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 JAMES MITCHELL VARNUM. 
 
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 MAJOR GENERAL JAMES MITCHELL VARNUM 
 
 BRIGADIER GENERAL CONTINENTAL ARMY 
 
 MEMBER CONT/NENTAL CON6R5SS 
 
 JUDGE SUPREME COURT A/. IV. TERRITORY. 
 
 FROM PORTRAIT OWNED BY JAMES MITCHELL VARNUM NEW YO RK CITY. 
 
A SKETCH 
 
 OF THE 
 
 LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 
 
 OF 
 
 JAMES MITCHELL VARNUM 
 
 OF RHODE ISLAND, 
 
 Brigadier-General of the Continental Army ; Member of the Continental 
 
 Congress ; Jtidge U. S. Sicpreme Court, N. W. Territory ; 
 
 Major-General Rhode Island Volunteer Militia. 
 
 By JAMES MITCHELL VARNUM, 
 
 Of New York City. 
 
 BOSTON : 
 
 DAVID CLAPP & SON, PRINTERS. 
 
 1906. 
 

 Reprinted from '* The Varnums of Dracutt, Mass.'' 
 
 ? 
 
JAMES MITCHELL VARNUM.' 
 
 By James Mitchell Varnum.^ 
 
 James Mitchell Varnum, eldest son of Major Samuel 
 Yarnum, was born at Dracutt, Mass., on December 17th, 1748. 
 After an academical education he entered Harvard College as 
 a Freshman at the age of 16 years and 7 months, in the class 
 of 1769, but did not continue there until graduation. There 
 is no official record at the University as to the reason for his 
 leaving Harvard, but inasmuch as in Quincy's history of Har- 
 vard College there is mention of disturbances amongst the 
 students in April, 1768, in consequence of which some were 
 rusticated and others expelled, it is considered probable that 
 Varnum, who had the reputation of being rather " wild " at 
 college, may have been one of the number. 
 
 He taught school in his native town of Dracutt in 1767, 
 and on May 23d, 1768, entered Rhode Island College (now 
 Brown University) , from which institution he graduated with 
 honors in 1769, in the first class to graduate from that 
 college. At the "commencement" day celebration, which was 
 held in the then new Baptist meeting-house at Warren, on 
 September 7th, 1769, Varnum took a prominent place in the 
 exercises, taking part in " a Syllogistic Disputation in Latin," 
 and also being one of two students engaged in a " Forensic 
 Dispute" entitled "The Americans in their present circum- 
 stances cannot consistent with good policy affect to become an 
 independent state." 
 
 Mr. Varnum " ingeniously defended the proposition by co- 
 gent arguments handsomely dressed, though he was subtly, but 
 delicately, opposed by Mr. William Williams, both of whom 
 spoke with emphasis and propriety." Full copies of their 
 
arguments may be found in Dr. Guild's account of the com- 
 mencement.* As a sign of the times it may be mentioned that 
 at this commencement " not only the candidates, but even the 
 President, were dressed in American manufactures." f 
 
 In 1769, Mr. Yarnum, after leaving college, again taught 
 school for a time at Dracutt, but even at this early date seems 
 to have decided to make his future home in Rhode Island, for 
 soon thereafter he entered the office of the Honorable Oliver 
 Arnold, Attorney General of the colony, with whom he was a 
 student at law until the latter's decease in October, 1770. 
 
 It is probable, however, that young Yarnum's decision to 
 settle in Rhode Island was chiefly due to the fact that during 
 his student life at Warren he had fallen in love with a fair 
 daughter of that colony, whom he married on February 2d, 
 1770. Her name was Martha (usually known as Patty) Child, 
 the eldest daughter of the Honorable Cromel Child of Warren, 
 a member of the Rhode Island General Assembly, and one of a 
 family of considerable, and even notable, distinction in those 
 days. 
 
 One of her sisters married Hon. Benjamin Bourne, after- 
 wards Member of Congress and United States District and 
 Circuit Judge, and another Dr. Peter Turner, a distinguished 
 surgeon in the Continental Army, and a prominent citizen of 
 Rhode Island. 
 
 It may be here stated that Mr. Varnum's marriage proved to 
 be a most happy one, he being represented by the chroniclers 
 of that period as an " excellent and afi'ectionate husband," and 
 his consort as a " high-minded lady, and one of the most 
 cheerful, sociable, and best of wives." Mrs. Varnum survived 
 her husband 48 years, and died at Bristol, R. I., on October 
 10th, 1837, without issue, at the advanced age of 88 years. 
 
 * " The First Commencement of Rhode Island College," by R. A. Guild, Collection R. I. 
 Historical Society, vol. 7. Providence, 1885. 
 
 t Manning and Brown University, by R. A. Guild. Gould & Lincoln, Boston, 1864. 
 
In 1771, Mr. Variium was admitted to the Bar, and soon 
 after settled in East Greenwich, R. I., where his decided ability 
 early acquired for him an extensive practice, and he travelled 
 the circuit of the colony, reaping in an unusual degree for one 
 so young the honors and jjecuniary rewards of his profession. 
 Mr. Wilkins Updyke, in his " Memoirs of the Rhode Island 
 Bar," in referring to Mr. Varnum at this period of his life, 
 says : " He was deeply attached to mathematical science, and 
 delighted in its pursuit; his whole life was an evidence that he 
 was naturally a mathematician; his habits were those of intense 
 study and boisterous relaxation. He was fond of exhibiting his 
 skill in gymnastics, and ever ready to exercise in that ancient 
 art with any one who would engage with him, noble or ignoble. 
 Strong and active in frame, and ardently attached to such ex- 
 ercises, he gave his inclination for such s[)orts the fullest range 
 to a late period in his life." In another portion of his biography 
 of General Varnum, and referring genei'ally to his character, 
 Mr. Updyke says : " Varnum was periodically an intense stu- 
 dent, and would be secluded for weeks. He possessed the rare 
 power of great mental abstraction and philosophic ratiocination. 
 He was master of his cases, and all the facts were well arranged 
 and digested for trial. Varnum told a friend that he studied 
 his cases in bed, and often had his books brought to him. 
 This is the solution of the mystery which some thought was 
 intuition, of instantly rising in court and arguing his cause, to 
 public surprise and admiration, without any apparent previous 
 preparation or consultation. He was a great admirer of Vattel 
 and Montesqueiu; the latter he would almost repeat. He de- 
 lighted in, and cultivated his taste for, the poets. Shakespeare, 
 Young, Pope, and Addison he would recite with great readi- 
 ness, and when a novel came into his hands his meals were 
 suspended until it was finished." 
 It was about this time, on August 15th, 1773, that Mr. Var- 
 
6 
 
 num purchased for £18. the land at East Greenwich upon 
 which he commenced the erection of the colonial mansion, to 
 which reference will hereafter be made. Owing, however, to 
 the troubled condition of the country, and the war which soon 
 followed, in which Mr. Yarnum took such an interested and 
 active part, his building operations were interrupted, and the 
 house was not completed and occupied until some four or five 
 years thereafter. 
 
 Mr. Yarnum, very early in life, took an intense and active 
 interest in military affairs, especially in view of the discontent 
 in the colonies with the rule of Great Britain, and his firm con- 
 viction that sooner or later war must ensue. He made a care- 
 ful study not only of military tactics, but also of the art and 
 science of war, which afterwards stood him in good stead. 
 
