George Washington Papers
Documents filtered by: Author="Wood, James" AND Period="Revolutionary War"
sorted by: editorial placement
Permanent link for this document:
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-17-02-0157

To George Washington from Colonel James Wood, 27 September 1778

From Colonel James Wood

Camp Opposite West Point 27th Sept. 1778.

Sir

Since I received your Excellency’s Instructions,1 I have Obtained an Extract from the Act of Assembly of Virginia, allowing an Additional Bounty; which I do myself the Honor of Inclosing; it Came in a Letter from Colo. Lyne who is now a member of the House.2

I have put the money which I received from the Pay master Genl into the Hands of five Officers of the Brigade, who I think the most likely to Answer the Purpose Intended, but am not so happy as to Give your Excellency any favorable Accounts of their Success; the Idea of receiving large Premiums as Substitutes Seem Generally to Prevail; some of them Seem Inclinable to enter into the Cavalry, but I am very Apt to Believe it will be Impossible to engage many of them in the Infantry. I am with the Greatest respect Sir Yr Very Obt Servt

James Wood.

ALS, PHi: Gratz Collection; Sprague transcript, DLC:GW.

1. See GW to Peter Muhlenberg, William Woodford, and James Wood, 19 September.

2. The enclosed extract of the Virginia general assembly’s act of May 1778 for recruiting the Continental army includes the authorization of a $150 bounty for every soldier engaging to serve for the duration of the war (DLC:GW; see also Va. Statutes [Hening] description begins William Waller Hening, ed. The Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia, from the First Session of the Legislature, in the Year 1619. 13 vols. 1819–23. Reprint. Charlottesville, Va., 1969. description ends , 9:454–56). George Lyne of King and Queen County, Va., who had been a member of the House of Burgesses, 1775–76, and of all five Virginia conventions, 1774–76, was appointed a captain in the Gloucester district minuteman battalion in September 1776, major of the 13th Virginia Regiment in November 1776, and lieutenant colonel of the 9th Virginia Regiment in October 1777. He resigned his commission about this time in order to fill a vacant seat for King and Queen County in the Virginia general assembly, and served through the spring of 1781 and then again in the fall of 1782.

Index Entries

    You Are Looking At

    Source Project
    Washington Papers
    Title
    To George Washington from Colonel James Wood, 27 September 1778
    Author
    Wood, James
    Recipient
    Washington, George
    Date
    27 September 1778

    Reference

    Cite as
    “To George Washington from Colonel James Wood, 27 September 1778,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-17-02-0157. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 17, 15 September–31 October 1778, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008, pp. 157–158.]

    More between these correspondents