great distances from each other , rendering the pact ineffective . Along with Fanning , who was a personal friend , Nash was accused of extorting money from Hillsborough ' s residents . Regulator leaders attempted to have Nash tried for corruption , but the charges against him were dismissed . In September 1770 , a group of Regulators took control of Hillsborough , forcing Nash and other public officials to flee for fear of bodily harm . Nash subsequently fought alongside Governor William Tryon in the Battle of Alamance against the Regulator militia . He served in the " Lower House " of the colonial Assembly in 1771 and from 1773 to 1775 as a representative for Hillsborough . In 1774 , Royal Governor Josiah Martin postponed the scheduled convening of the colonial Assembly in order to prevent the North Carolina Assembly from selecting delegates to the proposed Continental Congress , which was to begin in Philadelphia in September . In response , members of the Assembly , many of whom would later become Patriot supporters , convened the First North Carolina Provincial Congress in August 1774 . Nash and his brother , Abner , were both elected to that body , along with 69 other North Carolinians , which then selected delegates to the Continental Congress . Governor Martin condemned the Provincial Congress as an extra - legal body not permitted to assemble and represent the people of North Carolina . In an attempt to quash its work , the Governor called the colonial Assembly to convene on April 5 , 1775 , but the Second North Carolina Provincial Congress met in a session several hours before the Assembly was set to open and many of the congressional delegates , including Nash , voted to support the work of the Continental and Provincial Congresses . In response , Martin dissolved the Assembly . The Royal government would never again call an Assembly to session in North Carolina . American Revolutionary War . Southern theater . In 1775 , Nash served in the Third North Carolina Provincial Congress , which organized eight regiments of soldiers on instructions from the Continental Congress . Later that year , the Provincial Congress appointed Nash lieutenant colonel of the 1st North Carolina Regiment under the command of then - colonel James Moore . In November , the 1st North Carolina was formally integrated into the Continental Army organization . Nash served as an officer under Moore during the maneuvers that led up to the Battle of Moore ' s Creek Bridge in February 1776 but , like Moore , did not participate in the battle , arriving after its conclusion . During April 1776 , Nash was promoted to colonel to replace Moore , who had been promoted to brigadier general . Nash took part in the expedition to aid Charleston in 1776 , which culminated in the Battle of Sullivan ' s Island . Immediately prior to that engagement , Nash had been ordered by Major General Charles Lee , commander of the Southern Department , to relieve William Moultrie ' s South Carolina troops on Sullivan ' s Island , but the British assault prevented that relief . Moultrie would go on to successfully defend the island from a much larger British force , while Nash ' s unit guarded the unfinished rear of Fort Sullivan . Philadelphia campaign . Nash returned with his regiment to North Carolina in anticipation of joining General George Washington ' s army in the north , but fears of British and Indian attacks in Georgia prevented any such action , and caused Nash to remain in his home state . On February 5 , 1777 , he was promoted to brigadier general by the Continental Congress . He was also tasked with recruiting more soldiers from the western part of the state , but was forced to abandon that task after James Moore ' s death on April 15 , 1777 . Nash was then placed in command of the North Carolina brigade . Although fellow North Carolinian Robert Howe ' s commission as a brigadier general predated Nash ' s , Howe had been made commander of the Southern Department of the Continental Army , and he was forced to remain in command of the troops defending South Carolina . Nash marched north to join Washington ' s army and commanded all nine North Carolina Continental Army regiments at the Battle of Brandywine . Battle of Germantown and death . After the British captured Philadelphia on September 11 , 1777 , Washington took to the offensive and struck at the main part of the British Army near Philadelphia in the Battle of Germantown . Initially , the North Carolina brigade was intended to serve in the Continental Army ' s reserve but Washington , out of a desire to defend his flank , ordered Nash into action . Nash was commanding a fighting retreat , slowly moving his unit backwards to stall the British advance , when , on October 4 , 1777 , he was mortally wounded by a cannonball that struck him in the hip and killed his horse . The same cannonball killed Major James Witherspoon , son of John Witherspoon , the president of Princeton University and a signer of the Declaration of Independence . Nash may have also been blinded by a musket ball that struck him in the head . Thomas Paine , who saw him taken off the battlefield , later stated that Nash ' s wounds had made him unrecognizable . Nash was treated by Washington ' s personal physician , James Craik , who could not stem his bleeding , which was reported to have fully soaked through two mattresses . Nash succumbed to his wounds on October 7 at a private residence near Kulpsville , Pennsylvania . His final words are alleged to have been " From the first dawn of the Revolution I have been ever on the side of liberty and my country " . He was buried in the Towamencin Mennonite Meetinghouse Cemetery in Towamencin Township , Pennsylvania , on October 9 , 1777 , along with other officers who had perished at Germantown . Most of the Continental Army ' s senior officers , including Washington himself , attended the funeral service . Nash ' s friend and colleague , Alexander Martin , who later became Governor of the State of North Carolina and who had witnessed Nash ' s wounding , subsequently composed a funeral poem in the fallen general ' s honor . Legacy . Nash was one of only ten Patriot generals who died during the American Revolutionary War . After his death , on April 29 , 1784 , Congress awarded his heirs a land grant representing 84 months of Continental Army service , which exceeded Nash ' s actual service time . Nashville , Tennessee ( originally called " Fort Nashborough " ) , Nashville , North Carolina , and Nash County , North Carolina , are named in his honor . In 1906 , a stone arch was erected on the grounds of Guilford Courthouse National Military Park in Nash ' s honor , but it was demolished in 1937 . Nash ' s home in Hillsborough is now known as the Nash - Hooper House , as it was purchased by William Hooper , a signatory to the Declaration of Independence , after Nash ' s death . In 1938 , a historical marker was placed near the house commemorating Nash ' s life and service .