 In October, 1774, he became a charter member and the com- 
 mander, with the rank of Colonel, of the Kentish Guards, a 
 uniformed militia company of infantry in East Greenwich, then 
 chartered by the Rhode Island General Assembly under the 
 style of the "First Independent Company of the County of 
 Kent," and which subsequently gave 32 commissioned officers 
 to the army of the American Revolution, amongst them Gen. 
 IS'athaniel Greene, Gen. Yarnum, Col. Christopher Greene, 
 Col. Crary and Maj. Whitmarsh. 
 
 It was about this time, and in connection with the Kentish 
 Guards, that there began that intimacy and devoted friendship 
 that existed between Nathaniel Greene and James M. Yarnum 
 until they were parted by the death of the latter. 
 
 Mr. George Washington Greene, in his life of Maj.-Gen. 
 Greene, after alluding to Greene's deep interest in the Kentish 
 Guards, says: — 
 
 " Amongst the first officers was James M. Varnum, a man of ' exalted 
 talents,' whom he ' loved and esteemed,' who was to take an honorable 
 place in the civil and military history of the Revolution. 
 
Nathaniel Greene was only a private in the company, but subsequently 
 became a candidate for a lieutenancy, a candidature which met with con- 
 siderable opposition. 
 
 Greene, it seems, had had a trouble with one of his knees, which gave 
 a slight limp to his gait, and in the eyes of some of the village and com- 
 pany critics, this limp, although slight, was a serious blemish, unfitting 
 him not merely for an officer, but even for a private. 
 
 Greene was thunderstruck at this opposition, and took it sorely to heart. 
 His friends were indignant. Varnum threatened to withdraw his name, 
 and the loss of Varnum's fine person and popular eloquence would have 
 been a serious blow to the half-organized company." * 
 
 How this matter was finally settled we know not, but doubt- 
 less Greene withdrew his candidacy for lieutenant, and per- 
 suaded his friends to agree to it, for he remained a private in 
 the company until about two years later, when, over the heads 
 of all his critics, he was promoted to a Brigadier-Generalcy 
 by his fellow-members of the Khode Island Legislature, an 
 appointment which his subsequent brilliant career fully justified. 
 
 An interesting letter written by Greene to his friend and 
 commander, Varnum, at the time of the above-mentioned trou- 
 ble, is still extant,t and is worthy of preservation in this volume, 
 although it has already been printed in full in the life of Gen. 
 Greene, above referred to. 
 
 It is addressed to James M. Varnum, Esq., East Greenwich, 
 and was probably written in the autumn of 1774, or early in 
 1775, and reads as follows: — 
 
 Coventry, Monday, 2 o'clock, p. m. 
 Dear Sir : — 
 
 As I am ambitious of maintaining a place in your esteem, 
 and I cannot hope to do it, if I discover in my actions a little mind and a 
 mean spirit I think in justice to myself I ought to acquaint you with the 
 particulars of the subject upon which we conversed to-day — I was informed 
 
 * G. W. Greene's " History of General Greene," vol. 1, page 60. 
 
 t Original letter ia in the possession of James M. Varnum of New York. 
 
8 
 
 the gentlemen of East Greenwich said I was a blemish to the company — 
 I confess it is the first stroke of mortification that I ever felt from being 
 considered either in private or publick life a blemish to those with whom 
 I associated — hitherto I have always had the happiness to find myself re- 
 spected in society in general, and my friendship courted by as respectable 
 characters as any in the Government — pleased with these thoughts, and 
 anxious to promote the good of my country — and ambitious of increasing 
 the consequence of East Greenwich — I have exerted myself to form a mili- 
 tary company there — but little did I think that the Gentlemen considered 
 me in the light of an obtruder — my heart is too susceptible of pride, and 
 my sentiments too delicate to wish a connexion where I am considered in 
 an inferior point of light — I have always made it my study to promote the 
 interest of Greenwich and to cultivate the good opinion of its inhabitants, 
 that the severity of speech and the union of sentiment, coming from per- 
 sons so unexpected — might wound the pride of my heart deeper than the 
 force of the observation merited — God knows when I first entered this 
 company I had not in contemplation any kind of office, but was fully de- 
 termined not to accept any, but GrefF and others have been endeavouring 
 to obtain my consent for some weeks past — I never expected that being a 
 member of that company would give me any more consequence in life, 
 either as private soldier or commissioned oflScer — I thought the cause of 
 Liberty was in danger, and as it was attackt by a military force, it was 
 necessary to cultivate a military spirit amongst the People, that should 
 tyranny endeavor to make any further advances we might be prepared to 
 check it in its first sallies. I considered with myself that if we never 
 should be wanted in that character, it would form a pretty little society in 
 our meetings, where we might relax ourselves a few hours from the various 
 occupations of life — and return to our business again with more activity 
 and spirit — I did not want to add any new consequence to myself from 
 the distinction of that company — if I had been ambitious of promotion in 
 a publick character — you yourself can witness for me I have had it in my 
 power — but I always preferred the pleasures of private society to those 
 of publick distinction — If 1 conceive aright of the force of the objection 
 of the gentlemen of the town it was not as an officer, but as a soldier, for 
 that my halting was a blemish to the rest — I confess it is my misfortune 
 to limp a little, but I did not conceive it to be so great, but we are not 
 apt to discover our own defects. I feel the less mortified at it as it's 
 
natural and not a stain or defection, that resulted from my actions — I have 
 pleased myself with the thoughts of serving under you, but as it is the 
 general opinion that 1 am unfit for such an undertaking I shall desist — I 
 feel not the less inclination to promote the good of the Company because 
 I am not to be one of its members — I will do any thing that's in my power 
 to procm-e the Charter, I will be at my proportion of the expense until the 
 company is formed and completly equip t — Let me entreat you, Sir, if you 
 have any regard for me, not to forsake the company at this crititical sea- 
 son for I fear the consequences — if you mean to oblige me by it, I assure 
 you it will not, I would not have the company break and disband for fifty 
 Dollars — it would be a disgrace upon the county and upon the town in 
 particidar. I feel more mortification than resentment — but I think it would 
 have manifested a more generous temper to have given me their opinions 
 in private than to make proclamation of it in publick as a capital objection, 
 for nobody loves to be the subject of ridicule however true the cause — I 
 purpose ro attend to-morrow if my business will permit — and as Mr. 
 Greene io waiting will add no more only that I am with great truth 
 
 Your sincere friend, 
 
 Nathanael Greene. 
 
 The prominent part taken by Varnum in the Colonial con- 
 troversy inspired him with an ambition to enter the military 
 service of his country, and v^rhen the news of the battle of Lex- 
 ington reached East Greenwich, in 1775, Col. Varnum as- 
 sembled the Kentish Guards, and within three hours, well 
 uniformed, armed and equipped, they were on the march to 
 Providence, and thence to Pawtucket, where they learned that 
 the enemy had retired to Boston, and that their services were 
 no longer required. The next week the General Assembly of 
 Rhode Island authorized the raising of a brigade of three 
 regiments of infantry, under Nathaniel Greene, then a mem- 
 ber of the Assembly, as Brigadier-General, and Yarnum was 
 selected as Colonel of the regiment to be raised in the counties 
 of Kent and Kings, and on May 8th, 1775, he was commis- 
 sioned by the Provincial General Assembly as Colonel of the 
 
10 
 
 1st Regiment Rhode Island Infantry in the Brigade of Obsei^ 
 vation. After the 5th of August of that year the regiment 
 was known as the 12th Continental Foot, and during the year 
 1776 officially designated the 9th Continental Foot. When 
 this first change in name took place the officers received com- 
 missions from the President of Congress, when Washington 
 was appointed commander-in-chief, and their commands were 
 then styled Continental troops. 
 
