American Prisoners of the Revolution | Page 5

on their breasts or sides, others

ran twenty or thirty steps, and, firing as they ran, appeared to be equally
certain of the mark. With this performance the company were more
than satisfied, when a young man took up the board in his hand, and not
by the end, but by the side, and, holding it up, his brother walked to the
distance, and coolly shot into the white. Laying down his rifle he took
the board, and holding it as it was held before, the second brother shot
as the former had done.
"By this exhibition I was more astonished than pleased, but will you
believe me when I tell you that one of the men took the board, and
placing it between his legs, stood with his back to a tree, while another
drove the centre?
"What would a regular army of considerable strength in the forests of
America do with one thousand of these men, who want nothing to
preserve their health but water from the spring; with a little parched
corn (with what they can easily procure by hunting); and who, wrapped
in their blankets in the dead of night, would choose the shade of a tree
for their covering, and the earth for their bed?"
The descriptions we have quoted apply to the rifle companies of 1775,
but they are a good general description of the abilities of the riflemen
raised in the succeeding years of the war, many indeed being the same
men who first volunteered in 1775. In the possession of one of his
descendants is a letter from one of these men written many years after
the Revolution to the son of an old comrade in arms, giving an account
of that comrade's experiences during a part of the war. The letter was
written by Major Henry Bedinger of Berkeley County, Virginia, to a
son of General Samuel Finley.
Henry Bedinger was descended from an old German family. His
grandfather had emigrated to America from Alsace in 1737 to escape
persecution for his religious beliefs. The highest rank that Bedinger
attained in the War of the Revolution was that of captain. He was a
Knight of the Order of the Cincinnati, and he was, after the war, a
major of the militia of Berkeley County. The document in possession of
one of his descendants is undated, and appears to have been a rough
copy or draught of the original, which may now be in the keeping of

some one of the descendants of General Finley. We will give it almost
entire. Such family letters are, we need scarcely say, of great value to
all who are interested in historical research, supplying, as they do, the
necessary details which fill out and amplify the bare facts of history,
giving us a living picture of the times and events that they describe.
PART OF A LETTER FROM MAJOR HENRY BEDINGER TO A
SON OF GENERAL SAMUEL FINLEY
"Some time in 1774 the late Gen'l Sam'l Finley Came to Martinsburg,
Berkeley County, Virginia, and engaged with the late Col'o John
Morrow to assist his brother, Charles Morrow, in the business of a
retail store.
"Mr. Finley continued in that employment until the spring of 1775,
when Congress called on the State of Virginia for two Complete
Independent Volunteer Companies of Riflemen of l00 Men each, to
assist Gen'l Washington in the Siege of Boston & to serve one year.
Captains Hugh Stephenson of Berkeley, & Daniel Morgan of Frederick
were selected to raise and command those companies, they being the
first Regular troops required to be raised in the State of Virginia for
Continental service.
"Captain Hugh Stephenson's rendezvous was Shepherd's Town (not
Martinsburg) and Captain Morgan's was Winchester. Great exertions
were made by each Captain to complete his company first, that merit
might be claimed on that account. Volunteers presented themselves in
every direction in the Vicinity of these Towns, none were received but
young men of Character, and of sufficient property to Clothe
themselves completely, find their own arms, and accoutrements, that is,
an approved Rifle, handsome shot pouch, and powder horn, blanket,
knapsack, with such decent clothing as should be prescribed, but which
was at first ordered to be only a Hunting shirt and pantaloons, fringed
on every edge and in Various ways.
"Our Company was raised in less than a week. Morgan had equal
success.--It was never decided which Company was first filled--

"These Companies being thus unexpectedly called for it was a difficult
task to obtain rifles of the quality required & we were detained at
Shepherds Town nearly six weeks before we could obtain such. Your
Father and some of his Bosom Companions were among the first
enrolled. My Brother, G. M. B., and myself, with many of our
Companions, soon joined