From George Washington to William Peachey, 11 September 1755
To William Peachey
[Alexandria, 11 September 1755]
To Captain William Peachy, of the Virginia Regiment.
You are hereby Ordered, as soon as you arrive in Town with your Recruits, to put yourself under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Adam Stephen, or the Field Officer appointed to that Rendezvous: and you are to be strictly obedient to such Lawful Commands as you shall from time to time receive from him; and particularly to observe, that the Muster Roll of your Men is regularly called three times a day; and that they are as often called out to their Exercise; at which times you are to be present.
If it should happen that you arrive before the Field Officer; you are then to receive your Orders from, and make your daily Reports to the Oldest Officer present, having regard to the above Directions. Given &c. at Alexandria: Sept. 11th 1755.
G:W.
LB, DLC:GW.
William Peachey (Peachy; 1729–1802) was one of the new captains present in Williamsburg when GW took command of the regiment. See GW’s Orders, 17 Sept. 1755, n.2. In Jan. 1756 GW listed Peachey as captain of the 14th company. In Mar. 1756 the burgesses authorized construction of a fort at Winchester, and GW placed Peachey in charge of the men who labored on that project (7 33). When the number of companies in the regiment was reduced in 1757, Peachey lost his captaincy, and he resigned from the regiment in July of that year. In Mar. 1758, with the creation of the 2d Virginia Regiment, Peachey returned to military service. Promoted to major, he served as that regiment’s paymaster during John Forbes’s expedition against Fort Duquesne. After the French and Indian War, Peachey rose to colonel in the militia and eventually secured the adjutancy of Virginia’s Middle District, the area between the James and Rappahannock rivers east of the Blue Ridge. At this time Peachey seems to have usually signed his name “Peachey,” but for most of his life he spelled it “Peachy.”