George Mercer's One Letter from Charleston is full of Stories
Our Captain George Mercer,
is aid de camp to Col George Washington.
Captain George Mercer's company helped build Fort Loudoun Winchester VA.
Captain George Mercer
to keep
law and order
Charles Town,
South Carolina,
while the locals
are out
defending
and the frontier
He writes a letter while there in Charles Town to Colonel George Washington.
This letter of 17 August 1757
is full of stories.
We post it in its entirety here
with commentary and links.
But before looking at this letter, Mercer writes just 3 months later in 2 Nov 1757 that he and his troops have gone 3 months without pay. Adam Stephen wrote to Lt Gov Dinwiddie about that lack of pay also.
THE LETTER
To George Washington from George Mercer, 17 August 1757
Source:
From George Mercer Charles Town [S.C.] August 17th 1757
Dear Colonel
Cape Francois
I wrote you Viâ Philadelphia a few Days after my Arrival, but as We have certain Advice of that Vessel’s calling in at Cape Francois, I set down to write you the same as near as I can guess, only adding the News that We have had in the Interim.1
We find this battle is the original date for Lord Nelson calling it the Happiest Day. See that Story here.
This is also interesting because here it is August and this battle doesn't commence until October. This is quite an advance notice of what is to come. Good Intel. But the enemy probably guessed it was coming anyway. Captain Mercer references this Cape Francois again further in this letter
The Town and its Inhabitants
No Doubt youl expect a particular and authentic Account of this Place and its Inhabitants—I shall endeavor to satisfy you in both as far as my Knowledge of Them & Capacity will admit—& to begin I never, from Accounts, was so much disappointed in my Expectations of both—The Town in the first Place is little larger than WmsBurg no Buildings in it to compare with our Public Ones there, far inferior to Philadelphia N. York, Boston or even New Port itself.2
The Town
The Town is built on a Point of Land between two Rivers on the Bay there are some very good Houses, & it is from thence it shows to the greatest Advantage—The rest of the Town is indifferently improved, many very bad low clapboard Houses upon their Principal Streets which are in general narrow & confined.
The Inhabitants
The Inhabitants who you remember were esteemed the politest genteelest People on the Continent are egregiously misrepresented I believe tho. they will mend for I find a considerable Alteration since I first came here, but they never will come up to the Character given Them. What adds to make this Place at present disagreeable is that most of the Gent. of Note are out at their Indigo Plantations, so that we have nothing left but a Set of trading Ones, who esteem you for Nothing but your Money, & who don’t very genteely treat you for that.
This leads to a story about why is Captain Mercer and Adam Stephen and their 2 companies of the Virginia Regiment sitting in the coast town of Charlestown SC?
There are 3 reasons. See the story on that, here.
See more info on Indigo and those Indigo Plantations.
The Women
Youl be surprized I have not yet mentioned the fair Ones I wish I cou’d call Them so, I assure you they are very far inferior to the Beauties of our own Country, & a⟨illegible⟩ much on the Reserve as in any Place I ever was, occasioned by the Multiplicity of Scandal which prevails here; for the chief of your Entertainment even in the best Houses & at the first Introduction is upon that agreeable Subject—then you hear the Termagant the Inconstant, the Prude & Coquette the fine Gent. & the fine Lady laid off in their most beautiful Colors, with their Observations if they had so behaved (which you are sure of having the Pleasure to hear at the next House you go to) what they shoud think of Themselves in short two Families here are sufficient to inform you of the Character of every one in the Place. A great Imperfection here too is the bad Shape of the Ladies, many of Them are crooked & have a very bad Air & not those enticing heaving throbbing alluring Letch exciting plump Breasts common with our Northern Belles—I am afraid I have tired your Patience & doubt not but you are as much disappointed at reading This, as I was at having an Opportunity of writing it to you.
See Adam Stephen's letter, dated 20 Aug 1757, for his more colorful mention of the women of this town.
