By dawn on Tuesday, despite terrible heat and the loss of a half-dozen horses, we crossed the Blue Ridge at Snickers Gap and proceeded, as ordered, East on Georgetown Turnpike. That night a dispatch rider from Colonel Minor arrived with orders directing my Rifleman to halt on the Southwest bank of the Patomack River; hold the new Finley-Chain Bridge; and await further orders.

Before first light on Wednesday the 24th there began a steady stream of panicked Citizens fleeing our Capital across the bridge into Virginia. Among them was a State Department clerk, Stephen Pleasonton, carrying orders from Secretary of State James Monroe to “Make safe and take best care of the Books and Papers of the Gov’t.”

We were still awaiting orders to cross the River so I dispatched 20 of my men to requisition as many horses and wagons as they could find and bring them to me. Well before noon, our loyal militiamen returned with 22 wagons, carts, and carriages. With the sound of cannon-fire from North of the city, I ordered them to accompany Mr. Pleasonton into the nearly deserted Capital.

In less than two hours all the transports were back on the Virginia side of the bridge, loaded with Government Documents sewn into linen sacks. It was then Mr. Pleasanton confided to me that he was carrying, inter alia, The Original Declaration of Independence and General Washington’s Commission as Commander of the Continental Army.

The State Department clerk originally intended to store the records and documents at Edgar Patterson’s Mill—just a few hundred yards up-river from the bridge. But I pointed out if the Redcoats succeeded in taking the Capital they would surely attack the Foxhall Foundry in Georgetown and likely force their way over the bridge to plunder and pillage Patterson’s Mill.

One of my officers, Lieutenant William Binns, suggested the Precious Cargo be dispatched further West, to Leesburg for storage in the basement of a sturdy house he inherited from his father. He pointed out “the all-brick home has a spacious barrel vault in a dry basement and the place is secured by Rev. John Littlejohn, the former Sherriff of Loudoun County.”

Mr. Pleasonton agreed to store our Government’s Papers “in a place protected by a law officer who is a man of God.” Since my Militiamen still had no orders other than holding the bridge, I directed Lt. Binns and 25 of our mounted militiamen to accompany Mr. Pleasanton and the horse-drawn vehicles conveying our Government’s Most Important Documents to Leesburg.