University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER IV

CONTRIBUTIONS OF VIRGINIA TO THE AMERICAN
REVOLUTION

To what extent did Virginia contribute to the success of
the American Revolution?

(1) The Officers.

To have contributed Washington to the cause of independence
was almost glory enough for one state, but besides the
commander-in-chief of the American army, three of the major-generals
appointed by Congress claimed Virginia as their
residence, though only one of the three can be considered in
any way identified with the state. Charles Lee and Horatio
Gates, formerly British army officers, lived in Berkeley County,
Virginia, in that part now Jefferson County, West Virginia,
and Adam Stephen, the third major-general, lived in the same
neighborhood. All three fell into discredit. Lee was dismissed
for his conduct at Monmouth; Gates was suspended
after his defeat at Camden; and Stephen, the only native, a
brave officer, was cashiered for drunkenness at the battle of
Germantown. The fault was a venial one, and General
Stephen, who had served gallantly, retained the respect of his
countrymen, who made him a member of the Convention of
1788, and conferred upon him other trusted positions.

The honor roll of the state is found not in its major-generals
but in its brigadier generals and colonels. Of the former
were Daniel Morgan, who lead the first body of Southern
troops to join Washington before Boston, fought his way into
Quebec to be captured through the failure of the supporting

column, twice turned the tide at Saratoga, and finally after a
tardy promotion to the grade of brigadier, routed the dread
Tarleton at Cowpens in one of the most brilliant engagements
of the war; Peter Muhlenberg, who lead a German regiment
from the valley of Virginia to the relief of Charleston,
in 1776, commanded a brigade at Brandywine, Germantown,
Monmouth, Stony Point, and Yorktown; Hugh Mercer, whose
brigade formed the attacking column at Trenton and at Princeton,
and who died of his wounds a few days later, lamented
by the entire army; George Weedon, who commanded a brigade
at Brandywine and Germantown; William Woodford,
who commanded the Virginia militia at the Great Bridge,
where he scored a remarkable success and led a Virginia brigade
at Brandywine, Germantown and Monmouth; Charles
Scott, who commanded a Virginia regiment at Trenton and
Stony Point, and was the last to leave the field at Monmouth,
when Charles Lee retreated; Edward Stevens, whose regiment
checked the British advance at Brandywine, who served
with distinction at Germantown, and commanded the Virginia
militia at Guildford Court House, where he contested the battle
with the British regulars; Robert Lawson, who shared with
Stevens the glory of the obstinate fight of the Virginia militia
at Guilford Court House and afterwards distinguished himself
in opposing Cornwallis in Virginia; William Campbell,
who commanded a corps of 400 Virginians at King's Mountain,
was chosen by the other officers as chief, and led in that attack
on Colonel Ferguson and his Tory army; George Rogers
Clark, whose conquest of the Northwest and ability as an Indian
fighter secured to him the reputation of being one of the
most remarkable men of the Revolution; and Governor
Thomas Nelson, Jr., who commanded a part of the Virginia
militia during most of the Revolution and all of it in arms in
the Yorktown campaign, when he was governor. Besides
serving as brigadier generals in the Virginia line, Stevens
and Lawson served as colonels in the continental line, and
later received commissions from Virginia as brigadiers of
militia.[38]

In like distinction, though of lower rank, were Colonel
Henry Lee, otherwise "Light Horse Harry," whose "legion"
rendered brilliant services North and South, and to whom
General Greene wrote: "No man in the progress of the campaign
had equal merit with yourself nor is there one so represented."[39] Next to Henry Lee in the effectiveness of his service
was Col. William Washington, who had a hand to hand fight
with Col. Tarleton and was finally taken prisoner at Eutaw
Springs. Then mention should be made of Theodoric Bland
and George Baylor, who served as colonels of cavalry, and
of Colonel Charles Harrison, who was commander of the first
continental artillery. No other state could present such a
galaxy of brilliant officers.