Favor of Promotion alluded
The many Favors my dear Colonel that I have received at your Hands wou’d make Me blush at begging an Addition to Them, did I not know your Goodness in excusing such Freedoms—I believe you are very sensible of the Governors great Inclination to deprive Me of any Thing that he genteely coud, and I am certain that he woud be glad of an Opportunity of putting any One over my Head, but I hope Sr you will be kind enough to see Me Justice done in that Respect. You are the only Friend I have to apply to at this Distance & in whose Power it is to assist Me. I rely solely upon your Goodness in Case of a Vacancy, as it is now my Right, thro. your Friendship, to see Me prefered in Turn.3
Captain George Mercer does not get Adam Stephen's position of Lt Col under Colonel Washington. But Capt George Mercer still becomes a Lt Colonel nevertheless. He becomes Lt Col under Colonel Byrd III of the newly created 2nd VA Regiment.
As Lt Colonel, George Mercer ends up in a deadly Friendly Fire incident in the woods near Loyalhanna against his former Colonel, George Washington, in the Forbes Expedition.
but George Mercer does not know about this until August 1757.
We have a story of a ballad written of a woman, Lenore who waits and waits for her Prussian soldier, William to return from that battle to her. This ballad upends Romantic and Horror stories. It is the source of much Horror literature to follow.
We have Advice here and it seems to be well attested that the Austrian Army met with ⟨a⟩ total Defeat. They had upwards of 7000 taken Prisoners about 9000 killed in the Field above 200 Pieces of Cannon and all their Field Equipage fell into the Hands of the Prussians, wh⟨illegible⟩ immediately entered Prague Sword & Hand, where they made Prisoners & killed the greatest Part of the Austrian Army who had taken Refuge there—You will I hope hear it confirmed e’er you see this—No one doubts it here.4
Food
I take the Liberty to mention the Inconvenience which I see must necessarily arise if the Troops are not properly clothed again next Year. They make a very good Appearance here, and are much esteemed for their orderly Behavior. They are extreamly well satisfied at this present Situation, besides their usual Allowance in Virga of 1 lb. of Meat & Bread ⅌ Day, they get ½ pt of Rum 1 pt of Rice & pt Pease Pepper Salt & Vinegar beside Greens of some Kind every Day.
How the VA Regiment looks to Others:
We have met with a Set of very genteel pretty Officers here of the Royals Harmony & Unanimity prevail greatly among Us—and there is no Demand made for Necessaries for their own Troops in which ours are not joined. We do Duty of all Kinds with Them, & our Men are exercised in Battalion wth theirs.
As I know the Major Tulliken is an Acquaintance of yours I need not say any Thing in his Praise, as every one who knows him, must immediately discover the polite well bred Gent., as well as the good & diligent Officer in Him—He is much esteemed here by Civil & Military.5
Colo. Bouquet I shoud have done Injustice to, to have omitted particularly in my Letter. He is believe well acquainted with his Duty a good natured sensible Man, very obliging to all under his Command, and the only one of the Foreigners I am told on whom his Lordship much depends.
In short We are looked upon in quite another Light by all the Officers than we were by Genl Braddock or Mr Orme and do our Duty equally without any Partiality or particular Notice taken of one more than the other. I conceive great Hopes of our living here vastly happy so soon as the chief Families of this Place resume their Posts in Town, their Absence now I assure you makes the Town very unsociable. Nothing but the good Harmony that subsists among ourselves woud make it tolerable.
It is a very odd Method of judging but however tis the Plan upon which most of the World goes, and therefore to find ourselves judged for the Errors or Imperfections of others ⟨is not very⟩ unaccountable—but we have been told here by the Officers that nothing ever gave them such Surprize as our Appearance at entering Hampton, for expecting to see a Parcel of ragged disorderly Fellows headed by Officers of their own Stamp (like the rest of the Provincials they had seen) behold they saw Men properly disposed who made a good & Soldier like Appearance and performed in every Particular as well as coud be expected from any Troops with Officers whom they found to be Gent. to see a Sash & Gorget with a genteel Uniform, a Sword properly hung, a Hat cocked, Persons capable of holding Conversation where only common Sense was requisite to continue the Discourse, and a White Shirt, with any other than a black Leather Stock, were Matters of great Surprize and Admiration & which engaged Them all to give Us a polite Invitation to spend the Evening, & after to agree to keep Us Company which they had determined before not to do—agreeable to what they had practised with the other Provincial Troops. We have lost that common Appellation of Provincials, & are known here by the Style & Title of the Detachment of the Virga Regiment.