 On the 8th of June, 1775, Col. Yarnum arrived with his 
 regiment at Roxbury, and reported to Brig.-Gen. Greene. 
 Here it was under fire during the shelling of that place on the 
 17th of June, 1775, and also at Plowed Hill on August 26th. 
 During the cannonade at the last-named place Adjt. Mumford 
 and another member of the regiment had their heads shot off*. 
 
 On the 23d July, the Rhode Island Brigade removed to 
 Prospect Hill. Col. Varnum's regiment continued at the siege 
 of Boston until the town was evacuated by the enemy, 17th 
 of March, 1776. Meanwhile the terms of service of most of the 
 enlisted men had expired in December, but they continued on 
 duty until the 1st of January, 1776, and then almost all re- 
 enlisted for another year. 
 
 Marching from Boston on the 1st of April, 1776, the regi- 
 ment went into temporary quarters at Providence, and then 
 proceeded via Norwich to New London, where it embarked in 
 transports for New York City, and arrived there on the 17th 
 of April. 
 
 Pursuant to general orders from Army Headquarters, New 
 York, 30th April, 1776, the 1st and 2nd Rhode Island Conti- 
 nental Infantry crossed the Bast River to Brooklyn on the 3rd 
 of May and began to fortify the heights. 
 
 On the 1st of June, pursuant to Brig.-Gen. Nathaniel 
 Greene's orders of that date from Brooklyn Heights, five com- 
 panies of Col. Varnum's regiment were stationed upon the right 
 
11 
 
 in Fort Box, and the other three between that work and Fort 
 Greene. 
 
 On the 9th of June, Brig-.-Gen. Greene directed the 1st and 
 2nd Rhode Island and Col. Moses Little's 12th regiment Con- 
 tinental Foot (8th Mass. Infantry) of his brigade to exercise 
 together four days in each week. 
 
 On the 17th of June, Brig.-Gen. Greene assigned six com- 
 panies of Col. Varnum's regiment to garrison Fort Box, which 
 was near the line of the present Pacific Street, a short distance 
 above Bond Street, Brooklyn, and two companies to the 
 " Oblong " redoubt, which was on a jDiece of rising ground at 
 the corner of the present De Kalb and Hudson Avenues, 
 Brooklyn. 
 
 On the 8th of July, the same general oJfficer ordered the 1st 
 Rhode Island, Col. Yarnum, to go and garrison Fort Defiance, 
 at Red Hook, Brooklyn, which in a communication to Gen. 
 Washington from Headquarters, Brooklyn Heights, 5th July, 
 he said he regarded as " a post of vast importance." 
 
 Here the regiment remained during the battle of Long 
 Island, on the extreme right flank of Maj.-Gen. Israel Put- 
 nam's forces, engaged with the allied British and Hessian 
 forces, and nearest to the enemy's ships. 
 
 On the 30th of August, the 1st and 2nd Rhode Island hav- 
 ing evacuated the lines, re-crossed the East River to the City 
 of New York early in the morning. 
 
 In the action at Harlem Heights, the regiment was an active 
 participant under its Lieut.-Col. (Archibald Crary), Col. Yar- 
 num being at the time on the sick report. 
 
 Soon afterward the regiment crossed the Hudson at Fort 
 Lee, and was there on the 23d of September with the remain- 
 der of the brigade (Nixon's, late Greene's), which included 
 the 2nd Rhode Island. From thence, on the 13th of October, 
 pursuant to Brig.-Gen. John Nixon's orders of that date and 
 
12 
 
 place, which he had issued in compliance with Maj.-Gen. 
 Greene's instructions, the brigade immediately moved over the 
 ferry to Fort Washington, and on the 16th of October was at 
 East Chester, from whence, on that date, Col. Yarnum's regi- 
 ment was ordered to march toward Throg's Keck, at the en- 
 trance of Long Island Sound, where the British had landed on 
 the 12th, and to retard their advance. Taking post at the west 
 end of the causeway from Throg's Neck, with a" detachment at 
 Westchester Mill, on the causeway where the bridge planks 
 had been removed, the 1st Rhode Island remained here until 
 the 18th, and then moved to Valentine's Hill. 
 
 Two days later, Col. Yarnum was with his regiment at the 
 battle of White Plains, and on the 1st of JS^ovember in camp at 
 North Castle. On the 22nd of November, the regiment was 
 quartered near Phillipsburg, and crossed the Hudson with the 
 brigade on the 2nd of December, and was at Haverstraw on the 
 4th of December. 
 
 As the terms of service of the several Rhode Island Conti- 
 nental regiments were drawing to a close, be here left his regi- 
 ment, and was sent by his Excellency, the commander-in-chief, 
 to Rhode Island, to hasten, by his influence and presence, the 
 recruitment of the army. 
 
 On the 12th of October preceding. Gen. Washington, from 
 Army Headquarters, Harlem Heights, had specially recom- 
 mended him for retention in the army on its proposed re-ar- 
 rangement " for the war." 
 
 He had been at home but a few days when the Rhode Island 
 General Assembly appointed him on the 12th of December, 
 1776, Brigadier-General of the State Militia, and also of the 
 Rhode Island State Brigade on the Continental Establishment. 
 He relinquished his regimental commission on acceptance of this 
 last commission, and was on duty successively at Tiverton 8th, 
 23rd Januai-y, and 11th to 17th March, 1777, Providence 25th 
 
13 
 
 January, Warren 12th March, South Kingston 20th April, 
 and Exeter 24th May, 1777. He was appointed Brigadier- 
 General of the Continental Army 21st of February, 1777, and 
 notified thereof by Gen. Washington in complimentary terms 
 from Army Headquarters, Morristown, N. J., 3rd of March, 
 1777. Gen. Washington's letter contains ample evidence that 
 his military record and bearing had met with the full approba- 
 tion of the distinguished commander-in-chief. This new ap- 
 pointment vacated that under which he was then acting, and 
 the Rhode Island General Assembly at the March session, 1777, 
 passed a resolution on the subject " in grateful remembrance 
 of his services." 
 
 Using his personal infl.uence, which was great, to hasten re- 
 enlistment and the recruitment of the 1st and 2nd Khode 
 Island Continentals, after their return in February from Mor- 
 ristown, N. J., he was enabled on the 8th of April to send for- 
 ward to that place to join the " main " army a detachment from 
 each, under Lieut.-Col. Jeremiah Olney. Under Gen. Wash- 
 ington's instructions from Army Headquarters at the last- 
 named place, of the 11th of May, the two regiments when they 
 did leave Rhode Island were directed to march to Peekskill, in 
 the Middle Department, then under Maj.-Gen. Israel Putnam. 
 They arrived there on or about the 23rd of May, and were at 
 first quartered in Peekskill. Brig.-Gen. Varnum personally 
 arrived about the 1st of June. On the 12th of June, Gen. 
 Washington, in consequence of a movement of the enemy, di- 
 rected from Army Headquarters, Middlebrook, Maj.-Gen. Put- 
 nam to forward to that place a portion of his forces. This 
 detachment included Yarnum's Brigade. While with the 
 " main army " his brigade, on the .22nd of June, 1777, formed 
 part of the forces detached under Maj.-Gen. Nathaniel Greene 
 to make a demonstration against the enemy in ]S"ew Brunswick. 
 In this successful movement against Sir William Howe, Var- 
 
14 
 
 num's Brigade marched down on the west side of the Raritan 
 and followed the retreating enemy several miles toward Amboy. 
 On the 1st of July, the brigade was ordered back by his Ex- 
 cellency, the commander-in-chief, and on the 2nd of July 
 marched from Middlebrook. 
 
