From George Washington to William Peachey, 16 October 1755
To William Peachey
[Winchester, 16 October 1755]
To Captain William Peachy, at Alexandria.
You are hereby ordered, to send off all the Recruits which are now under your Command at Alexandria, immediately to Winchester; if there is a Captains Command, you are to order the next eldest Captain to march them up; if not, they are to be marched up by Lieutenant Bullet.1 The Order of the eleventh instant, about sending a Return to Fredericksburgh, by no means to be neglected2—All the Officers who were appointed to Rendezvous at Alexandria the 20th, are allowed a further time, until the 15th of November; when it is Ordered, that they appear there without delay, with what Recruits they may raise. You are to clothe all the men before you send them off, and must give the Officer who comes with the Recruits, a strict charge of the remainder—Orders will be left for him with Commissary Jones.
G:W.
LB, DLC:GW.
1. Thomas Bullitt served as a cadet with GW at Fort Necessity in 1754 and shortly after the capitulation was commissioned an ensign, effective 22 July. During Braddock’s expedition in 1755 he was assigned to George Mercer’s company. Bullitt was among those promoted to lieutenant when GW became colonel of the reorganized Virginia Regiment in Sept. 1755. (The correct date of his rank as lieutenant seems to be 20 Aug. 1755, though in Dinwiddie’s papers it is recorded as Oct. 1754 [, 1:319–20].) He was first assigned to George Mercer’s company in the Virginia Regiment and then in the spring of 1756 to Peter Hog’s after two other lieutenants in the regiment had resigned rather than serve with Hog at Fort Dinwiddie. When GW removed Hog from the command of his company in July 1757, he made Lieutenant Bullitt the acting captain. Bullitt served as captain lieutenant until the spring of 1758. At that time, Capt. Joshua Lewis resigned his captaincy, and at GW’s insistence Bullitt succeeded to it. As a captain in Col. William Byrd’s 2d Virginia Regiment, Bullitt was commended in 1758 for his bravery at Col. James Grant’s defeat before Fort Duquesne and was criticized for his conduct when his company suffered heavy casualties near Fort Ligonier in 1759. After the war Bullitt was deeply involved in surveying western lands, and during the Revolution he served in the Continental Army, eventually reaching the rank of colonel. He was from Fauquier County, the son of Benjamin Bullitt (1700–1766) and Elizabeth Harrison Bullitt (d. 1742).
2. See Orders, 10 Oct. 1755, for GW’s instructions to Peachey on this head.