See more about the Uniform of the Virginia Regiment. See a story about artist Charles Willson Peale painting of GW in his French and Indian War uniform in 1772, two years after the Boston Massacre. That same story looks at that uniform and some of its changes. Mention cartouches vs powder-horns.
South Carolina Recruitment Effort
They have passed a Vote here for granting a Sum for raising 700 Men subject to the Orders & Disposal of Lord Loudoun, have put them on the same Establishment with our Troops, and have given your old Acquaintance Howarth the Command of Them, as Lieut. Colo. & Commandant of the So. Carolina Provincials.6 I fear they will be a long Time raising. I dare venture to engage not before the Act expires which is only for 12 Months two of which are now lapsed, & not one Man recruited, or a Commission given out—strange Delay.
Cape Francois and Mississippi
I cant tell what to expect on this Quarter this Summer whether Peace, or War—One Day they are secure, the next alarmed by hearing of a large Embarkation of Troops for Cape Francois. We have had an Account of 2 or 3 several Squadrons with Troops on Board touching there, since We have been at this Place. Tis known some of Them have gone to the Missisippi—they are still under Apprehensions but I think without a Cause.
We find this battle is the original date for Lord Nelson calling it the Happiest Day. See that Story here.
This is also interesting because here it is August and this battle doesn't commence until October. This is quite an advance notice of what is to come. Good Intel. But the enemy probably guessed it was coming anyway. Captain Mercer references this Cape Francois again earlier in this letter
Battle of Prague
Our latest News is of so long a Date that I imagine it coud be none to you before this will come to Hand. The Defeat of the Austrians is confirmed.
We have a story of a ballad written of a woman, Lenore who waits and waits for her Prussian soldier, William to return from that battle to her. This ballad upends Romantic and Horror stories. It is the source of much Horror literature to follow.
Request for Promotion
In case of Colo. Stephens Removal from this Command I believe he is tired of, I hope it will be agreeable to you that I shoud succeed him. Youl scarce believe that the Colonel never appears here but in full dressed laced Suits—so great a Change has Carolina produced.
I hope Dear Colonel youl favor Me with a Letter now & then, I assure you nothing woud give Me greater Pleasure than to hear frequently from you. None of our Detachment has ever yet received a Line or heard from Virginia.
Captain George Mercer does not receive Adam Stephen's position of Lt Col under Colonel Washington. But Capt George Mercer still becomes a Lt Colonel nevertheless.
He becomes Lt Col under Colonel Byrd III of the newly created 2nd VA Regiment.
And this picture of George Mercer appears to show Lt Colonel uniform rather than his previous Captain uniform.
This picture was found in Fred Anderson's book titled "George Washington Remembers (Reflections on the French and Indian War)" The book attributes this picture to exist with the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond VA.
As Lt Colonel, George Mercer ends up in a deadly Friendly Fire incident in the woods near Loyalhanna against his former Colonel, George Washington, in the Forbes Expedition.
While Mercer is looking for a promotion, a Virginia Regiment soldier, John Tulleken, in Charleston does receive a promotion.
Letter Handling
If I remember well, I informed you before that Mr Stretch had promised to be particularly careful of, & forward any Letters to or from Me.7 Philadelphia too woud be a ready Conveyance for Letters from your Quarter.
See information on Ben Franklin's Post Office which used to serve Fort Loudoun in 1756.
How VA Regiment is perceived and treated
Virginia has gained great Credit by sending Troops here, tis more than any of the other Colonies or Provinces have done, & I assure you our Men behave extreamly well.
Three or four of our Serjeants will get Commissions in the Charles Town Regiment.8
Signing off
I fear I have tired your Patience by this, therefore beg Leave to conclude & assure you that with great Esteem and Respect I subscribe myself Dr Colonel Your most obliged Friend obedient humble Servant
Go: Mercer ALS, DLC:GW.
Founders Online Footnotes:
1.
George Mercer and Adam Stephen sailed with their companies of the Virginia Regiment from Hampton, Va., at the end of May and on 15 June arrived in Charleston, S.C., along with Col. Henry Bouquet and his five companies of the Royal American Regiment. The troops came ashore on Thursday and Friday, 16 and 17 June 1757. Mercer’s letter has not been found. Cap-Français was in north Haiti.
