The Winter Encampment at Cumberland Old Courthouse

“The most ruinous of any regiment in the Army of the United States” is how Lt. William Eskridge described Lt. Col. Thomas Gaskins’ Battalion following the Siege of Yorktown.[1] Throughout the year of 1781, the Virginia Continentals had suffered through want of clothing, lack of shelter, and the rigors of a campaign across the state. Those who had made it through the campaign were destined to reinforce the Southern Army in the Carolinas, but before they began the long march they needed discipline, clothing, and almost every necessity that had been promised numerous times. The task of outfitting, disciplining, and sending off these soldiers fell to Col. Christian Febiger. A country tavern in the hills of Virginia would serve as his encampment, and the hardships of the Continentals there were comparable to those suffered during the winters at Valley Forge and Morristown.

Colonel Febiger was one of Virginia’s most experienced officers by the time of his arrival at Cumberland old Courthouse. Born in Denmark, Febiger moved to Massachusetts Bay Colony from the Caribbean Island of Saint Croix to engage in business. Following the outbreak of war in 1775, Febiger joined the Massachusetts Militia and was assigned as adjutant to Col. Samuel Gerrish’s Regiment. He fought with note at Bunker Hill and was captured during the failed attempt to take Quebec later that year.[2] After he was exchanged, he received an appointment as lieutenant colonel of the 11th Virginia Regiment and was appointed colonel of the 2nd Virginia Regiment in September 1777 after the Battle of Germantown. He was commended for his conduct in leading his regiment of light infantry during the storming of Stony Point, New York in 1779. While the rest of the Virginia Line marched south to be captured at Charlestown, South Carolina, Colonel Febiger remained to command Virginia Continentals at Philadelphia and later worked to gather and forward supplies to Virginia and the Southern Army. Febiger returned to Virginia in the late spring of 1781 and briefly commanded Gaskins’ Battalion of Virginia Continentals. “Old Denmark,” as he was referred to by some officers, was appointed to serve as superintendent of the recruiting service in Virginia and reform the detachments of Virginia Continentals into effective units to serve in the Southern Army, and given orders to set up a general rendezvous wherever he saw fit.[3]He chose Cumberland old Courthouse.

The site chosen by Febiger was based around a one-story, single-pile structure built in the 1740s.[4]Also known as Mosby’s Tavern (named for the prominent family that owned and operated it), Cumberland old Courthouse was stationed along the stage road between Richmond and Lexington. By 1781, the tavern was owned by Littleberry Mosby, Sr., who was a member of the House of Delegates as well as the county lieutenant of Powhatan County.[5]Colonel Febiger’s were not the first Continental troops at the post. Continental dragoons were organized and outfitted at Cumberland in the summer of 1781.[6]

The Continentals that Colonel Febiger gathered at Cumberland came from two main groups. The first group was Gaskins’ Battalion of Virginians, originally organized at several locations across Virginia and gathered at Albemarle old Courthouse (present day Scottsville, Virginia). They received arms there and escaped capture at Point of Fork in June 1781. The battalion, named for its commander, Lt. Col. Thomas Gaskins, served with Lafayette’s army under the command of Brig. Gen. Anthony Wayne, with part of it fighting at Green Spring in July and all serving in von Steuben’s Division during the Siege of Yorktown. After the siege, it was planned that the Pennsylvania Line as well as Gaskins’ Battalion wound be sent to South Carolina to join Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene’s Southern Army. A company of Continental Artillery led by Lt. Francis Brooke was also attached to them.

