PICTORIAL FIELD BOOK OF THE REVOLUTION.
VOLUME II.
BY BENSON J. LOSSING
1850.
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SUPPLEMENT.
IX.
AUTOGRAPHS OF WASHINGTON’S LIFE GUARD.
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Since the publication of the account of Washington’s Life Guard,
(see page 688, volume i.,) I have received from Schuyler Colfax, Esq., grandson of General Colfax (who was the commander of the Guard during the last years of the war), an interesting document, containing the signatures of the members of the corps in February, 1783. These were appended to an order accepted by the commander, to pay to Melancthon, Smith, & Co., the amount of one month’s pay, which that firm had advanced with the understanding that they were to wait for reimbursement until the corps was paid by Congress. Colfax’s acceptance was as follows: "Accepted to pay when received from the paymaster general." It appears by the amount set opposite each man’s signature or "mark" (for several of them, it will be observed, could only make their mark), that the pay of officers and privates was as follows, per month: the commander and his lieutenant, twenty-six dollars and sixty cents each; sergeants, ten dollars each; corporals and drummers, seven dollars and thirty cents each; drum-major (Diah Manning), nine dollars; and privates, six dollars and sixty cents each. I have grouped the autographs as closely as possible, so as to economize space. I am also indebted to Mr. Colfax for the following brief sketch of the public life of the "captain commandant:"General William Colfax was born in Connecticut about 1760. At the age of seventeen years he was commissioned a lieutenant in the Continental army. He was soon afterward selected by Washington "Captain Commandant of the Commander-in-chief’s Guard." Washington became much attached to Colfax, and often shared his tent and table with him. Among many tokens of the chief’s regard, his family yet possesses a silver stock buckle, set with paste brilliants. Colfax was at the surrender of Cornwallis, and at the close of the war settled in Pompton, New Jersey, where he married Hester Schuyler, a cousin of General Philip Schuyler. He was commissioned by Governor Howell, in 1793, general and commander-in-chief of the militia of New Jersey. He was a presidential elector in 1796. He was commissioned brigadier general of the Jersey Blues in 1810, and was active during the earlier periods of the war of 1812. He was appointed a judge of the Common Pleas of Bergen county, which office he held until his death, which occurred in 1838, at the age of seventy-eight years. He was buried with military honors.
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