Thomas Overton
American army officer
Thomas Overton (August 15, 1753 – February 27, 1824) was an American military and political leader, best known for having been the second to Andrew Jackson in his duel with Charles Dickinson in 1806.
Biography
Thomas Overton was born in Louisa County, Virginia, on August 15, 1753. His parents were James Overton and Mary Waller. His younger brother, John (of Travellers Rest) would go on to become one of Andrew Jackson's closest friends and was the founder of the city of Memphis. Overton served throughout the Revolutionary War in the Continental Army, and was an original member of the Society of the Cincinnati in Virginia.
He was first appointed 2nd Lieutenant in the 9th Virginia Regiment in 1776 and was promoted to 1st Lieutenant in 1778. He was transferred to the 1st Virginia Regiment on March 14, 1778, and was made a Lieutenant, adjutant of the 4th Continental Dragoons on July 1, 1779. He was made a Captain on April 24, 1781.
He spent a number of years in mid-life in North Carolina (where he represented Moore County as a Senator in the State Legislature, which made him a Brigadier General), and around 1804 he moved to Tennessee, where he died on February 27, 1824.
Personal life
Overton married Sarah Woodson in 1787, and they were married until her death.
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This entry incorporates text from “Thomas Overton” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.