The other group was already being gathered at Cumberland old Courthouse throughout the summer of 1781. 170 new recruits, mostly drafted men and substitutes, were stationed at Cumberland waiting for supplies and clothing from Colonel Febiger. Febiger went to Philadelphia to bring his wife to Virginia and left the command to Lt. Col. Thomas Posey.[7] Posey was a veteran of six years by the summer of 1781, and had risen from the rank of captain in the 7th Virginia Regiment. Febiger and Posey already had experience working together, as Febiger commanded the 1st Regiment in Wayne’s Light Infantry and Posey (at the time with rank of major) commanded one of the two battalions under his command. Like Febiger, he escaped capture at Charlestown because he was on furlough with his family in the Shenandoah Valley. With no command after the spring of 1780, Posey served as a recruiting officer in Augusta and Rockbridge Counties, and as an officer commanding militia for three months when British forces invaded Virginia. Though Posey was supposed to be at Cumberland old Courthouse, he went to Yorktown and witnessed the surrender there in October, making him one of the few men to witness the surrenders at both Saratoga and Yorktown.

Though Gen. George Washington wanted to send Gaskins’ Battalion to South Carolina immediately after Yorktown, Colonel Febiger proposed the battalion be marched to Cumberland old Courthouse to pick the men who had the longest time to serve among the eighteen months men gathered there, and those serving in Gaskins’ Battalion, to form a new battalion to go south. General Washington approved of the plan and Colonel Febiger ordered the majority of Gaskins’ Battalion to go to Cumberland old Courthouse. The battalion was in bad shape at Yorktown and Colonel Febiger was not happy with their condition. On October 22, 1781, the same day Febiger suggested the plan to reorganize the Virginians, the battalion had 358 men fit for duty out of the 592 men who were part of it.[8] Those whose times were set to expire on December 31 were to remain in Virginia as guards and escorts, under command of Capt. Nathan Lamme at Williamsburg.[9] The remainder were ordered to “march to Cumberland old Courthouse to be cloathed and combined with recruits there to be form into a battalion to go south.”[10] Lieutenant Colonel Posey was ordered to take command of the new battalion, with Maj. Samuel Finley as his second-in-command.

Gaskins’ Battalion, led by Maj. John Poulson of the 8th Virginia, marched into camp at Cumberland old Courthouse on November 2.[11] The men were not in any condition to march south. “Four companies entirely without officers,” Colonel Febiger wrote to Col. William Davies after their arrival, while the other companies were commanded by captains.[12] The men lacked clothing, which proved to be a consistent problem for the Virginia Line after 1780. It was originally expected that 500 Virginians would march south but only 150 were fit to march immediately.[13] Besides lack of clothing, the new battalion suffered from illness, desertions, and Major Poulson’s liberal furloughs from which “very few of them have ever returned.” Febiger referred to Poulson as “a cursed fool” for giving out unlimited furloughs to not just the men, but to officers as well; only six officers and roughly 200 men arrived at Cumberland old Courthouse.[14] Febiger complained of the officers who had stayed on. In his letter to Colonel Davies on November 6, he complained that he left Gaskins’ Battalion “in tolerable order, and never saw them again until at York, when I assure you I pitied the men, and damn’d the O—–, a very few only excepted.”[15] One of the few he didn’t complain of was Capt. Alexander Parker of the 2nd Virginia Regiment.

Captain Parker was one of three brothers who had joined as officers in the Virginia Line. His older brother, Richard, rose to the rank of colonel and was killed in the Siege of Charlestown. Alexander and his younger brother, Lt. Thomas Parker, were both captured at Charlestown and spent the next fourteen months as prisoners of war. After they and many other Virginia Continentals were exchanged at Jamestown in July 1781, Thomas went on furlough while Alexander took command of a company from the exchanged men who intended to stay on and serve with Gaskins’ Battalion in the coming siege at Yorktown. At Yorktown, Colonel Febiger found that Captain Parker was “ready to resign, and the men ready to run away for fear of stinking with indolence and filth—hard duty excepted.” After the surrender, the men under Parker’s command were granted furloughs until December 15, 1781, then ordered to report to Cumberland old Courthouse. Captain Parker’s Company of veterans became the light infantry company of Posey’s new battalion.[16]

The men had just been issued coats received from Philadelphia, but did not have enough linen overalls, hats, and shirts for many of the men. “They say that only one has been delivered to each man, and as they had no others when that was received it is worn out,” Colonel Febiger wrote on November 6. Part of the problem he placed again on the officers. Concerning the lack of blankets, Febiger wrote, “what is become of all your blankets—what we have not got are lost—Pray how are they lost—I don’t know, I have only lately joined the Detachment, Colo. Gaskins and Major Willis must know best.”[17] Only fourteen huts were built near the courthouse and more were needed, but the stores at Cumberland had no axes or any tools to build more. In addition to supplying and clothing his men, Febiger had a new issue arrive that plagued many military camps of the era: smallpox.

