Shadrach Battles, a free person of color probably born in Albemarle County, was a Revolutionary War soldier. By June 1775 he had joined the Albemarle Independent Company, a local militia unit. In Dec. 1776 he enlisted in the 10th Virginia Regiment, later renumbered the 6th. He fought at Brandywine, Pennsylvania, Germantown, Pennsylvania, and Monmouth, New Jersey, spent the winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge, and participated in the Southern Campaign. Battles was one of at least 5,000 black soldiers who served in the Continental Army, and by 1778 black men were a substantial presence in nearly every brigade. A carpenter and laborer, Battles lived in this vicinity after the war.