William Campbell

William Campbell 1745-81, American Revolutionary soldier, b. Augusta co., Va.; brother-in-law of Patrick Henry. He fought in Lord Dunmore's War (1774) and helped expel the royal governor from Williamsburg in 1776. Campbell and his group of Virginia riflemen in 1780 joined Sevier and Shelby at Kings Mt. (see Carolina campaign ), where he was in command. Later Campbell saw action at Guilford Courthouse, at Eutaw Springs, and in the Yorktown campaign.

Campbell, William (1745–81)Revolutionary War militia officer. Born in Augusta County, Virginia, Campbell became prominent in the state militia during Lord Dunmore's War against the Indians in 1774. In 1776 he joined a patriot force commanded by Patrick Henry, his brother-in-law, and helped expel the royal governor. After serving in a number of Virginia militia positions, he was promoted to colonel in 1780, and led a Washington County force to join units gathering to stop Maj. Patrick Ferguson's Loyalist raid into North Carolina. Campbell was chosen to lead the patriot march which caught Ferguson at Kings Mountain. Campbell played a key role in the decisive American victory that destroyed Ferguson's force and finished Gen. Charles Cornwallis's North Carolina campaign. Campbell took part in the Battle of Guilford Court House in 1781, served a brief period in the state legislature, and was appointed brigadier general of militia.

Campbell, WilliamWallace (1862–1938)Americanastronomer and mathematician. In 1892 he studied the spectral changes of Nova Aurigae. In 1896 he began a long series of measurements of stellar radial velocities, publishing a catalogue of 3000 of them in 1928. This work improved knowledge of the Sun's motion in the Galaxy and of the Galaxy's rotation. Campbell led several expeditions to solar eclipses. At the eclipse of 1922 he detected the deflection of starlight by the Sun, as predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity, confirming and improving the previous results of F. W.Dyson and A. S.Eddington.