2.
Mercer had accompanied GW to Boston via New York in March 1756.
3.
Later in this letter Mercer reveals that he had his eye on Lt. Col. Adam Stephen’s position as second in command of the Virginia Regiment. He became instead the lieutenant colonel in William Byrd’s 2d Virginia Regiment in 1758.
4.
There is an account of Frederick II’s victory at Prague on 6 May 1757 in the South-Carolina Gazette (Charleston), 4 Aug. 1757.
5.
John Tulleken’s commission as captain in the Royal American Regiment was dated 25 Dec. 1755, and his commission as major was dated 26 April 1757. Among those who held Major Tulleken in esteem was his commanding officer Col. Henry Bouquet, who wrote John Stanwix from Charleston on 25 Aug. 1757: “You have given me the best Major I know in the World, I had a very high Opinion of him but he exceeds it every day” (Stevens, Bouquet Papers, 1:170–71). For GW’s relationship to Tulleken, see Tulleken to GW, 27 Oct. 1757.
6.
The act, which Gov. William Henry Lyttelton signed on 6 July, provided for raising “for One Year, a Regiment, to consist of Seven Companies, each to be composed of One Hundred Men, besides Officers” (S.C. Commons Journal, 6 July 1757, in Microfilm Collection of Early State Records). Lt. Probart Howarth (Howorth), an officer in James Oglethorpe’s regiment in the 1740s, received a commission in one of the newly raised South Carolina independent companies in 1749. He served in the Braddock campaign, when he was wounded. In January 1757 Gov. William Henry Lyttelton sent Lieutenant Howarth to Capt. Raymond Demeré, commander of the independent company at Fort Loudoun in the Cherokee country. Demeré promptly made Howarth adjutant. In the summer Howarth became lieutenant colonel of the South Carolina provincial forces and in the spring of 1758 was ordered to collect a body of Cherokee for the Pennsylvania campaign. In 1760 Lord Amherst gave Howarth a captain’s commission and command of Fort Johnson near Charleston, where he remained until he was banished as a Loyalist in 1777.
7.
John Stretch was the deputy postmaster at Williamsburg.
8.
On 4–10 May 1758 GW wrote John Blair that “several of our best Sergeants were made Officers in the Carolina Regiment.”
Source:
Compiled and updated by Jim Moyer 6/11/2018, 9/24/19, update 11/18/2023
3 Reasons why they are in Charleston SC:
Captain George Mercer is the Captain of one of two companies of the Virginia Regiment sent to South Carolina.
The other company was under Lt Col Adam Stephen), the founder of Martinsburg WV.
This action was agreed upon in March 1757 in a conference of southern governors with Lord Loudoun in Philadelphia.
They are now stationed in Charleston SC, then called Charles Town.
They are under the overall command of Colonel Bouquet, who in the next year in 1758 is to the Forbes Expedition overall field commander, and who helped retrieve in 1764 some hostages taken from the Winchester VA area, the Clowsers.
1. Black Uprising Threat?
These 2 Virginia Regiment companies were promised to help patrol Charles Town against any Black uprising.
2. Elite left Town
They were there to cover for the town's elite who were working their Indigo plantations.
3. Local Militia left Town
They were also there to cover for the South Carolina provincial forces sent to the frontier to stop any Cherokee uprisings, despite the Cherokee being allies to the Virginia Regiment working out of Fort Loudoun Winchester VA.
To sum up, Charles Town (Charleston) did not have any leadership or enough militia to protect this town, the plantations or the frontier from any of those 3 potential threats.