Besides these officers in the army, Virginia led in giving
to the Union the most brilliant and successful admiral of
the navy, John Paul Jones, who though born in Scotland,
claimed Virginia as his home and received from the Governor a
land grant as a citizen; and Richard Dale, first lieutenant of
the Bon Homme Richard, and afterwards a commodore.
Among the officers of the Virginia navy who distinguished
themselves were James Barron, Richard Barron, his brother,
Captain Joseph Meredith, who commanded the privateer
LaFayette, and William Cunningham, first lieutenant of the
brig Liberty, which Paulin says "saw more service than any
other State or Continental vessel of the Revolution, being in
the employ of Virginia from 1775 to 1787."[40] James Barron
performed a signal service in April, 1776, when he captured
a boat with dispatches from Lord Dartmouth, which discovered
the whole plan of British operations under Sir Henry Clinton
and Sir Peter Parker against Charleston.

John Paul Jones

(2) Soldiers.

(a) Extent of the services performed:

The Virginia troops fought over a wider area and further
from home than those of any other state. They served in every
part of the country from Quebec to Savannah and from Boston
to Kaskaskia and Vincennes. The only Northern troops that
crossed the North Carolina line during the war was a contingent
of Pennsylvanians under Wayne and St. Clair. They
had mutinied in the North, and they mutinied in the South.

(b) Military Service—The Army.

In the two branches of the army in which the Americans
had naturally greater opportunities than the British, the rifle
service and cavalry, Virginia was more prominent than any
other state. Morgan's riflemen were the first Continental troops
to go to the assistance of General Washington before Boston.
Later, these riflemen, under their captain, Daniel Morgan,
led the advance of Arnold's army through the wilderness of
Maine to the siege of Quebec. The riflemen of Virginia largely
determined the results of the battles of Saratoga, Cowpens,
and Guildford Court House, and the victory of King's Mountain
was one which they shared with their brethren of North
Carolina and South Carolina. The commanding officer there
was Colonel William Campbell, of Virginia.

The plan pursued by Morgan in the use of his riflemen consisted
in throwing forward a line of expert marksmen and with
the rest assailing the flanks of the enemy. This was the plan
afterwards adopted in the South by General Greene, who was
an excellent officer, but inferior in genius and dash to Morgan.
Nor must we forget the heroic achievements on the frontier of
the riflemen of Virginia under the lead of Christian, Clark,
Todd, Bowman, Logan and Montgomery.

In respect to the cavalry, Virginia was no less pre-eminent.
Congress established in 1777 four cavalry regiments, of which
two were from Virginia, commanded by Colonels Theodoric
Bland and George Baylor. This arm of the service, which
Morgan denominated the "eyes of the infantry," performed
a useful part in the campaign in the Jerseys and Pennsylvania

in 1778. During the campaign of the previous year many of
the disasters befalling the American troops were attributed
to this deficiency in the army. The Virginia regiments were
known as "the Virginia horse," and were lauded by Mr. J.
Fenimore Cooper in his novel, The Spy. At the battle of
Brandywine Washington's bodyguard was composed of a
company of Bland's cavalry commanded by Captain Henry
Lee, afterwards known as "Light Horse Harry." Subsequently
Major Lee's command was detached from the regiment
of Colonel Theodoric Bland and made into a separate partisan
corps. The corps consisted of three companies of cavalry, and
in 1779 it was increased by the addition of a body of infantry,
and the whole became known as "Lee's Legion."

The use of cavalry was even more extensive in the Southern
campaigns towards the end of the war. The remains of
Bland's and Baylor's troopers were ordered South in 1779,
and about 100 in number came under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel
William Washington.

Not long afterwards, Colonel Lee and his legion was
marched to the South, and in the fighting under Greene, the Virginia
cavalry shared with the Virginia riflemen in achieving
much of the best results of the Southern war. The battle of
King's Mountain was one in which the most perfect display
was made of the features in which the Americans had the advantage
of the British. As cavalry the Americans performed
the feat of cutting Ferguson off from Cornwallis, and as dismounted
riflemen of capturing or destroying all of Ferguson's
command. At the Cowpens the cavalry performed a valuable
service and in the long race between Cornwallis and Greene to
Virginia the legion of Henry Lee had the honor to be stationed
in the rear of Greene's army, and in the immediate front of
the enemy. In this position they drove back the dragoons of
Tarleton and enabled Greene to gain without loss the friendly
shores of the Dan and the protection of Virginia. So in the
battle of Guildford Court House, Eutaw Springs and other
battles in South Carolina, the Virginia cavalry and riflemen

were ever active and efficient. In Virginia we have seen how
valuable Major John Fenton Mercer's small body of horse
was to LaFayette's army.

