North Carolina Line. He joined the North Carolina Line at Charleston, and by orders of Brigadier General Hogan; and he was appointed a Lieutenant in 1st North Carolina Regiment, commanded by Colonel Thomas Clarke. At the surrender of Charleston on May 12, 1780, he was taken prisoner at Haddull's Point, where he remained until Summer of 1781, when he was exchanged and sent under a flag to Jamestown, Virginia. There he joined the army under the Marquis De La Fayette. In August or September, with certain North Carolina troops he joined the Army of the South under command of General Greene, under whose command he continued until peace."
He married Elizabeth Shepherd, by whom he had:
I. John B. Ashe, who moved to Tennessee, and was a representative in Congress from that State in 1843-45.
II. William Shepard Ashe, born 1814; lawyer by profession, rice planter and farmer. Elected to State Senate in 1846-48, and elected Member of Congress (31st), 1849, and re-elected to 32nd and 33rd, when he declined a re-election and in 1855 became President of the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, in which position he continued until his death. He was a man of indomitable energy, and perseverance; of irresistible personal popularity. As evidence of this he urged and procured the passage of the North Carolina Railroad by a Democratic Legislature which was not favorable to such improvement. Another instance of his great influence over his associates and his magnetic power in controlling men occurred in 1854, in procuring an appropriation of $150,000 for the Cape Fear River, from a Democratic Congress. Finding some of his Democratic friends decidedly against the work, he persuaded them to retire for awhile and they did so. Soon the House was without a quorum, and it became necessary to go out to get a quorum, to take the vote, and they were called in. The bill passed.
In the war (1861) he was of pronounced Southern feelings and was in charge of the transportation of the Confederacy with the rank of Major.
He met a tragic death--returning from Wilmington on a hand-car, on September 14, 1862, to his home, the mail train near the bridge over the North East River, ran over the hand-car, inflicting such injuries on him that he died the next day.
He married Sarah Green; and
of a once large and happy family, only two now remain--
William Swann was the eldest son of Samuel Swann and his wife, Sarah, daughter of Governor William Drummond. This Samuel Swann was the first of the name in North Carolina.
His grandfather, William, had been Collector of the Royal Customs in Virginia, and he held the same office at Edenton.
Samuel was Speaker prior to 1715. He had nine children by his first marriage two of these, William and Thomas, were Speakers of the Lower House. He was born May 11, 1653. He married a second time, Elizabeth, daughter of Major Alexander Lillington, and the widow of Colonel John Sandal. By this marriage he had Sarah, the wife of Frederrick Jones, Elizabeth, wife of John Baptista Ashe; Samuel who was also Speaker, and the greatest man of the name, and Major John Swann. The second Samuel, born October 31, 1704, married and left three children.
Edward Mosely married Anne Lillington, aunt of Samuel and John Swann, who was the widow of Henderson Walker.
On July 11, 1787 Samuel Swann fell in a duel with John Bradley. Moore's History Vol. I., 376.
William Hooper, who was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, (born 1742--died 1790), was a resident of Wilmington. He was a native of Boston, the son of Rev.
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