Loudoun’s Loyalty.

The story of the Revolution and the causes which led to that great event are properly treated in a more general history than this purports to be.  If, in the few succeeding pages, it can be shown that Loudoun County was most forward in resisting the arbitrary aggressions of the British government and that the valor and patriotism she evinced during the Revolution was equal to that of her sister counties, who had suffered with her under the yoke of British oppression, then the primary object of this sketch will be accomplished.  Her blood and treasure were freely dedicated to the cause of liberty, and, having once entered the Revolution, she determined to persevere in the struggle until every resource was exhausted.

Armed with flint-lock muskets of small bore and with long-barreled rifles which they loaded from the muzzle by the use of the ramrod; equipped with powder horn, charges made of cane for loading, bullet molds and wadding, but bravely arrayed in home-spun of blue, and belted with cutlass and broadsword by the side, cockade on the hat and courage in the heart, her revolutionary soldiers marched to the music of fife and drum into battle for freedom against the power and might of the mother country.

Resolutions of Loudoun County.

In 1877, the following article appeared in a Leesburg newspaper under the caption “Loudoun County a Hundred Years Ago:” 

“Major B. P. Nolan, grandson of Burr Powell, has just put us in possession of a verified copy of the proceedings of a public meeting held at Leesburg, Loudoun County, on the 14th of June, 1774, nearly one hundred and five years ago.  It is interesting, not merely for its antiquity, but as showing the spirit of independence that animated the breasts of our liberty-loving countrymen two years before the Declaration of American Independence in 1776.  The original document was found among the papers of Col.  Leven Powell, at one time member of Congress from this district, who died in 1810.  His son, Burr Powell, forwarded a copy to R. H. Lee, Esq., who in 1826 was about to publish a second edition of his ‘Memoirs of the Life of R. H. Lee,’ of Revolutionary fame.”

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The proceedings or resolutions follow: 

     “PUBLIC MEETING IN LOUDOUN IN 1774.”

“At a meeting of the Freeholders and other inhabitants of the County of Loudoun, in the Colony of Virginia, held at the Court-House in Leesburg the 14th of June, 1774, F. Peyton, Esq., in the Chair, to consider the most effectual method to preserve the rights and liberties of North America, and relieve our brethren of Boston, suffering under the most oppressive and tyrannical Act of the British Parliament, made in the 14th year of his present Majesty’s reign, whereby their Harbor is blocked up, their commerce totally obstructed, their property rendered useless—­