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About that picture of George Mercer:
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TIMELINE:
VA REGIMENT LEAVING WINCHESTER VA
FOR CHARLESTON SC
AND RETURNING TO WINCHESTER VA
SOUTH CAROLINA BOUND FOR ABOUT A YEAR
MERCER LEAVES WITH LT COL ADAM STEPHEN TO CHARLESTON SC
May 24, 1757
We know Mercer left Fort Loudoun at least by this date because GW is at Fort Loudoun writing to Dinwiddie that the Cherokee are now suspicious Mercer has left the fort in order to avoid making good on his promise he made to the Cherokee:
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. . . a party of Cherokees under Warhatchie is come in with 4 scalps and 2 Prisoners. They are much dissatisfied that the presents are not here—Look upon Captain Mercers going off as a trick to evade the performance of the promise that has been made to them—will not believe that Mr Atkin is coming: and in short, they are the most insolent, most avaricious, and most dissatisfied wretches I have ever had to deal with. If any thing shou’d detain Mr Atkin’s arrival, it will not be in my power to convince them that it is not a mere hum! All the rhetoric I can muster is not likely to detain them more than two or three days to wait this event.7
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Dinwiddie gave orders for Lt Col Adam Stephen to leave Fort Cumberland for Fredericksburg and then once there to let Dinwiddie know to order ships to take them to Charleston SC. Mercer ends up going too. So he is gone by the time the Cherokee come back from their scouting trip. See April 5, 1757 letter.
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May 26, 1757 Lt Col Stephen Adam and Capt George Mercer, also GW’s aid de camp, left Williamsburg VA with almost 200 Virginia Regiment soldiers and then on a ship from Hampton Roads VA to Charleston SC. They did not return until May 1758.
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See source from Founders Online footnote:
On 26 May 1757 Dinwiddie wrote Lt. Col. Adam Stephen that he was ordering “two Companies of 100 Men each under your Command to proceed directly from this [Williamsburg] to Hampton, where two Sloops are provided & ready to take on board yr Men to be transported to So. Carolina; and you are to be under the Command and Direction of Lieutt Colo. Bouquet, who is Commander of the Forces in the Southern Collonies on this Continent.”
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On the same day Dinwiddie wrote Gov. William H. Lyttelton that he was sending him “a Detachmt from our provincial Regimt 200 Men under the Command of Lieut. Colo. Stevens, which are one third of our Regimt, our Quota was to be 400, but at present I cd not possibly send the whole having only 400 Men to protect our extensive frontiers” (ViHi: Dinwiddie Papers). Thomas Waggener, Joshua Lewis, Peter Steenbergen, and John Hall were not among the officers of the Virginia Regiment who sailed for South Carolina at the end of May.
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Middle of June 1757
See Founders Online footnote: George Mercer and Adam Stephen sailed with their companies of the Virginia Regiment from Hampton, Va., at the end of May and on 15 June arrived in Charleston, S.C., along with Col. Henry Bouquet and his five companies of the Royal American Regiment. The troops came ashore on Thursday and Friday, 16 and 17 June 1757. Mercer’s letter has not been found. Cap-Français was in north Haiti.
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MERCER PROUD OF THE LOOK OF THE VA REGIMENT
IN CHARLESTON SC August 17, 1757 To George Washington from George Mercer, Charles Town [S.C.]
“It is a very odd Method of judging but however tis the Plan upon which most of the World goes, and therefore to find ourselves judged for the Errors or Imperfections of others ⟨is not very⟩ unaccountable—but we have been told here by the Officers that nothing ever gave them such Surprize as our Appearance at entering Hampton, for expecting to see a Parcel of ragged disorderly Fellows headed by Officers of their own Stamp (like the rest of the Provincials they had seen) behold they saw Men properly disposed who made a good & Soldier like Appearance and performed in every Particular as well as coud be expected from any Troops with Officers whom they found to be Gent. …
Below is another point in a long letter by Mercer that contains much more than excerpted here.
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MERCER’S DESCRIPTION OF THE UNIFORM
to see a Sash & Gorget with a genteel Uniform, a Sword properly hung, a Hat cocked, Persons capable of holding Conversation where only common Sense was requisite to continue the Discourse, and a White Shirt, with any other than a black Leather Stock, were Matters of great Surprize and Admiration & which engaged Them all to give Us a polite Invitation to spend the Evening, & after to agree to keep Us Company which they had determined before not to do—agreeable to what they had practised with the other Provincial Troops. We have lost that common Appellation of Provincials, & are known here by the Style & Title of the Detachment of the Virga Regiment.”
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This 1772 portrait of Washington best shows what Mercer was proudly describing as the uniform of the Virginia Regiment officers.
