Thomas Eaton ( general ) Thomas Eaton ( c . 1739 – June 1809 ) was a military officer in the North Carolina militia during the War of the Regulation in 1771 and American Revolutionary War from 1775 to 1784 . He was a member of the North Carolina Provincial Congress and North Carolina House of Commons for several terms simultaneously with his military service . Eaton was a member of the North Carolina Council of State under Governor Richard Caswell . Eaton commanded soldiers in the battles of Brier Creek and Guilford Courthouse . At the time of the 1790 census , Eaton was one of the largest slaveholders in North Carolina . Early life and War of the Regulation . Eaton was born to William Eaton and Mary Rives , who had moved to North Carolina from Prince George County , Virginia . Eaton was married three times , marrying his first wife , Anna Bland , in 1761 . That marriage bore one daughter , Anna , in 1763 . After purchasing land in Bute County , North Carolina , Eaton represented that county in the colonial North Carolina Assembly from 1769 to 1771 . In 1771 , Governor William Tryon named Eaton a colonel in the Bute County militia during the War of the Regulation . The militia organization supported the governor against the agrarian uprising in the piedmont region of North Carolina . Eaton served as Bute County ' s representative in the Provincial Council , which became the Council of Safety , between 1775 and 1776 . That body exercised executive powers in the state prior to the election of the state ' s first governor after the start of the American Revolution . Eaton served as President pro tempore of the Council of Safety . Also beginning in 1775 , Eaton was a delegate to the Second , Third , and Fifth North Carolina Provincial Congresses . The Fourth Provincial Congress , of which Eaton was not a delegate , appointed him a colonel in the state ' s militia . American Revolutionary War . After his appointment as a colonel in 1776 , Eaton was elected to the Council of State , an executive body which assisted the governor in managing the state ' s affairs . Eaton served under Richard Caswell in that governor ' s terms as first and fifth governor of the post - Revolution state , and was re - elected to the Council in 1779 and 1784 . In between his terms as a councillor , Eaton served with the militia in the southern theater against the British Army and its local Loyalist tributaries , but was primarily a politician , and had less military experience than many of his colleagues . On March 3 , 1779 , Eaton was in command of a regiment of militia at the Patriot defeat at the Battle of Brier Creek in Georgia . At Brier Creek , the Patriot forces were forced to retreat , and Eaton lost a pair of distinctive riding boots , which were retrieved by Loyalist Colonel John Hamilton , who had commanded the Royal North Carolina Regiment . During a dinner party after the revolution , Hamilton reportedly attempted to return the boots to their owner , only to be rebuffed violently . In November of 1779 , he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general by the North Carolina Assembly . On March 15 , 1781 , Eaton commanded a brigade of North Carolina militia at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse , where he was positioned beside another brigade of militia under Brigadier General John Butler . Commanding General Nathanael Greene considered the 1 , 000 North Carolina militiamen under Butler and Eaton ' s command to be his least - reliable troops . Eaton , as well as Butler , attempted to stop the men under their command from fleeing the field early during that battle , but could not prevent a large number of North Carolina militia from routing . Later life and death . After the death of Anna in 1781 , Eaton married his second wife , Anne Stith , with whom he had two sons . Eaton would find occasion to remarry for a final time with Elizabeth Jones , a cousin of Continental Congress delegates Willie and Allen Jones . According to the 1790 census , Eaton was one of the largest slaveholders in North Carolina , and his substantial landholdings in Bute County were a part of Warren County after Bute was divided in 1779 . Eaton died in June 1809 .