 The 1st Rhode Island was then sent to Maj.-Gen. Putnam to 
 garrison Fort Montgomery. 
 
 On the 20th of August, pursuant to the latter's orders from 
 Department Headquarters, Peekskill, Brig.-Gen. Varnum left 
 that place on special service with a detachment to White 
 Plains, from whence the 2nd Rhode Island went nearly to 
 King's Bridge, in the "neutral ground" of Westchester 
 County. 
 
 The expedition was successful, and incidentally captured two 
 subalterns and several enlisted men of the enemy. 
 
 It returned to Peekskill on the 26th. , 
 
 On the 23d September, General Washington, from Army 
 Headquarters in camp near Pottsgrove, Pa., instructed Maj.- 
 Gen. Putnam to send a certain detachment of troops to him 
 without delay, via Morristown. 
 
 Accordingly the 4th Regt. Conn. Cont'l Inf'y (Col. John 
 Durkee) and the 8th Regt. Conn. Cont'l Inf'y (Col. John 
 Chandler) were added to Brig.-Gen. Yarnum's brigade, and it 
 again crossed the Hudson River. It arrived at Caryell's Ferry 
 on the Delaware on the 7th October, and here he was directed 
 to halt, and by orders of the 7th October to detach the 1st and 
 2d Rhode Island to Fort Mercer. Soon afterwards, he moved 
 to Woodbury, N. J., where Brigade Headquarters were estab- 
 lished. 
 
 On the 1st Nov., 1777, Gen. Washington, from Army Head- 
 quarters Whitemarsh, directed him to take supervision of Fort 
 Mercer, Red Bank, and of Fort Mifflin, Mud Island, and relieve 
 Lt.-Col. Samuel Smith, 4th Maryland Cont'l Inf'y, the com- 
 
15 
 
 maiidment of Fort Mifflin, who had requested to be relieved on 
 the 18th October. 
 
 However, in prospect of an attack, Lt.-Col. Smith was con- 
 tinued in command, and exercised it on the 10 JSTov. when the 
 firing was resumed, until the afternoon of the 11th, when he 
 was severely wounded in the arm and left the fort. Brig.-Gen. 
 Yarnum, then at Fort Mercer, immediately detailed Lieut.-Col. 
 Giles Kussell, 8th Conn., who went over and assumed command, 
 and relieved part of the garrison by a detachment from his own, 
 the 4th Conn. (Col. John Durkee's). 
 
 On the 12th, Lieut.-Col. Russell, ill and exhausted by fatigue, 
 asked to be relieved, and while Brig.-Gen. Varnum was con- 
 sidering what field ofiicer to detail to the hazardous duty, Maj. 
 Simeon Thayer, 2d Rhode Island, volunteered, and went over 
 and relieved Lieut.-Col. Russell and the remainder of Lieut.- 
 Col. Smith's men with a detachment of Rhode Islanders. 
 
 As the land defences of the Delaware had been entrusted by 
 Gen. Washington to Brig.-Gen. Varnum, the anxiety of the 
 latter to fulfil his whole duty with the inadequate force under 
 him was extreme. 
 
 During the bombardment of Fort Mifflin and its heroic de- 
 fence on the 15th Nov., 1777, he reported to Gen. Washington 
 at 6 P.M., as follows : " We have lost a great many men to-day; 
 a great many officers are killed and wounded. My fine com- 
 pany of artillery is almost destroyed. We shall be obliged to 
 evacuate the fort this night." 
 
 After the two forts were evacuated he marched his brigade, 
 20th November, to Mount Holly and joined Maj.-Gen. Greene's 
 division there a few days later. 
 
 Having crossed the Delaware, his brigade joined the main 
 army at Whitemarsh about the 29th Nov., and was in the 
 operations in that vicinity against Sir William Howe's army, 
 5th-8th December. 
 
16 
 
 Proceeding with his brigade to Valley Forge on the 19th 
 Dec., it there erected huts and went into winter quarters.* 
 The brigade of General Varnum was stationed on a hill where 
 a star redoubt was erected, whence an extensive view of both 
 sides of the Schuylkill River could be secured, and so near the 
 steam as to be able to employ the artillery to check any attempt 
 of the enemy to cross over near the place, but their use for that 
 purpose was never required. The redoubt was about 1^ miles 
 from Washington's headquarters; and just within the lines and 
 a short distance beyond were the headquarters of General 
 Varnum, at the residence of David Stevens, the next farm 
 house below that occupied by Washington. This house is still 
 standing, and has recently been described, as follows : " The 
 house is of stone with a long porch facing the road, and is quite 
 remarkable for the thickness of the western wall — about 12 
 feet. The ceilings are low, and there is a general appearance 
 of comfort surrounding it. The main room has still the large 
 old open fire place. It is situate close to the River road, and 
 about three hundred feet from the ruins of the Star Redoubt, 
 which was the strongest of the works at Valley Forge, com- 
 manding the road and the river for miles, and was doubtless 
 the key to the situation."t 
 
 The trials, sufferings and privations of the Continental Army 
 at Valley Forge are too well known to all students of history 
 to require any extended allusion thereto, and the same may be 
 said as to the bitter attacks and cabals against General Wash- 
 ington at this time, but the following extracts from letters of 
 General Varnum may be of interest. On December 22d, 1777, 
 he wrote to General Washington, as follows: 
 
 * History of Valley Forge, by Henry Woodman (collection of Penn. Hist. Society). Also 
 John F. Watrous' memo, in same collection. 
 
 t J. V. P. Turner, Esq., of Philadelphia, in Newport Mercury, Dec. 2l8t, 1895 ; and in 
 •personal correspondence with the Editors, 1902. 
 
17 
 
 " According to the saying of Solomon, hunger will break through a stone 
 wall. It is therefore a very pleasing circumstance to the Division under 
 my command that there is probability of their marching. Three days suc- 
 cessively have we been destitute of bread. Two days we have been en- 
 tirely without meat. The men must be supplied or they cannot be com- 
 manded. The complaints are too urgent to pass unnoticed. It is with 
 pain that I mention this distress. I know that it will make your Excel- 
 lency unhappy ; but if you expect the exertion of virtuous principle while 
 your troops are deprived of the necessaries of life, your final disappoint- 
 ment will be great in proportion to the patience which now astonishes every 
 man of human feeling."* 
 
 In a letter to his life long friend, General Nathaniel Greene, 
 dated Yalley Forge, Feb. 1st, 1778, he speaks of General 
 Washington, as follows: 
 
 "I know the great General in this as in all his other measures, acts from 
 goodness of soul and with a view only to the public weal. * * * You 
 have often heard me say, and, I assure you, I feel happy in the truth of 
 it, that next to God Almighty, and my country, I revere General Wash- 
 ington, and nothing fills me with so much indignation as the villany of 
 some who dare speak disrespectfully of him." 
 
