To George Washington from Jonathan Bryan, 24 February 1777
From Jonathan Bryan
24 February 1777. “The Bearer John White Esquire is appointed Colonel of the fourth Battalion of Musquetry, for the State of Georgia; and as we are in great want of Men, we are obliged to send him to the northern States, on the recruiting Service.... Your Excellency we are well assured will give him every indulgence & encouragement, when we inform you of our alarming Situation, surrounded with Enemies on every side, and daily subject to the cruel depredations of Indian Savages. We would beg leave to refer your Excellency to the Colonel for further particulars, respecting the dangers we are continually exposed to, as a Frontier State.”
ALS, DLC:GW.
Jonathan Bryan (1708–1788), a native of Pocotaligo, S.C., who settled several new rice plantations near Savannah in the early 1750s, had been elected to the Georgia provincial congress and to the Georgia council of safety in 1775, and at this time was serving as vice-president and military commander of Georgia. Bryan was captured by the British army in late 1778 and, along with his son James, confined on board British prison ships off Long Island, N.Y., for two years before being exchanged in 1781.