Thomas Posey (July 9, 1750March 19, 1818) was an officer in the American Revolution, a general during peacetime, the third Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky, Governor of the Indiana Territory, and a Louisiana Senator. Early life Family and background Thomas Posey was born on the banks of the Potomac River on a farm adjacent to Mount Vernon in Fairfax County, Virginia on July 9, 1750. According to his own account, he was "born of respectable parentage." Throughout his life Posey was dogged by rumors that he was the illegitimate son of George Washington. The rumor persisted even after his death and was the subject of several newspaper articles. Most historians are unsure of who his parents truly were as there is little recorded of them. Posey grew up on land adjacent to Washington's Mount Vernon home, in the home of John Posey. John was a close friend of George Washington, and Thomas benefited from Washington's patronage early in his life. The rumors were dismissed by Posey's biographer, John Thornton Posey. Posey received a plain English education from the neighborhood school and at 19 he moved to the Virginia frontier near Staunton, Virginia where he intended to engage in a trade or farm. He opened a business producing saddles. He soon married Martha Mathews, daughter of the deceased Joshua Mathews of the Mathews family, who was then in custody of her uncle Sampson Mathews, a prominent leader and tavern keeper in Staunton. The couple had three sons, although only one survived to adulthood. Martha died in 1778 while giving birth to the third son. Life on the frontier was tumultuous, and the Indians' continual raiding led to a reprisal by the Virginia's Royal Governor, Lord Dunmore. In 1774 Posey was in the quartermaster's department of an armed expedition against the Indians who were threatening the frontier settlements. He was present at the Battle of Point Pleasant, and the expedition succeeded in suppressing the Indians for the short term. Revolutionary War Posey was elected a member of the Virginia committee of correspondence in 1775. He served in the army during the War of Independence, first as a captain in the Continental Army, mostly with the 7th Virginia Regiment, then later rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel in 1782. Some claimed his quick rise was due to the patronage of George Washington. During the war Posey led campaigns against Lord Dunmore who was