Smallpox had already broken out around Yorktown as the Virginians marched from there and within four days of their arrival at the station, six men were already showing symptoms.[18] Febiger feared that men who have not already had it (roughly 150) would become infected and further deplete his ranks. To counter this, he decided to inoculate them. The six men already ill were sent to stay in a horseman’s tent about 700 yards from the camp to isolate them.[19] A chimney was added to the tent for warmth and a nurse was sent to care for the men; the nurse was ordered to remain out of the camp as long as he served in that position. The fourteen huts already built were reserved for sick men (with illnesses other than smallpox) and inoculation, “however ill provided with Surgeon, medicines, or every other necessary.”[20] The local residents, however, opposed this measure. Fear of the spread of smallpox to their community convinced thirty-two residents of Powhatan County, including Littleberry Mosby, Sr., to write a petition threatening to withhold supplies for the soldiers, and cut off all communication with them if the inoculation took place. Mosby delivered the petition to Febiger and “spoke of loaded guns,” implying violence. Febiger also reported to Gov. Thomas Nelson, Jr. that Mosby made “use of some very imprudent expressions” in the conversation.[21] Thus the inoculation did not take place at Cumberland old Courthouse.

Colonel Febiger was upset over the obstacles that had prevented sending this new battalion of Virginians to join the Southern Army. General Greene continuously reminded Febiger, Governor Nelson, and other officials that the majority of the Virginians under his command were enlisted for eighteen months and their enlistments ended December 31. Febiger realized the urgency, but questioned sending the men south in their condition. “To send them unequipped and with the small pox breaking out among them daily, I thought would be madness” is how he explained to Colonel Davies his decision to not march. Febiger related that he would tell Washington and Greene as much and feared “censure though conscious I deserve none.”[22]

Until the time came to march, Febiger needed to reorganize and discipline the men. On November 9 the veterans of Gaskins’ Battalion, new levies gathered over the summer, and veterans returned from Charlestown, were all formed into eight new companies, divided by each regiment that existed on paper.[23] The men belonging to the 1st Virginia formed the 1st Company, the men of the 2nd Virginia formed the 2nd Company, and so on to the 8th Company. The commanders in order of their regiments were: Capt. Joseph Scott, Jr., Capt. Reuben Fields, Capt. Thoams Warman, Capt. William L. Lovely, Capt. Thoams Martin, Lt. Beverly Stubblefield, Lt. Andrew Lewis, and Ens. John Scott. The 6th and 8th Companies did not have any of the officers belonging to their respective regiments, so Lieutenant Stubblefield of the 2nd Virginia and Ensign Scott of the 1st Virginia took those commands. With the reorganization of Captain Parker’s light infantry company in December, the battalion had nine companies with over 400 officers and men. Lieutenant Colonel Posey assumed the command with Major Finley as his subordinate and the corps became known as Posey’s Battalion. The best compliment Febiger could give was to remark that “a tolerable officer” was placed in command of each company. He made sure to replace any officers he believed detrimental to the command with other veteran officers. One example was Capt. John Overton, who had “shurked about too much this summer” and “shamefully neglected” his company; Febiger replaced him with Captain Scott, “who was desirous of command and seems very attentive.”[24]

The officers of Posey’s Battalion were sensible to the condition of their men and the orders to march south in their destitute situation was a terrible idea to them. By November 11, Febiger himself was ill and could not attend the general assembly in Richmond where he had hoped he could present “a State of Grievances of the line” and ask for assistance. He ordered his officers to meet and draw up a memorandum, and choose an officer to lay it before the assembly in Richmond.[25] The officers created a memorial, but not in the manner Febiger had intended. The memorandum not only stated the condition of the troops but the complaints of officers and men, and the officers’ protests over marching south.