In respect to the infantry, the heroism of the Virginians
was displayed both North and South. In the battles of Trenton,
Princeton, Germantown and Monmouth, Virginia troops
bore the brunt of the fighting. Notable was the Third Virginia
Regiment, commanded successively by Colonels Hugh Mercer,
George Weedon and Thomas Marshall. September 16, 1776,
three companies of the Second Virginia, commanded by Col.
Leitch, led in the attack on Harlaem Heights, and of the eight
companies of the Light Infantry which constituted the assaulting
column at Stony Point, July 15, 1779, five companies were
Virginians. The capture of Paulus Hook by Major Henry
Lee was one of the most brilliant events of the war.

The state militia, though generally poorly equipped, performed
many brilliant exploits. In Virginia the engagements
at the Great Bridge and Gwynn's Island were marked by much
gallant fighting. In the South, though at Camden the Virginia
militia fled before the British veterans in the disastrous battle
of that name, the disgrace of their flight was thoroughly wiped
out by their subsequent noble behavior.[41] At the battle of the
Cowpens, the Virginia militia under Captains Tate and Triplett,
distinguished themselves for their intrepidity, and at the
battle of Guildford Court House, under Generals Stevens and
Lawson, they disputed the ground inch by inch with two of
the best regiments of British regulars, commanded by Webster,
the most daring officer in the British army. Unlike the
militia at Bunker Hill, they stood in the open without the protection
of breast works.

Virginia furnished one-third at least of the garrison at
Charleston, which surrendered; one-third of the army under
Gates at Camden; the leader (Col. Campbell), and one-third
of the conquerors at King's Mountain; the commander (Gen.

Morgan), and one-third of the army at the Cowpens; one-half
of the army at Guilford Court House; and one-third the continental
troops who liberated Carolina at the battle of Eutaw
Springs. No wonder that Colonel Harry Lee, with pardonable
pride, called Virginia the "fountain of Southern resistance."
"The great re-enforcements," wrote Cornwallis to Germain,
"sent by Virginia to Gen. Greene while Arnold was in the
Chesapeake, are convincing proofs that small expeditions do
not frighten that powerful province." And on the third day
after the battle of Guildford Court House Greene wrote to
Washington: "Virginia has given me every support I could
wish." In a letter to General Greene dated August 30, 1782,
Governor Benjamin Harrison wrote: "No country in the
Union has been more prodigal of its blood and money than
Virginia nor has any one had more men in the field till the
fall of Charles Town, or endeavor'd more both before and
since to keep their Battalions full, all the Acts of Assembly on
the Subject except May last prove it. A great number have
been raised by most extravagant Bounties, that have marched
and countermarched thro' this country till most of them have
been lost either by Death or Desertion, the latter chiefly occasion'd
by the want of cloths, which is not in the States power
to procure, their ports being all shut up and Trade at an end;
had the other States done by us as we did by them when in
similar circumstances, I trust no complaints would have been
heard."[42]

(c) Military Service—The Navy.

With the exception of New Jersey and Delaware, each of
the thirteen original states during the Revolution owned one
or more armed vessels. Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania,
Virginia and South Carolina had the largest fleets.
Virginia had more ships than any of the states. She had at
one period of the war as many as 73 vessels, including frigates,
brigantines, schooners, sloops, galleys, armed pilot boats and
barges. They were as a rule poorly manned and equipped,

but they were of much service to the American cause. They
not only kept Chesapeake Bay clear of New York privateering
vessels, manned by Tories, but were useful in making
prizes of British merchantmen and in exporting tobacco and
other produce and exchanging their cargoes in the West Indies
for arms and military stores. The navy was under the control
of a Board of Naval Commissioners, consisting of five persons,
and no member of the Board could sit in the Legislature or
hold a military office. Thomas Whiting, of Hampton, served
as first commissioner of the Board, until 1779, when it was
abolished and the duties of the Board devolved on the Army
Board. When the Army Board was abolished in 1780 a commissioner
assumed the duties for the Navy.

