Service/branch Infantry Died 1812 Years of service 1776–1777 | Name Charles Thruston Rank Colonel Role Colonel | |
Battles/wars Battle of Trenton (1776)
Action of Amboy (1777) | ||
Battles and wars Battle of Trenton Allegiance United States of America | ||
Charles Mynn Thruston (1738–1812) was a Virginian who led a regiment in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.
Contents
Early and Family Life
Thruston was born in Gloucester County, Virginia to John Thruston and the former Sarah Mynn. He was educated at the College of William and Mary. He married twice, first to Mary Buckner, who bore three sons before her death in 1760. In 1766 he married Ann Snicker Alexander, who bore six daughters and three sons, moved with him to Louisiana and survived her husband by 7 years.
Career
Thruston served in Col. William Byrd's regiment in the French and Indian War, and then was ordained as an Anglican priest and rector of his local Petsworth Parish. In 1768, Rev. Thruston was hired to ride among the chapels of ease in the large Frederick Parish, which covered the northern half of the Shenandoah Valley, but by 1670 some were complaining about his neglect of preaching duties. Upon the outbreak of hostilities, he resigned that position and raised a company of infantry, and later commanded an ad hoc battalion. He was wounded at Trenton in December 1776, and had his arm amputated. George Washington asked him to recruit Thruston's Additional Continental Regiment in March 1777. He returned home to Virginia and his regiment never achieved full strength and was absorbed by Gist's Additional Continental Regiment two years later.
Thruston then gave up his clerical position (which would have disqualified him from office) and was elected to represent Frederick County in the Revolutionary Convention of 1775 and later the Commonwealth's General Assembly in 1778. After the war, Thruston became a judge in Frederick County, Virginia, and a pro-slavery politician (his decision overturning Robert Carter III's emancipation of his slaves was overturned by the Virginia Supreme Court). He moved to Louisiana in 1808, and died there in 1812.
Thruston was the father of U.S. Senator Buckner Thruston and the grandfather of U.S. Brigadier General Charles Mynn Thruston.