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Finding Freedom: Jack - “The Memorial of Sundry of the Inhabitants of Botetourt County”
After Jack escaped from prison in 1781, he remained in Botetourt County, Virginia. With this petition, addressed to Virginia’s Governor Thomas Nelson, a group of citizens claimed that Jack was disturbing the peace. They wrote that Jack was threatening the lives of local people, especially those who had been involved in his arrest. The group of Botetourt County residents asked that Jack be tracked down and executed by the state. It is unknown whether Jack was recaptured or if he remained at-large.
Courtesy of the Library of Virginia
Picturing Washington's Army: Map of Verplanck’s Point
As surveyor general of the Continental Army, Simeon De Witt created this map of the encampment at Verplanck’s Point in 1782. The labeled regiments, indicated by their state abbreviations, helped identify the tents depicted in Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s panoramic painting. Washington’s headquarters and the adjutant general’s tent (where L’Enfant stood to paint the panorama) are visible on this map. At the encampment, Thomas Foster, a sergeant in the 7th Massachusetts Regiment, wrote in his journal, “We have here a fine encampment which will furnish the public with a curious map someday or other.”
Image courtesy of Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Sparks 158.1 (3) Seq. 9
Picturing Washington's Army: Map of Verplanck’s Point | Washington’s Tent
As surveyor general of the Continental Army, Simeon De Witt created this map of the encampment at Verplanck’s Point in 1782. The labeled regiments, indicated by their state abbreviations, helped identify the tents depicted in Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s panoramic painting. Washington’s headquarters and the adjutant general’s tent (where L’Enfant stood to paint the panorama) are visible on this map. At the encampment, Thomas Foster, a sergeant in the 7th Massachusetts Regiment, wrote in his journal, “We have here a fine encampment which will furnish the public with a curious map someday or other.”
Image courtesy of Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Sparks 158.1 (3) Seq. 9
Picturing Washington's Army: Map of Verplanck’s Point | Parade Ground
As surveyor general of the Continental Army, Simeon De Witt created this map of the encampment at Verplanck’s Point in 1782. The labeled regiments, indicated by their state abbreviations, helped identify the tents depicted in Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s panoramic painting. Washington’s headquarters and the adjutant general’s tent (where L’Enfant stood to paint the panorama) are visible on this map. At the encampment, Thomas Foster, a sergeant in the 7th Massachusetts Regiment, wrote in his journal, “We have here a fine encampment which will furnish the public with a curious map someday or other.”
Image courtesy of Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Sparks 158.1 (3) Seq. 9
Picturing Washington's Army: Map of Verplanck’s Point | 1st Connecticut Brigade
As surveyor general of the Continental Army, Simeon De Witt created this map of the encampment at Verplanck’s Point in 1782. The labeled regiments, indicated by their state abbreviations, helped identify the tents depicted in Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s panoramic painting. Washington’s headquarters and the adjutant general’s tent (where L’Enfant stood to paint the panorama) are visible on this map. At the encampment, Thomas Foster, a sergeant in the 7th Massachusetts Regiment, wrote in his journal, “We have here a fine encampment which will furnish the public with a curious map someday or other.”
Image courtesy of Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Sparks 158.1 (3) Seq. 9
Picturing Washington's Army: Map of Verplanck’s Point | 2nd Connecticut Brigade
As surveyor general of the Continental Army, Simeon De Witt created this map of the encampment at Verplanck’s Point in 1782. The labeled regiments, indicated by their state abbreviations, helped identify the tents depicted in Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s panoramic painting. Washington’s headquarters and the adjutant general’s tent (where L’Enfant stood to paint the panorama) are visible on this map. At the encampment, Thomas Foster, a sergeant in the 7th Massachusetts Regiment, wrote in his journal, “We have here a fine encampment which will furnish the public with a curious map someday or other.”
Image courtesy of Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Sparks 158.1 (3) Seq. 9
Picturing Washington's Army: Map of Verplanck’s Point | Rhode Island Regiment
As surveyor general of the Continental Army, Simeon De Witt created this map of the encampment at Verplanck’s Point in 1782. The labeled regiments, indicated by their state abbreviations, helped identify the tents depicted in Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s panoramic painting. Washington’s headquarters and the adjutant general’s tent (where L’Enfant stood to paint the panorama) are visible on this map. At the encampment, Thomas Foster, a sergeant in the 7th Massachusetts Regiment, wrote in his journal, “We have here a fine encampment which will furnish the public with a curious map someday or other.”
Image courtesy of Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Sparks 158.1 (3) Seq. 9
Picturing Washington's Army: Map of Verplanck’s Point | Massachusetts Brigades
As surveyor general of the Continental Army, Simeon De Witt created this map of the encampment at Verplanck’s Point in 1782. The labeled regiments, indicated by their state abbreviations, helped identify the tents depicted in Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s panoramic painting. Washington’s headquarters and the adjutant general’s tent (where L’Enfant stood to paint the panorama) are visible on this map. At the encampment, Thomas Foster, a sergeant in the 7th Massachusetts Regiment, wrote in his journal, “We have here a fine encampment which will furnish the public with a curious map someday or other.”
Image courtesy of Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Sparks 158.1 (3) Seq. 9
Picturing Washington's Army: Verplanck’s Point
Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s watercolor of the encampment at Verplanck’s Point (August-October 1782) depicts the Continental Army at its professional best. Wooden bowers, or shades made of tree branches, decorated the long line of soldiers’ tents. Washington’s marquee tent stood on a hill where it “towered, predominant” over the camp, as one eyewitness put it.
For a month, the Continental troops at Verplanck’s Point gathered firewood for the coming winter and drilled for the next campaign. On September 22, the Continental Army demonstrated their fighting readiness for French forces marching from Virginia through the Hudson Highlands. One astonished French officer admired the transformation of an army that had “formerly had no other uniform than a cap, on which was written Liberty.”
Image: Museum of the American Revolution, Gift of the Landenberger Family Foundation