General Thomas Posey: Son of the American Revolution

2. “The glorious cause” (1775-1778)

CHAPTER TWO (1775-1778) "The glorious cause" The new year of 1775 brought word to Fincastle of the unfolding of one momentous event after another in the northeastern colonies. The first serious skirmishes between British regular troops and American minutemen at Lexington and Concord in faraway Massachusetts were followed by the patriots' siege of the king's forces in Boston and the decisive sessions of the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Historians have ably identified and analyzed the improbable bond, transcending distance and disparate economic, social and cultural values, that drew together all classes and strata of American colonial society in a great common undertaking. But to the young frontier saddler, Thomas Posey, one single occurrence in the fast-moving chain of events must have overshadowed all others: the Congress' selection of George Washington,1 the generous neighbor of his youth and the continued benefactor of his Fairfax County family,2 as commanderin -chief of the Continental army. It is eminently plausible to surmise that Posey's complete and steadfast dedication to the revolutionary movement was conceived on the day and at the hour he learned that the mantle of American leadership had been draped over the broad shoulders of his revered Mount Vernon mentor. Point Pleasant had tested Thomas' mettle in a fight to preserve the lives of himself and his fellow frontiersmen . Now he was imbued with an even higher purpose, the attainment of national independence-a quest which Washington, in 27 General Thomas Posey: Son of the American RC'Dolution humbly accepting his military command, had aptly called "the glorious cause."3 Swept up in the fervor that was spreading like wildfire from the eastern cities to the most remote frontier hamlets, Posey did not hesitate to declare his allegiance to that cause and its leader, or to act upon his resolve. He was soon serving on the Botetourt County Committee of Correspondence, a body of leading citizens formed in each Virginia county to organize local revolutionary efforts and to coordinate them with the state's oversight Committee of Safety.4 But as reports of massive mobilization and sharp military engagements with the enemy filtered from the east to Fincastle, he could not be content long with a civilian role in the great adventure. Charles Royster's insightful treatise on the basic elements of character that motivated the revolutionary movement generally, and the soldiers of the Continental army in particular, defines the unique sense of duty that drove America's first freedom fighters. Apart from the higher goals of independence and freedom, the revolutionaries ' fealty ran, not only to themselves and their comrades, but to their children and posterity also. To these intrepid soldiers, the concept of "fame" was not limited to gaining the esteem and respect of their contemporaries-it extended to the achievement through their exploits on the field of battle of a kind of timeless immortality extending far beyond their own life spans. "The participants often felt the presence of tens of millions more and looked at their own conduct through the eyes of the unborn."5 This acute consciousness of their role in history, the feeling that future generations were constantly peering over their shoulders and judging their every action in combat, may account for the dogged tenacity of the revolutionaries' eight-year struggle against staggering odds. From all that is known of Thomas Posey's character and values, he may well be regarded as a paradigmatic representative of his revolutionary generation. As if to validate Royster's core thesis, Posey throughout his life displayed an almost-obsessive sensitivity to his role in recorded history, as well as a compelling and sometimes self-conscious concern for the welfare and regard of his children and their progeny. Both in his military career and his later public offices, he seemed to live his life as though always aware that uncounted future generations of descendants-whose vast numbers and identities he could not possibly have envisionedwould someday critically examine and judge his actions through the convoluted but inexorable prism of the intervening centuries. Mindful of these faceless generations, and confronting the greatest challenge of his time, Posey went for a soldier in the Revolution. 28 1775-1778 On 12 January 1776 his fellows on the Botetourt Committee of Correspondence authorized him to raise a company of recruits pledged to serve in the national (Continental) army for the duration of the conflict. The area around...