 On February 16, 1778, General Yarnum wrote another letter 
 from camp to General Greene, as follows: 
 
 " The situation of the camp is such that in all human probability the 
 army must soon dissolve. Many of the troops are destitute of meat and 
 are several days in arrear. The horses are dying for want of forage. The 
 country in the vicinity of the camp is exhausted. * * * * My freedom 
 upon this occasion may be offensive ; if so I should be unhappy, but duty 
 compels me to speak without reserve. "f 
 
 General Varnum was the first person in the country to ad- 
 vocate the enlistment of negroes as soldiers, and thus to recog-^ 
 
 * Ford's Washington, vol. 6, page 254. 
 f Ford's Washington, vol. 6, page 381. 
 
18 
 
 nize courage "behind a thatch of wool." On January 2d, 1778, 
 in view of the difficulty of obtaining sufficient troops for the 
 Continental Army, he suggested to General Washington the 
 propriety of raising a battalion of negroes to make up the pro- 
 portion of Khode Island in the army. Washington submitted 
 this suggestion to the executive of Rhode Island without ap- 
 proval or disapproval. The Rhode Island Legislature, how- 
 ever, promptly passed an act authorizing the enlistment in two 
 battalions of negroes and Indians; every slave enlisting to re- 
 ceive his freedom, and his owner to be paid by the State an 
 amount not exceeding £125. At least one battalion was suc- 
 cessfully raised, and did excellent service at the battle of Rhode 
 Island.* 
 
 General Yarnum seems to have been one of the most aggres- 
 sive and strenuous of the general officers of the army in pre- 
 senting, not only to the Commander-in-Chief, but also to the 
 State of Rhode Island and to Congress, the sufferings and 
 needs of the Continental troops at Yalley Forge, and in de- 
 manding some immediate relief for them, and doubtless this 
 aggressiveness and insistence led him naturally to incur the 
 hostility of some active members of the general government, 
 for on May 23d, 1778, Governeur Morris, then a member of 
 Congress from New York, writes to Washington concerning 
 Yarnum that his " temper and manners are by no means calcu- 
 lated to teach Patience, Discipline and Subordination." f 
 
 Dr. William Shaw Bowen says of Yarnum : 
 
 "His talents for the conduct of business affairs were very great, and his 
 manners were so engaging that Varnum was called on by Washington to 
 conduct delicate negotiations for the Continental as well as for the State 
 Government. Washington placed a high estimate on him." 
 
 " The solemn visage of the father of his country must have relaxed when 
 
 * Ford's Washington, vol. 6, page 347. 
 t Ford's Washington, Vol. 7, p. 30. 
 
19 
 
 he referred to him as ' the light of the camp ' during the dreadful winter 
 at Vallej Forge."* 
 
 Pursuant to General Washington's orders dated Army Head- 
 quarters Yalley Forge, 7th May, 1778, he was directed under 
 the resolution of Congress of the 3d February preceding, to 
 administer the oath of office to the officers of his own and Brig.- 
 Genl. Jedediah Huntington's brigade of Connecticut Continen- 
 tal Infantry. 
 
 On the 4th March, 4th, 23d, and 29th April, 17th, 26th and 
 28th of May and 4th June, he was Brigadier-General of the 
 day to the " Main " Army at Yalley Forge. Soon afterward 
 and before the evacuation of Philadelphia by the enemy, he 
 went on special duty to Rhode Island. Here his brigade joined 
 him near Providence on the 3d August, 1778, preparatory to 
 the campaign before Newport. It now consisted, under Gen- 
 eral orders dated Army Hd. Qrs. Wright's Mills, 22d July, 
 1778, of the 2d R. I. Contl. Infantry (Col. Israel Angell), 
 Colonels Henry Sherburne's and Saml. B. Webb's additional 
 Regts. Contl. Infy. and the 1st Regt. Canadian Contl. Infy. 
 (Col. James Livingston). 
 
 On the 14th August pursuant to Genl. Orders of Maj.-Genl. 
 John Sullivan dated Hd. Qrs. Portsmouth, R.I., he was assigned 
 to the command of the right wing of the front line of the Army 
 in Rhode Island, and by the same authority was directed to 
 command the covering party in the lines at the siege of N^ew- 
 port on the 16th. 
 
 In addition to his other duties he was detailed as President 
 of a General Court Martial, per Major-General Sullivan's or- 
 ders, dated Hd. Qrs. before I^ewport, 17th Aug., 1778, and 
 continued on this duty until the 29th August when the Court 
 was dissolved. 
 
 * Providence Journal, March 6th, 1902. [This remark was made by Washington to Cap- 
 tain Samuel Packard of Providence (grandfather of Dr. Bo wen), and frequently repeated by 
 Capt. Packard.] 
 
20 
 
 On the 14th and 31st August he was Brigadier of the Day 
 to the Army. 
 
 In the battle of Khode Island his command bore the princi- 
 pal part of the fighting against the forces of Maj.-Genl. Kobt. 
 Pigot. 
 
 In General Orders dated Hd. Qrs. Department of R. I., 
 Tiverton, 31st Aug., 1778, his brigade was ordered " to take 
 post at Bristol and Warren, divided as he shall think best for 
 the defence of those posts." He made his Brigade Hd. Qrs. 
 at Warren until 26th Feby., 1779, when he was at East Green- 
 wich. Meanwhile Major-General Sullivan, during his own 
 absence, by General Orders dated Hd. Qrs. Providence, 27th 
 January, 1779, placed him temporarily in command of the De- 
 partment of Rhode Island. 
 
 The necessity of attending to his private affairs, and to the 
 support and maintenance of his family, compelled him at this 
 time much against his will to tender his resignation to Con- 
 gress. In a letter to his friend, Genl. Greene, dated 26th Feby., 
 1779, he says : " The resolution was painful, but hard necessity 
 urged it by every cogent motive." He was honorably dis- 
 charged from the service "at his own request," 5th March, 
 1779. 
 
 Upon official notification of acceptance of his resignation, 
 Maj. General John Sullivan, in Genl. Orders Hd. Qrs. Depart- 
 ment of Rhode Island, Providence, 18th March, 1779, said : 
 
 " Brigadier-General Varnum having this day notified the Commander- 
 in-Chief that he has transmitted a final resignation of his commission to 
 Congress, and that he is under the disagreeable necessity of quitting the 
 service of the United States : 
 
 The General esteems it his duty to return his sincere and most cordial 
 thanks to Brig. -Genl. Varnum for his brave, spirited and soldierlike con- 
 duct while acting under his immediate command in this Department, and 
 sincerely laments that an officer, who by his conduct, has merited so much 
 from the public, should be under the disagi-eeable necessity of leaving a 
 
21 
 
 service where his exertions as an officer would have been of essential ad- 
 vantage had he been able to continue in the army." 
 
 Appointed by the R. I. General Assembly to be Major-Gen- 
 eral R. I. Militia, 5th May, 1779, he continued in this office by 
 unanimous annual reappointments until the 7th May, 1788, and 
 was, from the 25th July to the 8th Aug., 1780, called into the 
 actual service of the United States under Lieut.-Genl. the 
 Comte de Rochambeau. On the 26th Oct., 1779, he was ap- 
 pointed by the Rhode Island General Assembly Advocate in 
 the State Court of Admiralty. 
 
