Hanging 2 men | fortloudounva

40 Feet high Gallows

Where were the hangings?

The written court martial record indicates no exact location of the hanging.

The hangings along with the many floggings occurred in Fort Loudoun once its construction was well underway and not elsewhere in town.

This is inferred from the practice of indicating dateline..

First, a previous court martial in May 2 1756 has a dateline of Winchester because the Fort was just starting construction.

The court martial of July 25-26 1757 involving the hangings is datelined Fort Loudoun.

SEE THE STORIES OF THE MEN INVOLVED IN THIS TRIAL - TRIAL ITSELF

The location of the hangings is also pinpointed by George Washington himself when said the gallows were 40 feet high..

Washington writes on his 2nd design of Fort Loudoun, "The gate of the Fort fronts the main street in Winchester + is distant abt' 150 or 200 yards from the town and abt' 40 feet higher with a gradual descent all the way." (See second drawing of fort by Washington in Garland Quarles, "George Washington and Winchester Virginia, 1748 - 1758 between pages 41 and 42.)

Picture is actually Washington's first design of Fort Loudoun

George Washington also writes a letter saying he built a 40 foot gallows.

Because of that coincidence of elevation and because of deducing that a 40 foot structure would be very very high and require the work of men already sick and overtaxed, the final deduction is made that Washington conveniently used the height of the hill and altitude of the fort to scare the town with hangings 40 feet high above it.

Expending needed wood, valuable carpenters and men assigned to the fort to do this elsewhere, say in the center of town, would not make as much sense.

So were the hangings and the floggings done in the public square on Loudoun Street in Winchester?

Or were the hangings and floggings done in the safety and protection of the fort with the hangings showing high above town?

July 15 1757 letter from Washington to John Stanwix

Court Martial 25–26 July 1757 Fort Loudoun

Where was the Military Prison ?

To Lt Gov Robt Dinwiddie 27 August 1757

The sentence below was tucked in the middle of that letter of 27 August 1757 by Washington to Dinwiddie:

"As your Honor was pleased to leave to my discretion, to punish or pardon the criminals, I have resolved on the latter; since I find example of so little weight, and since those poor unhappy criminals have undergone no small pain of body and mind, in a dark prison, closely ironed!"

The criminals?

They were deserters sentenced either to

floggings or execution

and were finally pardoned by Washington

who found "example"

as in "making an example" of "little weight" in stopping the desertions, despite a very public hanging of 2 men on July 28th 1757 at Fort Loudoun on gallows 40 feet high.

Who were these men kept in prison?

And where was this prison? Inside Fort Loudoun?

The drawings and explanations by George Washington of the Fort show little room for a prison.

One of the 3 big barracks was not completed at the time.

And of the two buildings at the entrance of the fort, only a small portion was designated for detention.

So where was the prison?

Not the public jail on the northeast corner of Boscawen and Loudoun, says Morton in his book cited below on Page 82.

Morton in his book cited below, writes Washington " ...was compelled to build a military prison on the west side of Main Street (Loudoun St) a little north of the corner occupied by Shenandoah Valley Bank. (and later First Union and then Wachovia and finally Wells Fargo as of this writing August 28 2014) "

This is adjacent to the Lot Washington owned (located on corner of Braddock and Fairfax Lane) where a blacksmith shop stood. Washington had brought his blacksmith from Mt Vernon to work on iron needed for the Fort and the men.

Morton gives the reason that colonials did not trust standing armies and so use of the public jail was refused forcing Washington to build his own jail.

But most likely, James Wood, Clerk of Court, who helped win Washington's first election, probably had other concerns for the public jail.

To have its space filled up with soliders would leave no room for handling other offenders not associated with Washington's Virginia Regiment.

Cited from:

Frederick Morton,"The Story of Winchester in Virginia, The Oldest Town in the Shenandoah Valley", first published 1925, reprinted by Heritage Books 2007, PAGE 82

Court Martial 25-26 July 1757 a list of the men charged

Why Hanging chosen over Firing Squad?

Douglas Southall Freeman writes:

Washington had felt for months that he could not stop desertion until, once again, he executed some notorious offenders.

Now, entirely convinced and ready, he wrote Stanwix.

“I have a gallows near forty foot high erected (which has terrified the rest exceedingly) and I am determined if I can be justified in the proceeding, to hang two or three on it, as an example to others. ”

He did.

