USA > Virginia > Prince Edward County > Prince Edward County > A history of Prince Edward County, Virginia: from its formation in 1753, to the present > Part 3
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By an ordinance of one of the Conventions of 1775. the Colony was divided into eighteen districts for convenience in organizing.
The Committees of Safety in these various districts were very great factors in the war, being in reality a sort
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of military executive in each county. That of Prince Edward county was not less active than others. Membership in any of these Committees was a distinct badge of honor, so that descent from a Committeeman constitutes a clear title to membership in those later societies called, "The Sons" and "The Daughters of the Revolution."
Virginia declared her independence of the British Crown on the 29th of June, 1776, five days before the gen- eral declaration of Independence, on the 4th of July in that year.
In all these activities Prince Edward county took a fore- inost and honorable part.
The great Patrick Henry, who was subsequently a resi- dent of Prince Edward county, was the first Governor of the new "Commonwealth." To him the county, on the 19th of June, 1775, voted resolutions of gratitude and confidence on the occasion of the "rape of the gunpowder," which was actually the first active stroke in the Revolutionary War, for it stirred the Colonists to such unbounded enthusiasm that the success of the Revolution was practically assured.
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VIRGINIA MILITIA IN THE REVOLUTION : PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY.
The list herein given is from a list which was contrib- uted by Alfred J. Morrison, in the "Virginia Magazine of History," April, 1913, taken by him from the records.
Officers appointed and commissioned in May, June, and July, 1777.
CAPTAINS
Josiah Chambers. John Bibb.
David Walker. Andrew Baker.
LIEUTENANTS
Charles Allen. Jacob Woodson.
John Dabney. Sharpe Spencer.
ENSIGNS
Benjamin Allen. James Carter.
Richard Holland. William Rice.
SECOND LIEUTENANTS
Robert Goode.
William Wooton.
Henry Young. L
It appeared from an order made July, 1777, that the fol- lowing were then Captains of Militia Companies.
Clarke.
Owen.
Ligon.
Bigger.
Thomas Flournoy.
Chambers.
William Bibb.
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In 1778 the following Captains were appointed: John Bibb; George Carrington.
In the same year the following Lieutenants were ap- pointed : John Dupuy; Thomas Lawson.
Also in the same year the following two Ensigns were appointed: Yancey Bailey ; - Bigger, Jr.
In 1779 the following Captains were appointed: Wil- liamson Bird (in place of Charles Venable, resigned) ; Rich- ard Holland; Sharpe Spencer; Thomas Moore.
And reference is made to the following as being. or as having been Captains of Companies: George Booker; Samuel Venable; Henry Walker; David Walker.
In 1779 the following Lieutenants were appointed : Nicolas Davis; Robert Venable; George Booker; Jesse Wat- son; William McGehee; Ambrose Nelson; John Langhorn.
In the same year the following Ensigns were appointed : James Parks; Drury Watson; Thomas Watkins.
In 1779 Thomas Haskins was recommended as Colonel of the Militia of the county, and George Walker as Lieuten- ant-Colonel.
In 1780 the following were recommended, or appointed as Captains: Thomas Lawton; Dick Holland; Jacob Wood- son.
And the following as Lieutenants: Jesse Watson; Drury Watson; William Price, Jr .; James Clark; James Wright; Joseph Parks.
And the following as Ensigns: Stephen Pettus; William Booker; John Bell.
In 1781 the following nominations were made and rati- fied : John Nash, County Lieutenant; George Walker, Colonel; Thomas Flournoy, Lieutenant-Colonel; John Clark, Major.
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In the same year the following were appointed as Cap- tains: Stephen Neal; James Clark; Ambrose Nelson (in the stead of John Bibb).
The following were appointed Lieutenants in the same year : Nathaniel Allen; John Richards; George Foster; George Pulliam; William Wooten; James Parks; John Clarke, Jr .; John Bell.
And the following were appointed as Ensigns: William Galespie; Peyton Glenn; Robert Walton; Philip Mathew.
MUSTER ROLL OF CAPTAIN JOHN MORTON'S COMPANY, OF PRINCE EDWARD MILITIA, JUNE 28, 1781 :
OFFICERS
Captain, John Morton, (Morton had eight sons in the service).
.
First Lieutenant, John Holcomb.
Second Lieutenant, Obadiah Woodson. 1
Ensign, Edward Wood.
