General Lafayette was met at Orange by a committee and under its escort he journeyed south, (along that forest road which his army cut when with “Mad Anthony Wayne” he followed Tarleton into the unsettled parts of Virginia and the Carolinas,) to the Wilderness and to Fredericksburg. It is possible that some message had to be sent from or to his escort, in fact it is evident, for George Cary has left record of it, and in presenting his bill he has left as well his individuality and his photograph behind him. If one remembers that brandy was $1.00 a gallon, he needs little more of George Cary’s history than this.
“To George Cary for services rendered as messenger, to the Wilderness, including self and horse, $7.00.”
“and drink, $1.75”
“Deduct 50c. advanced him by the Mayor, $8.25.”
Near Fredericksburg, and almost at the spot where during the Revolution the camp of Hessian prisoners was kept, General Lafayette was met by a military escort commanded by Colonel John Stannard. When the cavalcade reached the city it passed through rows of grown-ups and children and (surely previously rehearsed for many days!), the latter sang in French, “The Marseillaise,” and, stepping from his coach, Lafayette marched between the rows of children, singing the anthem of the French revolution.
Only one break was made during the stay of the Marquis in Fredericksburg, if deductions from these old accounts are correct. The town cannon must have “busted.” And why it did, and the legitimate enthusiasm which led to such a contretemps, due probably to the exuberance of one who had followed the general in the great war for liberation forty years before, is gathered from these bills:
“To John Phillips, for tending to the gun, $2. Old junk, 37c. Old junk, 27c. Old junk, 23c. 4 kegs of powder, $24., two quarts whisky, 50c.”
“To John Phillips, fireing the cannon, $4.”
“To Thomas Wright, for 21 panes glass broken by the cannon last Saturday night and on the 19th of November, 10c. a pane and 8×10 each—$2.10.”
When General Lafayette left Fredericksburg he went by stage to Potomac Creek, by boat to Washington, by stage to Baltimore, and thence he sailed back to France. With him went Messrs. Mercer and Lewis, both sons of men who had been Generals in the war for Liberty.