From George Washington to the Officers of the Virginia Regiment of 1754, 20 January 1771
To the Officers of the Virginia Regiment of 1754
Mount Vernon Jany 20th 1771
Dear Sir,
As there has happend several very considerable, & not less surprizing changes respecting the Lands West of the Allegany Mountains since our Flattering prospect about this since twelve months—indeed since the meeting of the officers at Fredericksburg in August last,1 I think it indispensably necessary that we shoud have another meeting, in order to fix upon some settled plan of operation under our present discouragements, or resolve to let our pretensions sleep till happier times, for this ⟨purpose⟩ I have appointed a meeting at Winchester on the first Monday in March next (being the 4th of the Month) which will allow us as long time to receive further information of the New Charter Government as we ought to delay finishing the Work (begun last Fall) of Surveying.2 I hope this time and place will be convenient to you as I coud heartily wish for a full meeting of the Parties concernd, that something conclusive may be the result of it.
In full confidence then of seeing you upon this occasion, I defer giving any acct of my journey to the Ohio and passage down the River till I enjoy this satisfaction,3 this Letter being intended as nothing more than an advertiser of the meeting, in case you shoud not see my notification thereof in the Gazettes.4 In the mean time I remain Dr Sir Yr Most Obedt Servt
Go: Washington
ALS (photocopy), DLC:GW.
1. For the meeting of the officers at Fredericksburg in August 1770, see Advertisement, 16 Dec. 1769, n.1. See also Minutes of the Meeting of the Officers of the Virginia Regiment of 1754, 5 Mar. 1771.
3. At the meeting of the officers in August 1770, GW agreed to search out land on the Ohio and the Great Kanawha for William Crawford to survey. GW’s journal of his trip, 5 October–30 November, is printed in , 2:286–324.
4. The following advertisement appeared in the Virginia Gazette on 31 Jan. 1771: “The Officers, and others, who may be principally interested in the Grant of two Hundred Thousand Acres of Land under Governour Dinwiddie’s Proclamation in 1754, and confirmed to them by an Order of Council of the 15th of December 1769, are earnestly requested to meet at Winchester on Monday the 4th of March next. George Washington” (Purdie and Dixon; Williamsburg).