 Upon his resignation from the army General Yarnum re- 
 turned to his home at East Greenwich, completed the construc- 
 tion of his dwelling and resumed the active practice of the law. 
 
 As to this house of General Varnum's, which is still stand- 
 ing (1906), and in excellent preservation, although more than 
 a century and a quarter old, we have an interesting description 
 in an article written by its present owner and occupant, Dr. 
 William Shaw Bowen, which was published in the Providence 
 Journal of March 6th, 1892, from which we quote as follows : 
 
 " Of the pre-revolutionary mansions there are few better specimens in 
 existence than the Varnum place in East Greenwich. The venerable 
 edifice has been shielded from the approaches of the iconoclastic * restorer,' 
 and today, in its interior, it is one of the most perfect of the remaining 
 instances of colonial architecture the country affords. In its way it is as 
 unique as the Braddock house at Alexandria, Va., the Chancellor Wythe 
 mansion at Williamsburg, or the Brandon place on the James River near 
 Richmond. Varnum house is not only rich in the perfect details of its 
 kind, but it teems with historic interest. Few houses in Rhode Island are 
 more replete with associations of the last days of her colonial history and 
 the early period of independent existence, the hiatus between the date of 
 the separation from English rule and that of the final union with the 
 established States of the American Union. 
 
22 
 
 The present owner cherishes the home of the brilliant and versatile 
 Varnum, and takes pride in preserving the old place in its original style. 
 The hall, which closely resembles that of the Vernon house, is wainscoted 
 on the first and second floors, as are nearly all of the rooms. The wood- 
 work of the parlor is greatly admired by architects. The heavy cornice 
 is dentated and the pediment above the fireplace is peculiarly graceful in 
 its effect. The doors have small, oval, fluted brass knobs. All of the 
 rooms have open fireplaces with tile facings. The fireplace of the dining 
 room is seven feet in width and constructed of cut granite. The rooms 
 are filled with antique black mahogany furniture, mostly of the Georgian 
 age. The parlor set was brought from England in the last century." 
 
 In the same article we find a picturesque and attractive ac- 
 count of a visit paid by the Marquis de Lafayette and a party 
 of French ofiicers in September, 1778, to General Varnum at 
 his East Greenwich home. It reads as follows : 
 
 " On a warm afternoon in September, in the year 1778, a small sloop 
 rounded 'the rocks,' which jut out into Coweset Bay from the estate now 
 occupied as a summer residence by William Stoddard, Esq., of Providence. 
 The fresh southerly breeze which prevails a considerable portion of the 
 year wafted the craft to Long Point, which limits the little Greenwich 
 cove. Then the sloop made a few tacks, and was speedily tied alongside 
 the wharf at the foot of King Street. The loungers on shore, attracted 
 by the new arrival, beheld a gallant spectacle on the sloop's deck. There 
 was a handsome young man clad in the buff and blue regimentals of a 
 general officer in the Continental army. He was of medium height, erect 
 and dignified, and his manners were those of one who is in a position to 
 command men. With distinguished courtesy he assisted several unknown 
 militarv gentlemen to the shore. The uniform worn by the strangers was 
 unfamiliar to the barefooted youths who clustered on the caplog of the 
 wharf. It consisted of a green coat faced with red and laced with gold. 
 The breeches were of buff cloth. Black silk stockings, a four-cornered 
 cocked hat and a large red silk sash were other features of the costume. 
 One of the number was clad in the Continental blue and buff. On him 
 the attention of the first mentioned officer were especially bestowed. He 
 was a young man with sharp features and a prominent nose. When the 
 
23 
 
 shore was reached the first officer in Continental uniform exclaimed : " My 
 dear Mai'quis, welcome to East Greenwich and my home.' 
 
 The speaker was Brigadier-General James Mitchell Varnura, who com- 
 manded a brigade at the battle fought on Rhode Island on August 29th 
 previous between the American army under General Sullivan and the 
 British garrison at Newport. His guest was the Marquis de La Fayette, 
 who was sent with two brigades of Continental troops by Washington to 
 reinforce Sullivan. The failure of the French fleet to cooperate compelled 
 Sullivan to evacute Rhode Island after the sanguinary contest of Butts 
 Hill and Quaker Hill. The officers in green were Frenchmen. They 
 came to the county seat of Kent to partake of Gen. Varnum's hospitality. 
 
 The record of what transpired during the stay of La Fayette rests wholly 
 on the reminiscences of the late Miss Eleanor Fry, a venerable Quakeress 
 who lived in an ancient gambrel-roofed house on the site now occupied by 
 the Central Hotel, immediately adjoining the Kent County Court House 
 on the south. Miss Fry, known to the villagers as ' Cousin Ellen,' died 
 many years ago. She was a beautiful woman in her youth, and a favorite 
 in the courtly society of the Revolutionary period. She witnessed the 
 little procession of guests led by Gen. Varnum with La Fayette at his 
 side as they came along King Street, crossed Main Street and thence 
 walked up the short ascent of Court Street — by the house afterwards occu- 
 pied by Dr. Peter Turner of Continental army fame at the battle of Red 
 Bank — to the residence of Gen. Varnum on Pearce Street. 
 
 The imposing fagade of the house appeared exactly as at present, save 
 that it was not shadowed by the two great elm trees that stand in front. 
 They were then young trees recently planted. The location was, as it is 
 today, the best in the village. Narragansett Bay stretched out in front 
 toward Newport. Warwick Neck and distant Bristol were in view. The 
 quaint old town, then consisting almost entirely of unpainted houses, the 
 streets sandy and rain-washed, lay on the side hill sloping toward the 
 waters of Greenwich Cove. In 1778 the Varnum mansion was isolated, 
 with broad fields and meadows on either side and extending far back in the 
 rear. Pearce Street contained only four houses, and was an out-of-the- 
 way portion of the village. The house, resplendent with white paint, 
 green blinds, and huge, shining brass knocker on the front door, was re- 
 gai'ded as a palace by the townspeople, many of whom characterized it as 
 ' Varnum's Folly,' and as savoring of aristocratic and unrepublican pre- 
 tense and display. 
 
24 
 
 According to ' Cousin Ellen ' Fry the several clays that the gallant La 
 Fayette and the French officers passed as the guests of Gen. Vamum were 
 of unwonted gayety. Every evening tea was served, to which the village 
 beauties, with their chaperons, were invited. La Fayette lodged in the 
 northeast chamber. His valet slept on a cot outside the door. Gen. 
 Varnum occupied the southeast chamber. The French officers were placed 
 in the southwest chamber. The nights were spent in conviviality. It 
 was a free living, hard drinking age, and the breakfasts were at a veiy 
 late hour. 
 
 The occasion of La Fayette's visit was chai'acterized by Gen. Varnum 
 as his house-warming . It is believed that Gen. Sullivan was of the 
 memorable party. 
 
 Returning from a visit to Boston, Gen. Washington passed a night in 
 Varnuni's house. He dined and supped there, and during the afternoon 
 enjoyed a brief siesta in the northeast chamber. The journey westward 
 was resumed the following day over the old road through Coventry, to 
 Lebanon, where Washington stayed with Governor Jonathan Trumbull." 
 
 Generals ]N^athanael Greene and John Sullivan and the 
 Comte cle Kochambeau, the Commander-in-Chief of the French 
 army, — under whom Gen. Yarnum served in Rhode Island, 
 and between whom and Yarnum there was formed a sincere 
 and lasting friendship, with sundry members of his staff, — 
 were also guests at this hospitable mansion. 
 
