August 13th
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“If you think me capable of holding a commisson that has neither rank nor emolument annexed to it, you must entertain a very contemptible opinion of my weakness, and believe me to be more empty than the commission itself.”
Belvoir (Fairfax Estate)
Library of Congress
To Colonel William Fitzhugh
Belvoir, 15 November 1754
Dear Sir,
I was favored with your letter from Rousby Hall, of the 4th instant. It demands my best acknowledgements for the particular marks of Esteem you have expressed therein; and for the kind assurances of his Excellency Governour Sharpe’s good wishes towards me. I also thank you, and sincerely, Sir, for your friendly intention of making my situation easy, if I return to the service; and I do not doubt, could I submit to the Terms, that I should be as happy under your command, in the absence of the General, as under any gentleman’s whatever: but I think, the disparity between the present offer of a Company, and my former Rank, too great to expect any real satisfaction or enjoyment in a Corps, where I once did, or thought I had a right to command; even if his Excellency had power to suspend the orders received in the Secretary of War’s Letter; which, by the by, I am very far from thinking he has, or will attempt to do, without fuller Instructions than I believe he has; especially, too, as there has been a representation of this matter by Govenour Dinwiddie, and, I believe, the Assembly of this State; we have advices that it was received before Deurmarree obtained his Letter.
All that I presume the General can do, is, to prevent the different Corps from interfering, which will occasion the Duty to be done by Corps, instead of Detachments; a very in convenient way, as is found by experience.
You make mention in your letter of my continuing in the Service, and retaining my Colo’s Commission. This idea has filled me with surprise; for if you think me capable of holding a commisson that has neither rank nor emolument annexed to it, you must entertain a very contemptible opinion of my weakness, and believe me to be more empty than the Commission itself.*
George Washington, 1750s
National Portrait Gallery
Besides, Sir, if I had time, I could enumerate many good reasons, that forbid all thoughts of my Returning; and which to you, or any other, would, upon the strictest scrutiny, appear to be well-founded. I must be reduced to a very low Command, and subjected to that of many who have acted as my inferior Officers. In short, every Captain, bearing the King’s Commission, every half-pay Officer, or other, appearing with such a commission, would rank before me; for these reasons, I choose to submit to the loss of Health which I have, however, already sustained, (not to mention that of Effects,) and the fatigue I have undergone in our first Efforts; rather than subject myself to the same inconveniences, and run the risque of a second disappointment.
I shall have the consolation of knowing, that I have opened the way when the smallness of our numbers exposed us to the attacks of a Superior Enemy; that I have hitherto stood the heat and brunt of the Day, and escaped untouched in time of extreme danger; and that I have the Thanks of my Country, for the Services I have rendered it.**
It shall not sleep in silence, my having received information that those peremptory Orders from Home, which, you say could not be dispensed with, for reducing the Regiments into Independent Companies, were generated, hatched and brought from Will’s Creek. Ingenuous treatment and plain dealing, I at least expected. It is to be hoped the project will answer; it shall meet with my acquiescence in everything except personal Services. I herewith enclose Governour Sharp’s Letter, which I beg you will return to him, with my Acknowledgments for the favour he intended me, assure him, Sir, as you truly may, of my reluctance to quit the Service, and of the pleasure I should have received in attending his Fortunes, also inform him, that it was to obey the call of Honour, and the advice of my Friends, I declined it, and not to gratify any desire I had to leave the military line. My inclinations are strongly bent to arms.
The length of this, and the small room I have left, tell me how necessary it is to conclude, which I will do as you always shall find me. Truly and sincerely &c.
G:o Washington
* “Governor Dinwiddie wrote to the Earl of Halifax (October 25): ‘As there have been some disputes between the regulars and the officers appointed by me, I am now determined to reduce our regiment into Independent Companies, so that from our forces there will be no other distinguished officer above a captain.’ It is clear, therefore, that this was done at the governor’s own motion, probably in concert with Governor Sharpe, and not by any orders which had as yet been received from higher authority. Dinwiddie could plead the Carthagena expedition as a precedent; but the memory of the treatment received by the Colonial troops on that expedition was not soothing to the Colonies. Washington resigned in October because of this fantastic scheme which would have placed him under officers whom he had formerly commanded.” — Fitzpatrick, et al., WGW
In March 1755, General Braddock (British regular army), through his aide, would offer Washington a spot as an aide-de-camp on an expedition into Western Pennsylvania to unseat the French; he promised that all issues concerning rank would be “obviated.” Washington joined Braddock for the ill-fated mission.
** Jumonville Glen Skirmish and the Battle of Fort Necessity; these actions touched off the French and Indian War, which is inescapably linked to the Revolutionary War through the British imposition of the Stamp Act upon the colonies after the war, essentially to pay for the conflict. The war concluded on 10 February 1763 with the Treaty of Paris.
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