To George Washington from Brigadier General Peter Muhlenberg, 4 July 1780
From Brigadier General Peter Muhlenberg
Fredericksburg [Va.] July 4th 1780
Sir
I was Yesterday honord with a Letter from His Excellency The Governor, wherein he desires me to transmit Your Excellency a Return of the Officers of the Virginia Line at present in the State;1 I now do myself the Honor to enclose a Return of all The Officers I could get intelligence of, with their Rank and date of Commission.2
General Gates this Morning left Town for Richmond and has ordered all the Officers to meet at this place on the 15th of this Month.
The plan I did myself the honor to mention to Your Excellency in my last, proposd by a Committee of the Assembly, to fill up the Continental Battallions, is not yet finally determind on, but I have no doubt it will go through.3 a Brittish Fleet is at present in our Bay, but we have not yet been able to ascertain their Strength or destination.4 I have the Honor to be with great Respect Your Excellencys Most Obedt hble Servt
P: Muhlenberg
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. This letter from Virginia governor Thomas Jefferson to Muhlenberg has not been identified.
2. Muhlenberg enclosed a document with this date headed “A Return of the Continental Officers now in Virginia, as nearly as at present can be ascertained” (DLC:GW). It listed six colonels, five lieutenant colonels, three majors, twenty-five captains, twenty-five lieutenants, six named ensigns, and twelve ensigns whose names were not known. The regiments of the officers are given but not the dates of their commission. GW and his secretary Robert Hanson Harrison wrote on the return, which they used to arrange the Virginia officers (see GW to Jefferson, 18 July, DLC:GW, and to Samuel Huntington, 22 July, DNA:PCC, item 152).
3. For this act, which passed on 12 July, see Jefferson to GW, 2 July, n.4.
4. On 2 July, Jefferson informed the Committee at Headquarters that these ships in Chesapeake Bay numbered six to eleven privateers—“the largest carrying twenty guns”—and eight frigates (, 3:476–77).