Colonel Robert Love

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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.

Colonel Robert Love's Revolutionary War Service and Pension Record:

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)

Robert Love entered military service in 1776 from what is currently Wythe County, Virginia. In 1776, Robert Love was stationed at Fort Robertson, which was located at the head of the Clinch and Sandy rivers in what was then Montgomery County, Virginia. Robert served as a sergeant in Captain John Stephens Company against the Shawnee Indians from April to October of 1778. In 1780 he served about six months against the Tories as a lieutenant under Colonel William Campbell. This service was rendered on Tom's Creek at the Moravian Old Town in North Carolina, and on an excursion up to and near the Shallow Ford of the Yadkin. In 1781 Love spent about two months in Guilford County, North Carolina. While at Guilford County on March 6, the Americans fought Cornwallis in the Battle at Wetzell's Mills (aka Whitesell's, Wetzel's, Weitzel's, Wetzell's). From June to October of 1782,  Robert Love was stationed at Fort Robertson as a lieutenant in Captain William Love's Company.

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.

Colonel Robert Love's House Burned to the Ground by Yankee Raiders:

By 1865 the Confederacy had failed, and Colonel George W. Kirk and the Union's 3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry Regiment believed it would encounter minimal opposition and resistance as they continued sacking Western North Carolina communities. However, although the Confederacy was doomed, the Thomas Legion's highest calling was protecting North Carolina's mountain citizens. In late February and early March of 1865, Union Col. George W. Kirk continued his raids into Western N.C. Colonel George W. Kirk and the men of the Union Army's 3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry Regiment (AKA North Carolina Federal Mounted Infantry) were commonly referred to as "Kirk's Raiders," because they often pillaged and plundered the region. On February 4th Kirk and a small army of 400 cavalry and 200 infantry left Newport, Tennessee, and crossed into Haywood County, North Carolina, via the old Cataloochee Turnpike on a raid that reached Waynesville, the county seat. Kirk's Raiders (armed with Spencer repeating rifles) soon entered Waynesville and pillaged stores, stole numerous horses, killed about 20 men, and burned several houses, including Confederate Lt. Col. James R. Love's house (also the former residence of James R. Love's grandfather, the Revolutionary War hero Robert Love). Next they attacked the Waynesville jail, freed the prisoners, and then burned the jail. Slow and impeded communication, the vastness of Western North Carolina, and few “Home Guard” made it extremely difficult to defend the area. 

Colonel Robert Love Summary:

Robert Love was born in Augusta County, Virginia, on May 11, 1760. When called into service he was residing in Montgomery County, Virginia (currently Wythe County, Virginia). He died on July 17, 1845, in Waynesville, Haywood County, North Carolina.
After the revolution, and with his parents deceased, he moved to what was then Washington County, North Carolina, but is now part of Tennessee. About one year later, in 1782, he married Mary Ann Dillard, the daughter of Col. Thomas Dillard of Virginia. Love represented Washington County in the North Carolina Legislature in 1789. He moved to Buncombe County, North Carolina, in 1792 and was elected to the State Senate of North Carolina. In 1809 Love donated land in Haywood County, North Carolina, for a courthouse, jail and town square. This formed Mount Prospect which was quickly renamed Waynesville in honor of his commanding officer during the war. He helped to establish the final state boundary line between North Carolina and Tennessee in 1821 (see Robert Love Survey of 1820 at bottom of page).

Bibliography: Robert Love's Pension and Service Record; Mary Love Stringfield of Haywood County, North Carolina, a descendant of Robert Love-F.D. Love; Love Family Volume I, First Series, Columbus, Georgia © 2001; Matthew D. Parker (Private Collection); National Park Service; John Preston Arthur, History of Western North Carolina: Edward Buncombe Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Asheville, North Carolina, 1914; John Hill Wheeler (1806-1882), Reminiscences and Memoirs of North Carolina and Eminent North Carolinians; Wheeler's History of North Carolina, Vol. I. 97; Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies; Vernon H. Crow, Storm in the Mountains: Thomas' Confederate Legion of Cherokee Indians and Mountaineers; Walter Clark, Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina in the Great War 1861-1865; National Park Service: American Civil War; Weymouth T. Jordan and Louis H. Manarin, North Carolina Troops, 1861-1865; D. H. Hill, Confederate Military History Of North Carolina: North Carolina In The Civil War, 1861-1865; Christopher M. Watford, The Civil War in North Carolina: Soldiers' and Civilians' Letters and Diaries, 1861-1865. Volume 2: The Mountains; Library of Congress; National Archives and Records Administration; State Library of North Carolina; North Carolina Office of Archives and History; North Carolina Museum of History; E. Stanly Godbolt, Jr. and Mattie U. Russell, Confederate Colonel and Cherokee Chief: The Life of William Holland Thomas; Paul A. Thomsen, Rebel Chief: The Motley Life of Colonel William Holland Thomas C.S.A.

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