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MERCER WANTS ADAM STEPHEN’S JOB IF . . . And in the same letter while in South Carolina with Adam Stephen, Captain George Mercer puts in his dibs for the Lt Colonelcy if Adam Stephen is removed. “In case of Colo. Stephens Removal from this Command I believe he is tired of, I hope it will be agreeable to you that I shoud succeed him. Youl scarce believe that the Colonel never appears here but in full dressed laced Suits—so great a Change has Carolina produced.”
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Compare George Mercer’s description of uniform in 1757 with George Washington’s description in 1755:
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“Every Officer of the Virginia Regiment, to provide himself as soon as he can conveniently, with a Suit of Regimentals of good blue Cloath; the Coat to be faced and cuffed with Scarlet, and trimmed with Silver: a Scarlet waistcoat, with silver Lace, blue Breeches, and a silver-laced Hat, if to be had, for Camp or Garrison Duty.”
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“Besides this, each Officer to provide himself with a common Soldiers Dress, for Detachments, and Duty in the Woods.”
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Source 17 September 1755 Orders from GW
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Excellent link on the Virginia Regiment uniform – http://web.hardynet.com/~gruber/varegt.htm
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Aug 1757 and Nov-Dec 1757
Mercer to Savannah GA 5. Col. Henry Bouquet sent Mercer’s company to Savannah, Ga., on 27 Aug. 1757, but “Capt Mercer being sick” (Henry Bouquet to Henry Ellis, 26 Aug. 1757, in Stevens, Bouquet Papers, 1:177–78), Mercer remained in Charleston and his company was taken to Savannah by Lt. Walter Steuart. On about 12 Nov. Bouquet sent Captain Mercer to Savannah with a letter to Gov. Henry Ellis telling him that Loudoun had instructed him to send the Virginia forces home. Mercer returned to Charleston with his company on 9 Dec. 1757, [ but this letter is dated 2 Nov 1757 as being in Charleston]
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————————————————————
1758
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Mercer returns to Winchester VA.
End of April, 1758
Compiled and updated by Jim Moyer 6/11/2018, 9/24/19, update 11/18/2023
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April 1758
Captain George Mercer becomes Lt Colonel in 2nd Va Regiment under Colonel William Byrd III
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George Mercer upon his return from South Carolina in April [1758] got the appointment of lieutenant colonel in the 2d Virginia Regiment, and the promotion of the two subalterns left vacant the ensigncy in Mercer’s company of GW’s regiment. There is no evidence that Hite became an officer in the Virginia Regiment or marched in the Forbes expedition. At GW’s insistence the senior lieutenant in his regiment, Walter Steuart, filled the vacant captaincy (see GW to Blair, 28 May, and Steuart to GW, 27 June). Steuart was the lieutenant in Capt. George Mercer’s company and had acted as captain of the company in South Carolina and Georgia when Mercer was ill in the fall of 1757.
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To George Washington from Adam Stephen,
22 April 1758
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Fredericksburgh April 22d 1758
Sir,
I am this moment arrived, and find your orders to march, which shall be Complyd with; tho’ The President gave directions for refreshing the men and Paying them off here1—As soon as the men are on their March I will come on, and hope the pleasure of Seeing you thursday night;2 in the mean time; I am with Respect, Sir, your most Obt Hube Sert
Adam Stephen
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Founders Online Footnotes:
1. Lt. Col. Adam Stephen and Capt. George Mercer had just returned with two companies of the Virginia Regiment from Charleston, where they had gone for the defense of South Carolina at the end of May 1757.
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Both men participated in Forbes’s expedition in 1758, Stephen as lieutenant colonel of GW’s 1st Virginia Regiment and Mercer as lieutenant colonel of William Byrd’s 2d Virginia Regiment.
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2. The following Thursday was 27 April, but Stephen did not get to Winchester with the men from the two companies until Wednesday, 3 May.
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Source:
.
May 3, 1758
Mercer back in Winchester VA 5. [Mercer] he and the rest of the Virginia forces did not leave South Carolina before March and they did not get back to Winchester in Virginia until 3 May 1758.
