CHAPTER IX. Orange in the Revolution. The part the County took in the Revolution must be exhibited rather in details than by a connected narrative. The royalist Governor, Lord Dunmore, often prorogued—that is, dissolved—the Burgesses from 1773 to 1776, for what he considered their contumacious attitude towards the Crown. The Burgesses, instead of going to their several homes, as he expected, began in 1774 to assemble at the Raleigh Tavern, at Williamsburg, then the capital, and form themselves into revolutionary conventions—one or more in 1774, two in 1775, in all of which Orange was represented by Thomas Barbour and James Taylor; and finally into the worldfamous Convention of 1776, in which James Madison, Jr., and William Moore were the delegates from the County. So odious did the name of Dunmore become that a county named for him, once in the domain of Orange, lost its identity under that name, and was re-christened Shenandoah. While these conventions were being held the people at home became greatly aroused and began to organize for a conflict that seemed inevitable, by choosing committees of safety, putting the militia on a war footing and selecting from them, for regular training and discipline, the more active and resolute, called "Minute Men." By an ordinance of the Convention of 1775, the colony was divided into eighteen districts, one of which consisted of the counties of Orange, Culpeper, and Fauquier; each district was required to enlist a battalion of 500 men in 10 companies of 50 each, with the requisite officers, a colonel, lieutenant-colonel, and major, 10 captains and lieutenants, a chaplain, surgeon, etc. The first organization from this district appears to have been designated "The Culpeper Minute Men, supposedly because Culpeper was the middle county; for it is certain that Lawrence Taliaferro of Orange, was its first colonel. It participated in the battle of Great Bridge, the first battle of the Revolution fought on Virginia soil, in December, 1775, and was then commanded by Stevens, afterwards General Stevens, of Culpeper. The committees of safety were very great factors in the war, and really constituted a sort of military executive in each county. It is not to be doubted that each committee kept a formal record of its proceedings, which would furnish invaluable historical data; but very few complete records have been found in any of the counties, and practically all that are preserved are in the fourth series of Peter Force's American Archives, published by order of Congress, and now become quite rare. The following extracts, copied from these Archives, are believed to be the whole record of the Orange committee that has been preserved: |