Officers
We have a list of Officers of the Virginia Regiment as of the dates 1 October to 24 October 1757.
You will notice first on this list is Mercer.
This is George Mercer, aide de camp to Colonel George Washington of the Virginia Regiment.
He is also Captain of a company we reenactors represent.
He makes me think of Marlon Brando's immortal line On the Water Front:
He later became Lt Colonel of the 2nd VA Regiment under Colonel Byrd in the Forbes Expedition to "reduce" Fort Duquesne.
Then became head of the Office of Stamp Distributor just briefly enough to be horrified by a burning effigy of him.
Then he became Lt Gov of North Carolina.
And he was in the running to become Governor of a new colony called Vandalia.
We use a leaf as witness
to this Virginia Regiment reenactors on the march.
Below is a video of our company of reenactors at Abrams Delight in September 2019.
Below this video is that list of officers
Below that list is some stories of some of those officers below.
Founders Online notes:
Internal evidence makes it clear that GW drew up this document after his return to Fort Loudoun from Mount Vernon on or shortly after 1 October and before he received Dinwiddie’s letter of 19 Oct. on 24 Oct. 1757.
In a few instances slightly different dates of rank are given in other contemporary documents.
Source:
Each officer has a story:
Each one has a story like Daniel Boone without the publicity star making machine of the old Disney and tv series.
Here are stories on some of those officers.
Stay tuned to this blog.
We will be adding more links to each of the officers listed here.
The Captains
There was more Captains but the number of companies were reduced earlier this year of 1757.
Mercer - Captain George Mercer
Waggener - Captain Thomas Waggener
Stewart - Captain Robert Stewart
He was head of the light horse of the Virginia Regiment in Braddock's Expedition. He and George Washington used Braddock's Sash as a stretcher to carry their wounded 60 year old commander away from the carnage of the battle.
The story of the curt reply and a street of Winchester VA named after him:
McKenzie - Captain Robert McKenzie
The Lieutenants
Crawford - Lt William Crawford
Smith - Lt Charles Smith
Foreman who supervised building of Fort Loudoun 1756-1758.
Earlier in 1756 Smith first worked under Captain Waggener to build Forts on the Patterson
Gist - Lt Christopher Gist
He accepted a demotion from Captain of a company of Scouts earlier this year
Nathaniel Gist
was with his father Christopher Gist
Sources:
