“Dan Alexander”, who moved to Hardeman county, Tenn., was born in Mecklenburg county, in March, 1757.
He first entered the service in 1778, for three months, in Captain William Alexander’s company, (commonly called “Black Bill Alexander,”) and Colonel Irwin’s regiment.
In 1780, he served under Captain Thomas Alexander to assist in guarding the public magazine in Charlotte.
In this same year he served in the expedition to Ramsour’s Mill, under General Rutherford, and afterward, against Tories assembled in the forks of the Yadkin river, captured several and conveyed them to Salisbury jail. Soon afterward, he joined the command of Colonel Davie, and marched in the direction of Camden, S.C. Near the South Carolina line, they met Gates’ retreating army. He represented Gates as “wearing a “pale blue coat, with epaulettes, velvet breeches, and riding a bay horse”.”
Colonel Davie’s command returned, and encamped ten miles north of the Court House.
His last important service was in forming one of the party dispatched by Colonel McCall to surprise a guard of eighteen British grenadiers, stationed at Hart’s Mill, near Hillsboro. The movement was successful; several were killed, six made prisoners, and one escaped in the creek.
“William Alexander”, of Rowan county, entered the service in 1776, and marched under General Rutherford’s command against the Cherokee Indians, and in that expedition (Sept. 8th,) was wounded in the foot at the “Seven Mile Mountain.”
In 1781, he was elected the Captain of a company of spies, and was in the ten month’s service under Colonel Wade Hampton and General Sumter, in South Carolina, acting efficiently in this capacity, until the close of the Revolution.