Charles Scott (governor)

Major General Charles Scott (April 1739 – October 22, 1813) was an American military officer and politician who served as the governor of Kentucky from 1808 to 1812. Orphaned in his teens, Scott enlisted in the Virginia Regiment in 1755 and served in the French and Indian War, rising through the ranks to become a captain. After the war, he married and settled down to life as a farmer, but returned to active military service in 1775 as the Revolutionary War neared. In 1776, Scott was made the 5th Virginia Regiment's colonel, serving under George Washington in the Philadelphia campaign. Furloughed in 1779, Scott soon returned to active service and went to South Carolina to assist General Benjamin Lincoln. He arrived in Charleston just as British forces had begun besieging it. Captured when the city fell, Scott was exchanged in 1782, completing several recruiting assignments before the war's end in 1783.

Scott visited the western frontier in 1785 and resettled near present-day Versailles, Kentucky in 1787. He raised a volunteer company in 1790 and joined Josiah Harmar for an expedition against the Northwestern Confederacy. Following the expedition's failure, Scott was ordered to conduct a series of raids against the confederacy in preparation for a main campaign by Arthur St. Clair, which also defeated. Shortly after the separation of Kentucky from Virginia in 1792, the Kentucky General Assembly commissioned Scott as a major general and gave him command of the Kentucky militia's 2nd Division. Scott's division fought with Legion of the United States for the rest of the Northwest Indian War, including their decisive victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers.

Having previously served in the Virginia House of Delegates and as a presidential elector, Scott ran for governor 1808, winning over John Allen and Green Clay. An injury suffered early on in his term confined Scott to crutches and left him reliant on his step-son-in-law Jesse Bledsoe, whom he appointed Secretary of State. Although he frequently clashed with the state legislature over domestic matters, Scott's primary concern were the increasing Anglo-American tensions in the run-up to the War of 1812. Following the end of his tenure as governor in 1812, Scott returned to his estate, where his health declined rapidly before Scott died in 1813. Scottsville, Kentucky along with Scott County, Kentucky and Scott County, Indiana are named in his honor.