Wikipedia:Today's featured article/August 24, 2015
Jethro Sumner (c. 1733 – 1785) was an officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. After serving in Virginia's Provincial forces in the French and Indian War and later as Sheriff of Bute County, North Carolina, he became a strident Patriot, and was elected to North Carolina's Provincial Congress. He was named the commanding officer of the 3rd North Carolina Regiment in the Continental Army in 1776, seeing action in the Southern theater and Philadelphia campaign. One of five brigadier generals from North Carolina, he served with distinction in the battles of Stono Ferry and Eutaw Springs, but recurring bouts of poor health often forced him to play an administrative role, or to convalesce back home. Following a drastic reduction in the number of North Carolinians serving with the Continental Army, Sumner became a general in the state's militia, but resigned in protest after the state Board of War awarded overall command of the militia to William Smallwood, a Continental Army general from Maryland. In 1783 Sumner helped establish the state chapter of the Society of the Cincinnati, and became its first president. He died in 1785 with extensive landholdings. (Full article...)