Colonel Robert Love was an American Revolutionary War soldier that served in the command of General "Mad" Anthony Wayne. Robert Love is also the founder of Waynesville, North Carolina, which he named in honor of his commanding officer.

Robert Love was born near the Tinkling Springs Church in Augusta County, Virginia, May 11, 1760, and was the son of Samuel and Dorcas Love. Robert died on July 17, 1845, in Waynesville, Haywood County, North Carolina. He was one of the earliest pioneers in the settlement and development of Western North Carolina. He was also prominent in the early history of that Region and he figured in the rise and fall of the State of Franklin, which Governor John Sevier attempted to establish. He conducted the Robert Love Survey of 1820 (see related reading below) and was well known to President Andrew Jackson. Robert Love is the progenitor of a large and influential family. His brother, General Thomas Love, was also a prominent North Carolina politician.

On the April 5, 1833, Colonel Robert Love made application for a pension under the Act of Congress of June 7, 1832, attaching his commission signed by Ben. Harrison, Governor of Virginia. But, when the date of his commission was questioned, President Andrew "Old Hickory" Jackson wrote from The Hermitage and stated that he had known Colonel Robert Love since the fall of 1784 and further declared: " I sincerely regret to find from the contents of your letter the treatment which that worthy man & patriot, Col. Robert Love, has received at the hands of the pension office....no man in this Union has sustained a higher reputation for integrity than Col. Robert Love, with all men and with all parties, although himself a uniform democratic Republican, and that no man stands deservedly higher as a man of great moral worth than Col. Love..." Even Jackson's endorsement, however, did not serve to secure the pension. Consequently, E. H. McClure of Haywood County, North Carolina, filed an affidavit to the effect that the date of the commission was 1781 or 1782. Colonel Robert Love was subsequently granted the pension. (State Colonial Records, Vol. xxii, p.74; Colonel Robert Love Papers-Matthew D. Parker Private Collection)

Colonel Robert Love's pension and service records further reflect that he was a member of the expedition with Colonel Christie in 1776 against the Cherokees; that he served under the command of General "Mad" Anthony Wayne at Fort Patrick Henry on Long Island of the Holston in 1777; was stationed at the head of the Clinch and Sandy rivers at Fort Robertson in 1778; operated against the Shawnees from April to October in 1778; while serving with Col. Wm. Campbell, from 1779 to 1780, he engaged the Tories on Tom's creek, New River, Cripple creek, Moravian Old Town, and Shallow ford of the Yadkin; in 1781 he engaged Cornwallis in Guilford County "and the adjoining county," and while serving with Gen. Pickens, he "was in a severe battle with his [Cornwallis] army at Whitesell mill and the Rudy ford of the Haw river;” then, with Capt. Wm. Doach, he was sent back "from the rendezvous at the Lead Mines to collect and bring more men;" in 1782 he "was again stationed out on the frontiers of the Clinch, at Fort Robertson...from June to October." He was living in Montgomery, now Wythe County, Va., when he entered military service in 1776.