2. Loyalists in Boston convinced General Thomas Gage that John Hancock and Samuel Adams should be arrested, charged with treason, and sent to London for trial. Days before the British Regulars were dispatched into the countryside on the night of 18 April 1775, the pair slipped out of Boston to Lexington. Early on the morning of the 19th, Revere and Hawes alerted them of the approaching Redcoats. Well before the first shots were fired on Lexington Common, the Patriot pair reached Concord. From there they took flight to Bedford and finally to Burlington.

3. Huzzah: archaic word to describe cheering. Same as “hooray!” in modern English.

4. In the 1700s the most accepted monetary instrument in the Western world was the Spanish dollar, specified as “a coin containing 387 grains of pure silver.” By the time hostilities commenced in the American colonies in 1775, only “Loyalists” or “Tories” would take payment for goods or services in British pounds sterling. Until the 2nd Continental Congress directed the formation of a Continental Army on 14 June 1775, each colony—including Virginia—set rates of pay for their soldiers—often using the Spanish dollar as a standard.

In today’s money, a private in Morgan’s Company of Riflemen “signed on” for less than $30 per year. But when it came time to be paid, the troops rarely received coins. Instead, they were usually given “Promissory Notes” issued by their respective colonies—and eventually by the new U.S. Congress.

5. Thomas, Baron Cameron, the sixth Lord Fairfax, [b. Oct 22, 1693; d. Dec 7, 1781] was the only member of the British aristocracy to take up permanent residence in the American Colonies. By 1774 he had claims to more than five million acres of land and was known to be a close friend of one of his former surveyors, George Washington.

The proffer of a “50 Acre Bounty” to those who volunteered for a term of service in “Dunmore’s War” [May–October, 1774] was never consummated because “The American Rebellion” intervened. There is no written record of Lord Fairfax offering such an incentive to those who served in the Rifle Companies and militia units being raised by Capt. Morgan and Major McDonald who was later promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in the Virginia Militia. Whether they had such an assurance, written or verbal, is unknown. What is certain is that Lord Fairfax remained close to Washington, corresponded regularly with him throughout the revolution, and resided unchallenged in his Shenandoah Valley home until he died shortly after the American victory at Yorktown in 1781.

6. Circumferentor: archaic term for a brass-encased magnetic surveying compass with perpendicular sights. It can be hand-held or mounted on a “Jacob’s staff” or tripod for determining bearings for boundary lines, estimating elevation, and locating structural foundations.

Chapter Six: Selecting the Best Riflemen

CHAPTER SIX

SELECTING THE BEST RIFLEMEN

Major Charles Smith’s Crossroads Tavern

Battletown, Virginia

Friday and Saturday, April 28th and 29th, 1775