The first part of the memorandum complained that some officers had not been paid for two or three years. “We are truly destitute of cloathing,” they wrote, “having barely sufficient to support us against the inclemencies of a Winter Campaign, nor has each officer a Blankett.” The officers felt that they were insulted by the lack of pay and clothing, but wished to serve their country. Most were veterans from 1776 and had served faithfully with “the loss of health and fortune.” They still intended to serve but wanted to be paid and supplied properly. Toward the end of the memorandum, they claimed they had been treated differently than their brothers in arms from other states. “Let them cast their Sister States to the northward of us and see how amply, they have provided for those brave Officers and Men, who have fought their Battles and indured with perseverance the innumerable hardships attending on the military profession,” they wrote. In comparison, the officers felt that the “balance of ill usage and neglect has fallen with unmerciful weight on the shoulders of the officers of the Virginia continental Line in a many fold proportion to that of the sufferings of officers in any other state in the Union.” Until the conditions of the officers and men were improved, the officers threatened to resign rather than march to South Carolina. The memorandum was signed by the five most senior officers at Cumberland old Courthouse on the behalf of the whole: Lt. Col. Thomas Posey, Maj. John Poulson, Maj. Samuel Finley, Capt. Alexander Parker, and Capt. Joseph Scott, Jr.[26]

The memorandum was sent to the general assembly in Richmond, and Febiger also sent it to Gen. Arthur St. Clair of the Pennsylvania Line (then marching south) who forwarded it to General Washington. Washington was both surprised and disappointed by the document. He placed fault for the undisciplined nature of the enlisted men on the officers and questioned in a letter to Colonel Febiger, “what can they expect from their soldiers, when they themselves strike at the root of authority and discipline?”[27] Washington did impress to the governor to do everything in his power to provide clothing to the men, but reminded Febiger that the state of Virginia did not have the power to pay them at the time. The general assembly did vote, however, to raise money to pay the officers through the sale of confiscated estates.[28] Washington took the Virginia Line’s refusal to march as a personal insult as well as an act detrimental to the campaigns in the South. “You must suppose my feelings are particularly wounded on the occasion,” he made clear to Febiger, “when asked whether any and what reinforcements have marched from Virginia, I shall blush when I say none, and more so when I assign the cause.”[29] Both Colonel Febiger and Lieutenant Colonel Posey later apologized to Washington.

The rank and file during the encampment at Cumberland old Courthouse were truly undisciplined. A court martial sat almost weekly to try soldiers for different crimes. Desertion and absence without leave were the most frequent charges but there were many others. Richard Neale was found guilty on November 6 for “drunkenness and attempting to force a centinal when on duty” and was sentenced to receive 100 lashes.[30] William Campen and John Henley were tried on November 30 for breaking into the mill owned by Gen. Charles Scott; both were found guilty and sentenced to receive 100 lashes each.[31] One of the most interesting cases was that of John Crouch, who was proven to be a British deserter; Febiger ordered Crouch to be released from confinement and “beat out with the Rouges March [on] the main road leading down the country” on December 17.[32] Lashes were the most common punishment, ranging from twenty-five to one hundred. Others were sentenced to serve longer times of enlistment; Shadrick Battle, a deserter who was brought back to camp, was sentenced to serve three more years.[33]

Febiger tried to keep the men in check as much as possible. By mid-November, the soldiers were in the habit of going out into the countryside to find food and trade with civilians. On the night of November 16, it was reported to Febiger that “no less than three large fat hogs and nine turkeys” were stolen, so he ordered that the roll be called four times every day and any man found absent would be punished with fifty lashes without a court martial.[34] By the end of the month, locals complained the soldiers had destroyed fences in the area. Febiger directed his officers to pay attention to “the preventing this wanton and cruel destruction especially in the middle of the woods,” and any man found carrying a fence rail into camp or burning a rail would immediately receive thirty-nine lashes.[35] Febiger also increased the guards around camp and sent patrols into the country to gather any absent men.

