1. “Although the record is unclear as to the motivations or circumstances of his crossing,* the future father of William Thomas had immigrated to the American colonies prior to the onset of the American Revolution. When the war came, young Richard enlisted in the Continental Army for a standard three-year term at Culpeper County, Virginia. Although many details of his years of service remain a mystery, the Welsh-born Thomas was assigned to the riflemen of the Eleventh Virginia Regiment. During his service to the Patriot cause, Richard Thomas was taken prisoner on August 1st, 1776, in an unspecified action, and he remained in British captivity until September 1st, 1777. Whether the colonial escaped or was released by his captors is ambiguous, but records clearly indicated that, rather than remain on the sidelines for the remainder of the conflict, Richard Thomas rejoined the Eleventh Virginia (reconstituted and restructured several times since his first enlistment) and took part in their march against British-contested North Carolina and the region’s rising tide of Tory dissonance.” [348]