Samuel Hopkins

Son of Samuel Hopkins and grandson of Dr. Arthur Hopkins, of Goochland County, Virginia, and Elizabeth Pettus, his wife, born in Albemarle county, Virginia, about 1750; was an officer in the Continental Army, and fought at Princeton, Trenton, Monmouth, and Brandywine. At the battle of Germantown his battalion of light infantry was nearly annihilated, and he was severely wounded. He was lieutenant-colonel of the Tenth Virginia Regiment at the siege of Charleston, and after the death of Col. Richard Parker became its colonel, serving as such until the end of the war.

He was taken prisoner with other officers, at the surrender of Charleston, May 20, 1780. While they were being taken in a British vessel to Virginia, he complained to the captain of harsh treatment and need of food, and threatened to raise a mutiny unless they were treated as officers and gentlemen, which bold language secured proper care during the rest of the voyage.

In 1797 he settled on Green River, Kentucky, and served for several sessions in the legislature of that state.

In 1812 he led two thousand mounted volunteers against the Kickapoo villages on the Illinois River, but the party was misled by the guides, and returned, after wandering for several days about the prairie. In November he led a body of infantry up the Wabash, and destroyed several deserted villages, but lost a part of his force by ambuscade. He returned to Vincennes, after destroying a town on Wildcat creek.

He was elected to congress from Kentucky, and took his seat June 26, 1813. After the end of his term, March 2, 1815, he retired to his farm in Hopkins County, which was named for him. He died in Henderson, Kentucky, in October, 1819.
[Source: "Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography" edited by Lyon Gardiner Tyler, 1915, Submitted by Frances Cooley]