George Washington Signed Discharge

Partly printed discharge document signed by George Washington, as Commander in Chief of the Armies of the United States. Newburgh, [New York], 4 January 1783. 1 page, ## x ## in. Undersigned by Washington's Aide-de-Camp Benjamin Walker (1753-1818) and Adjutant Leigh. Docketing to foot reads "Presented by Charles Staples".

A discharge signed by General George Washington for wounded soldier Benoni Taylor, who fought alongside African American soldiers in one of the first racially integrated units in American military history. The document notes that Taylor was an "Inhabitant of [R.] Island & Soldier in the Regiment of Invalids...having been certifyed by a Board of Officers...as unfit for any further Duty either in the Field or Garrison having been wounded...".

Taylor ostensibly served from 1777 to 1780 under Captains Silas Talbot and David Dexter in the First and Second Rhode Island Regiments, with regular returns until October 1780. He continued his term of 3 years service with the 3rd Company of the Rhode Island Regiment, after the 1st and 2nd Rhode Island Regiments consolidated in February 1781. Records show that Taylor was transferred to the invalid corps due to wounds sustained during the Battle of Red Bank.

Intriguingly, Taylor is listed by various sources as being an African American soldier who fought in the integrated 1st Rhode Island Regiment, also known as the "Black Regiment." Taylor's name is even listed on a monument in Portsmouth, Rhode Island commemorating the service of African American soldiers during the Revolutionary War. In author David Popek's "They...fought bravely, but were unfortunate: The True Story of Rhode Island's "Black Regiment," it is noted that Benoni was described in one his enlistment forms as having "dark brown hair and a dark complexion." Popek's conclusion was that Taylor was white, likely due to Taylor's previous service in a segregated unit and apparent enumeration in the 1820 and 1830 census as a white man living in Vermont.

However, there appear to have been at least several men named Benoni Taylor living during the period and it's not clear if the Benoni Taylor living in Vermont is "our" Benoni Taylor. Indeed, there are at least two other men by the same name who fought in the Revolution, one serving aboard the sloop "Providence," the other in Capt. Lemuel Trescott's Co. in Col. Asa Whitcomb's (Massachusetts) regiment. Neither are clearly linked to our Benoni Taylor.

We can definitively connect our Benoni Taylor with the Taylor serving in the 2nd Rhode Island, and later the Consolidated Rhode Island "Black" Regiment, because a continuous chain of returns link the transfers. Taylor's final transfer to the Corps of Invalids occured on 1 September 1782. It is this regiment that is specified here on this discharge on 4 January 1783, which corresponding with other extant records. (For Benoni Taylor's returns, c.f.: US, Revolutionary War Service Records, 1775-1783, The National Archives, M881, catalog ID 570910, record group 93. Digitized and available via fold3).

[Revolutionary War, Colonial America, Generals, Presidents, George Washington, Manuscripts, Documents, Letters]