Formation and the March North

Colonel William Grayson of Prince William County, VA, an attorney and aide-de-camp to Washington, was offered command of one of the additional regiments and pending acceptance was ordered to begin recruiting for said battalion. Washington also recommended Levin Powell of Loudoun County, VA as the regiment’s lieutenant colonel and John Grizzage Frazer of King William County, VA as the major. Powell accepted but for reasons unknown Frazer did not become the regiment’s major. Ultimately, on the 29th of January 1777, David Ross, Jr. of Bladensburg, MD became the regiment’s major. Next, Grayson immediately set to work appointing the company officers and sending them off to recruit men for the new regiment. By the 5th of February 1777, Grayson and Levin had appointed captains to eight of the ten companies prescribed for the new regiment.

The rank-and-file recruiting was a much slower process, despite a congressional authorization of $10,000 to Grayson specifically for the purpose of raising men to fill his ranks. Because of the struggles of the sparsely populated Carolinas and Georgia to meet the quotas imposed by the Congress, many of her officers were forced to journey north to recruit Virginians to fill their ranks. Consequently, this caused a shortage of men from Virginia from which her own officers could draw to meet her own quotas. In response, Governor Patrick Henry issued a proclamation that prohibited officers from Georgia from recruiting in Virginia. However, the damage was done and Virginia Continental recruiting efforts in 1776 and 1777 suffered. This included Grayson’s and her sister additional regiments from Virginia, Thruston’s and Gist’s. Col. Grayson would write to Washington on the 29th of January 1777 explaining his dilemma, “though I am sorry to inform you that we labor under very great disadvantages; in every part of this state, there is nothing to be seen but recruiting parties & a number of the best of the officers have been already engag’d; besides this the expectations from the three State regiments will greatly injure us”. Moreover, this problem was persistent as indicated in a response to Washington’s orders to have his men inoculated for small pox on April 1777, “[w]ith respect to the recruiting service, I wrote you fully in my two last letters, since which there has been no material alteration; the Georgia officers are forbid by Governor Henry’s proclamation, to recruit any more; but I am inform’d there are several South Carolina officers inlisting men on our frontiers without any authority from this Government”.

Apparently, recruiting efforts in Maryland were more successful as Capt. Hebard Smallwood was able to raise a full-strength company. As companies came to full strength, Grayson began to dispatch them north to the join the main body of the Continental Army then encamped in Morristown, NJ. Shortly after the arrival of these advance companies, Grayson’s was assigned the newly formed 4th Virginia Brigade (a.k.a., Scott’s Brigade) under the command of Brigadier General Charles Scott. Fellow additional regiment, Patton’s from the Philadelphia area, along with the 4th, 8th, and 12th Virginia Regiments were the other units that made up the new brigade. In early July 1777, Grayson ordered the remaining companies to march from Dumfries, VA to New Jersey where the army was observing enemy movements. He estimated the full strength of the regiment to be somewhere around 250. The colonel followed later in the month, leaving Lieut. Col. Powell in Virginia to supervise the remaining recruiting.

During this recruiting period, Grayson and his officers also took care of uniforming and equipping his men. In what seems to be a case of being in the right place at the right time, the regiment found itself fully uniformed before marching north. Clothier General James Mease wrote to Washington that Grayson’s had “fallen on blue & red [regimental coats] & has obtained near 400 suits, part of which he was to receive from Col. Mayson, upon my engaging to supply his regiment, which is now on its march about 400 strong from Dumfries”. In correspondence to Washington, Grayson asked about the status of blankets for his men. In accordance with orders from the Commander-in-Chief, each man was inoculated for small pox before marching north. Upon arriving in camp in New Jersey, the men of Grayson’s were likely set to the fatigue duties, drilling, and occasional raiding that the army was conducting at the time.