Vessels were chiefly built at the Nansemond, Chickahominy,
South Quay and Gosport Navy Yards. "No other state
owned so much land, property and manufacturings devoted
to naval purposes as Virginia."[43] Before the Revolution the
British had established a marine yard at Portsmouth, and
named it for Gosport, England, and this yard Virginia came
into possession of at the beginning of the Revolution. It
was destroyed, as we have seen, in Collier's invasion during
Governor Henry's administration. At Warwick, on the James,
a few miles below Richmond, the state created and operated
a rope walk and a foundry. James Maxwell was superintendent
of the shipyards and the building and repairing of naval
vessels. The first commodore of the Virginia navy was John
Henry Boucher, who had served as lieutenant in the Maryland
navy. In March, 1776, Virginia called him to the command
of her Potomac fleet. He served a few months and
resigned, and was succeeded by Walter Brooke, who served
from April, 1777, until September, 1778. Brooke's successor,
James Barron, was not appointed until July, 1780. He was
commodore until the end of the war. There were about 600
men employed in the Naval Service.

When Collier made his raid in Virginia in 1779, he not

only destroyed the shipyard at Gosport, but burnt 137 vessels
of all kinds. Then came the invasions of Arnold and
Phillips, during 1781. Twelve vessels composed the state
fleet and one-half dozen or more privateers were taken into
the service of the state. On April 22nd, the British destroyed
the navy yard on the Chickahominy, including a number of
naval craft and the warehouses, and on April 27th, at Osborne's
up James River, they destroyed all that was left of the State
Navy except the armed brig Liberty.[44] Undismayed the Virginia
legislature, however, ordered other vessels to be built.

(d) Number of Soldiers.

It is frequently claimed that New England furnished more
troops than all the other states combined, and that Massachusetts
sent to the front more than double the number furnished
by any other state. By merely adding up the yearly returns
of the Continental army as given by General Knox in his report
prepared for Congress in 1790, when he was Secretary of
War, Massachusetts historians have figured out that their
state furnished a total of 67,907 men to the Continental line,
and Virginia 26,672.[45]

A careful analysis of Knox's figures will show that they
are of very little value in estimating the military weight of
any state during the Revolution. The 16,444 men credited to
Massachusetts in 1775 were not regularly organized continentals
but militia on continental pay, whose term expired in December
of that year. The 13,372 men credited to the same state
for 1776, likewise included militia on continental pay, whose
term expired at the end of the year. Then the continentals
credited to Massachusetts in 1781, 3,732 men, were enlisted for
only four months. After the surrender at Yorktown there
was no further fighting in the North and the Northern army
was furloughed and sent home in April, 1783, therefore, the

Massachusetts continentals for the years 1782 and 1783 may
be properly ignored in any estimate of her fighting force. The
troops for these years numbered 4,423 for 1782, and 4,370 for
1783, or 8,793 for the two years.

Here then is a deduction of fully 42,341 to be made from
the Massachusetts total of continental troops if Knox's estimates
are to have any serious weight at all. This then leaves
25,566 men who actually took part in the fighting line. The
state of Virginia had a total of 1,833 men during 1782 and 1783,
which subtracted from the total according to Knox of 26,672,
leaves her 24,839, but a portion of her troops, about 1,000 men,
in 1782 and 1783 saw serious fighting with Greene in South
Carolina and Georgia.

Moreover, Virginia should be given credit of at least one
year for the continental troops, taken prisoners by the British
at Fort Washington, Germantown and Charleston, about 2,500
in number. Had they not been captured they would have appeared
in Knox's report as an addition to the figures for Virginia.

