Col. James Raulston
James Raulston was born in Augusta County, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley. His memorial gives the date as 16 June 1778, and a bronze plaque set up by his descendants gives 16 June 1772. His memorial names his parents as Mathew Raulston and Martha Moore, called Polly. He wrote his name Roulston for much of his life and later changed the spelling to Raulston.
By 1802 he was in Tennessee. That year, by the plaque, he went to the legislature at Knoxville as the representative from Jackson County, Tennessee. Knoxville was then the state capital. In the same year, by his memorial, he married Jane Simmons, a South Carolina woman born at Charleston in 1783. They had thirteen children by the family memorials, born between 1802 and 1826.
In the War of 1812 James was a colonel of Tennessee militia. The plaque says he commanded the Third Tennessee Regiment in Carroll's division under General Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans. William Carroll was the major general commanding the Second Division of Tennessee Militia. On 8 January 1815 Andrew Jackson's army, with Carroll's Tennessee men holding the center of the line, threw back a British assault on New Orleans. It was the last great battle of the war, fought after the peace treaty had been signed in Europe but before word of it reached America.
James's own discharge survives. It is a printed certificate, dated at Nashville on 15 May 1815 and filled in by hand: "I certify that James Roulston a Colonel in my Division of Tennessee Militia, has performed a tour of duty of Six months in the service of the United States; that his good conduct, subordination and valor, under the most trying hardships, entitle him to the gratitude of his country; and he is hereby honorably discharged." It is signed "Wm. Carroll, Major-General 2d Division Tennessee Militia."
After the war the family moved south along the Tennessee River. By the plaque, James represented Jackson County, Alabama, in the Alabama legislature at Montgomery in 1828, and he was a pioneer settler and landowner. Jackson County, Alabama, lies just across the state line from Marion County, Tennessee, around Bridgeport and Stevenson.
The children named on the memorials are William O. (1802 to 1870), Ann J., who married a Byrne (1804 to 1880), Robert Simmons (1806 to 1867), Matthew Harvey (1808 to 1876), Samuel (1810 to 1866), Sampson Williams (1811 to 1862), Elizabeth, who married a Patton (1814 to 1876), Martha, who married a Beene (1816 to 1897), Evander McKeever (1818 to 1870), James W. (1821 to 1897), Napoleon Bonapart (1821 to 1878), John Simmons (1824 to 1906) and Brice Byrne (1826 to 1913). Robert Simmons Roulston served three terms in the Tennessee General Assembly.
Col. James Raulston died on 7 August 1844 in Marion County, Tennessee. His memorial places his grave in the Dorans Cove Cemetery. Jane outlived him by twenty-six years.
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Cite: Heirology, "Col. James Raulston (1778-1844)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/col-james-raulston-1778-1844-187e0e.