 Commissary General Claude Blanchard of the French army 
 relates in his diary that when he dined with General Yarnum, 
 at the latter's house on the 20th of August, 1780, the entire 
 conversation was carried on in Latin. 
 
 It was doubtless at or soon after the visit of the Marquis de 
 Lafayette above referred to, that the latter presented to Gene- 
 ral Yarnum the Punch Bowl, of which a picture appears in 
 this volume, and which is now owned by the Rhode Island So- 
 ciety of the Cincinnati, of which General Yarnum was subse- 
 quently President. 
 
 In April, 1780, the people of the State of Rhode Island "in 
 
25 
 
 grateful recollection of his eminent services in the cause of 
 public liberty, and desirous to throw into the national councils 
 those distinguished talents which could be spared from the 
 field," elected General Yarnum their delegate to the Confede- 
 rated or Continental Congress of that year, and he was reelected 
 the next year, serving from May 3d, 1780, to May 1, 1782; and 
 he was subsequently reelected for the term from May 1st, 1786, 
 to May 2d, 1787. 
 
 As that body sat with closed doors, his voice could not be 
 heard by the public, but his name appeared very often on the 
 published journal, and it is evident that he exerted great power 
 and influence. 
 
 In 1781 he was one of the Committee appointed to apportion 
 amongst the States the assessments for public expenses and 
 carrying on the war, was Chairman of the Committee to whom 
 was referred a report of the Board of Admiralty, embracing 
 instructions to private armed vessels, was one of the Committee 
 who reported a resolution which was adopted giving the thanks 
 of Congress to Brigadier-General Morgan and the oflScers and 
 men under his command for their fortitude and good conduct 
 in the action at the Cowpens. 
 
 In 1782 he served on many committees, and amongst others 
 was Chairman of the Committee authorizing the exchange of 
 Lieut.-General Burgoyne and his ofl3cers; he reported and had 
 passed a resolution urging the States to send full representa- 
 tions to Congress; was on Committee to express the thanks of 
 Congress to Washington, Rochambeau and de Grasse after the 
 victory at Yorktown; and was Chairman of the Committee to 
 thank General Greene and his oflScers after the battle of Eutaw 
 Springs. In 1786-7 General Yarnum also occupied similar 
 important positions in Congress. 
 
 Mr. Augustus C. Buell, in his recently published work en- 
 titled " Paul Jones, founder of the American Navy " (Yol. II. 
 
26 
 
 pp. 58-61) refers to General Yarnum as the Chairman of the 
 Select Committee of Congress, March 28th, 1781, to investi- 
 gate and report as to the conduct of Commodore John Paul 
 Jones, which committee, after a protracted and searching in- 
 quiry, not only exonerated the Commodore from all charges, 
 but reported resolutions giving him the thanks of the United 
 States for his distinguished services, which resolutions were 
 unanimously passed by Congress by standing vote. 
 
 Mr. Buell also gives interesting quotations from General 
 Yarnum's own account of the proceedings of that committee.* 
 
 It appears also that Yarnum was one of a committee ap- 
 pointed by Congress to draft a proclamation which was adopted 
 and issued by Congress on the 26th day of October, 1781, 
 designating December 13th as a day of general thanksgiving 
 and prayer, in special commemoration of the confederation of 
 the States, the victories of our allies at sea, the j^rowess of our 
 troojDS, and the surrender of Cornwallis and his whole army at 
 Yorktown. 
 
 Those familiar with Yarnum's writing and addresses are of 
 the opinion from the style and form of the proclamation that he 
 was its draughtsman. t 
 
 The distinguished Dr. William Samuel Johnson, of Connec- 
 ticut, who was in Congress with him in 1786, referring to 
 General Yarnum's Congressional career, said that " he was a 
 man of uncommon talents and of the most brilliant eloquence." 
 
 In the " Memoirs of Elkanah Watson," an exceedingly rare 
 book, may be found interesting details concerning Yarnum., 
 The writer describes some of his characteristics : 
 
 "I first saw this learned and amiable man in 1774, when I heard him 
 deliver a Masonic oration. Until that moment I had formed no conception 
 
 * Memorial of James Mitchell Varnum. His piiblick services, and excerpts from his diary 
 of events printed for subscribers. — Providence, 1792. 
 
 t " Proclamation for Thanksgiving issued by the Continental Congress, &c." — Munsell & 
 Rowland, Albany, 1868. 
 
27 
 
 of the power and charms of oratory. I was so deeply impressed that the 
 effects of his splendid exhibition has remained for 48 years indelibly fixed 
 on my mind. I then compared his mind to a beautiful parterre, from 
 which he was enabled to pluck the most gorgeous and fanciful flowers, in 
 his progress to enrich and embellish the subject." 
 
 General Yarnum upon his retirement from the army devoted 
 himself assiduously to the practice of the law, with increased 
 reputation, and despite interruptions later for several years 
 caused by his Congressional duties, became recognized as one 
 of the leading and most brilliant men at the bar of Khode Is- 
 land, and was retained in all the most important causes. 
 
 Many great and important cases arose growing out of the 
 relations of the nation to the state. One of the most notable 
 of these, was the great paper money case of Trevett against 
 Weeden, which stirred the community to its very foundation. 
 The questions involved and their importance are fully set forth 
 at considerable length in the biography of General Yarnum in 
 Undyke's Memoirs of the Rhode Island Bar. It was tried in 
 September, 1786. 
 
 General Yarnum was the counsel for the successful defend- 
 ant, and his argument was considered masterly and convincing. 
 
 An attempt being afterwards made to impeach the Justices 
 of the Supreme Court for their decision in the above case. 
 General Yarnum appeared for the judges, and his argument is 
 described as having been "copious, argumentative and elo- 
 quent," and the attempt at impeachment fell through. 
 
 Mr. Updyke says, " It was eulogium enough on Yarnum 
 that the power of those speeches wrought such a triumphant 
 victory over public opinion, that the dominant party, to save 
 themselves from political prostration, were compelled to repeal 
 their arbitrary acts within sixty days after their passage." 
 
 In another celebrated case in which Yarnum took part, we 
 have fortunately handed down to us a vivid description of the 
 
28 
 
 personality of the leading counsel, Hon. William Samuel John- 
 son, of Connecticut, and General Yarnum. 
 
 It was the fashion of the bar of that day to be very well or 
 elegantly dressed, and after describing Dr. Johnson's appear- 
 ance, and his dress of black silk cut velvet, Mr. Updyke then 
 describes the opposing counsel : 
 
 " Gen . Varnum appeared with his brick-colored coat, trimmed with gold 
 lace, buckskin and small clothes, with gold lace knee bands, silk stockings 
 and boots (Gen. Barton and himself being the only gentlemen who wore 
 boots all day at that period), with a high, delicate and white forehead, 
 with a cowlick on the right side ; eyes prominent and of a dark hue. His 
 complexion was rather florid — somewhat corpulent, well proportioned and 
 finely formed for strength and agility ; large eyebrows, nose straight and 
 rather broad, teeth perfectly white, a profuse head of hair, short on the 
 forehead, turned up some and deeply powdered and clubbed. When he 
 took off his cocked hat he would lightly brush up his hair forward, while 
 with a fascinating smile lighting up his countenance he took his seat in 
 court opposite his opponent." 
 
