To George Washington from Robert Dinwiddie, 3 August 1754
From Robert Dinwiddie
Williamsburg Augst 3d 1754
Sr
I recd Yrs of the 28th ulto1—the Bearer brings you £600 which is all can be got, & hope it will answer for the present. I have no doubt when the Assembly meets they will grant a Supply in such manner to comand Money; the want thereof I know has been a great Loss to the Expedition2—I am sorry Yr regimt have behav’d so very refractory, tho’ they have a right to their Pay they shou’d have been easy till You return’d. It’s strange the Officers shou’d have allow’d them to desert with their Guns I hope he sent a Party after them; & an Example shou’d be made of the Ringleaders; at this distance I cannot conceive the reason, but it appears to me the want of proper Command3—Muse wrote me, & I answer’d he was welcome to resign & I suppose Majr Stephens succeeds him.4 I sent You Orders to recruit Your regimt with all possible Diligence, that You may be ready to join the other Forces at Wills’s Creek to execute the Scheme sent Colo. Innis;5 I repeat my Orders now, & am in hopes You will meet with little Difficulty in complying therewith, & that with Expedition as the Season of the Year calls for it; & I am convinc’d of Yr hearty Inclinations, which I desire You will now exert.
I have & will do all in my Power in prosecuting the Affair in hand; & I hope in a short Time we shall have our Hands better strengthen’d with Money; & I expect to hear Yr regimt is compleated & will soon march for Wills’s Creek.
I send You the Warrant with 600 indors’d on it, the other 500 if any Person with You will advance it they will have 6 ⅌ Ct Interest; which shall be glad if You can procure it.
I cannot end without repeating Dispatch—Which will be very agreable to Sr You[r] Friend &ca
Robt Dinwiddie
I send You a Letter to Majr Clark which deliver[.] It came to my hands a few Days ago.
LS, DLC:GW; LB, ViHi: Dinwiddie Papers.
1. The letter has not been found.
2. Dinwiddie convened the assembly on 22 Aug. but prorogued it on 5 Sept. after the council rejected a House bill for raising £20,000 which was “clogg’d” with amendments unacceptable to the governor (Dinwiddie to Lord Fairfax, 10 Sept. 1754, in , 1 : 312; , 199–205).
3. GW probably wrote to Dinwiddie in the missing letter of 28 July about the misconduct of his regiment at Winchester, evoking this response from Dinwiddie. In a later letter to William Fairfax, 11 Aug. 1754, GW referred to “the Disorders those sufferings produced among them at Winchester after they returned.”
4. In the first French attack Maj. George Muse, GW’s next in command, led his troops back into the fort, leaving some of GW’s men in an exposed position. Accused of cowardice, Muse resigned his commission. See Dinwiddie to James Innes, 20 July 1754, and Dinwiddie to Adam Stephen, 1 Aug. 1754, both in , 1 : 232–34, 263–64.
5. Dinwiddie to James Innes, 1 Aug. 1754, ibid., 261–62.