Once more, as we move toward our nation’s semiquincentennial, I continue focusing on the Revolutionary War effort of attaining independence and the related contributions and connections of families of the Fork, the Knox County lands between the French Broad and Holston rivers.
Another Revolutionary War veteran who once lived in the Fork was Francis Merriman. Francis was born in 1757 in Cumberland County, Virginia, and enlisted nearby there in 1776 in what is now Powhattan County. He was a private led by Captain George Nicholas of the Second Regiment of Infantry of the Virginia Line commanded by Col. Spotswood in the Continental Army.
During his three years of service, Francis Merriman was in the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, Stony-Point and Petersburg, with many other additional skirmishes at various places. General George Washington’s troops began the siege of Yorktown, Virginia, on September 28, 1781, ending the Revolutionary War on October 19 with the surrender of Cornwallis. Francis Merriman was there and witnessed Cornwallis being captured…