Sergeant, James Morton.
Sergeant, Samuel Anderson.
Sergeant, Charles Stogg.
Sergeant, Charles Anderson.
Corporal, Robert Lawton.
Corporal, Thomas Hastie.
Corporal, William Wright.
Corporal, William Chambers.
PRIVATES
Anderson, Parsons; Ascul, William; Baldwin, Thomas : Bigger, William; Boas, Meshack; Bird, William; Boas. Michael; Brown, Isham; Byrk, Thomas; Casey, William:
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Chaffin, Isham; Chaffin, Christopher; Cocke, Anderson; Cun- ningham, Nathaniel; Cunningham, John; Daniel, George; Davidson, Edward; Davidson, William; Davidson, David; Davis, Charles; Durham, Nathaniel; Edmunds, Jacob; Fore, Francis; Foster, Joshua; Fraser, John; Fraser, Thomas; Fugue, William; Garratt, Alexander; Gillespie, William; Hales, Peter; Hampton, Nathan; Holman, Alexander; Hord, William; Howerton, James; Jennings, Isham; Jennings, James; Johnson, William; King, Thomas; Lee, John; Lee, Archibald; Leigh, Charles; Martin, Samuel; McGehee, Wil- liam; Morton, Thomas; Newcomb, Julius; Parker, Glover; Peak, Aaron; Pierce, Thomas; Pillon, Jasper; Rain, Nathaniel; Robertson, David; Rutledge, Dudley; Sharp, Moses; Smith, Robert. P .; Smith, John; Smith, Alexander; Spaulding, John; Sutherland, Philemon; Southerland, Wil- liam; Taylor, George; Thompson, John; Tuggle, Benjamin; Tuggle, Thomas; Walker, Thomas; Walker, William, 1; Walker, William, 2; Watkins, Abner; Webster, John; Whit -. lock, Josiah; Wilburn, Thomas; Woodson, Anderson; Wood- son, John; Wright, Archibald.
Much further interesting information regarding Prince Edward county soldiers, serving in the Virginia Militia dur- ing the Revolutionary War may be found in McAllister's "Virginia Militia in the Revolutionary War."
Chapter Seuen
Prince Edward County in the War of 1812-1814
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PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY IN THE WAR OF 1812-1814
The Manifesto of John Randolph, of Roanoke
The following copy of the pamphlet, issued by John Raldoph of Roanoke, on May 30th, 1812, is given in full, with introduction, and adenda, because it expresses, as per- haps nothing can so well do, the actual predilection of the people of Prince Edward county, respecting that unfortunate struggle between the government of the United States and the British crown. The people had no "stomach" for that war and Randolph rightly gauged public opinion, as found in this county, at any rate.
"To the freeholders of Charlotte, Buckingham, Prince Edward and Cumberland.
Fellow Citizens :
I dedicate you the following fragment. That it appears in its present mutilated shape is to be ascribed to the success- ful usurpation which has reduced freedom of speech in one branch of the American Congress to an empty name. It is now established for the first time, and in the person of your representative, that the House may, and will, refuse to hear a member in his place, or even to receive a motion from him, upon the most momentous subject that can be presented for legislative decision .- A similar motion was brought forward by the Republican minority in the year 1798, (this motion was drawn, it is believed, by Mr. Gallatin, but moved by Mr. Sprigg, declaring it to be inexpedient at that time to resort to war against the French Republic) before these modern inventions for stifling freedom of debate had been discovered. It was discussed as a matter of right until it was abandoned by the mover in consequence of additional
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information (by the correspondence of our Envoys at Paris) laid before Congress by the President. In "the reign of ter- ror" the father of the sedition law had not the hardihood to proscribe liberty of speech, much less the right of free de- bate on the floor of Congress. This invasion of the public liberties was reserved for self-styled Republicans, who hold your understandings in such contempt as to flatter them- selves that you will overlook their every outrage upon the first great principles of free government, in consideration of their profession of tender regard for the privileges of the people. It is for you to decide whether they have under-val- ued your intelligence and spirit, or whether they have formed a just estimate of your character. You do not require to be told that the violation of the rights of him whom you have deputed to represent you, is an invasion of the rights of every man among you, of every individual in society .- If this abuse be suffered to pass unredressed; - and the people alone are competent to apply the remedy; - we must bid adieu to a free form of government, forever.
