George Washington Papers

Memorandum respecting the Militia, 9 May 1756

Memorandum respecting the Militia

[Winchester, 9 May 1756]

May 9th Captns Dalton Russel with the Volunteers & Militia set out on their return homewards.1 so tht there only remns of the Fx M. those who w: o: to the B.2 Abt 4 o’clock this Eveng I had an express from Colo. Slaughter infg me that he was then as far as Perkins’s with abt 200 of the Culpr Militia upon which I ordd him to remain there as the Town had more already in it than they cd lodge and many quarelsome fellows amongst them.3 he also informs me that they had not above 50 Firelocks in4 the whole.

2After “remns” GW crossed out what appears to be “wt the Fx Captns”; “who w: o: to the B.” refers to the detachment of Fairfax militia commanded by captains Nicholas Minor and James Hamilton, who went out to the Branch.

3Col. Thomas Slaughter of the Culpeper County militia came into town from Isaac Perkins’s nearby plantation on 10 May and was a member of GW’s council of war in Winchester on 14 May. On 16 May GW sent fifty Culpeper militiamen under Capt. John Field to Capt. Thomas Waggener’s Upper Fort on the South Branch, and by the next day Slaughter had left Winchester for home. Before leading his militiamen to Winchester, Slaughter had been in Williamsburg, in April, as a burgess for Culpeper County. His commission as lieutenant colonel and commander of the militia forces sent to GW from Culpeper was dated 26 April 1756. Second in command of the Culpeper detachment was Maj. William Green, whose commission was dated 29 April. No letter from Slaughter of this date has been found.

4GW substituted “in” for “from.”

Index Entries