But even the figures for Massachusetts reduced as above
cannot be accepted as any true estimate of her military contributions.
Thus, on February 10, 1776, Washington wrote:
"So far from having an army of 20,000 men all armed, I have
here less than half that number, including sick, furloughed, and
on command, and those neither armed nor clothed as they
should be." Here then less than 10,000 New Englanders comprised
Washington's army, but Knox credited the New England
states with furnishing 23,579 men for the year 1776.
When the seat of war was transferred to the Hudson, many
of the New England troops accompanied Washington and
served during a part of the campaign in New Jersey. In the
fall of 1776, their number amounted to about 9,500,[46] but very
few of them would consent to re-enlist when their terms expired.
Washington was reduced to great straits, and in a
letter to the president of Congress, dated December 24th,

1776, he said: "By the departure of these regiments I have
been left with five from Virginia, Smallwood's from Maryland,
a small part of Rawling's (Maryland and Virginia Rifles),
Hand's from Pennsylvania, a part of Ward's from Connecticut,
and the German battalion, amounting in the whole at this
time to some 1,400 to 1,500 effective men." The Virginians
constituted the large majority of these troops and without
them the American cause would have gone under. The gaps
in the ranks had not been filled as late as April 13, 1777, when
John Taylor, of Carolina, wrote his uncle-in-law, Edmund Pendleton,
from Princeton, that the army consisted of not more
than 2,000 men, "scattered over the whole Jerseys," that the
Northern troops were mostly "foreigners, really mercenaries,
having no attachment to the country," that "desertions from
our army are to the last degree alarming, some companies
having lost thirty odd men; of these many go to the enemy."

After 1776 the policy of Congress was to enlist the troops
for three years or the war. Virginia conformed to the wish of
Congress and New England did not. In those colonies, the
continental troops were enlisted for short terms—1, 3, 6
and 9 months, so that in New England the same troops were
often enlisted three and even four times during the same year,
and therefore were counted several times in the year. The
eternal ebb and flow of men from New England, who went and
came every day, rendered it impossible to have either a regiment
or a company from these states complete. This is shown
by an "Abstract of Musterrolls" by Deputy Muster-Master,
William Bradford, Jr., preserved in the Pennsylvania Historical
Society, according to which the regiments of New England
in July, 1778, were very meagerly represented. In that month
Massachusetts had, as a matter of fact, only 2,642 men in
Washington's army, compared with the 4,891 soldiers reported
from Virginia.[47] The comparison of the figures in Knox's
report with the actual returns at any time is almost ridiculous.

Thus by a return of the whole army under Washington's
immediate command, made on the 3rd of June, 1780, there did
not appear to be present and fit for duty more than 3,760
men rank and file. These consisted mainly of the troops from
the North—the troops from Virginia, Maryland and Delaware
(though not all of them) having been sent South—but Knox
credits the Northern States with contributing upwards of
16,149 soldiers during the year.

Besides this quota of regiments supplied by the State,
other commands, raised mostly or wholly in Virginia, served
in the Continental army, but being Congressional forces pure
and simple are not accredited to the State. Such were Nathaniel
Gist's, Grayson's, and Thruston's regiments of infantry,
Moses Rawlings' rifle companies, Harrison's artillery,
Bland's and Baylor's dragoons and Lee's and Armand's legions.
Of these commands Gist's regiment is given in Saffell
as from Virginia and Rawlings' rifle companies and Harrison's
artillery as made up of Marylanders in part as well as
of Virginians. Pay rolls of Bland's dragoons are printed in
Boogher's "Gleanings of Virginia History" and Saffell furnishes
the names of the officers of Lee's legion. A roll of
Armand's legion is printed, apparently in full, in the documents
appended to the Journal of the House, of delegates of
Virginia for 1833-4. Some of the names of Baylor's dragoons
have been recovered, but not a full list. Pay rolls of all these
Continental commands are probably in existence in Washington
and will likely be published some day, when it will be possible
to know with a reasonable degree of accuracy the number
of men furnished by Virginia to the Continental line. These
commands amounted to at least 1,000 men and if counted among
the Virginia continentals for five years would add about 5,000
to Knox's figures for Virginia. In addition to all this, Georgia
and other States were allowed to recruit their continental regiments
on the soil of the Old Dominion.[48]

But General Knox's report is not only valueless because

of its faults of commission, but because of its faults of omission
also. His report was made seven years after the ending
of the war, and it fails to give the details on which his summaries
are based. Then Knox fails to credit Virginia with any
continental troops for the year 1775, although Morgan's detachment
of riflemen, which served with such exceptional gallantry,
was not a militia command.