Having learned from various sources that a declaration of war would be attempted on Monday next, with closed doors, I deemed it my duty to endeavour, by any exercise of my constitutional functions, to arrest this heaviest of all pos- sible calamities, and avert it from our happy country, I ac- cordingly made the effort of which I now give you the re- sult, and of the success of which you will have already been informed, before these pages can reach you. I pretend only to give you the substance of my unfinished argument. The glowing words; - the language of the heart; - have passed away with the occasion that called them forth. They are no longer under my control. My design is simply to submit to you the views which have induced me to consider a war with England, under existing circumstances, as comporting neither with the INTEREST nor with the HONOUR of the Ameri- can people, but as an IDOLATROUS sacrifice of both, on the altar of French rapacity, perfidy, and ambition.
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France has for years past offered us terms of undefined commercial arrangement, at the price of a war with England, which hitherto we have not wanted firmness and virtue to reject. The price is now to be paid. We are tired of holding out ;- and, following the example of the nations of continental Europe; entangled in the artifices, or awed by the power of the destroyer of mankind; we are prepared to become instrumental to his projects of universal dominion. Before these pages meet your eye, the last Republick of the earth will have enlisted under the banners of the tyrant and become a party to his cause. The blood of American free- men must flow to cement his power, to aid in stifling the last struggles of afflicted and persecuted man; to deliver into his hands the patriots of Spain and Portugal, to establish his Empire over the ocean and over the land that gave our fathers birth; to forge our own chains! - And yet, my friends, we were told in the days of the mad ambition of Mr. Adams, "THAT THE FINGER HEAVEN POINTS TO WAR." Yes, the finger of Heaven does point to war. It points to war, it points to the mansions of eternal misery and torture; as to a flaming beacon warning us of that vortex which we may not approach but with certain destruction. It points to desolated Europe and warns us of the chastisement of those nations who have offended against the justice and almost beyond the mercy of Heaven. It announces the wrath to come, upon those who, ungrateful for the bounty of provi- dence, not satisfied with peace, liberty, security, plenty at home, fly, as it were, into the face of the Most High and tempt His forbearance.
To you, in this place, I can speak with freedom, and it becomes me to do so; nor shall I be deterred by the cavils and the sneers of those who hold as "Foolishness" all that savours not of worldly wisdom, from expressing fully and freely those sentiments which it has pleased God, in His Mercy, to engrave upon my heart. '
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These are no ordinary times. The state of the world is unexampled. The war of the present day is not like that of our revolution, or any which preceded it, at least in modern times. It is a war against the liberty and happiness of man- kind. It is war of which the whole human race are the vic- tims, to gratify the pride and lust of power, of a single in- dividual. I beseech you, put it to your own bosoms, how far it becomes you as freemen, as Christians, to give your aid and sanction to this impious and bloody warfare against your brethren of the human family. To such among you, if any there be, who are insensible to motives not more dignified and manly than they are intrinsically wise, I would make a different appeal. I adjure you by the regard which you have for your own security and property, for the liberties and inheritance of your children, by all that you hold dear and sacred, to interpose your constitutional powers to save your country and yourselves from a calamity, the issues of which, it is not given to human foresight to divine.
Ask yourselves if you are willing to become the virtual allies of Bonaparte? Are you willing, for the sake of annexing Canada to the northern States, to submit to the ever-growing system of taxation, which sends the European laborer supperless to bed? To maintain by the sweat of your brow, armies at whose hands you are to receive a future master? Suppose Canada ours. Is there any one among you who would ever be the better for it? - the richer-the freer-the happier-the more secure? And is it for a boon like this, that you would join in a warfare against the liber- ties of man in the other hemisphere, and put your own in jeopardy ? or is it for the nominal privilege of a licensed trade with France, that you would abandon your lucrative com- 'merce with Great Britain, Spain, Portugal, and their Asiatic African, and American dependencies-in a word, with every region of those vast continents? That commerce which gives
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a vent to tobacco, grain, flour, cotton; in short to all your native products; which are denied a market in France.
