Who Were The Culpeper Minute-Men?

Who Were The Culpeper Minute-Men?. . In August of 1775 a Patriot army, commanded by Virginian George Washington, lay siege to the British army in Boston; and a company of Virginia riflemen, commanded by Daniel Morgan, had joined Washington. Virginia was in turmoil as well. Royal Governor Lord Dunmore had dissolved the House of Burgesses, seized weapons and ammunition from the Williamsburg Magazine, and stirred up enslaved and native peoples against his own citizens, causing much alarm. Virginia legislators were now in Richmond, holding their third convention in defiance of the royal governor, and providing governance to the citizens of the colony. For their defense, they divided the colony into 16 districts, and ordered each district to form a company of riflemen to be combined into two regular regiments, with enlistments of one year. Each district was also ordered to form a battalion of minute-men, better trained than the militia, and capable of rapidly responding to any threat. The remainder of 16-50 year-old males, with some exceptions, would constitute the militia, and be required to train to a lower standard., In response to this call, in September, young men of Culpeper, Fauquier, and Orange counties mustered in Clayton's Old Field, nearby this marker, to form a minute battalion and a regular rifle company. The Culpeper Minute Battalion was organized into ten companies of fifty men each. Four companies were recruited from Culpeper County, four companies from Fauquier County, and two companies from less populated Orange County. The companies were identified by the names of their captains: Buford, Jameson, McClanahan, and Williams from Culpeper; Blackwell, Chilton, Pickett, and Scott from Fauquier; Payne and Spencer from Orange. The battalion commander was Colonel Lawrence Taliaferro from Orange County, his deputy was Lieutenant Colonel Edward Stevens of Culpeper County, and the battalion major was Thomas Marshall of Fauquier County. At the same time a regular rifle company was enlisted under the command of Captain John Green., Their uniform was a hunting shirt, dyed "the color of leaves", presumably green, and a hat adorned with a buck's tail. Later they would acquire blue cloth for leggings. They marched behind a banner prominently featuring a coiled rattlesnake (a symbol adopted by others at later dates), with the warning "Don't Tread on Me" below it. On either side of the snake were the words "Liberty or Death" echoing the words of Patrick Henry. A banner across the top announced them as "The Culpeper Minute-Men.", The minute-men were to immediately train for 20 days, then thereafter meet for training four days each month, and twice a year for 12 days of training. But the call to respond came quickly, and by October 18 they were marching to Williamsburg. The Virginia Gazette reported their arrival in Williamsburg on October 23rd. Finding limited supplies and equipment, half of the minutemen were ordered back to their homes. The remainder reorganized under Lieutenant Colonel Stevens into five companies under captains Buford, Jameson, Chilton, Pickett, and Spencer. The other districts did not respond as well, so the Culpeper Minute Battalion was the most fully manned, best equipped, and best trained of the Virginia minute-men. Over the next year they would acquit themselves well., In December 1776 the Culpeper Minute Battalion was dissolved, and the men either returned home to be part of the county militia, or joined the Continental Army., Many of the minute-men would receive acclaim for later accomplishments. Lieutenant Colonel Stevens would become a general and command Virginia militia at Guilford Courthouse. Captain John Jameson would figure prominently in the capture of the British spy, Major André. Lieutenant John Marshall, son of the battalion major, would be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. They all deserve to be honored for answering the call to become minute-men., The names of many of those minute-men have been lost, but through the few existing records, notably the men's own pension applications in the 1800's, we know most of them.