Alexandria, 20 March, 1754.
Sir, I was
favored with your letter by Mr. Stewart, enclosing a lieutenant-colonel's
commission, and I hope my future behaviour will sufficiently testify the true sense
I have of this kindness.1
At present there are about seventy-five men at Alexandria,
near fifty of whom I have enlisted. The others have been sent by Messrs.
Poison, Mercer, and Waggener to this place. Very few officers have repaired
hither yet, which has occasioned a fatiguing time to me, in managing a
number of self-willed, ungovernable people. I shall implicitly obey your commands,
and march out with all expedition. Major Carlyle is now preparing wagons for
the conveyance of provisions, which till now could not move, on account of the
heavy roads.
I doubt not but your Honor has been informed before this of
Mr. Vanbraam's ill success in Augusta, by the express, who was sent from thence
for that purpose.
Major Muse's promotion, and Messrs. Rose and Bently's
declining, will occasion a want of officers; in which case I would beg leave to
mention Mr. Vanbraam for a command, who is the oldest lieutenant, and an
experienced soldier. Unless the officers come in, I shall be obliged to appoint
him to that office, till I have your Honor's further directions. It would be
conferring a very great obligation on him, were you to confirm the appointment.
I verily believe his behaviour would not render him displeasing to you. I have
given Captain Stephen orders to be in readiness to join us at Winchester with
his company, as they were already in that neighbourhood, and raised there.
I have nothing further to add at present, but my sincere
thanks for the indulgent favors I have met with, and I am your Honor's most
obedient, &c.2
_______________
* Dinwiddie was lieutenant-governor of Virginia, yet, as he
was the acting governor, all Colonel Washington's letters are addressed to him
as bearing that title.
1 The Virginia Assembly, at a recent sitting, had
voted ten thousand pounds towards supporting the expedition to the Ohio. With
this aid the Governor was induced to increase the military establishment to
three hundred men, divided into six companies, and Colonel Joshua Fry was
appointed to command the whole. Major Washington was in consequence raised to
the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and made second in command. Ten cannon, and
other military equipments, were sent to Alexandria for the use of the
expedition. These had recently arrived from England.
As early as the first of March, also, Governor Dinwiddie
received a letter from the Earl of Holdernesse, enclosing an order to the
governor of New York to send two Independent companies to Virginia, for the
purpose of cooperating with the forces destined to the Ohio; and an order to
the governor of South Carolina to furnish another Independent company for the
same service. The troops, called Independent Companies, were raised in
the colonies, under the direction of the governors, but they were paid by the
King, and the officers had King's commissions. Hence they were not subject to
colonial regulations, but could be marched to any point at the King's command.
By the laws of Virginia, the militia could not be marched
more than five miles from the boundary line of the colony. It was doubtful
whether the territory invaded by the French was within the limits of Virginia,
as the western bounds of Pennsylvania had not been defined. Hence the governor
could not order the militia on this service, but was obliged to rely on
volunteer enlistments.
To encourage these enlistments, and give spirit to this
enterprise, Governor Dinwiddie issued a proclamation, granting two hundred
thousand acres of land on the Ohio River, which were to be divided among the
officers and soldiers engaged in the present expedition. The grant was
confirmed by the King, but it was not till the war had been long at an end,
that the land was surveyed and appropriated. This was effected at last chiefly,
if not entirely, through the active and persevering agency of Washington.
Governor Dinwiddie wrote to Governor Delancey of New York,
that his orders from the King were, “to prevent the French and their Indians
from settling on his lands on the Ohio, and to build two or three forts on that
river; and that he had been pleased to send thirty cannon to be mounted on
those forts, and eighty barrels of gunpowder.” — Dinwiddie's Manuscript
Letter-Books, 21 March, 1754.
2 Colonel Washington marched from Alexandria on
the 2d of April, with two companies of troops, and arrived at Will's Creek on
the 20th, having been joined on the route by a detachment under Captain
Stephen.
SOURCE: Jared Sparks, The Writings of George Washington:
Volume 1, p. 4-6
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