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The remaining 350 men from the original ten companies of the Virginia Regiment had been allocated to the two regular regiments of the expedition. [3] [4] After the defeat of the expedition, the Virginia Regiment was immediately reformed, with the General Assembly voting in 1755 to increase its size again, to 1,500 men organized in 16 companies.
[7] [8] In 1758, George Mercer accepted command of the newly formed Second Virginia Regiment, with a commission as lieutenant colonel. In 1758, the governor assigned both Virginia regiments to regular British Army Brigadier General John Forbes , who planned to march from Philadelphia westward and take Fort Duquesne in the western frontier.
In 1758 Virginia raised two regiments of a thousand men each for the Forbes Expedition. The enlistment period for the first regiment expired in May 1759, and for the second in December 1758: [177] [178] First Virginia Regiment, Colonel George Washington. Second Virginia Regiment, Colonel William Byrd III.
In early July 1758, British General James Abercromby with a force of over 15,000 attacked General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm and his garrison of 3,500 French and Canadian troops at Fort Carillon, which overlooked Lake Champlain. The British had 44 cannons, the heaviest weighing more than 5,000 pounds.
The regiment originated from the Charles City-Henrico County Regiment of Militia founded in 1652. During the French and Indian War, the Virginia Regiment was organized and was the only colonial regiment incorporated into the British line (1754-1763) and saw action at the Battle of Jumonville Glen, Fort Necessity, and the Braddock and Forbes expeditions.
Forbes commanded about 6,000 men, including a contingent of Virginians led by George Washington.Forbes, very ill, did not keep up with the advance of his army, but entrusted it to his second in command, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Bouquet, a Swiss mercenary officer commanding a battalion of the Royal American Regiment.
During the Civil War, the Virginia militia was the main recruiting body for first the Provisional Army of Virginia and later the Virginia state regiments of the Confederate Army. After the Civil War, Reconstruction governments forced upon Virginia an all-volunteer militia system in opposition to Virginia's Bill of Rights. The militia became ...
The Continental regiments in the Southern colonies saw active service before the year ended, fighting forces raised by Virginia's royal governor, Lord Dunmore, at Great Bridge in December. In this action the 2nd Virginia Regiment was commanded by William Woodford, who later became a brigadier general in the Continental Army.