John Jameson (colonel)

John Jameson (1751 – 20 November 1810) was an American soldier, most notable for his service during the American Revolutionary War. He was of Scottish descent and was a resident of Culpeper, Virginia and belonged to the distinguished Jameson Virginian family.

John Jameson was a graduate of The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, the second oldest college in the country.

In Culpeper, Virginia (what was then called Fairfax, Virginia) under an old Oak tree during the spring of 1775, he volunteered with other men from Culpeper, Orange and Fauquier counties forming the Culpeper Minutemen. He was a Captain and company commander in the Culpeper Minutemen battalion. Making use of popular symbols and phrases of the period, the battalion's flag featured an obverse field containing an emblem of a snake (a symbol of the colonies) and the American Revolutionary mottoes "Liberty or Death" and "Don't Tread on Me."

Jameson and John Marshall were a leading spirit amongst the famous Culpeper minute-men. These were the first soldiers raised in Virginia. Together, he and the Minutemen fought in the Battle of Great Bridge, the first Revolutionary War battle on Virginia soil, where the minutemen defeated British troops under John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, temporarily ending British control of Virginia.

Jameson was elected June 13, 1776, by the Virginia Convention, captain of the Third Troop of Horse. He had six competitors for the position, and received forty-eight vote, while his competitors received respectively 17, 15, 9, 4, 3, 2 votes. One of his competitors was Henry Lee. Jameson took command June 16, 1776 as captain in a Virginia regiment of dragoons; promoted March 31, 1777, major 1st Continental Light Dragoons, and transferred April 7, 1777, to 3rd Continental Light Dragoons. He fought at the Battle of Brandywine. While staying with George Washington at Valley Forge, Major Jameson was wounded in a skirmish nearby on January 21, 1778. Throughout that year and the next he remained at Washington's side, engaged at the Battle of Monmouth, New Jersey in June, and promoted to Colonel in August 1779.

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