James Innes (1700 – September 5, 1759) was an American military commander and political figure in the Province of North Carolina who led troops both at home and abroad in the service of the Kingdom of Great Britain. Innes was given command of a company of North Carolina's provincial soldiers during the War of Jenkins' Ear, and served as Commander-in-Chief of all colonial soldiers in the Ohio River Valley in 1754 during the French and Indian War. After resigning his commission in 1756, Innes retired to his home on the Cape Fear River. A bequest made by Innes upon his death lead to the establishment of Innes Academy in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Early life and emigration

Innes was born around 1700 in the Scottish Highlands.Marker D-90: James Innes
, North Carolina Highway Historical Marker Program, N.C. Dept. of Cultural Resources, accessed June 8, 2019 In 1732, Innes purchased on the Cape Fear River in what is now

Bladen County, North Carolina Bladen County ()
, from the North Carolina Collection's website at the

...

. In or about 1733, he received an additional grant of . Shortly after Innes' arrival in North Carolina, Governor

Gabriel Johnston Gabriel Johnston (1699 – 17 July 1752) was a British colonial official who served as the sixth governor of the Province of North Carolina from 1734 until his death in 1752. He was the longest serving governor, holding the office for 18 ...

appointed him as a justice for

New Hanover County New Hanover County is one of 100 counties located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 225,702. Though the second-smallest NC county in land area, it is one of the most populous, as its county seat, Wilm ...

, and tried unsuccessfully to appoint Innes to his council.

Military and political career

War of Jenkins' Ear

In 1739, war broke out between Spain and Great Britain over the respective powers' colonial possessions and spheres of influence. At the outset of that conflict, the British requested that their colonies supply troops for an expedition to South America. Innes was selected by Governor Johnston to lead a company of 100 men from the Cape Fear region to Cartagena in the Spanish Viceroyalty of New Granada, a city which is located in the modern-day country of

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

. The Cape Fear company was to be joined by three other companies raised in the Albemarle Sound region. Innes was granted a provincial commission as Captain in the British Army on June 7, 1740. Upon arriving in South America, Innes and his men, as well as North Carolina's three Albemarle companies, were placed under the direct command of Colonel William Gooch, a baronet and the Governor of Virginia. The fever- and disease-ridden campaign, which culminated in the Battle of Cartagena de Indias in the Spring of 1741, was disastrous for the British. At Cartagena, delays by the British fleet in landing troops to assault a key Spanish fortification, combined with the fact that the ladders used by British scaling parties were shorter than the walls they were intended for, caused the militia and regular soldiers to suffer a 50 percent casualty rate prior to the assault being called off. The Cartagena campaign left only 25 survivors under Innes' command. The North Carolina contingent returned home in January 1743. Innes was placed in command of the New Hanover militia after his return. In 1748, after the war between the British and Spanish had expanded into a wider war against the French known in the colonies as

King George's War King George's War (1744–1748) is the name given to the military operations in North America that formed part of the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748). It was the third of the four French and Indian Wars. It took place primarily in t ...

, a Spanish fleet attacked Brunswick Town, North Carolina, and Innes assisted the local militia under Captain William Dry in repulsing the raiding force.

Inter-war career

Between the War of Jenkins' Ear and the French and Indian War, Innes served as a commissioner for John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville, charged with the sale of that proprietor's lands in the Granville District. Active in the colonial government, Innes was a baron of the Court of Exchequer in Wilmington. There he was associated with Francis Corbin and the Salisbury Land Office (as a land grant agent). After 1750, Innes served on the Governor's Council under both Gabriel Johnston and Arthur Dobbs until his death in 1759.

