on Sept. 24, 1835.  “His figure,” says the writer, “I have now before me.  He was about six feet high, straight and rather slender, of dark complexion, showing little if any rosy red, yet good health, the outline of the face nearly a circle, and within that, eyes dark to blackness, strong and penetrating, beaming with intelligence and good nature; an upright forehead, rather low, was terminated in a horizontal line by a mass of raven-black hair of unusual thickness and strength; the features of the face were in harmony with this outline, and the temples fully developed.  The result of this combination was interesting and very agreeable.  The body and limbs indicated agility rather than strength, in which, however, he was by no means deficient.  He wore a purple or pale-blue hunting shirt, and trousers of the same material fringed with white.  A round black hat, mounted with the buck’s tail for a cockade, crowned the figure and the man.  He went through the manual exercise by word and motion deliberately pronounced and performed, in the presence of the company, before he required the men to imitate him, and then proceeded to exercise them, with the most perfect temper....  After a few lessons the company were dismissed, and informed that if they wished to hear more about the war, and would form a circle around him, he would tell them what he understood about it....  He addressed the company for something like an hour....  He spoke at the close of his speech of the Minute Battalion about to be raised, and said he was going into it and expected to be joined by many of his hearers.  He then challenged an acquaintance to a game of quoits, and they closed the day with foot-races and other athletic exercises, at which there was no betting.  He had walked ten miles to the muster field, and returned the same distance on foot to his father’s house at Oak Hill, where he arrived a little after sunset.”

The patriot forces in which Marshall was enrolled were described as minute-men, of whom it was said by John Randolph that they “were raised in a minute, armed in a minute, marched in a minute, fought in a minute, and vanquished in a minute.”  Their uniform consisted of homespun hunting shirts, bearing the words “Liberty or Death” in large white letters on the breast, while they wore bucks’ tails in their hats and tomahawks and scalping-knives in their belts.  We are told, and may readily believe, that their appearance inspired in the enemy not a little apprehension; but we are also assured, and may as readily believe, that this feeling never was justified by any act of cruelty.  Their first active service was seen in the autumn of 1775, when they marched for Norfolk, where Lord Dunmore had established his headquarters.  They saw their first fighting at Great Bridge, where the British troops were defeated with heavy loss.  Subsequently, the Virginia forces to which Marshall belonged joined the army of Washington in New Jersey, and he saw service not only in that State, but also