To George Washington from George Mercer, 2 November 1757
From George Mercer Charles Town [S.C.] Novr 2d 1757
Dear Colonel, Tho. I have not been favored with an Answer to one of the many Letters I have wrote you since I came here, yet I will not let any Opportunity slip, agreeable to my Promise; as I shall attribute this, to your Letters miscarrying, for I woud not suppose but you have wrote.1
Notwithstanding every Precaution which the Governor pretended he had taken, to have Us regularly paid, We have already been three Months without Pay, & so far advanced in a fourth that I doubt it will not be the last—Colo. Stephen sends an Express to inform the Governor of this, and of the Impossibility of keeping the Men without Pay2
—They have yet behaved extremely well, & tis Pity the Country shoud lose so many good Men after becoming serviceable; and I dont much doubt but they may with one Consent refuse to serve Us, & inlist with the Regulars; some of Them have attempted it already, & been Severely punished, but I am certain shoud it come to that, as they all know We cant oblige Them to continue without their Pay, they woud give Them any Encouragement to enlist with Them, Tho. to do the Gentlemen Justice they have yet done all in their Power to prevent it, but it woud be for the Interest of the common Cause to have Them enlisted in another Regiment rather than suffer Them wholly to quit the Service—what must add greatly to promote Uneasiness & Discontent in Them, is that they see every Soldier here except Themselves paid Weekly.
We have lately had a Reinforcement here from Britain of 1000 Highlanders under the Command of Lieut. Colonel Montgomerie3—
I assure you they are a Set of fine Fellows, but quite undisciplined yet—They take great Pains with Them, tho., & they improve daily. I coud but think my Friends had forgot Me, when the Drummer who came from you never brought Me a line from any Body; I have interrogated him often in Regard to the Dispositions & Strength of our Regt he coud give Me no very satisfactory Account of either, as I imagine, tho. he seems positive in his Assertions—what made me give the less Credit to his Reports was that he says Bell—
who I remember when I left Virga was struck off the List, is sent to the Cherokee Fort, with 200 Men, surely they woud scarce reinstate him, & after trust him with such a Command I can’t think it possible, the most unfit Person that ever was in the service for such a Charge. Capt. Paul Demere is sent from this Place, to the So. Carolina Fort built there, really two very proper Men to manage Indians.4
We have still hoped to see Virginia this Fall, till the Arrival of a Man of War from Lord Loudoun—Colo. Bouquet says perhaps we may get Home in the Spring if theres nothing material to do—but if there is—says he, by way of Hum Bug, we cant do without you.5
I find my long Stay in this Place has only encreased the very bad opinion I at first conceived of it. To say no more of it tis the most extravagant & uncomfortable Place I ever was in—upon my Honor tis with some Degree of Oconomy that I can Live here upon my Pay—The Towns People dont desire to cultivate an Acquaintance or maintain a Society with Us, so that were it not for the Harmony that subsists between Ourselves (the Officers) it woud be intolerable.
Loudoun Expedition Against Fortress Louisbourg Secretive I am not a little surprized that We have no late News with Us—A Vessel from Britain in seven Weeks has given Us very little fresh Intelligence; Save only there being a very Strong Fleet of at least 30 Men of War, 400 Transports & 10,000 Troops among which is about 4 or 500 Light Horse being ready at Plymouth when they left it to undertake a secret Expedition which Sr John Mordaunt conducts, & has two other Generals with him. There are three Admirals too with the Fleet—Hawke Knowles, & Boscowen.6
A French Prize was sent in here last Week, computed to be worth £40,000 Sterl.
I assure you I long much to see you again were I safe at Home So. Carolina woud be the last Place I ever woud come to. Be pleased the first Opportunity to present my Compliments to your Mother & all your Family. I am Dr Sr Your much obliged Friend & humble Servt
Go: Mercer ALS, DLC:GW.
Founders Online Footnotes
Capt. George Mercer, GW’s aide-de-camp, and Lt. Col. Adam Stephen, GW’s second in command, took a contingent of the Virginia Regiment to Charleston, S.C., in late May 1757 to strengthen its defenses against a feared attack by the French. See particularly Dinwiddie to GW, 5 April 1757, n.2.