French and Indian War

After the conclusion of King George's War in 1748, tension increased on the frontier between the French-held North American territory and the British colonies on the coast. With the possibility of the outbreak of war in 1754, Innes, as an experienced soldier, was nominated as the commander of North Carolina militia, which was to be sent to aid Virginia at the request of Governor Robert Dinwiddie. The government of Virginia in particular feared French incursions, as it claimed much of the territory in the Ohio River Valley. Dinwiddie, a fellow Scot, had become friends with Innes, and considered naming him as Commander-in-Chief of the provincial forces, but instead chose to name Virginian

Joshua Fry Colonel Joshua Fry (1699–1754) was an English-born American adventurer who became a professor, then real estate investor and local official in the colony of Virginia. Although he served several terms in the House of Burgesses, he may be best kn ...

. Fry's death on May 15, 1754 left the position vacant, and Innes was appointed on June 4, 1754, although

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

had been Fry's second-in-command. Washington was given command of the Virginia Regiment upon Fry's death, and he led that unit into the Ohio River Valley on Dinwiddie's orders before Innes was appointed his superior. On May 28, 1754, Washington's unit, along with native

Mingo The Mingo people are an Iroquoian group of Native Americans, primarily Seneca and Cayuga, who migrated west from New York to the Ohio Country in the mid-18th century, and their descendants. Some Susquehannock survivors also joined them, and ...

allies, surprised a French unit, killing Joseph Coulon de Jumonville, the unit's commander. A large force of French soldiers then advanced to trap Washington, and on July 3, 1754, assaulted him at Fort Necessity near what is now Farmington, Pennsylvania, and forced the Virginian's surrender. Dinwiddie blamed

Matthew Rowan Matthew Rowan (died April 1760) was a British colonial Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Span ...

, the acting Governor of North Carolina, for the defeat, stating that had Innes' men been assembled in a timely fashion, they could have accompanied Washington to the frontier. Nevertheless, this engagement signaled the beginning of colonial combat between the French and English, which by 1755 had erupted into open war.

Innes' tenure as commander-in-chief had scarcely begun at the onset of the French and Indian War. Innes was directed to go to Wills Creek in Maryland, and to reinforce a fort there, which was to become

Fort Cumberland A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

. The North Carolina soldiers that came to Virginia were unruly and difficult to manage, eventually deserting after being informed that their pay was to be reduced, or returning home after Innes himself disbanded the unit due to its instability. To make matters worse, Virginians under Innes' command were ill-disposed towards him, particularly because he was not a Virginian himself. Within five months of Innes' appointment, Horatio Sharpe relieved him of his command, and Innes stayed on at Fort Cumberland as its "campmaster general". When General Edward Braddock arrived with a force of British regulars in 1755, Innes was named Governor of Fort Cumberland. Braddock tasked Innes with commanding a reserve force of troops at the fort during the disastrous Braddock expedition, in which Braddock led an army into the Ohio valley where it was ambushed and routed, leaving the general mortally wounded. During that operation, Fort Cumberland was used as a holding area for wounded and sick soldiers. Innes was among the first to hear of Braddock's defeat, and one of the first to inform Dinwiddie, by way of Lord Fairfax, of the catastrophe. By the mid-1756, Innes was permitted to resign his commission and return to North Carolina.

Retirement and death

Innes lived out the remainder of his life as a planter at "Point Pleasant", his plantation in North Carolina. Innes left behind his wife Jean, with whom he had no children, and who later married his business associate, Francis Corbin. After her death, Jean Innes was buried between her two husbands.

Legacy

After his death in 1759, Innes' will left a bequest for an academy, to be called the Innes Academy. The Academy constructed what became the Thalian Hall in Wilmington, North Carolina, which exists today. Innes Street, the main east–west thoroughfare in

Salisbury, North Carolina Salisbury is a city in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, United States; it has been the county seat of Rowan County since 1753 when its territory extended to the Mississippi River. Located northeast of Charlotte and within its metropolita ...

Early life and emigration

Military and political career

War of Jenkins' Ear

Inter-war career

French and Indian War

Retirement and death

Legacy

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

Further reading and primary sources