Page:Annals of Augusta County.djvu/93

 twenty months, and charged £10 for a trough to salt the meat in, besides the barrels."

In pursuance of measures adopted by the colonial government, Washington was commissioned as Colonel and Commander-in-Chief of Virginia troops. The officers next in rank to him, chosen by himself, were Lieutenant- Colonel Adam Stephen and Major Andrew Lewis.

The records of the County Court always indicate the state of the times. At August court, 1755, Joseph Carpenter, having supplied several Indians with ammunition, whom he thought to be friendly, the court fearing they might be "allied to the French king," ordered the accused into custody till he should give security.

At October term, 1755, many claims were allowed for patrolling, for provisions for Captain David Lewis's company of rangers, for going on express, and for guarding the arms and ammunition sent for the use of the county. At November court a number of persons qualified as officers of foot companies.

A new courthouse was completed in 1755, and first occupied by the court August 21.

In several letters, Governor Dinwiddle expressed disapprobation of the conduct of Captain Dickinson, of the Augusta rangers, in allowing certain Indians to slip out of his hands. They were called "Praying Indians," because they professed to be Christianized, but were supposed to be partisans of the French. Some friendly Cherokees were expected at Staunton to be employed against the Shawnees, and the Governor wrote to David Stuart and Robert McClanahan to treat these allies well.

By October 11th, Washington was in command at Winchester, and at that date wrote to the Governor giving an account of affairs there. The utmost alarm and confusion still prevailed. The militia refused to stir. No orders were obeyed which were not enforced by a party of soldiers or the commander's drawn sword. The people threatened to blow out his brains. On one day an express, spent with fatigue and fear, reported a party of Indians twelve miles off, the inhabitants flying, &c. A second express ten times more terrified than the former, arrived with information that the Indians had gotten within four miles of town, and were killing all before