To George Washington from Brigadier General Mordecai Gist, 19 January 1781
From Brigadier General Mordecai Gist
Annapolis 19th Jany 1781
Dear sir
I am honor’d with your favor of the 2d Inst.1 The House of Delegates from an apprehension that the people wou’d not submit to a Draught upon such principles as were contain’d in the plan laid before them (of which you have a copy)2 pass’d a Bill Yesterday for raising 1000 Men for Three Years; which ’tho far from answering my former expectations, is preferable to voluntary enlistments for that Term.
The Inhabitants of the state with their property are to be Class’d in Classes of £16,000 & each of those Classes to find a Recruit in 20 Days and to pay him £32—specie: otherwise the effectives in such Class to be Drafted to serve ’till the 10th Decr Next. This Bill is now with the senate & will pass with some few Amendments.3
The enclosd Report of a Committee of the House has been read the first time & concur’d with.4 I have the Honor to be With perfect Respect & Esteem Yr Excellencys Mo. Obdt Servt
M. Gist
N.B. it is just now reported, that the Enemy after returning from their expedition to Richmond, have embark’d and are laying in Hampton Road.5
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. See GW to Gist, 2 January.
2. See Gist to GW, 24 Nov. 1780, and n.3 to that document. In his plan, Gist proposed that to keep 2,000 men in the field, the state be divided into 2,000 classes of 15 men each. Each class would furnish one man to serve during the war or, failing that, have a man drafted from among the members of the class. The copy in DLC:GW is undated but filed with the 10 Nov. documents.
3. For this legislation, “An ACT to procure recruits,” see , Chapter 43.
4. In the enclosed undated copy of a committee report, the committee declared that, prompted by a letter from Gist and the failure of Congress to comply with engagements made to the army, it recommended to the House of Delegates that the pay of the state’s officers and soldiers from 1 Jan. 1777 to 1 Aug. 1780 should be made good in specie, deducting the specie value of any pay and clothing received in that period; that a commissioner be appointed to settle the accounts of the officers and soldiers and issue certificates for the sums due; that widows and children of deceased veterans who served in that period should be eligible for the allowances and benefits due the soldiers; and that, as doubts had arisen regarding military officers’ eligibility for civil office, the House should resolve that military officers were eligible for civil office but must resign their commission before qualifying for civil office (see DLC:GW). This report became the basis for “An ACT to settle and adjust the accounts of the troops of this state in the service of the United States, and for other purposes therein mentioned” (, Chapter 38).
5. For reports on this British expedition to Virginia and the raid on Richmond, see Steuben to GW, 8 and 11 Jan.; see also Thomas Jefferson to GW, 10 January. After raiding Richmond, the expedition’s commander, British brigadier general Benedict Arnold, had re-embarked his troops and fallen down the James River. By 19 Jan., the troops were in the vicinity of Portsmouth, Va., where Arnold established a post (see Steuben to GW, 29 Jan.).