Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/354

 790

VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

able. This was Gideon Macon, who, com- ing to the American colonies in the latter half of the century just mentioned, settled at Middle Plantation, Virginia, where he soon became a prominent man in St. Peter's Parish and an extensive and prosperous tobacco cultivator. There is a record of him and his estate in 1680. This estate was known as Prospect Hill, and is even now standing in its original location, and is still regarded as one of the landmarks of eastern Virginia. Gideon Macon was the father of William Macon, who in time inherited Pros- pect Hill, and became a very conspicuous figure in the colony, being appointed colonel of the New Kent county militia, New Kent county being the location of Prospect Hill. It was of this Colonel William Macon that Martha, the wife of Colonel William Massie, was the daughter.

(V) Major Thomas Massie, a son of Colo- nel William and Martha (Macon) Massie, was born according to the parish records, August II, 1747, at Batton's Bridge, in New Kent county, Virginia. His life was a most eventful one, as was almost sure to be the life of an ardent lover of liberty, devoted to the interests of the American colonies in those troublous times. For Major Massie's lot was cast just when the long drawn out struggle between the colonies and Great Britain had reached the breaking point, and he was, indeed, just in the prime of young manhood when the revolution began. He received his commission as captain in the Sixth Virginia Regiment of the line on Con- tinental establishment, in the autumn of 1775, and with an enthusiasm characteristic of the man, threw himself into the conflict in the cause of liberty and his native land. His first service was under Colonel Buck- ner in Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, where he took part in many active engagements, notably those of Fort Mont- gomery, when that redoubt was captured, and at New Brunswick on the Raritan river, where the advance of the British van was checked, thus giving an opportunity for General Washington to cross the Delaware river in safety. The Sixth Virginia suffered so severely in this campaign that Captain Massie was necessarily employed in special or detached duty for the major part of the next two years, but on January i, 1777, he was again attached to the army, this time under General Scott, in the latter's move- ment against Lord Cornwallis, who was at

that time threatening Trenton, New Jersey. Once more he was in the thick of action, en- gaging in that sanguinary fight known as the Cannonade of Trenton. For a period of five months thereafter Captain Massie was en- gaged in the severest kind of duty at Middle Post, Metuchen, under Colonel Hendricks, duty which included constant patrollmg and frequent skirmishes, nocturnal surprises and the cutting off of pickets, work of a most perilous and fatiguing kind, entailing a great loss of men. After five months of this dis- tressing kind of service, his detachment re- joined the main army at Middlebrook, and yet a little later was transferred to the army under General Washington at White Marsh Hills. He seemed destined to endure the hardships of the campaign in full measure, for it was while a part of Washington's army that it passed that most bitter winter at Valley Forge, the suft'erings of which were shared by Captain Thomas Massie. Detailed for duty under General Morgan, he received a partial reward for his faithful services in the form of a major's commission on February 20, 1778. He was in command of the lines near Philadelphia in the spring of 1778, and while there he took part in some historic transactions, notably that of the evacuation of Philadelphia by General Sir Henry Clinton, Major Classic being the one who first received the flag of truce from that officer, which opened the way to the nego- tiations for his departure. General Clinton no longer in Philadelphia, General Morgan, with Major Massie in his command, marched through that city and shortly afterwards joined the main army. It was not long after this, June 27, 1778, to be precise, that Major Massie was the bearer of the despatches from Washington to General Charles Lee, directing the latter officer to attack the British army in full force the following day. These orders, as all the world remembers, were not obeyed, a disobedience which was the occasion of a " most brilliant piece of generalship on the part of Washington, who was forced thus unexpectedly, to bring the troops into action himself, and also of the well known rebuke of Lee. Ordered once more into New Jersey, under General Mor- gan, Major Massie took part in the hard- fought battle of Monmouth Court House, in which the British were defeated and pur- sued as far north as Middletown Heig'hts, near Sandy Hook. From New Jersey, for- tune took him to Rhode Island, where,