John Jameson (Colonel)
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John Jameson (1751 – 20 November 1810) Jameson was of Scottish descent and was a resident of Culpeper, Virginia and belonged to the distinguished Jameson Virginian family.
John Jameson was a graduate of The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, the second oldest college in the country.
In Fairfax, Virginia under an old Oak tree during the spring of 1775, he volunteered with other men from Culpeper, Orange and Fauquier counties forming the Culpeper Minutemen. He was a Captain and company commander in the Culpeper Minutemen battalion. Their flag known by nearly all history students portray the snake and phrase "Liberty or Death" on one side and "Don't Tread on Me" on the other side.
John Jameson and John Marshall were a leading spirit amongs those famous Culpeper minute-men. These were the first soldiers raised in Virginia. Together, he and the Minutemen fought in the Battle of Great Bridge, the first Revolutionary War battle on Virginia soil, where the minutemen defeated British troops under John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, permanently ending British control of Virginia.
Mr. Jameson was elected June 13, 1776, by the Virginia Convention, captain of the Third Troop of Horse. He had six competitors for the position, and received forty-eight vote, while his competitors received respectively 17, 15, 9, 4, 3, 2 votes. One of his competitors was Henry Lee. Jameson took command June 16, 1776 as captain in a Virginia regiment of dragoons; promoted March 31, 1777, major 1st Continental Light Dragoons, and transferred April 7, 1777, to 3rd Continental Light Dragoons. He fought at the Battle of Brandywine. While staying with George Washington at Valley Forge, Major Jameson was wounded in a skirmish nearby on January 21, 1778. Throughout that year and the next he remained at Washington's side, engaged at the Battle of Monmouth, New Jersey in June, and promoted to Colonel in August of 1779.
As a Colonel in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War he was instrumental in exposing the treason of Benedict Arnold. In 1780, General George Washington placed key commanders in strategic areas around West Point, New York, and Colonel Jameson was placed in Tarrytown, New York under the supervision of General Benedict Arnold. A man calling himself "John Anderson" was intercepted and found to be in possession of documents that included information regarding the defenses of West Point and the movements of the American army. Since the papers were found in an odd place, "under the feet of his stockings", Colonel Jameson became alarmed, arrested Anderson, and alerted General Arnold, though he had suspicions about Arnold as well. Anderson was carrying a pass signed by the General, and Arnold was noted to be "very desirous of the Papers and everything being sent with him." Because of the serious nature of the papers and his distrust of Arnold, Jameson wrote to General Washington, enclosing the papers taken from Anderson. Upon examining the papers, Washington called for Anderson, who then confessed that he was British major John André, envoy to the British commander in chief, Sir Henry Clinton. The investigation further revealed that Benedict Arnold, as commandant of West Point, agreed in 1780 to surrender the fort to the enemy in return for a royal commission in the British army and a large sum of money. Because of Jameson's intuition, Arnold's plot was foiled, and the attempt to pass control of West Point to the British was thwarted.
Colonel John Jameson was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, in Virginia, and was present at their meeting held Dec. 13, 1802, in Richmond, Va., when it was voted to appropriate some of their funds, to the amount of $25,000, to found Washington College in Maryland.
He was described as being 6' tall, blue-eyed and fair-complexion with black hair. After the war he was awarded over 416 acres of land some of which was located in Green Co., Ohio. He owned many thousands acres of land throughout Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky.
Colonel John Jameson was a member at the Freemasonry chapter in Alexandria, Virginia. He is buried at the Culpeper Masonic Cemetery in Culpeper, Virginia.
Colonel John Jameson’s uncle was Lieutenant Governor David Jameson of Yorktown, Virginia who severed from 1780-81 under the Governorship of Thomas Nelson, Jr., signor of the “United States Declaration of Independence” and served in August of 1780 briefly as Governor when Nelson took ill. He was elected as a State Senator in 1783. He also served in the Senate during the War in 1776-1777, serving on Patrick Henry's Privy Council.
