James Monroe

James Monroe. Fifth President of the United States 1817-1825. , James Monroe was born at Monroe's Creek, Westmoreland County, Virginia on April 28, 1758 to Scots-Welsh parents. He attended the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia but left school to enlist in the Third Virginia Regiment, Continental Army in 1776. He crossed the Delaware River with General George Washington and was severely wounded in the Battle of Trenton which followed. He saw action in five other major battles, was cited for bravery and was promoted, eventually reaching the rank of Lt. Colonel. He was the only President, other than President Washington, who served in the Continental Army. Following the War, he practiced law in Fredericksburg Virginia and served in two administrations which preceded his election. As a special emissary of President Thomas Jefferson, he helped negotiate the Louisiana Purchase from France. A life-sized statue of Monroe appears along with the French representative and another American in a large sculpture on the north side of the Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City on the bluff high above the Missouri River memorializing the Purchase. He died July 4, 1831, being the third President to die on Independence Day. , Reverse: , This marker is the gift of Col. Robert Lewis Hawkins, Jr. U.S. Army and Elizabeth Hunter Hawkins, his wife, former residents of Monroe City. Six generations of the Hawkins family worshipped at St. Jude's Episcopal Church. His great grandparents, Joseph Lewis Hawkins and Sarah Orinda Cooper Hawkins, were the first couple married in the church and his grandfather, Mark C. Hawkins, their eldest child, was the first child christened in the church.