Bland Ballard

the Kentucky soldier and legislator

Bland Williams Ballard (October 16, 1761 – September 5, 1853) was a soldier and statesman from Kentucky.

Bland Williams Ballard was born on October 16, 1761, in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, the eldest son of Bland Ballard. In 1779, he moved with his father to Kentucky, where the younger Ballard served in the militia. In 1788, Ballard's father and family were killed by Delaware Indians in what is now Shelby County, Kentucky. Later in life, Ballard said he had killed thirty to forty Indians in battle to avenge his family and punish Indians for horse theft. Ballard served as a scout in George Rogers Clark's 1780 expedition into the Ohio country. During the Northwest Indian War, he served as a scout for Clark's 1786 Wabash campaign. Ballard participated in the battles of Fallen Timbers (1794) and the River Raisin (1813). As a major of Kentucky volunteers, he played a leading role in the expedition against the British and American Indians who had invaded southeastern Michigan. He was wounded and taken prisoner at the Battle of Frenchtown, but was among the group of prisoners who were transported into Canada and so escaped the River Raisin Massacre.

Bland Ballard is the namesake of both Blandville, Kentucky and Ballard County, Kentucky. When Ballard died in 1853, he was initially buried in Shelbyville, Kentucky. In 1854 the State of Kentucky moved his and his first wife's remains to the State Memorial section of the Frankfort Cemetery. His namesake grandson, Bland Ballard, was appointed by Abraham Lincoln as a judge for the United States District Court for the District of Kentucky.