There are not wanting men so weak, as to suppose that their approbation of war-like measures is a proof of per- sonal gallantry, and that opposition to them indicates a want of that spirit which becomes a friend to his country; as if it requires more courage and patriotism to join the acclamation of the day, than steadily to oppose one's self to the mad infatuation to which every pepole and all govern- ments have, at some time or other, given way. Let the his- tory of Phocion, of Agis, and of the DeWitts, answer this question. My friends, do you expect to find those who are now loudest in the clamour for war, foremost in the ranks of battle? or is the honour of this nation indissolubly con- nected with the political reputation of a few individuals, who tell you they have gone too far to recede, and that you must pay, with your ruin the price of their consistency. My friends, I have discharged my duty towards you lamely and inadequately I know, but to the best of my poor ability. - The destiny of the American people is in their hands. The net is spread for their destruction. You are enveloped in the toils of French duplicity; and if, which may heaven in its mercy forbid, you and your posterity are to become hewers of wood and drawers of water to the modern Pharaoh, it shall not be for the want of my best exertions to rescue you from the cruel and abject bondage. This sin, at least, shall not rest upon my soul.
JOHN RANDOLPH, of Roanoke.
May 30th, 1812.
House of Representatives of the United States.
May 30th, 1812.
Soon after the House met, Mr. Fisk moved that "when the House adjourn, it adjourn to meet on Monday next." Which having been carried, he then immediately moved that
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History of Prince Edward County
the House do now adjourn. Negatived by a small majority.
Mr. Randolph said that rumors to which he could not shut his ears (of an intended declaration of war on Monday next, with closed doors) and the circumstances which had just passed under the eye of the House (alluding to the mo- tion to adjourn) impelled him to make a last effort to rescue the country from the calamities, which, he feared, were im- pending over it. He had a proposition to submit, the decis- ion of which would affect vitally, the best interests of the na- tion. He conceived himself bound to bring it forward. He did not feel himself a free agent in the transaction. He would endeavour to state as succinctly as he could, the grounds of his motion, and he humbly asked the attention of every man whose mind was at all open to conviction; of every man devoted to the cause of his country; not only in that House, but in every rank and condition of life throughout the state.
The motion which he was about to offer grew out of cer- tain propositions, which he pledged himself to prove; nay, without an abuse of the term, to demonstrate.
The first of these propositions was, that the Berlin and Milan Decrees were, not only, not repealed, but that our government had furnished to the House and to the world, un- equivocal evidence of the fact. The difficulty in demon- strating this proposition arose rather from his embarrass- ment in selecting from the vast mass of evidence before him, than in any deficiency of proof; for if he were to use all the testimony that might be adduced, he feared his discourse would grow to a bulk not inferior to the volume which he held in his hand. He would refer the House to the corre- spondence, generally, of Mr. Russell, our agent at Paris, ac- companying the President's message of the present session,- He referred to the schedule of American vessels taken by French privateers since the first of November 1810, (the period of the alleged repeal of the French Decrees) : of these, it was worthy of remark, that "the Robinsonova, from
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Norfolk to London, with tobacco, cotton and staves; the Mary Ann from Charleston to London, with cotton and rice; the General Eaton, from London to Charleston, in ballast; the Clio from London to Philadelphia, with English manufac- tures; the Zebra from Boston to Tarragona, (then in pos- session of the Spaniards) with staves; all coming under the operation of the French Decrees and seized since the 2nd of November, 1810, had not been restored, on the 14th of July last;" and that the only two vessels named in that schedule, which had been restored; viz, the Two Brothers from Boston to St. Malo, and the Star, from Salem to Naples (the one a port in France, the other virtually a French port) did not come within the scope of the Berlin and Milan Decrees. Indeed, the only cases relied upon by Mr. Monroe to prove the repeal of the French Decrees are those of the Grace Ann. Green of the New Orleans Packet. On the first of these no great stress is laid because, having been captured by an English cruizer, she was retaken by her own crew and car- ried into Marseilles, where consequently her captors became French prisoners of war (See note A.) - (mutilation) it was to be expected, that in the case of war between the United States and England, our privateers carrying their prizes into French ports should be proceeded against under those decrees. It was, therefore, on the case of the New Orleans Packet that the principal reliance was placed, to show the repeal of the obnoxious decrees. But even this case established, beyond the possibility of doubt, that the Milan Decrees of the 23rd November and 17th December, 1807, were in force subsequently to the period of their alleged repeal. This ves- sel hearing at Gibraltar, where she had disposed of part of her cargo, of the letter of the Duke of Cadore of the 5th of August, 1810, suspended her sales, and the supercargo, after having consulted with Mr. Hackley, the American consul at Cadiz, determined on the faith of that insidious letter, to proceed with the remainder of his cargo to Bordeaux. He
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took the precaution however, to delay his voyage, so that he might not arrive in France before the 1st of November; the day on which the Berlin and Milan Decrees were to cease to operate.
