Francis Nash, born in Prince George’s County, Virginia, on the 10th
of March, 1720, was clerk of the Superior Court of Orange County,
North Carolina, and holding a captain’s commission also under the
crown, helped to defeat the Regulators at the battle of Alamance in
1771. These insurgents had banded together for the avowed purpose of
shutting up the courts of justice, destroying all officers of law and
all lawyers, and prostrating the Government itself. In August, 1775, he
received a commission as colonel from the North Carolina Convention,
and on the 5th of February, 1777, entered the Continental service as
brigadier-general, joining the army under Washington. At the battle of
Germantown, on the 4th of October of the same year, while at the head
of his brigade, he was mortally wounded, dying a few days after. In
November of that year, Congress passed a resolution to erect a monument
to his memory at a cost of $500; but the resolution was never carried
into effect.