Enclosure I: List of Junior Officers in the Virginia Regiment, 12 June 1757
Enclosure I
List of Junior Officers in the Virginia Regiment
[12 June 1757]
If your Honor is pleased to promote the Officers &c. according to their seniority, and present Rank in the Regiment: They will then, if there are twelve companies, stand as follows.1
| Lieutenants | Lieutenants |
| 13 Peter Steenburgen | 1 Capt. Lt Jno. McNeil |
| 14 John Campbell | 2 Christopher Gist |
| 15 John King | 3 Thomas Bullet |
| 16 James Baker | 4 Walter Stewart |
| 17 Nathanl Gist | 5 Hancock Eustace |
| 18 Mordecai Buckner | 6 John Blegg |
| 19 Wm Dangerfield | 7 John Edwd Lomax |
| 20 Edwd Hubbard | 8 Charles Smith |
| 21 Leonard Price | 9 George Weeden |
| 22 Wm Flemming | 10 Wm Crawford |
| 23 Nathanl Milner | 11 James Roy |
| 24 Nathanl Thompson | 12 James Duncanson |
| Ensigns | |
| 1 Jethro Summer | |
| 2 Henry Russell | |
| 3 Griffen Pert | |
| 4 John Lawson | |
| 5 | |
| 6 | |
| 7 Wm Woodford | |
| 8 Colby Chew | |
| 9 Benj: Bullet | |
| 10 Starke | |
| 11 Thomas Gist | |
| 12 Vacancy | |
There remains according to this a vacancy for an Ensign, to which I wou’d humbly recommend Mr Kirkpatrick—with the Office of Commissary of Musters.2 If Captn McNeil should be promoted Capt. Gist will be Captn Lt in his room; and another Ensign will be wanted: In that case the oldest Ensign will be made Lt—and I would beg leave to speak in behalf of Mr Thomas Rutherford for the vacancy of Ensign.3 He is a young man who, for his modesty and good behaviour gained a very good reputation as Lieutenant of one of the Ranging Companies on this quarter. I am Yrs
G:W.
LB, DLC:GW.
1. The copyist must have misread the order in which GW listed the officers in the regiment. The lieutenants in the regiment (aside from John McNeill and Christopher Gist) on 12 June 1757 were, in order of seniority: Thomas Bullitt, Walter Steuart, Hancock Eustace, John Blagg, John Edward Lomax, Peter Steenbergen, John Campbell, John King, James Baker, Nathaniel Gist, and Mordecai Buckner (numbers 3 through 7 and 13 through 18 in the letterbook copy as printed here). The ensigns on this date more or less in order of seniority were William Daingerfield, Edward Hubbard, Leonard Price, William Fleming, Nathaniel Milner, Nathaniel Thompson, Charles Smith, George Weedon, William Crawford, James Roy, and James Duncanson (listed as lieutenants 19 through 24 and 8 through 12), and Jethro Sumner, Henry Russell, Griffin Pert, and John Lawson (listed as ensigns 1 through 4). In his notes and memoranda made between June and November 1757 (see source line note, Memoranda, 7 June 1757), GW noted that he had promoted to lieutenant and assigned the date of rank to Daingerfield (25 May 1757), Fleming (26 May), Smith (26 July), Weedon (26 July), and Crawford (27 July). Edward Hubbard and Leonard Price were in South Carolina with Adam Stephen’s contingent, but Dinwiddie made both lieutenants to rank just below Fleming with date of rank 26 May. Nathaniel Milner was on sick leave and died within the year. Nathaniel Thompson and John Lawson were made lieutenants in the summer of 1757 and Roy, Duncanson, and Sumner were not promoted until 1758. Griffin Pert resigned during the summer of 1757 but was appointed lieutenant in the 2nd Virginia Regiment in 1758. Except for Thomas Gist, Christopher Gist’s son, who was still referred to as a volunteer in 1758, the last five men listed as ensigns, all presumably volunteers with the regiment at this time, became ensigns during the summer and fall of 1757.
3. Thomas Rutherford, who in 1755 and 1756 was a lieutenant in John Ashby’s company of rangers, was not given a commission in the Virginia Regiment, but Edmond Atkin made him at this time the conductor of the Catawba Indians for the colony. For Rutherford’s subsequent career, see GW’s Orders, 10 Oct. 1755, n.2. On 17 Sept. 1757 GW named Ensign Starke among the officers who had gone to Augusta County with Maj. Andrew Lewis.