George Washington Papers

To George Washington from Charles Smith, 15 August 1758

From Charles Smith

Fort Loudoun August 15th 1758

Dr Sir

I Receiv’d your Favour Aug. 9th Concerning The Ten Barrels of Flower,1 I have spoke to Mr Walker about it he tels me he Dont know as he Receiv’d it or not, but says he will Settle with me as soon as he Gets a Supply of Money as he at this Time Intirely with out, Mr Walker Lyes Extreamly ill with the Rumetizem, I am a Makeing a Letter [litter] this Day to Carry him Home.

As it is not in your Power to Supply me with Any more money to Carry on Publick Work at this Place not withstanding Every Man that is able shall still Labour Sooner than the Building Shall Suffer.

I have Inclos’d a Pay Rol for the Month of July For Subsistance & Working Pay to Mr Boyd & has Inclos’d a Recet to him in your Letter as it will be most Proper for you to Receive the Money & Inclose it in a Letter to me by Boras or some other safe hand.2

Your inclos’d Letters I have sent by a Very safe hand,3 The Soldier you Wrote to me about that come off with the Cherokeys, is now gone with them to their Nation, & was seen carrying of a New Drum belonging to the Virga Regt. I have Advertised them but I believe to Little Purpose, there is Richd Bolton and Old Soldier who You Discharged is Returned to this Place & Begs Your Clemency to stay here & Receive subsistance as a Soldier, as he is in a Poor Condition, & no one to Apply to but You, I Should be Glad to know Your Pleasure in this Case4—There is fore of the Carrolina Detachment Left here with me Sick one among them Charles Allsbery a Deserter from the 1st Virga Regt but not being able to march.5

The Twenty Raingers Who was Ordered to Garrison this Fort is now a Raingeing from this Place to the Head of mill Creek & From there aCross to Back Creek take there Rout through Hoop Peticoat Gap & Returns to this Place Every two Days Wherein they Give me & Accot of any Discoviryes made—The Reason of my Leting them Rainge is to Give Satisfaction to the Common sort of People tho. I must Needs say it is no Matter where they are for the Good they do only having the Name of Rainger6 I Should be Glad of Your Advice in this Case, When any of them Deserts & is Brought Prisoners to me if I Should send for there Officers & have them Tryd. there is three of them Prisoners now, Mr Rutheford & myself took Last Night a Going off with a Party of Indians With there Hair Cut & Painted & Got Presents f⟨rom Ca⟩pt. Guest as Indians but I have them now safe.7

This Day I have but Fifteen men in the Garrison Fit for Duty out of Fifty Six Rank & File.8

Colo. Wood’s is Very ill with the Gout but offers his Complyments to You I have nothing Particular to add be sure that I am Dr Sir Your Most Obeadient Humble Servt

Chs Smith

ALS, DLC:GW.

GW left Lt. Charles Smith of his regiment in command of Fort Loudoun at Winchester when he marched from there to Fort Cumberland in late June 1758. Smith also took care of GW’s personal affairs in Frederick County.

1GW’s letter has not been found. For earlier references to the problem of accounting for flour from Isaac Perkins’s mill, see Christopher Hardwick to GW, 3 Aug., and Smith to GW, 5 August.

2Smith’s receipt, August 1758, for £68.11.10 from Alexander Boyd, paymaster, for the soldiers “Left at Fort Loudoun” is in DLC:GW. Boras is Thomas Burris.

3The enclosed letters have not been identified, but it is likely that one of them was GW’s letter to Fauquier of 5 Aug.

4Richard Bolton served as a ranger in John Ashby’s company in the fall of 1755, and in 1756 and 1757 he served in Robert Stewart’s company of light horse. According to the muster roll of Robert Stewart’s company (1 Aug. 1757, DLC:GW), Bolton was an English “labourer,” 20 years old, 5 feet 11 inches tall, with “a lump on the right side his Chin.” In 1764 Bolton petitioned the House of Burgesses and received a payment of £5 and an annuity of £5 for his disability after serving “upwards of seven Years” in the Virginia Regiment (JHB, 1761–1765 description begins H. R. McIlwaine and John Pendleton Kennedy, eds. Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia. 13 vols. Richmond, 1905–15. description ends , 240, 259).

5Charles Allsbery may be Thomas Albery (Alberry) who enlisted in the Virginia Regiment in 1755. At the age of 17 in July 1756 when he was in Joshua Lewis’s company Albery was described as “Thin Visaged, Effeminate Voice” (muster roll of Lewis’s company, 13 July 1756, DLC:GW). GW gave Thomas Albery a reward in December 1756 for reporting the desertion of a number of soldiers (GW to Dinwiddie, 10 Dec. 1756, n.1); in September 1757 GW paid him 10s. for an unspecified reason (General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 36); and on 4 Aug. 1758 GW received £10 of “enlisting” money from Albery (ibid., 52).

6These were Robert Rutherford’s rangers. See Smith to GW, 1 July 1758, n.5. Mill Creek flows eastward into Opequon Creek from its head near Mills Gap on North Mountain. Petticoat Gap, or Hoop Petticoat Gap, is just south of Round Hill near Winchester. The old wagon road to the South Branch runs through the gap.

7Captain Guest is Christopher Gist, the deputy Indian agent at Winchester and former captain of a company of scouts once attached to GW’s Virginia Regiment.

8On 4 Aug. Smith returned a total of fifty rank and file at Winchester from the two Virginia regiments, twenty-two of whom were fit for duty.

Index Entries