From George Washington to George Gordon, 15 September 1755
To George Gordon
[Winchester, 15 September 1755]
Instructions for Ensign Gordon.
1st You are immediately upon your coming to the Troop, to dispatch a trusty Corporal with the enclosed Letter to the Store-Keeper at Connogogee,1 ordering him to receive an answer, and to proceed thence with all imaginable Dispatch to me, at Fort Cumberland.
2ly You are to collect and send to me, by the said Corporal, an exact Return of your Men; the State of their Arms of every kind; their Clothing, Horses, &c. Given under my hand, at Winchester: the fifteenth of September, 1755.
G:W.
LB, DLC:GW.
1. The Ohio Company established a storehouse where Conococheague Creek flows into the Potomac River. The creek runs south from Pennsylvania and briefly through Maryland before emptying into the Potomac north and slightly east of Winchester. There was a good wagon road from Philadelphia to the mouth of the creek. Military supplies were stored here and directly across the river in Virginia at Maidstone, where Evan Watkins lived and operated a ferry over the river. Although the storehouse on the Virginia side of the river is usually designated as Maidstone, and that on the Maryland side Conococheague, the latter name is sometimes used for both locations, so that it is often unclear which side of the river is being referred to. While Robert Stewart and his light horse were stationed at Maidstone beginning in 1756, there seems to have been no fort erected, but Watkins’s two-story brick house was apparently fortified for the defense of the garrison and the stores. The storekeeper referred to in the letter is John Jones. For the enclosure, see GW to Jones, 15 Sept. 1755.