To George Washington from Godfrey Bumgardner, 30 October 1796
From Godfrey Bumgardner
Harrison County [Va.]
October the 30th 179[6]1
Most Excellent President
I hope you will not take Amiss that One of your Subjects takes the Liberty to send you a few Lines Hoping they may find you in health of Body & mind.
I am One of your old Soldiers. I Served in your Company in the Year 1754 & a Grant of Land was Given By A proclamation of Robert Dinwide Governor of Virginia2 But I am like to loose my Right for the Want of my Name Being found on the List3 The Reason I expect is that I Got my Discharge Burnt But I have proved by my Neighbours Before Captain Andrew Lewis that I had it & Gave the provement to Mr Felix Gilbert who Told me he had Given it to your Brother in Fredericksburgh4 Moreover I have never Receiv’d Any pay at all for my Service5 I humbly pray Dear Sir that you would Look into it & that I may Get my pay & my Right to sd Grant for probably you may Remember me & if not you may perhaps find my Name in some of the Lists or Records. please to Honour me with an Answer By Colonel Jackson who may Give you some Information of my person & Your Compliance6 Dear Sir Will Abundantly Oblige your faithful Subject & most Humble Servant
Godfrey Bumgardner
ALS, DLC:GW. No reply from GW to Bumgardner has been found.
Godfrey (Gottlieb, Gottfried) Bumgardner (Baumgartner; b. 1719), a native of Germany, arrived in America in 1749 and settled in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. In February 1754, he enlisted in the Virginia Regiment, and GW later included him on a list of the regiment’s soldiers (see A Roll of the Officers and Soldiers in the Virginia Regiment of 1754, 30 April 1771, in 8:451–52; for the list of soldiers, refer to the manuscript document in DLC:GW). Bumgardner later moved to Augusta County, Va. (now Pendleton County, W.Va.) and eventually settled in Harrison County, Va. (now W.Va.).
Bumgardner evidently enclosed with this letter an undated document: “A Copy of The List taken from The Records at Richmond.
“There is Granted unto the Following Men in the Year 1754 ⟨1⟩9th of February by A proclamation of Robert Dinwide Governor of Virginia & Survey’d by George Washington & Wm Crafort on the Ohio river Above big Sandy &c.
“John Savage, Robert Langdon, Edmund Waggonner, Richard Trotter, Wire Johnson Hugh McCoy, Richard Smith, John Smith Charles Smith Agnus McDonald Nathan Chapman, Joseph Gatewood, James Samuel, Michael Scully, Edward Goodwin William Bailey, Henry Bailey, Wm Coffland Mathew Dorran, Christian Bumgarner &c.” (DLC:GW).
1. Bumgardner wrote the year as “1795,” but the docket reads: “30th Oct. 1796.”
2. For Virginia governor Robert Dinwiddie’s 19 Feb. 1754 proclamation, which granted land in the Ohio country to those volunteering for service in the Virginia Regiment, see Dinwiddie to GW, January 1754, editorial note and n.12, in 1:63–67.
3. Bumgardner was not included on the list of privates who were to receive 400 acres each for their service in the Virginia Regiment (see GW to the Officers and Soldiers of the Virginia Regiment of 1754, 23 Dec. 1772, in 9:143–48).
4. Andrew Lewis (1720–1781), of Botetourt County, Va., served as a captain and major in the Virginia Regiment during the French and Indian War. He later became a Continental brigadier general in the early years of the Revolutionary War. Lewis was a member of the Virginia executive council from 1780 until his death.
Augusta County merchant Felix Gilbert served as a justice of that county in the 1760s. Around 1786, he moved to Wilkes County, Georgia.
Gilbert may have given the “provement” to GW’s youngest brother, Charles, who prior to 1780 lived in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
5. In “A Pay Roll of the Virginia Regiment from the Enlistment of each respective Man to the 29th of May 1754. According to an Acct in the Possession of Mr [John] Carlyle then Commissary,” GW listed Bumgardner as having received £3.16.0 for his service (AD, DLC:GW; filed with the 30 April 1771 documents).
6. George Jackson (1757–1831) attained the rank of colonel while serving in the Revolutionary War. He practiced law in Clarksburg, Va. (now W.Va.), and represented Virginia in Congress from 1795 to 1797 and again from 1799 to 1803.