Kopel's latest

There are some historical inaccuracies to David Kopel’s writing. On September 21, 1774 George Mason founded the Fairfax Independent Company of Volunteers. George Washington was the captain of this volunteer unit and George Mason Junior (George V) was an ensign. It is important to understand that this was not a militia organization. The militia structure in Virginia at the time went from the Royal Governor to the County Lieutenants of each county down to each private. There was no such thing as an independent company without Crown authority and the formation of this company was a direct affront to the Crown. George Mason wrote , “This company is essentially different from a common collection of mercenary soldiers.” The formation of this first independent company on the continent as George Mason stated was timed because Royal Governor Lord Dunmore had the militia under his command and was in the Ohio Territory fighting to regain Fort Pitt from encroaching Pennsylvanians and to defeat the Shawnee Indians which occurred in October at the battle of Point Pleasant.

George Mason wrote the Fairfax County Militia Plan in February 1775 to put the County of Fairfax in a posture of defense. The organizational structure was in the general tradition of the Virginia Militia system. In April 1775 George Mason wrote his “Remarks on Annual Elections for the Fairfax Independent Company”. This document is very important as the intellectual origin of at least four out of the 16 Rights of the Virginia Declaration of Rights which he would write a year later can be traced. When George Mason was appointed to be one of eleven members of the Virginia Committee of Safety, he helped to “re-mold the whole militia.” The Colony was divided into 16 military districts and in practical terms, the independent companies which had now formed in all the counties were transformed into minute men companies.