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Subject Area: History
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

TO LIEUTENANT-COLONEL ADAM STEPHEN. - George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, vol. I (1748-1757) [1889]

Edition used:

The Writings of George Washington, collected and edited by Worthington Chauncey Ford (New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1889-1893). Vol. I (1748-1757).

Part of: The Writings of George Washington, 14 vols.

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TO LIEUTENANT-COLONEL ADAM STEPHEN.

Fredericksburg, 18 November, 1755.

Sir,

I came to this place on Sunday last, and intended to proceed immediately up;1 but receiving yours and other letters contradicting the reports lately transmitted, determined me to go to Alexandria, where I shall wait a few days, hoping to meet the express from General Shirley, to whom the Governor sent for commissions for the field-officers.2

I beg that you will be particularly careful in seeing strict order observed among the soldiers, as that is the life of military discipline. We now have it in our power to enforce obedience; and obedience will be expected from us, the men being subject to death, as in military law. The Assembly have also offered a reward to all who will apprehend deserters, and a severe punishment upon those, who shall entertain or suffer them to pass, also upon any constable, who refuses to convey them to the company or troop to which they belong, or shall suffer them to escape, after such deserters are committed to his custody.1

These things, with the articles of war and a proper exhortation, I would have you read immediately to the men, and see that it is frequently done hereafter. I must desire, that you will use all possible means to facilitate the salting our provisions, and give the commissary such assistance of men, &c, as he shall reasonably require. The Governor approves of the Committee’s resolve, in not allowing either the Maryland or Carolina companies to be supported out of our provisions. This you are to make them acquainted with, and, in case any of the companies should be discharged, to use your utmost endeavours to enlist as many of the men as you can. Lieutenant McManners has leave to go to Carolina, if he desires it. The Assembly would make no alteration in our militia law; nor would the Governor order them to be drafted to complete our regiment, so that the slow method of recruiting is likely to be our only means to raise the men. I think, could a brisk officer, and two or three sergeants, be sent among the militia stationed on the South Branch, they would have a probable chance of engaging many, as some were inclinable in Winchester to list. Doctor Craik is expected round to Alexandria in a vessel, with medicines and other stores for the regiment. So soon as he arrives, I shall take care to despatch him to you.

The Colonels Byrd and Randolph are appointed commissioners,1 and will set out very shortly with a present &c, to the country of the Cherokees, in order to engage them to our interest. I am, &c.

[1 ]He was now returning from Williamsburg to head-quarters at Winchester, having previously made a journey to Fort Cumberland.

[2 ]The old difficulty about rank between the provincial officers, and those with King’s commissions, had been revived at Fort Cumberland.

Immediately after the affair of the Great Meadows, the Assembly of Maryland granted the small sum of six thousand pounds for the defence of the frontiers, and in the December following they passed an act authorizing the Governor to raise a military force. A few soldiers only were enlisted, and at this time a Maryland company of thirty men was stationed at Fort Cumberland. “I have given the command thereof to one Capt. Dagworthy, a gentleman born in the Jerseys who commanded a company raised in that province for the Canada expedition, since the miscarriage of which he has resided in this province upon an estate which he purchased in Worcester county.”—Gov. Sharpe to Charles Calvert, 2 Sept., 1754.

Governor Innes had gone home to North Carolina on his private affairs. Dagworthy assumed the command, and refused to obey any orders of a provincial officer, however high in rank. This created wranglings and insubordination among the inferior officers, who took sides. The Governor of Maryland was tardy in giving any decisive orders to Dagworthy, because the fort was in that province, and he seemed willing to consider it under his command. Governor Dinwiddie argued, that it was a King’s fort, built by an order sent to him from the King, chiefly by forces in the King’s pay, and that it could in no sense be regarded as subject to the authority of Maryland. And, moreover, as Captain Dagworthy had commuted his half-pay for a specific sum of money, his commission had thereby become obsolete, and there was no propriety in his pretending to act under it; and it was an absurdity for a captain with thirty men, who in reality had no other commission than that from the Governor of Maryland, to claim precedence of the commander-in-chief of all the Virginia forces.

Colonel Washington refused to interfere, but made a forcible remonstrance to the Governor and Council at Williamsburg, and insisted on a speedy arrangement, that should put an end to the difficulty. To effect this purpose, Governor Dinwiddie sent an express to General Shirley, commander of his Majesty’s forces in North America, stating the particulars of the case, and requesting from him brevet commissions for Colonel Washington, and the field-officers under him; proposing, at the same time, that these commissions should only imply rank, without giving any claim to pay from the King.—Dinwiddie’s Letter-Books.—Laws of Maryland, 1754. Shirley asked Sharpe to “accommodate the dispute.”

The Governor’s troubles seemed to thicken at this crisis. On the 15th of November he wrote to the Earl of Halifax:—

“Our Assembly met on the 29th ultimo, but not above one half of them gave their attendance. They fell into cabals, and wanted to emit two hundred thousand pounds in paper money for a loan-office, to be discharged in eight years, which I thought to be contrary to act of Parliament and my instructions. They further proposed a secret committee, which, in course, would have been the beginning of great dissensions. They likewise were very mutinous and unmannerly. For their not meeting in a body when summoned, and for the above conduct, I thought it for his Majesty’s service, and for the good of this Dominion, to dissolve them, and take my chance of a new election, which I think cannot be so bad as the last.”

The neutral French who had been expelled from Acadia, were beginning to arrive in Virginia, adding a new complication to the Governor’s troubles. They began to tamper with the negroes and were shipped to England.

[1 ]Hening’s Statutes, vi., p. 559: “Our Assembly have formed a military law similar to that of his Majesty’s regulars.”—Dinwiddie, 12 Nov., 1755.

The recruiting agents were often at fault. Men were enlisted when drunk, servants and apprentices were taken in spite of a law against it. Men enlisted by one recruiting officer were discharged to be enlisted by another. The officers impressed horses and wagons. In one case so great was the terror inspired by a recruiting agent by his “forcibly taking, confining, and torturing those who would not voluntarily enlist,” that no recruits could be had where he had been.

[1 ]Peter Randolph and Col. Byrd, commissioners appointed by the Governor to visit and conciliate the southern Indians. “To give weight to this negotiation two of the Council have promised to go.” They returned in May of the following year with a treaty.