It is thus seen that there is great probability that Virginia
furnished many more men to the Continental army than Massachusetts.

In the face of the returns in the field contrasted with the
figures in Knox's report, one wonders where the American
troops were. Many of them either served a very short time,
or deserted, or never showed up at all.[49] In 1781, the returns
made by Clinton claimed that "the American levies in the
King's service were more in number than the whole of the
enlisted troops in the service of Congress."[50] Joseph Galloway
testified to the hundreds of deserters from the American
army that, under his own eye, enlisted in the British army.[51]
The troops of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New England
mutinied at different times, but the Virginia troops as a body
proved loyal and faithful throughout.

But if Knox's report is of no value in giving any true idea
of the contributions of the states for the Continental service,
it becomes a travesty when it deals with the returns of the
militia. Indeed Knox states by way of excuse that "in some
years of the greatest exertions of the Southern states there
are no returns whatever of the militia employed." The estimates
therefore are very full for New England and very meager
for the South, his total for Virginia being 26,000. He
gives no return whatever of militia of Virginia for the year
1776, when it is known a considerable body, amounting altogether
to perhaps five thousand, were in the field during the

course of the year, fighting Lord Dunmore and the Indians
in the West. In Burk's History of Virginia,[52] it is stated that,
when in 1781, Cornwallis threatened to invade Virginia 20,000
militia were placed at the disposal of the governor, though
for a lack of guns and ammunition the governor could only
arm about 5,000 at a time. It is probable that the whole 20,000
saw some few days, weeks or months of service, and often the
same men were drafted and saw service more than once during
the course of the year. Thus we know that in Isle of
Wight County one-half of the militia was in service within
the county for the first three months, and afterwards one-third
part until about the 20th of November, 1781.[53] . Indeed there is
a further authority in the Council Journal, which shows that
nearly all the counties were called upon to furnish their contingents.

According to the volumes published by the Secretary of
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts under the title of Massachusetts
Soldiers and Sailors in the Revolutionary War, hundreds
of the Massachusetts militia served from one to thirty
days in reply to some sudden alarm.

The year 1780 perhaps saw as many militia under arms as
the year 1781, and it is probable instead of 26,000 militia in the
field, the state had during the war nearly three times that number,
certainly over 70,000 men. Some of these, as they served
regular campaigns in connection with the regular army, of
6 months had more right to be considered Continental troops
than the motley army of New England before Boston in 1775
and 1776.[54]

Knox makes the militia of Massachusetts number about 25,000
men, and if we add to this figure 42,341 so called Continentals
of 1775, 1776, 1781, 1782 and 1783, the sum total becomes

67,341, which is not greatly different from the number
claimed for Virginia. The concentration of population in
towns ought to have made it much easier to call out the
strength of that Province than in Virginia, where the population
was scattered over an area many times greater than
Massachusetts.

3. Supplies and Credit.

Mr. Jefferson in a letter to Governor Henry on the subject
of the "convention prisoners," spoke of Virginia before the
Revolution as "the grain colony, whose surplus of bread used
to feed the West Indies and Eastern States and fill the colony
with hard money."[55] For the same period he estimated the
value of wheat and Indian corn exported from the colony at
about one-half the value of the tobacco crop, 800,000 bushels
of wheat and 600,000 of Indian corn.[56]

It was owing to the inability of New England to supply
them with flour that the Saratoga prisoners, over 4,000 men,
were marched to Charlottesville in the dead of winter. Then,
in his testimony before the Committee of the House of Commons,
Joseph Galloway said that "Washington's army at
Valley Forge in 1778 was principally supplied with provisions
from Virginia and North Carolina by way of Chesapeake
Bay."[57] Smollett, in his Continuation of Hume's History of
England, declared[58] "that tobacco, Virginia's staple crop, was
the chief foundation of the credit of these states in Europe,"
and he mentions the immense importance of the trade of the
Chesapeake Bay with the West Indies, through which powder
and supplies of all kinds were obtained.[59] It appears that the
object of the fleet of Sir George Collier, who, with General
Matthew, invaded Virginia in 1779, was to cut off this trade and