1. The only other letter found from George Mercer at Charleston is that of 17 Aug. 1757.
2. Dinwiddie arranged with Benjamin Stead of Charleston to serve as the agent to pay for the provisions for the two companies of the Virginia Regiment at that place and to give the soldiers their pay. For the difficulties that arose in getting the men’s money to them, see especially Dinwiddie to Stead, 22 July, 26 Aug., 24 Sept., and 23 Nov. 1757, all in Brock, Dinwiddie Papers, 2:675–76, 689, 705, 716–17; Dinwiddie to Adam Stephen, 24 Sept. 1757, ibid., 705; Dinwiddie to Henry Bouquet, 24 Nov. 1757, ibid., 717–18; and Bouquet to Dinwiddie, 18 Oct., 16 Dec. 1757, in Stevens, Bouquet Papers, 1:220–21, 261.
3. Lt. Col. Archibald Montgomery (1726–1796) arrived in Charleston with his 1st Highland Battalion on 3 Sept. 1757.
Virginia's vs SC building of a "Fort Loudoun" 4. The report of the unidentified drummer that David Bell, recently a captain in the Virginia Regiment, had returned to duty at the unmanned fort in the Cherokee country was mistaken. The Virginia fort there was evidently never occupied. This fort has sometimes been referred to as Fort Loudoun, but it seems to have never been named. It is often mistaken for the Fort Loudoun in the same general area built a year later by South Carolina. For GW’s noncommittal appraisal of Bell when Bell applied for command of one of the proposed additional companies of the Virginia Regiment, see GW to Dinwiddie, 10 June 1757. Paul Demeré, the brother of Capt. Raymond Demeré, was commander of one of the three independent companies stationed in South Carolina.
Mercer to Savannah GA 5. Col. Henry Bouquet sent Mercer’s company to Savannah, Ga., on 27 Aug. 1757, but “Capt Mercer being sick” (Henry Bouquet to Henry Ellis, 26 Aug. 1757, in Stevens, Bouquet Papers, 1:177–78), Mercer remained in Charleston and his company was taken to Savannah by Lt. Walter Steuart. On about 12 Nov. Bouquet sent Captain Mercer to Savannah with a letter to Gov. Henry Ellis telling him that Loudoun had instructed him to send the Virginia forces home. Mercer returned to Charleston with his company on 9 Dec. 1757, [ but this letter is dated 2 Nov 1757 as being in Charleston] but he and the rest of the Virginia forces did not leave South Carolina before March and they did not get back to Winchester in Virginia until 3 May 1758.
6. A powerful expedition under generals Sir John Mordaunt and H. S. Conway and admirals Sir Edward Hawke, Sir Charles Knowles, and Thomas Brodrick (not Edward Boscawen) sailed from Plymouth on 8 Sept. 1757 to attack the French naval base at Rochefort up the Charante River from the Bay of Biscay. After some preliminary skirmishing, the commander of the expedition called it off in late September.
Source:
To George Washington from John Tulleken, 27 October 1757
From John Tulleken Charlestown South Carolina Octr 27th 1757. Dear Sir. Your very Agreable letter of the 12th of May I but very lately had the pleasure of receiveing, I am much obliged to you for the good opinion you have of me. And it gave me great pleasure to be Congratulated on my Promotion By a Person that I have so great an esteem for as I have for Colonel Washington;1 I shou’d be glad to hear that your Campaign was well over: and that you had got safe into good Quarters. wee are all much concern’d here to find how different things have turnd out, to what wee expected, when I had the pleasure of seeing you at Philadelphia;2 wee hope to be recall’d from this Provence in the Spring. If wee are I hope wee shall serve the next campaign together with Colonel Stanwix, as to what little news there is I refer you to Captain Mercers letter, as he tells me he writes to you,3 I have the honour to be, Dear Sir, your much obliged & very obedt Humble Servt Jno. Tulleken
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. GW’s letter has not been found. Tulleken was promoted to major in the Royal American Regiment with date of rank 25 April 1757.
2. Tulleken evidently was in Philadelphia in March 1757 when GW was there for Loudoun’s conference with some of the colonial governors.
3. See George Mercer to GW, 2 Nov. 1757. Tulleken left on 12 Dec. 1757 with orders from Loudoun to join John Stanwix in his winter quarters in Lancaster, Pa., which he did on 25 Jan. 1758.
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