On the 10th October, 1776, the 6th Regiment of Virginians, encamped at Leesburg on their way to the North, are described as "a set of dirty, ragged people, badly clothed, badly disciplined and badly armed." Salt was selling there at "Forty shillings, Currency, per Bushel. This article usually sold for four shillings. If no salt comes in there will be an insurrection in the Colony." In Alexandria a few days later, he learns that the committee "will not permit me to depart this Colony as they look upon me to be a Spy and that I must be obliged to give security or go to jail." Then to Leesburg again, which he seems to regard as his American home and on the 28th October sees a "General Muster of the County Militia in town, about 600 men appeared under-armed, with Tobacco sticks in general much rioting and confusion. Recruiting Officers for the Sleber Army offer Twelve Pounds bounty and 200 acres of land when the War is over, but get very few men." In spite of repeatedly admonishing himself in his journal to avoid political arguments he was unable to do so, particularly when in his cups, and so on the 28th November his criticism of the Revolution and its adherents caused him to be waited upon by three members of the Committee of Safety who obliged him to pledge himself not to leave the Colony for three months.
At this time there was an ordinary at Leesburg known as the Crooked Billet.[103] It was a favourite place for the heavy drinking parties in which Cresswell and his friends indulged. He records, after a night of debauchery, he had sent all his companions "to bed drunk and I am now going to bed myself at 9 in the morning as drunk as an honest man could wish." The next day the carouse continued. The Leesburg of the eighteenth century was as little noted for sobriety as were other parts of the English-speaking world.
After spending much of the winter of 1776-'7 in and around Leesburg and recording the great encouragement the Americans obtained from Washington's successes at Princeton and elsewhere, he, on the 1st March, 1777, "went with Captn. Douglas and Mr. Flemming Patterson to see Mr. Josiah Clapham. He is an Assembly Man, Colonel of the county and Justice of the Peace on the present establishment. He is an Englishman from Wakefield in Yorkshire, much in debt at home, and in course a violent Sleber here. Has made himself very popular by erecting a Manufactory of Guns, but it is poorly carried on. His wife is the most notable woman in the County for Housew'fery, but I should like her much better if she would keep a cleaner house. He has got a very good plantation, takes every mean art to render himself popular amongst a set of ignorant Dutchmen that are settled in his neighbourhood. Dirty in person and principle."
Though much embarrassed by his poverty Cresswell refuses a commission as a captain of Engineers at $3 per day offered to him by Colonel Green and Colonel Grayson. He told them he "could not bear the thoughts of taking up arms against my native country" and they "were pleased to make me some genteel compliment about my steadiness and resolution." His despondency returns and Mason invites him to dinner and offers him "a letter of introduction and recommendations to the Governor of Virginia by his permission to go on board the man of war in the Bay." He resolves to accept the letter and make an attempt to return to England in April. The Rev. David Griffith returns to Leesburg and preaches "a political discourse." He speaks of meeting Mr. Griffith and his wife at Mr. Neilson's. Griffith, writes Cresswell "is a most violent Sleber. He is Doctor and Chaplain to one of their Regmt." On the 22nd March, 1777, he records "Great tumults and murmurings among the people caused by them pressing the young men into the Army. The people now begin to feel the effects of an Independent Government and groan under it, but cannot help themselves, as they are almost in general disarmed."
On the 6th April, 1777, he left Leesburg and eventually succeeded in getting to the British man-of-war Phoenix off the mouth of the Chesapeake. After another visit to New York he finally reached England in safety. In spite of all his tribulations and the very real dangers he incurred in his American sojourn, he records that "Virginia is the very finest country I ever was in"—no small concession.[104]
The people of Loudoun's German Settlement may have been "a set of ignorant Dutchmen" to the irritated Cresswell but they proved loyal and effective fighters in the American cause. They seem to have been whole-heartedly with their Tidewater and Scotch-Irish neighbors in the controversy and are reputed to have largely joined Armand's Legion under Charles Trefin Armand, Marquis de la Rouaire (1751-1793) who, after service in the Garde de Corps in Paris, had volunteered in the American Army on the 10th May, 1777, under the name of Charles Armand, had been commissioned a colonel by the Congress, saw much service and was greatly beloved by his men, few of whom were able to speak English.
Cresswell is confirmed in his statement regarding Clapham's gun factory by the record of a session of the Committee of Safety of Virginia, held on the 27th March, 1776, at Williamsburg:
"Ordered that a letter be written to Colonel Clapham in answer to his of Feby 23rd and March 24th informing him that we have sent him £360 to pay for the rifles mentioned by Chro. Perfect, that the Comm'ee agree to take all the good musquets that shall be made by the 5 or 6 hands he mentions by the 1st December next, and desire him to contract for the 12 large rifles also mentioned."[105]
Two other men in Loudoun must again be cited for their activities in the cause of independence—one as a statesman, the other as a soldier. Thomson Mason, from his ownership of Raspberry Plain, was identified closely with the county although not a continuous resident there. We find him constantly devoting his time and abilities to the American cause. Even as early as 1774 he wrote
"You must draw your swords in a just cause, and rely upon that God, who assists the righteous, to support your endeavours to preserve the liberty he gave, and the love of which he hath implanted in your hearts as essential to your nature."