George Washington Papers
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https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-05-02-0329

To George Washington from Colby Chew, 22 August 1758

From Colby Chew

Rays Town Augst 22d 1758

Sir

As I think it my duty to Report any thing to you that is Extraordenary I take the Fredom to Inclose you a Journald1 that I kept from the time I Reced my Orders tell I Returnd, Which is as Exact a one as the place Would Permit of pray Excuse my Freedom and believe me to be Dr Colo. your most Obt Servt

Coleby Chew

ALS, DLC:GW.

Lt. Colby (Coleby) Chew of the 1st Virginia Regiment was killed in Major James Grant’s raid near Fort Duquesne on 14 Sept. 1758.

1Colby Chew gave GW and Bouquet virtually identical versions of his journal, which begins: “Monday August the 7th 1758 I Set of from Rays Town by order of Colo. Bouquet With a party of indians & White men to make What Discoverys I could of the Strenth & Situation of the Enemy to the Westward” (DLC:GW). On Wednesday, 16 Aug., all but Chew, Sgt. Andrew Vaughan, and five Indians returned, but these then pushed on to within a mile of Fort Duquesne: “from the top of this Ridge I had an extraordinary good View as it was considerbly higher than the F[ort] & scarce half mile Distant from it. there were fifty or sixty tents pitched on the Ohio abt 100 yards from the Fort & there are several houses on Monongahala. there were Neither Cannoes nor Batteaus in this that I Could percieve, nor Could I Discover any New Works abt the fort. . . . from What I saw I do not judge that they have above 300 Frenchmen. . . . After Dark the Indians got to Singing & Dancing from their noise I judge them to be Abt fifty in Number all which the Cherokees told me were Shawnese[.] As I have taken a plan of the place & Fort as well as I could upon a separate paper. I shall make no mention of it here.” On Saturday the nineteenth Chew and his party returned to Maj. George Armstrong’s camp on Drounding Creek just after Ens. John Allen of the Virginia forces had returned with his party from a similar mission. Chew’s journal is printed in full in Stevens, Bouquet Papers description begins Donald H. Kent et al., eds. The Papers of Henry Bouquet. 6 vols. Harrisburg, Pa., 1951-94. description ends , 2:400–404, and Allen’s journal is printed on pp. 324–26. The mileage in Chew’s entry for Tuesday, 15 Aug., is different in DLC from that in the Bouquet Papers description begins Donald H. Kent et al., eds. The Papers of Henry Bouquet. 6 vols. Harrisburg, Pa., 1951-94. description ends : 3 miles in GW’s copy is 8 miles in the Papers and 12 miles is 42 miles in the Papers. Otherwise the differences are minimal. There is also a copy of the journal, probably sent to John Forbes, in the Dalhousie Muniments, Scottish Record Office. The plan, or map, that Chew sketched while on his reconnaissance accompanies the copies of the journal both at DLC and the Scottish Record Office; the DLC copy is not as complete but is more legible.

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