shut up the Chesapeake Bay, "by which Washington's army
was constantly supplied provisions." But Clinton, who was
in tight quarters in New York, could not spare the troops for
long; so after a brief stay in Virginia, the expedition returned
to the place it went from, but, as we have seen, it did a vast
deal of damage. Sir George Collier lodged a protest with
Sir Henry Clinton that, in withdrawing the troops, he gave up
"the very best chance of starving Washington's army and
putting a stop to the war."[60] To cripple, if not to reduce Virginia,
became the cardinal object of the subsequent expeditions
of Leslie, Arnold and Phillips. The importance of
Virginia in furnishing supplies to Greene's army was testified
to by Washington, Jefferson, Greene, Sir Henry Clinton and
Lord Cornwallis. During the calamitous year of 1780, when
most of the states were very delinquent, Virginia overpaid
her quota by $4,081,368.[61] One of the most valuable aids to
the war was James Hunter's iron works at Fredericksburg.
James Mercer, one of the most influential and trusted citizens
of the town and State, said[62] in a letter addressed to the governor,
in April, 1781: "I am sure I need not tell you that it is
from Mr. Hunter's Works that every Camp Kettle has been
supplied for the continental and all other troops employed in
this State & to the Southward this year past—that all the anchors
for this State & Maryland & some for the continent
have been procured from the same works; that, without the
assistance of the Bar Iron made there, even the planters hereabout
& to the Southward of this place, wou'd not be able to
make Bread to eat."

Another of the institutions of Fredericksburg was the Gun
Factory, authorized by an ordinance of the convention, in
1772, and conducted by Colonel Fielding Lewis and Major
Charles Dick. The same gentleman, James Mercer, said in the
same letter in which he mentioned Mr. Hunter's Iron Works:

"As to the town itself I need not inform you that the public
manufactory of arms is here—that without it, all our arms,
however so little injured wou'd be useless to us; besides the
number of new muskets & bayonets made there, renders that an
object worthy our preserving & the Enemy's destruction—To
this, however, I may add that there is not one spot in the State
so generally useful in our military operations—full one-third
of all new lines rendezvous here; all the troops from North
to South & South to North must pass through this town, where
wagons are repaired, horses shoed and many other &c, which
they cou'd not proceed on without. The troops get provisions
here to the next Stage & no place is so convenient to a very
extensive & productive Country for the reception of Grain
& other Articles of Provision."

The statement of the Board of Commissioners appointed to
fund the debt of the United States when Hamilton was secretary
of the treasury, shows that Virginia's claim for her advances
to the Continent during the entire war was $28,431,145.18.[63] It appears that owing to the loss of vouchers and
books due to the British invasions, the commissioners allowed
only $19,085,981.51. On the other hand Massachusetts who
had lost very few papers was allowed $17,964,613.03, but as
the Federal Government during the war had advanced to Virginia
$869,000.51, and to Massachusetts $2,277,146.98, their
net contributions were respectively for Virginia $18,216,981.00
and for Massachusetts $15,687,466.05, so that Virginia's net
contribution exceeded that of Massachusetts by $2,529,514.95.
And yet, according to the report of the commissioners, Virginia
was made a debtor state to the amount of $100,879, while
Massachusetts was made a creditor state to the amount of
$1,248,801. One of the largest items in the Massachusetts claim
was $2,000,000 for the abortive expedition against the British
at Castine.

What the basis of the report was is shown in a letter of
Col. William Davies, the Virginia agent. During the war

Virginia and Massachusetts were equally rated, and each required
to contribute one-sixth of the whole expense, but under
the Act of Congress, passed in 1790, population as of the census
of that year was taken as the measure and the quotient for Virginia
became 4- 266/294 and the quotient for Massachusetts
became 7- 105/294. This difference was made through the
great increase, since the peace in 1783, in the population of
Virginia. There was a great immigration into the Valley of
Virginia, Kentucky and West Virginia. Now had the old rate
of equality been taken things would have appeared quite differently.
Virginia would have appeared as a creditor state
and Massachusetts as a debtor state.[64] The Federal Government
would have owed Virginia nearly $4,000,000, and Massachusetts
would have owed the Federal Government nearly six
million.