Memoranda, 17 September–15 November 1757
Memoranda
[Fort Loudoun, 17 September–15 November 1757]
Belhaven1
Send for Brown Sugar for the Hospital.
Govr2
Write him a state of the Mischief done in the Neighbourhood of Steven’s.3
McKenzies Intelligence from Fort Cumberland.4
Govr5
Send him the Scalp Captn Lewis’s Men got & apply for the money for it.
Write him what Mischief was done in those parts.6
Memmorandom of Sundry things to be done in Williamsburg if I go down in November—7
Get my accts with the Governor & Committ⟨ee⟩ Settled.
Lay the Indian Accts before the Govr.
Get Copies of the Laws Martial.
Take the Committees advise in regard to Hamiltons accts.8
Try to have Cloathing sent for, for the Regiment.
Carry down the Drafts rects.
Also Captn McNeills Indentures of Servants &ca if it is necessary.
Most of the Militia have been furnishd with Provision’s by the Regimental Comy which has been a means of inhauncing his accts. these matters shd be settled; the Militia wd all have gone home had we not Supplied them their Officers havg no Money or Orders & the Country People refusing them Credit.9
It appears that Mr Atkin has determind to prevent the Indns from comg to this Quarter.
Get some Tea—Hyson.10
Endeavour to get some of the Stores in the Magazine at Williamsburg sent up here especially a Mortar & Bomb Granades11—look into the Magazine & examine what things are there.
Is all the Parties of Indns to be furnishd with Ammunition from the Publick stores here.
represent the Inconvenience of not keeping Goods constantly at this place to make occasional presents. It is too late to provide Goods when there is immediate call for them—I [ ].
Money also shoud be lodgd with the Director of these Affairs to answer the Exigencies accruing—No Person is fit to be intrusted with the Managemt of Indn Affairs who cannot be trusted with a little money.
It is indispensably necessary that an Assembly shoud sit this Fall to concert Measures in time—to execute before the Season is to far spent.
Unless An Assembly sits this Fall we shall not have time to prepare against the Spring—Waggons Horses &ca—nor shall we be able to Assemble a Body of Indians without wch Scarce any thing can be done.
Unless Troops March out in the Spring there wont be one Inhabitt left in this County—the People have been perswaded to wait the Event of the Spring.
If this County brakes the others will go (being much thinner settled) infinitely faster & then an Army can never be Supported.
Lay Plummers Acct before the Country & Ex[amin]e their Books & see if Plummer never was pd thro. Carlyle or Gist.12
Get a Blank Book for Accts & an Almanack.
Lay Lieutt Bullits Claim for a Horse before the Country.13
AD, NN: Washington Collection. See source note, Memoranda, 7 June 1757.
4. GW enclosed a letter (not found) from Robert McKenzie in his letter to Dinwiddie, 24 Sept. 1757. Presumably McKenzie at Job Pearsal’s had received intelligence from Fort Cumberland and had not himself gone to that fort.
6. GW left blank the rest of this page in his paper book. The following three pages he filled with what he called the “Memm of the Brands & Marks of my Waggon Horses.” In the “Mem[orandu]m” he listed and described ten horses, giving the horse’s brand and usually the name of the person from whom a horse was bought: Nelly, “bought of Lewis Neill on Opeckon”; Jolly, “bought of David Mitchell on Roanoke in Augusta”; Ball, “bred near the Falls of Rappahannock”; Jack, “bought of Henry Va[n]meter on the So. Branch”; Rock, “bought of a Man from Pensylvania where he was bred”; Woodfin, “bought of Jno. Woodfin on Cacapehon”; Prince; Buck; Diamond, “bought of Abraham Denton”; and Crab, “bought at Publick Vendue of Captn [George] Mercer.”
7. GW wrote Dinwiddie on 5 Oct. requesting permission to go to Williamsburg, and on 24 Oct. he got Dinwiddie’s letter of 19 Oct. denying his request. By 9 Nov. GW was so ill that he was forced to leave the regiment and go to Mount Vernon.
8. GW was referring to the accounts of John Hamilton whose dishonest dealings as quartermaster of the regiment were uncovered at Winchester on 26–27 September.
9. On the next page following this are two entries headed “Brands of my Horses.” One was a “White Grey Phlea bitten bought at Publick Vendue of Captn Geo: Mercer,” and the other he bought from “Chr Beiler.” The page following is blank.
10. GW wrote from Mount Vernon to Sarah Cary Fairfax at Belvoir on 15 Nov. 1757 asking for the loan of a pound of Hyson tea (a Chinese green tea).
11. GW refers to this in his letter to Dinwiddie, 24 Sept. 1757, and most of the other points he lists hereafter and presumably meant to bring up when he went to Williamsburg are alluded to in one or more of his letters to Dinwiddie written between 24 Sept. and 5 Nov. 1757 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6].
12. Christopher Gist reported to GW on 30 July 1756 that George Plummer, a soldier, was dead. No reference to Plumer or Plummer has been found in GW’s Regimental Accounts, 1755–58.
13. On the page following is an account of GW’s purchases for Josiah Lovet and others. The next page is blank but on the following one are his instructions how “To make Small Beer”: “Take a large Siffer full of Bran Hops to your Taste. Boil these 3 hours. then strain out 30 Gallns into a Cooler put in 3 Gallns Molasses while the Beer is Scalding hot or rather draw the Molasses into the Cooler & Strain the Beer on it while boiling Hot[.] let this stand till it is little more than Blood warm then put in a quart of Yest if the weather is very Cold cover it over with a Blank⟨et⟩ & let it work in the Cooler 24 hours then put it into the Cask—leave the Bung open till it is almost don⟨e⟩ woring—Bottle it that day week it was Brewed.” There follows after this: (1) nine pages containing “A Roll of the Artificers employ’d on the Works at Winchester, under the Command of Capt. William Peachy, wth an Accot of their lost Time”; (2) one page containing “A List of men draughted from the Artificers to do garrison Duty for a Time”; (3) five pages listing the drafts from various counties. Only the lists of drafts are in GW’s hand.