Bailey Ayers was born in North Carolina and moved to Kentucky around 1800 with his family.  At the age of 19, Bailey became one of many Kentucky volunteers in the War of 1812.

As a result of the treaty after the Revolutionary War, the U.S. gained control of the land between Kentucky and the Canadian border, called the Old Northwest Territory.  However, despite the treaty, the British still kept forts in the territory, and continued to supply the Indians with arms.  The renowned Indian chief, Tecumseh, formed a Confederation of numerous tribes, and the Confederation’s brutal raids hindered American expansion into potentially valuable farmlands in the territory.  Americans on the western frontier greatly resented this interference, and this aggravation was just one of numerous insults by the British that led up to the U.S. declaring war.

Some of the major battles of the ensuing War of 1812 were in the Old Northwest Territory, along the Canadian border, and fought in large part by Kentucky militiamen.   After a British victory and subsequent massacre of a large number of Kentuckians in the area that is now Michigan, the governor of Kentucky asked for 2,000 more reinforcements.  Instead 4,000 enthusiastic Kentucky volunteers were formed in August 1813 in Newport, KY,  (near present day Cincinnati)  and sent to aid.  Bailey Ayers was one of those brave individuals, and he joined the Kentucky Mounted Volunteer Militia commanded by Colonel Taul.

After the Americans recaptured Detroit, they continued to pursue the retreating British and their Indian allies across the Canadian border.  They caught up with them about 50 miles away in Ontario where the key Battle of the Thames River took place.  When American scouts reported that the British lines were spread extremely thin, General Harrison decided on a daring strategy: a cavalry assault by the Kentucky mounted troops directly on the British lines. The British were not prepared for this type of assault and when the first wave of horseman quickly rode through the British lines, and then turned on the British from the rear, British troops quickly surrendered. The American forces then went on to defeat the Indian allies, killing most of them including their leader, Tecumseh, who had refused to flee. This victory for the Americans was the final battle in the Northwest and most of the Indian tribes abandoned their association with the British.  The Americans had defeated the British and the Indians in the territory once and for all.

As a member of the Mounted Militia, Bailey Ayers was no doubt one of the horsemen involved in the victory.  He later returned home to the mountains of Wayne County, KY where he married Mary Guffy and they eventually raised a family of four sons and three daughters. Sometime before 1820 the family moved slightly east to Whitley County, Kentucky, and then before 1840 moved across the Tennesee border into Campbell county, Tennessee.  He died there after 1860.