Jethro Exum Sumner was born in Virginia in 1733.

Colonel Jethro Sumner was:

• A commissioned officer in the Virginia Regiment in the French and Indian War (1754-63), after which he became a landowner in North Carolina.

• A Brigadier General in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and active in the measures that preceded the Revolution.

• Paymaster in 1760 of the provincial troops of North Carolina and commander at Fort Cumberland.

• Elected to the Third Provincial Congress in 1775.

• Appointed in 1776 by the Provincial congress, Colonel of the 3rd North Carolina Regiment, and served under George Washington in the north.

• Appointed colonel of the Third Continental Regiment after the start of the Revolutionary War.

• Participated in the battles of Germantown and Brandywine, in 1777.

• Wintered at Valley Forge in 1778.

• As brigadier general, Sumner led his troops in the Battle of Stone Creek; with the surrender of Charleston, he undertook to recruit troops to defend the rest of the state.

• Provided outstanding leadership in 1779 at the battle of Eutaw Springs. Sumner remained commander of the Continental's defense of North Carolina throughout the rest of the war.

• Commissioned Brigadier General by the Continental Congress in 1779, and was ordered to join General Horatio Gates in the south.

• At the Battle of Camden in 1780.

• Served under General Nathanael Greene, and at the Battle of Eutaw Springs, September 8, 1781, made a bayonet charge, after which he was active in keeping the Tories in check in North Carolina until the close of the war.

Sumner was active after the war in the creation of North Carolina's chapter of the Society of the Cincinnati, serving as its first president. He died 18 March 1785, in Warren County, North Carolina. Sumner County, Tennessee (originally part of North Carolina) was named for him.