Enclosure: Council of War, 10 August 1756
Enclosure
Council of War
At a Council of War held at Fort Harness August 10th 1756
Present the following Members
Capt. Thomas Waggener President
| Capt. Thomas Cocke | Capt. Wm Bronaugh | |
| Capt. Robert Spotswood | Capt. David Bell | |
| Lt Walter Steuart | M e m b e r |
Lt John Edwards Lomax |
| Lt John King | Lt Mordecai Buckner | |
| Ensn Dean | Ensn Smith | |
| Ensn Sumner |
The President produced to the Council Orders from Colo. Washington of the 5th & 7th of August1 that the President & the two remaining Companys are to be disposed of in the most eligible manner for the protection of the Inhabitants above the Trough, & as the Militia Stationed upon the Branch are determined to leave their Stations directly, We judging the Welfare of our Country requires that as many of the Inhabitants as possible remain on the Branch, which without protection it will be impossible to Detain.
It is therefore the opinion of the Council that the Forces Detached from the Regiment and now upon the Branch ⟨be⟩ Stationed at the Forts occupied by the Militia, & that without a further Supply of Men it will be impracticable to proceed in building the Chain of Forts Ordered. We are likewise Informed that the upper Inhabitants that is those twenty miles above Capt. Waggeners upper Fort is without a Mill, & that neither meal or flour can be had without sending a Detachment at least twenty Miles for it, so that the whole except Capt. Bells Company remains here ’till further Orders.2
DS, DLC:GW.
1. No letter to Waggener of 7 Aug. 1756 has been found, and in his letter of 5 Aug. GW said that he had written Waggener “yesterday” (4 Aug.), another letter not found. It may be that Waggener mistook 4 for 7 and that the two missing letters are one and the same: a letter written on 4 Aug. 1756.
2. These minutes were signed by the president and eleven named members of the council of war.