The most serious case brought for the court was that of Joseph Hawkins. The twenty-two-year-old Hawkins was described as a “mulatto” and was a farmer from Frederick County when he volunteered for the duration of the war in June 1781. He was placed under arrest after stealing from several properties in the area. On February 8, 1782, he stood before Major Finley and twelve commissioned officers on the charge of theft and plundering, and was found guilty. He was sentenced to “be hung by the neck until he be dead dead dead.”[36] The next day, all the troops at Cumberland old Courthouse were paraded before gallows on the parade ground and watched the execution of Hawkins at 1:30 p.m. precisely.

Supplies continued to be an issue throughout the winter. Muskets were needed for some of the new recruits and Colonel Febiger asked for captured British muskets from Yorktown to issue to them.[37] The men formerly of Gaskins’ Battalion had enough arms as they had received French muskets before Yorktown, but they lacked knapsacks, canteens, camp kettles, and other hardware.[38] The men of Posey’s Battalion received new blue coats, but they lacked the buttons for them. On December 4, Colonel Febiger ordered that a sergeant and two men remove the shot from musket cartridges to be melted down to make buttons that were then issued to the men to sew on themselves.[39] Blankets were also lacking, leading many men to continuously wear their linen overalls, causing them to wear out quickly.

If clothing was an issue, then food was a monumental crisis toward the end of winter. It appeared the best meal came around Christmas time. Colonel Febiger ordered, as a reward for “having for a long time destitute of every kind of necessary,” that each soldier be issued a half pint of rice, a half pint of peas, 1 gill of whiskey, 1 gill of vinegar, 1 pound of flour, and a half pound of meat. After Christmas, the meat ration dropped as winter continued. To prevent a total loss of meat supplies, a tax of two pounds of bacon per poll was implemented in Powhatan County to provide for the men.[40] Febiger also went to neighboring Amelia County to find beef. Twelve days passed without meat rations until beef arrived in camp. The meat had been fresh but was delayed in transit, so that by the time it arrived it had turned foul. The soldiers refused to receive it and openly complained so loudly that Febiger ordered some of them confined. On January 20, 1782, in response to their comrades being confined for complaining, 150 men rose in arms and to set them free. “By the vigilance of officers they were dispersed,” Colonel Febiger reported to Colonel Davies three days afterwards. Beef was also soon brought from Richmond but Febiger feared that when this meat, “or rather the carrion” as he described it, was issued to the men there would be more protest, for he assured Davies that “the stench from the meat” it was “dangerous to be near.”[41]

Toward the end of January 1782, the pressure was on Colonel Febiger to get Posey’s Battalion to march south. General Greene wrote to Febiger from South Carolina to implore him to “give no sleep to our eyes or slumber to your eyelids, till you get the troops on the march” and feared that unless the state of Virginia put effort into sending the men south, the Southern Army was “inevitably ruined.” Febiger informed the officers and men of Posey’s Battalion that they were to march south as soon as they received proper supplies and was convinced the Virginians would “cheerfully” go to the aid of the Southern Army.[42] The enlisted men of Posey’s Battalion disagreed.

Officers found a piece of paper in camp that encouraged the men to refuse to march and Colonel Febiger ordered his officers to keep a close eye on the behavior of the men. Captain Parker’s Light Company was paraded and inspected by Febiger on February 4, 1782, while the entire garrison was inspected on February 10.[43] Upon inspection, Febiger found that Posey’s men were not entirely prepared to march as they were “not yet well clad” but he planned on them marching out of Cumberland on February 14. Two ammunition wagons and four other wagons were prepared for Posey’s Battalion and Capt. Lt. John T. Brooke’s company from the 1st Continental Artillery. Febiger hoped that Lieutenant Colonel Posey and his men would in part “retrieve the sinking caracter of the Va Line.”[44]

