Dennis Trammell
Capt. Dennis Trammell (1759-1849) was a militia commander during the Revolutionary War who moved to present-day Winfield after the war.
See Also: Revolutionary War Veterans
See Also: The Scott County Lineage Project
Biography
Trammell was born in 1759 in Amelia County, Va. He married his wife, Elizabeth Brassfield, in Orange County, N.C. around 1778, in between stints in the war. They had at least four children: James, Nancy Ann, Peter and David.
Trammell remarried to Martha Cooper in Russell County, Ky. on April 27, 1841.
The Trammell Family had a proud history in Virginia. Trammell’s grandfather, John Trammell, was a successful politician who purchased a large amount of property, including the tract that would later be sold to the family of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee for the building of Stratford Hall.
Revolutionary War
Trammell first entered the Revolutionary War prior to his marriage in 1778. Following his marriage, he moved to South Carolina and rejoined the war as a volunteer in the South Carolina militia.
At one point, Trammell was captured by the Tories. He made a dramatic escape under the cover of darkness and rejoined his unit.
Trammell was present at the Battle of Cowpens, when American forces under Brig. Gen. Daniel Morgan and British forces under Lt. Col. Banstre Tarleton engaged in a major fight at a cattle grazing ground in South Carolina. Trammell’s militiamen helped overwhelm the British forces, and Tarleton’s army was completely decimated. It was written that Tarleton’s troops included the best soldiers that Lord Charles Cornwallis had at his disposal, and the defeat at The Cowpens was a crushing blow for the British.
Scott County Historical Society President David Jeffers has written that Trammell masterminded the Battle of Cowpens. Following the battle, Gen. Isaac Shelby personally commended Trammell for his service.
When Trammell was asked about his service in the Revolutionary War at a pension hearing after the war, he answered: “It was not an inquiry amongst the men of my company, when shall our tour of duty end … My brave companions in arms were fighting for liberty.”
After the War
Trammell purchased a farm on Capuchin Creek, near Gum Fork, east of present-day Winfield. There, he and his wife raised their four children.
One of Trammell’s daughters, Nancy Ann, married Archibald Angel, and they established the farm near Capuchin that is still known as Angel Valley.
There are various records showing that Trammell moved his family to Claiborne County, Tenn., by 1797, then to Knox County, Ky., by 1805. That was one year after his daughter’s marriage to Archibald Angel.
In February 1804, Col. Return Jonathan Meigs, a hero of the Revolutionary War who was serving as a Cherokee agent in East Tennessee, sent a letter naming Archibald Angel and others as “intruders on Indian Lands on the West Side of the Cumberland Mountains.” The letter did not specify where Angel was living at the time, but mentions Little South Fork, Clear Fork, Mouth of Buffaloe, Poplar Creek, Tattersons Creek, Elk Ford, and the Cumberland River. Based on those locations, he was likely living in present-day Campbell County or southeastern Kentucky.
Trammell and Angel both appeared on a tax list in Knox County, Ky., in 1807. By 1810, both of them owned land on Pine Creek in present-day Scott County — Trammell owning 216 acres and Angel owning 298 acres. At the time, the entire Oneida area was considered Pine Creek. It isn’t clear whether those large land holdings were truly on Pine Creek, or were perhaps their ultimate destination on Jellico Creek, in Angel Valley.
Trammell died in 1849 and is buried at the Houk Trammell Cemetery on Alderville Road in Winfield. He was the first person buried at the cemetery.
Trammell had a grandson, also named Dennis Trammell (the son of James Trammell) who was a captain in the Civil War. He was also one of the first justices of the peace after Scott County was formed in 1849. While he was away from home during the war, Confederate soldiers burned his home on Jellico Creek, but allowed his blind wife, Polly, to be led safely away from the house before setting it ablaze. Dennis and Polly and their family spent the following winter in a cave on Jellico Creek.
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