(Here Mr. Randolph was called to order by Mr. Wright, who said there was no motion before the House. The Speaker overruled Mr. Wright's objection, as the gen- tleman from Virginia had declared his intention to make a motion and it had been usual to admit prefatory remarks).
Mr. Randolph said he would proceed in his argument without deviating to the right or to the left, and he would endeavour to suppress every feeling which the question was so well calculated to excite. "The vessel accordingly ar- rived in the Garonne on the 14th of November, but did not reach Bordeaux until the 3rd of December 1807, expressly set forth, for having come from an English port and having been visited by a British vessel of war." Thus this vessel having voluntarily entered a French port on the faith of the repeal of the decrees, was seized under them. "These facts, continues Mr. Russell, having been stated to me by the super- cargo, or the American vice-consul at Bordeaux, and the principal one, that of the seizure under the Milan Decrees being established by the process-verbal, put into my hands by one of the consignees of the cargo, I conceived it to be 'my duty not to suffer the transaction to pass unnoticed." This process-verbal is neither more nor less than the libel of the Admiralty court drawn by the law officer of the French Government, agreeably to the laws of the Empire. What should we say to the libel of a vessel by the District At- torney of the United States, or her seizure by the custom house officers, under an act of Congress which had been re- pealed? The whole of this correspondence proves un- equivocally that neither the Custom House Officers, the Courts of Law, nor the French cruizers, not even the publick ships of war had ever received notice from their government of
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the repeal of the Berlin and Milan Decrees. This last fact is further substantiated by the remonstrance of Mr. Barlow to the Duke of Bassano of the 12th of March, 1812, in the case of the "vessels captured and burnt by his Imperial and Royal Majesty's ships Medusa and Nymph." It should be recollected that all the decrees of the French Emperor are given strictly in charge to certain public functionaries, who are directed to put them in force. The only authorities to whom the repeal of these decrees was to be a rule of action; the Cruizers, Courts and Officers of the Customs; remained profoundly ignorant of the fact. It is to be found no where but in the proclamation of the President of the United States, of the 2nd of November, 1810. "To have waited for the re- ceipt of this proclamation (says Mr. Russell) in order to make use of it for the liberation of the New Orleans Packet,' appeared to me a preposterous and unworthy course of pro- ceeding, and to be nothing better than absurdly and basely employing the declaration of the President, that the Berlin and Milan Decrees had been revoked, as the means of ob- taining their revocation." They were then not revoked, or surely our minister would not stand in need of any means for obtaining their revocation. Proofs multiplying on proofs !
"The Custom House Officers of Bordeaux commenced un- lading the New Orleans Packet on the 10th December and completed that work on the 20th, as appears by their process- verbal of those dates. That of the 20th expressly declares that the property was to be pursued before the Imperial Council of Prizes, (the Court of Admiralty,) at Paris, according to the decrees of the 23rd November, and 17th December, 1806, or in other words, under the decrees of Milan." Mr. Russell's remonstrance was submitted to the Council of commerce, and further proceedings against the New Orleans Packet sus- pended. "The papers were not transmitted to the Council of Prizes, nor a prosecution instituted before that tribunal; which proves only that the prosecution at law was suspended,
ยท
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not that the laws were repealed - "and the vessel and cargo on the 9th of January were placed at the disposition of the consignees, on giving bond to pay the estimated amount, should it be definitely decided that a confiscation should take place."
Recollect that this vessel voluntarily entered a French port on the faith of the repeal of those decrees. She is seized and libelled under them, but after great exertion on the part of the American minister, he obtains from the French government-What? Proof of the bona fide revoca- tion of the decrees? Nothing like it. A discharge of the vessel ? Not at all,-the bond represents her-she stands pledged in her full value in case she should be found to come within the scope of the law; and yet we must believe the law to be repealed ! What sort of a. release is this? Mr. Russell makes a merit of having "rescued this property from the seizures with which it had been visited"-that is . rescued it from a court of justice; and of "having placed it in a situation more favorable than that of many other ves- sels and cargoes which continued in a kind of mortemain, by the suspension of all proceedings in regard to them." And this letter and this case is adduced as a proof of the repeal of the Berlin and Milan Decrees, on the 1st of November, 1810!
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