On the morning of February 14, the men of Posey’s Battalion and Brooke’s artillery company were formed on the parade ground and Lieutenant Colonel Posey read the orders that they had awaited for over three months. This order to march south was the last straw for the Virginians at the station. The drummers beat the signal for formation, called the “General,” and the officers expected the men to fall in with knapsacks packed and ready to march. Instead, they came out with muskets but no knapsacks. When ordered to get their equipment, they refused and remained in formation, despite the shouts of their officers and some of the sergeants.[45] Febiger and Posey eventually did get the men to march south, though the methods described in letters by Febiger and Lt. Francis Brooke differed. Febiger wrote to Washington that “when ordered by Colo. Posey to strike their tents refused saying they would not march without money—I was on the spot with a letter threatening some persuasion and an excellent band of music to play them off all was quieted.”[46] But he wrote to Colonel Davies that “on the 14th instant I got rid of the said Detachment, after hanging one and whipping 73 of them” and that he had ordered the officers to go on foot rather than on horseback, which had a good effect on the men.[47] Lieutenant Brooke recalled in his book after the war that “a Sergeant Hagarltoy was run through the body by Captain Shelton, and Colonel Febiger ordered the barracks to be set on fire.”[48] Regardless of what happened on February 14, 1782, Lieutenant Colonel Posey led his battalion of 441 officers and men to join the Southern Army and serve alongside Gen. Anthony Wayne in Georgia and South Carolina.[49]

Despite Brooke’s account of the burning of the barracks, Febiger remained at Cumberland old Courthouse with nearly 150 soldiers.[50] He intended for Cumberland to remain the main rendezvous station for the Virginia Line. Desertion and disease took down the garrison to 113 officers and men by March 1782, of which 65 were fit for duty, with another 33 serving as waiters, waggoners, and butchers.[51] Febiger hoped to raise two more battalions of Continental soldiers from Virginia, but his plan never materialized. For the remainder of the war, Posey’s Battalion remained the largest battalion in the field from the state, while Febiger and other officers commanded various detachments at places like Cumberland old Courthouse and Winchester Barracks. In March 1782, Colonel Febiger was replaced by Brig. Gen. Peter Muhlenberg as the chief continental recruiting officer in Virginia, and Febiger remained the commandant of the Cumberland old Courthouse throughout the summer.[52] He was absent in the fall of 1782 when he left the command to Capt. Abraham Kirkpatrick, and finally retired from the army on January 1, 1783. The rest of the recruits who gathered at Cumberland old Courthouse were later transferred to Winchester Barracks until July 1783, when they marched to the Point of Fork Arsenal near present-day Columbia, Virginia, where the last of them were discharged in September 1783.

As for the men of Posey’s Battalion, they continued in service throughout 1782. They served with General Wayne around Savannah, Georgia where they engaged in skirmishes with the British and Creek Warriors through June 1782 and marched into the city in July. In October, all the eighteen-month men were marched by Lieutenant Colonel Posey back to Cumberland old Courthouse where they were discharged in the following month. The remainder stayed in South Carolina with Major Finley. When the Southern Army marched into Charlestown, South Carolina, Captain Parker’s Light Infantry Company—with many of the same men who were captured there two years prior—were the first into the city on December 14, 1782. Those same soldiers were later discharged in the summer of 1783 at Richmond, Virginia, less than forty miles from where they had suffered the winter at Cumberland old Courthouse.

[1]Febiger-Posey Orderly Book, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

[2]Richard Frothingham, History of the Siege of Boston and of the Battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill (Boston, MA: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1851), 179.

[3]Christian Febiger to George Washington, September 7, 1781, founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-06916; enclosure, Febiger to Washington, March 14, 1782, founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-07967.

[4]United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, NPS Form 10-900, 10.

[5]United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, NPS Form 10-900, 7.

[6]Febiger to Washington, September 7, 1781, founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-06916.

[7]Ibid.

[8]Baron von Steuben to Washington, October 22, 1781, founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-07235.

[9]Washington to von Steuben, October 22, 1781, founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-07250.William P. Palmer, Calendar of Virginia State Papers and Other Manuscripts (New York: Kraus Reprint Corporation, 1968), 2:583.

[10]Washington to von Steuben, October 22, 1781, founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-07250.

[11]Arthur St. Clair to Washington, November 14, 1781, founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-07404.

[12]Febiger to William Davies, November 6, 1781, Palmer, Calendar of Virginia State Papers, 2:583.

[13]St. Clair to Washington, November 14, 1781,founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-07404.

[14]Febiger to Washington, February 10, 1782, founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-07808.

[15]Febiger to Davies, November 6, 1781, Palmer,Calendar of Virginia State Papers, 2:583.

[16]von Steuben to Washington, October 22, 1781, founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-07235.

[17]Febiger to Davies, November 6, 1781, Palmer, Calendar of Virginia State Papers, 2:583.

[18]Ibid., 2:584.

[19]Orders, November 7, 1781, Febiger-Posey Orderly Book.

[20]Febiger to Davies, November 6, 1781, Palmer, Calendar of Virginia State Papers, 2:584.

[21]Febiger to Thomas Nelson, November 16, 1781, Palmer, Calendar of Virginia State Papers, 2:602.

[22]Febiger to Davies, November 6, 1781, Palmer, Calendar of Virginia State Papers, 2:584.

[23]Orders, November 9, 1781, Febiger-Posey Orderly Book.

[24]Febiger to Davies, November 6, 1781, Palmer, Calendar of Virginia State Papers, 2:583-584.

[25]Orders, November 11, 1781, Febiger-Posey Orderly Book.

[26]Febiger to Davies, November 17, 1781, Palmer, Calendar of Virginia State Papers, 2:609-610.

[27]Washington to Febiger, January 12, 1782, founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-07683.

[28]Thomas Posey to Washington, February 11, 1782, founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-07815.

[29]Washington to Febiger, January 12, 1782, founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-07683.

[30]Orders, November 6, 1781, Febiger-Posey Orderly Book. Richard Neale was also a veteran of the Virginia State Garrison Regiment.

[31]Orders, November 30, 1781, Febiger-Posey Orderly Book.

[32]Orders, December 17, 1781, Febiger-Posey Orderly Book.

[33]Orders, December 18, 1781, Febiger-Posey Orderly Book.

[34]Orders, November 16, 1781, November 18, 1781, Febiger-Posey Orderly Book.

[35]Orders, November 30, 1781, Febiger-Posey Orderly Book.

[36]Orders, February 8, 1782, Febiger-Posey Orderly Book.

[37]Febiger to Davies, December 12, 1781, Palmer,Calendar of Virginia State Papers, 2:654.

[38]Febiger to Davies, November 17, 1781, Palmer,Calendar of Virginia State Papers, 2:611.

[39]Orders, December 4, 1781, Febiger-Posey Orderly Book.

[40]William Ronald to Thomas Jefferson, January 20, 1782, Palmer, Calendar of Virginia State Papers, 3:39.

[41]Febiger to Davies, January 23, 1782, Palmer, Calendar of Virginia State Papers, 3:44-45.

[42]Orders, January 26, 1782, Febiger-Posey Orderly Book.

[43]Orders, February 4, 1782, February 10, 1782, Febiger-Posey Orderly Book.

[44]Febiger to Washington, February 10, 1782, founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-07808.

[45]Francis J. Brooke, A Family Narrative, Being the Reminiscences of a Revolutionary Officer(Richmond: MacFarlane and Ferguson, 1849), 21.

[46]Febiger to Washington, March 14, 1782,founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-07967.

[47]Febiger to Davies, February 23, 1782, Palmer,Calendar of Virginia State Papers, 3:72.

[48]Brooke, A Family Narrative,21.

[49]Thomas Posey, Detachment Troops, www.loc.gov/item/mgw430304/.

[50]Febiger to Washington, February 10, 1782, founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-07808.

[51]Febiger to Washington, with Returns, www.loc.gov/item/mgw423272/.

[52]John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington, from the Original Sources, 1745-1799, Vol. 24 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1938), 48; Washington to Febiger, March 12, 1782, founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-07952.