Thomas McCulloch
Watch the segment from WLOS TV on May 20, 2022 about this being the oldest marked grave in Western NC.
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Thomas McCulloch was the Revolutionary War's first soldier buried in Little Britain Church Cemetery. Thomas was born in Albemarle County, Virginia in 1735. A prominent settler of the Halston River basin, he later moved to Washington County in Virginia in 1769 settling on Moccasin Creek; and there he was a surveyor while living in Abington, Virginia.
He enlisted and served under major William Edmondson and Colonel William Campbell. He served as a Lieutenant and was mortally wounded in the Battle of Kings Mountain. Following the battle he was carried on a skin carried by four soldiers. The soldiers traveled the Overmountain Trail back to Gilbertown coming to Fort McGaughey located next to Brittain Church. He was the first person buried in the cemetery a few yards from the wall of the fort.
On the tombstone was this inscription "Here lies the body of Lieutenant Thomas McCulloch, belonging to Colonel Ferguson's infamous company of banditti, at Kings Mountain, 7 October 1780." This was written on his first crude stone at his grave.
He enlisted and served under major William Edmondson and Colonel William Campbell. He served as a Lieutenant and was mortally wounded in the Battle of Kings Mountain. Following the battle he was carried on a skin carried by four soldiers. The soldiers traveled the Overmountain Trail back to Gilbertown coming to Fort McGaughey located next to Brittain Church. He was the first person buried in the cemetery a few yards from the wall of the fort.
On the tombstone was this inscription "Here lies the body of Lieutenant Thomas McCulloch, belonging to Colonel Ferguson's infamous company of banditti, at Kings Mountain, 7 October 1780." This was written on his first crude stone at his grave.
Thomas McCulloch left his wife named Isabella with the following children in Virginia: John, who was also in the battle of Kings mountain and with his father when he died, Robert, Rachel, Sarah and Mary. Today from all over the United States his descendants come to the Brittain Presbyterian Church Cemetery to see his grave.