The following is a state of the militia, taken from returns of 1780 and 1781, except in those counties marked with an asterisk, the returns from which are somewhat older.
Every able-bodied freeman, between the ages of sixteen and fifty, is enrolled in the militia. Those of every county are formed into companies, and these again into one or more battalions, according to the numbers in the county. They are commanded by colonels, and other subordinate officers, as in the regular service. In every county is a county-lieutenant, who commands the whole militia of his county, but ranks only as a colonel in the field. We have no general officers always existing. These are appointed occasionally, when an invasion or insurrection happens, and their commission determines with the occasion. The governor is head of the military, as well as civil power. The law requires every militia-man to provide himself with the arms usual in the regular service. But this injunction was always indifferently complied with, and the arms they had, have been so frequently called for to arm the regulars, that in the lower parts of the country they are entirely disarmed. In the middle country a fourth or fifth part of them may have such firelocks as they had provided to destroy the noxious animals which infest their farms; and on the western side of the Blue ridge they are generally armed with rifles. The pay of our militia, as well as of our regulars, is that of the continental regulars. The condition of our regulars, of whom we have none but continentals, and part of a battalion of state troops, is so constantly on the change, that a state of it at this day would not be its state a month hence. It is much the same with the condition of the other continental troops, which is well enough known.
| Situation. | Counties. | Militia. | |
| Westward of the Alleghany 4,458. | Lincoln | 600 | |
| Jefferson | 300 | ||
| Fayette | 156 | ||
| Ohio | .. | ||
| Monongalia | *1,000 | ||
| Washington | *829 | ||
| Montgomery | 1,071 | ||
| Greenbriar | 502 | ||
| Between the Alleghany and Blue Ridge. 7,673. | Hampshire | 930 | |
| Berkeley | *1,100 | ||
| Frederick | 1,143 | ||
| Shenando | *925 | ||
| Rockingham | 875 | ||
| Augusta | 1,375 | ||
| Rockbridge | *625 | ||
| Boutetourt | *700 | ||
| Between the Blue Ridge and Tide Waters. 18,828. | Loudoun | 1,746 | |
| Faquier | 1,078 | ||
| Culpepper | 1,513 | ||
| Spotsylvania | 480 | ||
| Orange | *600 | ||
| Louisa | 603 | ||
| Goochland | *550 | ||
| Fluvanna | *296 | ||
| Albemarle | 873 | ||
| Amherst | 896 | ||
| Buckingham | *625 | ||
| Bedford | 1,300 | ||
| Henry | 1,004 | ||
| Pittsylvania | *725 | ||
| Halifax | *1,139 | ||
| Charlotte | 612 | ||
| Prince Edward | 589 | ||
| Cumberland | 408 | ||
| Powhatan | 330 | ||
| Amelia | *1,125 | ||
| Lunenburg | 677 | ||
| Mecklenburg | 1,100 | ||
| Brunswick | 559 | ||
| On the Tide Waters, and in that Parallel. 19,012. | Between James River and Carolina. 6,959. | Greensville | 500 |
| Dinwiddie | *750 | ||
| Chesterfield | 665 | ||
| Prince George | 328 | ||
| Surrey | 380 | ||
| Sussex | *700 | ||
| Southampton | 874 | ||
| Isle of White | *600 | ||
| Nansemond | *644 | ||
| Norfolk | *880 | ||
| Prince Anne | *594 | ||
| Between James & York rivers. 3,009. | Henrico | 619 | |
| Hanover | 706 | ||
| New Kent | *418 | ||
| Charles City | 286 | ||
| James City | 235 | ||
| Williamsburgh | 129 | ||
| York | *244 | ||
| Warwick | *100 | ||
| Elizabeth City | 182 | ||
| Bet. York & Rappahannock. 3,269. | Caroline | 805 | |
| King William | 436 | ||
| King and Queen | 500 | ||
| Essex | 468 | ||
| Middlesex | *210 | ||
| Gloucester | 850 | ||
| Betw'n Rappahannock and Powtomac. 4,137. | Fairfax | 652 | |
| Prince William | 614 | ||
| Stafford | *500 | ||
| King George | 483 | ||
| Richmond | 412 | ||
| Westmoreland | 544 | ||
| Northumberland | 630 | ||
| Lancaster | 332 | ||
| East'n Shore. 1,638. | Accomac | *1,208 | |
| Northampton | *430 | ||
| Whole Militia of the State | 49,971 | ||
QUERY X.
The Marine?
Before the present invasion of this State by the British, under the command of General Phillips, we had three vessels of sixteen guns, one of fourteen, five small gallies, and two or three armed boats. They were generally so badly manned as seldom to be in a condition for service. Since the perfect possession of our rivers assumed by the enemy, I believe we are left with a single armed boat only.
QUERY XI.
A description of the Indians established in that State?
When the first effectual settlement of our colony was made, which was in 1607, the country from the sea-coast to the mountains, and from the Potomac to the most southern waters of James' river, was occupied by upwards of forty different tribes of Indians. Of these the Powhatans, the Mannahoacs, and Monacans, were the most powerful. Those between the seacoast and falls of the rivers, were in amity with one another, and attached to the Powhatans as their link of union. Those between the falls of the rivers and the mountains, were divided into two confederacies; the tribes inhabiting the head waters of Potomac and Rappahannock, being attached to the Mannahoacs; and those on the upper parts of James' river to the Monacans. But the Monacans and their friends were in amity with the Mannahoacs and their friends, and waged joint and perpetual war against the Powhatans. We are told that the Powhatans, Mannahoacs, and Monacans, spoke languages so radically different, that interpreters were necessary when they transacted business. Hence we may conjecture, that this was not the case between all the tribes, and, probably, that each spoke the language of the nation to which it was attached; which we know to have been the case in many particular instances. Very possibly there may have been anciently three different stocks, each of which multiplying in a long course of time, had separated into so many little societies. This practice results from the circumstance of their having never submitted themselves to any laws, any coercive power, any shadow of government. Their only controls are their manners, and that moral sense of right and wrong, which, like the sense of tasting and feeling in every man, makes a part of his nature. An offence against these is punished by contempt, by exclusion from society, or, where the case is serious, as that of murder, by the individuals whom it concerns. Imperfect as this species of coercion may seem, crimes are very rare among them; insomuch that were it made a question, whether no law, as among the savage Americans, or too much law, as among the civilized Europeans, submits man to the greatest evil, one who has seen both conditions of existence would pronounce it to be the last; and that the sheep are happier of themselves, than under care of the wolves. It will be said, that great societies cannot exist without government. The savages, therefore, break them into small ones.