George Washington Papers
Documents filtered by: Author="Smith, Charles" AND Period="Colonial" AND Date="1758-07-01"
sorted by: date (ascending)
Permanent link for this document:
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-05-02-0196

To George Washington from Charles Smith, 1 July 1758

From Charles Smith

Fourt Loudoun July 1st 1758

Sir

Since Your Departure there is Nothing happened Extronery, June the 29th I Settle’ed with Comisary Walker Your Accots & Your Brothers Which Yours was 7809 Pound of Flour which Amounted to £39.0.10 & his Account, Against You for Rum was £21.13.4 The Ballance Reced by me is £17.7.6 & Mr Washington Accot comes to £7.10 Which I Reced.1

Your Over Seer informs me that there was Wheat Enough Carried to Purkins Mill for Ten or Eliven Thousand Weight of Flour which I Cannot Get no Account of only the Above Mentinod, Mr Purkins, he Denies as he Knows any thing of but I beleave as You may find out by Mr Ramsey as Mr Purkins Sold him a Prety Deal of Flour in Barrells which the Over Sear Says that they were Yours.2

I should be glad to Know if I am to Supply the Oversear with a Suffitient Sum of Money for to Secour his harves as he has been at me for Sum.

I hav Setled with the Miner & Mr Reddiford Accoding to Your Orders, which the Ballance Due to Miner was Eight Pound.3

I have 28 of the New Redgt Left here Very Sick & has a Deal of Trouble with them.4

The Raingers that is Lef with me is Very uneasy as they Should kep’t in a Garrison & Did Refuse Mounting Guards which Six off them Deserted but now is Braught back they seem to be Satisfyd now as Capt. Rediford them if he Can Get them Relevd he will.5

The inhatance is Very uneasy as there was no more men Left here for there Safety, the Most of them sems in a fare way to Move off, without more Assistance, the has been a Small Party of the Ennemy In the Inhabitance best Part of the Time as You have been away but has Dun but Little Mishcheif any more then Making the People flye off, from there Farms.

I Should be Glad to hav Your Advise at all Oppertunities, & to hear of your Health & well fare, from Your Humble Servt to Command

Chs Smith

ALS, DLC:GW.

As this and subsequent letters from Lieutenant Smith to GW in 1758 demonstrate, Smith not only commanded Fort Loudoun but also dealt with some of GW’s personal affairs. GW often directed his mail to Smith at Winchester, who saw to it that GW’s letters were forwarded to their proper destination. He supervised the work of the overseer at GW’s Bullskin plantation in Frederick County, sometimes employing on public business GW’s wagoner and blacksmith from the Bullskin quarter. And Smith handled the arrangements for the required entertaining of the county’s freeholders at the time of GW’s election to the House of Burgesses from Frederick County on 24 July 1758.

1GW indicates in General Ledger A description begins General Ledger A, 1750–1772. Library of Congress, George Washington Papers, Series 5, Financial Papers. description ends , folio 51, that Commissary Thomas Walker received from him on 24 June at Perkins’s mill 6,308 pounds of flour valued at £31.10.10 and 1,500 pounds of the flour from his younger brother, John Augustine Washington, worth £7.10. On the same page GW notes that he had received from Walker 130 gallons of rum by the “P. Blews” (Patriot Blues) in 1756, valued at £21.13.4. (The Patriot Blues were a company of gentlemen who went up to Winchester from Williamsburg in May 1756 to save GW and his regiment from a large-scale Indian attack that did not take place.) GW credited his brother’s account with £7.10. Jack (John Augustine) Washington was at this time developing a plantation in the lower Shenandoah Valley.

2Isaac Perkins (Parkins) of Winchester, a captain in the militia and a leading citizen of Frederick County, had been operating his mill just outside Winchester since the 1740s. William Ramsay was buying flour for the Virginia troops. GW’s overseer at Bullskin plantation was Christopher Hardwick.

3On 7 Sept. 1758 Smith reported that the “Miner,” John Christopher Heintz who had charge of digging the well, had gone down 103 feet at Fort Loudoun still without any sign of water.

4According to Smith’s return, c.30 June 1758 (DLC:GW), all but three of the twenty-eight men from the 2d Virginia Regiment remaining behind at Fort Loudoun were ill.

5Just before leaving Winchester on 24 June, GW ordered Capt. Robert Rutherford to detach twenty of his “worst” men to do duty at Fort Loudoun under Lieutenant Smith. Rutherford, the rangers themselves, and the local inhabitants all were unhappy with this arrangement, and by the end of the summer those rangers who had been at the fort were again ranging through the countryside. See Jacob Hite to GW, 29 June, John Hite to GW, 2 July, Robert Rutherford to GW, 2, 20, 31 July, and Smith to GW, 20, 30 July, 15, 27 August. Smith inadvertently omitted the verb after “Rediford,” his spelling of Rutherford.

Index Entries