Among the men in arrest was Ignatius Edwards, thrice a deserter, and William Smith, who, said Washington, “was accounted one of the greatest villains upon the continent.”

Both had been tried by court-martial and condemned to death by shooting.

Washington thought hemp carried a sterner warning than lead and, accordingly, on the 28th of July, just as the newly recruited companies were leaving Winchester for their posts, he staged a spectacle the drafted men were not apt to forget.

Edwards and Smith were carried to the platform of the tall gallows and were hanged before the eyes of all beholders.

Washington reported this to Dinwiddie and added:

“Your Honor will, I hope, excuse my hanging instead of shooting them It conveyed much more terror to others, and it was for example sake we did it.”

The immediate warning was not in vain, but the quotas still did not suffice to fill the Regiment. Eight Companies could not count more than 90 rank and file each Dinwiddie was so discouraged that he . . . "

From Douglas Southall Freeman's Young George Washington, Volume 2, Page 259, published 1948, Charles Scribner's Sons

Did the hangings occur?

July 15, 1757. Letter from George Washington to John Stanwix

"I have a gallows 40 feet high erected (which has terrified the rest exceedingly) to hang two or three on it, as an example to others. "

July 25-26, 1757. Transcript of the court martial.

You can read the questions to the accused,

and you can read their answers.

it shows the men on the jury as witness to the sentencing.

This shows how many witnesses other than George Washington testified to the sentencing of hangings and floggings,

By the way, Lt Lomax on the jury was court martialed for cowardice and not following his duty. in the Battle of the Great Cacapon. He was exonerated.

Capt Waggener on this same jury was also accused of not helping those in need and he had caught up with his accusers and had them whipped.

Have any of these men on the jury recorded separate eyewitness accounts of these 2 hangings and of the floggings?

Further research is being done to uncover if any of these jury members wrote independently of the court martial proceedings and of the hangings and floggings.

How could a man survive 1500 lashings? Or 500?

August 3, 1757. George Washington's letter to Lt Gov. Dinwiddie.

Placed down in the middle of the letter among many other detail and concerns that needed attention was this reference to the hangings two day after the court martial:

"I send your Honor a copy of the proceedings of a General Court martial. Two of those condemned, namely, Ignatious Edwards, and Wm. Smith, were hanged on thursday last [28 July 1757], just before the companies marched for their respective posts. Your Honor will, I hope excuse my hanging, instead of shooting them. It conveyed much more terror to others; and it was for example sake, we did it. They were proper objects to suffer: Edwards had deserted twice before, and Smith was accounted one of the greatest villians upon the continent. Those who were intended to be whipped, have received their punishment accordingly; and I should be glad to know what your Honor wou'd choose to have done with the rest?."

Would George risk prevaricating to the Lt Gov of Virginia? Would he risk someone exposing George Washington, saying to Lt Gov Dinwiddie that George Washington did not follow through on what he claimed to have done?

August 13, 1757. Lt Gov Dinwiddie's letter back to George Washington.

THIS LETTER to Dinwiddie from Washington is a long report of many issues. After clicking on link, then Ctrl F to create a find box and enter Ignatious Edwards and you will see the portion of this letter dealing with the hangings.

In the link above, a blank page will appear after the pdf file finishes loading. When the loading finishes and the blank page appear, hit the keyboard right arrow until some text appears. Scroll to Page 684. The above will appear in the middle of that letter

And if trouble with above link click on this:

Another link to the same letter from Lt Gov Dinwiddie to Washington on 13 August 1757

Also see: Page 23 of Garland Quarles' George Washington and Winchester Virginia 1748-1757

This shows that Dinwiddie did receive George Washington's letter. This further proves that George Washington's claim of hanging two men was absolutely known by

Lt Gov Dinwiddie. Again the same point: Would Washington want to risk someone telling the Lt Gov that Washington did not ever actually hang those two men?

.

It is interesting that in both letters from Washington and Dinwiddie, the matter of the hangings and flogging were in the middle of the letter taking second precedence to other concerns and irritations.

This letter from Dinwiddie to Washinton is famous for chiding Washington for his loose method of writing making it unclear to Dinwiddie whether Washington meant an amount of a 100 pounds or a 1000 pounds needed to pay the creditors who serviced some of the Indian ally needs.

To see an image of George Washington's handwriting of this same letter, follow steps below

- Click on link below,then

- Click on Search

- Type: I send your Honor a copy