HENRY, Patrick (1736-1799). Letter signed (''P. Henry'') as Governor of Virginia to the ''County Lieut[enan]t of Berkeley'', Williamsburg, 12 November 1777.

HENRY, Patrick (1736-1799). Letter signed ("P. Henry") as Governor of Virginia to the "County Lieut[enan]t of Berkeley", Williamsburg, 12 November 1777.

Two pages, 199 x 151mm, bifolium with integral address leaf (small tear from seal, remnants of a label affixed to top left corner).

Patrick Henry arranges for salt provisions for the Virginia Militia "that have joined Genl Washington". Declaring salt a "necessary article," Henry orders that notice be given "to all such militia on their Return, or to their Families in their Absence that an application to William Coorr Esq. at Dumfries half a Bushel of Salt will be delivered to each soldier of your militia that acted in Concert with the grand army, paying what it cost the public." In May 1777, Washington had advised Henry to place his militia on a sound footing when he learned of a large British flotilla departing New York that he believed was bound for Virginia (GW to Henry, 31 May 1777). When the British fleet landed at the Head of Elk at the top of Chesapeake Bay and began their march toward Philadelphia in August 1777, several Virginia militia companies joined Washington's "grand army", including a company from Berkeley County that was present at the Battle of Brandywine on 11 September 1777 (J.T. McAllister, Virginia Militia in the Revolutionary War, McAllister's Data. 1913, p. 24).

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