Jethro Sumner, born in Virginia about 1730, was of English parentage. Removing to North Carolina while still a youth, he took an active part in the measures which preceded the Revolution, and believed the struggle to be unavoidable. Having held the office of paymaster to the Provincial troops, and also the command at Fort Cumberland, he was appointed in 1776, by the Provincial Congress, colonel in the Third North Carolina Regiment, and served under Washington at the North. On the 9th of January, 1779, he was commissioned brigadier-general, and ordered to join Gates at the South. He took part in the battle of Camden, and served under Greene at the battle of Eutaw Springs on the 8th of September, 1781, where he led a bayonet-charge. He served to the close of the war, rendering much assistance in keeping the Tories in North Carolina in check during the last years of the struggle, and died in Warren County, North Carolina, about 1790.
JAMES HOGAN.
James Hogan of Halifax, North Carolina, was chosen to represent his district in the Provincial Congress that assembled on the 4th of April, 1776. Upon the organization of the North Carolina forces, he was appointed paymaster of the Third Regiment. On the 17th of the same month, he was transferred to the Edenton and Halifax Militia, with the rank of major. His military services were confined to his own State, though commissioned brigadier-general in the Continental army on the 9th of January, 1779.
ISAAC HUGER.
Isaac Huger, born at Limerick Plantation at the head-waters of Cooper River, South Carolina, on the 19th of March, 1742, was the grandson of Huguenot exiles who had fled to America after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Inheriting an ardent love of civil and religious liberty, reared in a home of wealth and refinement, thoroughly educated in Europe and trained to military service through participation in an expedition against the Cherokee Indians, he was selected on the 17th of June, 1775, by the Provincial Congress, as lieutenant-colonel of the First South Carolina Regiment. Being stationed at Fort Johnson, he had no opportunity to share in the defeat of the British in Charleston Harbor, as Colonel Moultrie’s victory at Sullivan’s Island prevented premeditated attack on the city. During the two years of peace for the South that followed, Huger was promoted to a colonelcy, and then ordered to Georgia. His soldiers, however, were so enfeebled by sickness, privation, and toil that when called into action at Savannah, they could only show what they might have accomplished under more favorable circumstances. On the 9th of January, 1779, Congress made him a brigadier-general; and until the capture of Charleston by the British in May, 1780, he was in constant service either in South Carolina or Georgia. Too weak to offer any open resistance, the patriots of the South were compelled for a time to remain in hiding, but with the appearance of Greene as commander, active operations were resumed.
Huger’s thorough knowledge of the different localities and his frank fearlessness gained him the confidence of his superior officer, and it was to his direction that Greene confided the army on several occasions, while preparing for the series of engagements that culminated in the evacuation of Charleston and Savannah. Huger commanded the Virginia troops at the battle of Guilford Court-House, where he was severely wounded; and at Hobkirk’s Hill he had the honor of commanding the right wing of the army. He served to the close of the war; and when Moultrie was chosen president, he was made vice-president, of the Society of the Cincinnati of South Carolina. Entering the war a rich man, he left it a poor one; he gave his wealth as freely as he had risked his life, and held them both well spent in helping to secure the blessings of liberty and independence to his beloved country. He died on the 17th of October, 1797, and was buried on the banks of the Ashley River, South Carolina.