James Blackwell was a Revolutionary War soldier, serving with George Washington at Yorktown at the capture of Cornwallis in October 1781.

George Washington and Cornwallis worked out the terms of the British surrender. An American colonel described the celebration at the time of the surrender: "I noticed that the officers and soldiers could scarcely talk for laughing and they could scarcely walk for jumping and singing." The British surrender at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, was the end of the major revolutionary war fighting.

James Blackwell married Elizabeth Ann Crenshaw in 1783. He died about 1801 leaving Elizabeth with four small children: Thomas, Elizabeth, William, and James. Soon after his death, his wife moved to Bowling Green in Warren County, Kentucky. In the 1810 census, she was listed as head of household. Her oldest son, Thomas, was living near her.

Source: Thelma Carrell Jones