Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/202

 178 SKETCHES OF THE

It is certain that the committee were severely spoken of at the day, and that the people, as well as the soldieiy, did not hesitate openly to impute their conduct tow ards Mr. Heniy^ to personal envy.

Other humiliations yet awaited him. Shortly after the affair of the Great Bridge, colonel Howe of North Carolina, at the head of five or six hundred men of that state, joined colonel Woodford; and taking the com- mand of the whole, with the consent of the latter gen- tleman, who yielded to the seniority of his commission, marched with their united forces into Norfolk, which had been evacuated by the British. From this post, colonel Howe continually addressed his communica- tions to the committee of safety, or to the convention; and colonel Henry, after having seen his lawful rights and honours transfen^ed in the first instance, to an inferior officer of his own, had now the mortification of seeing himself completely superseded, and almost annihilated, by an officer from another state of only equal rank.

But even this was not all: six additional regiments had been raised by the convention, and congress had been solicited to take the Virginia ti'oops on continental establishment. They resolved to take the six new regi- ments, passing by the t^vo first; a discrimination which conveys so palpable a reflection on the two first regi- ments, that it is difficult to account for it, except by the secret influence of that unfriendly star, which had hitherto controuled and obscured Mr. Hemy's mihtary destinies. The measure was so exactly adjusted to the wish expressed by colonel Woodford's correspondent, that congress would not devolve the chief command of the Virginia forces on colonel Henry, that it is difficult to avoid the suspicion, that the suggestion came from

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