Jack Jouett

John "Jack" Jouett, Jr. (December 7, 1754 – March 1, 1822) was a politician and a hero of the American Revolution, known as the "Paul Revere of the South" for his late night ride to warn Thomas Jefferson, then the governor of Virginia, and the Virginia legislature of the approach of British cavalry, who had been sent to capture them. Jouett was also the father of Matthew Harris Jouett, a famous painter from Kentucky.

Jack Jouett served as a captain in the 16th Regiment of the Virginia militia during the American Revolutionary War. He was of an old Norman family of Huguenot origin settled in Touraine, and directly descended from the noble Matthieu de Jouhet, Master of the Horse to Louis XIII of France, Lord of Leveignac, and a lieutenant in the Marshalsea of Limousin, whose grandson, Daniel de Jouet, went to the Narragansett country, in Rhode Island, in 1686. Daniel's youngest son, Jean, Jack's grandfather, settled in Virginia.

Jouett, who stood 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) tall and weighed 220 lb (100 kg), was a physically imposing figure, and contemporary accounts describe him as muscular and handsome. His family, based in Albemarle County, Virginia, was very active in the revolutionary cause. Both Jouett and his father, John Sr., had signed the Albemarle Declaration, a document renouncing King George III that was signed by 202 Albemarle citizens. During the Revolution, Jouett's father supplied the military with meat for its rations and Jouett's three brothers all served in the military, including one who was killed at the Battle of Brandywine.

On June 1, 1781 British General Cornwallis learned from a captured dispatch that Governor Thomas Jefferson and Virginia's legislature had fled to Charlottesville, Virginia, the location of Jefferson's home, Monticello. Members of Virginia's government had escaped to Charlottesville after Benedict Arnold, who had defected to the British, attacked Virginia's capital, Richmond. Cornwallis ordered Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton to ride to Charlottesville, Virginia, and capture Governor Jefferson and the Virginia legislature. Tarleton hoped to capture Jefferson and the many notable revolutionary leaders who were Virginia legislators, including: Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Nelson, Jr., and Benjamin Harrison V.

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