On May 13, 1776, the NC Provincial Congress appointed Thomas Eaton as Colonel/Commandant over the Bute County Regiment of Militia, replacing Col. Philemon Hawkins, Jr., who resigned his commission soon after being appointed.

On January 30, 1779, the NC General Assembly created Franklin and Warren Counties out of the abolished Bute County, and soon thereafter they appointed Thomas Eaton as Colonel/Commandant over the newly-created Warren County Regiment of Militia. Available records indicate that he retained this position until the end of the war in 1783.

Col. Thomas Eaton led the Warren County Regiment of Militia at the battle of Briar Creek, GA on March 3, 1779. Most sources indicate that Col. Thomas Eaton led all of the Halifax District Brigade of Militia on the Purrysburg, SC expedition of late 1778/early 1779. Brig. Gen. Allen Jones is not known to have marched southward with his brigade, but this fact may have simply fallen between the cracks and not documented.

On November 11, 1779, Thomas Eaton was appointed as Brigadier General (Pro Tempore) over the Halifax District Brigade of Militia while Brig. Gen. Allen Jones was serving as a delegate to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, PA. When Allen returned to North Carolina, he resumed as the Brig. Gen. over his former brigade.

During March of 1781, Brig. Gen. Allen Jones was quite ill and had to relinquish command of the Halifax District Brigade of Militia for a short duration. Thomas Eaton was once again appointed Brigadier General (Pro Tempore) over the Halifax District Brigade of Militia and led this brigade for a short duration, including at the battle of Guilford Court House on March 15, 1781.

Available records indicate that Col. Thomas Eaton returned as the Colonel/Commandant over the Warren County Regiment of Militia soon after the battle of Guilford Court House and he retained this position until the end of the war in 1783.

After the war, Thomas Eaton was appointed Brigadier General over the Halifax District Brigade of Militia on December 13, 1787, upon the resignation of Allen Jones.

Thomas Eaton, the son of William Eaton and Mary Rives, was born c.1739 in North Carolina and he died in June of 1809 in Warren County, NC. He first married Anna Bland in 1761, and they had one daughter - Anna. He married a second time to Anna Stith and they had three known children - Thomas Buckner, William, and Harriett. Thomas Eaton married a third time to Elizabeth Jones.

Thomas Eaton served in the Colonial Assemby from 1769 to 1771. In 1771, Royal Governor William Tryon appointed Thomas Eaton as a Colonel in the Bute County Militia during the War of the Regulation. Thomas Eaton was a delegate to the Third Provincial Congress of August 1775 in Hillsborough and to the Fifth Provincial Congress of November 1776 in Halifax. One source asserts he was also a delegate to the 2nd Provincial Congress of 1775, but this Author has never been able to find a reliable list of those delegates.

Click Here for a brief online biography of Thomas Eaton provided by Wikipedia.com.

Click Here for a decent online biography of Thomas Eaton provided by William S. Powell.