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.