 Mr. Wilkins Updyke in a personal letter to Hon. Benjamin 
 F. Yarnum (in the possession of his son John M. Yarnum), 
 dated in 1839, says : 
 
 " My eldest brother Daniel studied under General Varnum in 1784, 
 and I have always been an ardent admirer of the character of the Gene- 
 ral * * * General Varnum was one of the most eloquent men that 
 this or any other country ever produced. All the aged bear testimony 
 unanimously as to his wonderful oratorical powers, and he was beloved by 
 everybody. No one thought himself safe in a trial without him." 
 
 General Yarnum became an original member of the Society 
 of the Cincinnati on December 17, 1783, and was the first Yice 
 President of the Rhode Island branch of that distinguished 
 military order, and after the death of General Nathaniel Greene, 
 succeeded the latter as President, a position which he retained 
 until his death. He presided for the last time at the annual 
 
29 
 
 meeting held in the State House at Providence on the 4th 
 July, 1787. 
 
 General Yarnum was a warm and unwavering advocate for 
 a federal constitution ; he knew the inefficiency of the confed- 
 eration, and the selfish considerations that governed the States, 
 and felt that unless an instrument cementing the Union was 
 speedily adopted, future efforts would be unavailing. 
 
 The following letter, dated August 24th, 1787, from him to 
 Hon. Mr. Holton, — (probably Hon. Samuel Holton, a promi- 
 nent member of Congress from Massachusetts) — gives General 
 Yarnum's views as to the proper form for a constitution. It 
 will be noticed that the Constitution, as finally adopted after 
 his death, followed substantially the lines suggested by him in 
 this letter : * 
 
 " My worthy friend : 
 
 You have several times hinted the difficulty of expressing upon paper, 
 ones ideas of an energetic federal government, altho' convinced of the in- 
 adequacy of our present system. Permit me to devote fifteen minutes to 
 this subject ; and, as detail or amplification is unnecessary to an informed 
 mind, I shall confine myself to principles. 
 
 These principles may be considered under two heads. The first as orig- 
 inating from the confederacy and directing the various powers that should 
 be exercised by the nation collectively, and by the States individually. 
 
 The second, as flowing from the nature of civil Society having due re- 
 gard to the customs, manners, laws, climates, religions, and pursuits of 
 the citizens of the United States. Under this head may be considered 
 the manner of exercising these powers, or the formal government of the 
 Nation. 
 
 In the first place, whatever respect the citizens collectively, or as imme- 
 diately relating to the whole confederacy, whether foreign or domestic, 
 must be subjected to the national controul & whatever respects the citi- 
 zens of a particular State, & has relation to them as such should be direc- 
 ted by the States respectively. But as interferences may sometimes arise 
 
 ♦ This original letter is now in possession of Gen, James M. Varnum of New York. 
 
30 
 
 the collective power must decide and enforce. This check would be better 
 placed in the judiciary than the legislative branches. 
 
 In the second place, The Government of the United States should be so 
 modified as to secure the rights of the different classes of citizens. But as 
 these are distinguished by education, wealth & talents, they naturally di- 
 vide into Aristocratical and Democratical. It is necessary then to form a 
 Supreme legislative, perhaps as Congress is now formed, to originate all 
 national laws, and submit them to the revision of a Senatorial body, which 
 shall be formed out of equal districts of the United States, by the appoint- 
 ment of the Supreme legislative & whose commissions shall be so modified 
 as to retain an equal number of old Members in office with the new, who 
 may form a succession. In this body should reside the power of making 
 war and peace. 
 
 The execution of the laws, both civil and military, should be placed in 
 an executive council, consisting of a President of the United States, and 
 the Officers of the great departments of War, Finance, Foreign Affairs, 
 and Law, to be appointed by the Senate, & commissioned during good 
 behavior, excepting the President, who should be appointed by both the 
 legislative and senatorial bodies, & commissioned for a term of years, or 
 for life. All appointments of Judges & other officers civil and military, 
 should be made by the President, by and with advice of the council & 
 commissioned in his name. These officers should be accountable for their 
 conduct and triable before the respective tribunals before whom their actions 
 would respectively be made cognizable. I think the President should not 
 be liable to any direct prosecution as in him would reside that part of the 
 sovereignty which displays itself in the etiquette of nations. 
 
 In this system, the balance would be secured, Military objects would be 
 directed by the Senate, executed by the President and Council & checked 
 by the fiscal power of the legislative. 
 
 The objects of revenue should be few, simple and well defined, & in 
 case of very uncommon emergency, the States respectively should be 
 called upon from contingents, which would form an ultimate and never 
 failing check against encroachments upon the political system. 
 
 August 4th, 1787. 
 
 I am Sir, Yrs. 
 
 J. M. Varnum. 
 Hon'ble Mr. Holton." 
 
.31 
 
 It would have been well if General Yarnum could have been 
 content to remain at his own comfortable home, with a wife 
 whom he loved and cherished, in a state where he was at once 
 a leader of the bar, and universally loved and respected and 
 where all we're proud to do him honor. But as a matter of 
 fact, his health had become considerably impaired, and he had 
 a tendency to weakness of the lungs, and the exposure of army 
 life had implanted the seeds of pulmonary consumption in his 
 system, which were aggravated by his constant laborious and 
 strenuous work in his professional aud in public affairs. 
 
 Yarnum's judicial mind and public services, both in the army 
 and Congress, had given him a reputation which extended 
 throughout the whole country, aud hence when the " North- 
 west Territory," a pet scheme of President Washington's, was 
 formed (which included all the territory northwest of the Ohio) 
 in 1787, Yarnum was chosen as one of the Directors of the 
 " Ohio Company of Associates " on August 29th, 1787 ; and 
 on the 14th of October following, when General Arthur St. 
 Clair was designated as Governor, General Yarnum was ap- 
 pointed one of the United States Judges for that Territory, a 
 position he accepted. 
 
 Accompanied only by Griffen Greene of Coventry, E,. I., 
 Yarnum left his home in Rhode Island in the Spring of 1788, 
 via Baltimore, and journeyed on horseback through the forests 
 to Marietta, a town site selected by the New England Land 
 Company at the junction of the Ohio and the Muskingum rivers. 
 It is known that Yarnum invested considerable money in the 
 enterprise. The plans outlined partook of the methods of the 
 speculative town boomers of the present age. The name finally 
 selected was that of Queen Marie Antoinette, but the Roman 
 classics were drawn upon in providing a Campus Martins, a 
 via Sacra and a Capitolenum for the infant town. Malaria was 
 prevalent and the location was a poor one in all respects. 
 
32 
 
 He arrived at Marietta, Ohio, on June 5th, 1788, and at a 
 celebration there on the 4th of July, was the orator of the day. 
 Judge Yarnum's oration was highly commended by all who 
 heard it, and was subsequently published by the Directors of 
 the Ohio Company, (Augt., 1788) copies of which are still 
 extant, but extremely rare. 
 
 On the second day of July following, there being a quorum 
 present (Generals Parsons, Yarnum and Putnam), the Direc- 
 tors of the Ohio Company held their first meeting at Marietta, 
 at which meeting, amongst other business transacted, was the 
 change of the name of the city from Adelphia to Marietta.* 
 
 A grand celebration of the national holiday took place at 
 Marietta on the fourth of July, 1788. 
 
 It is described as follows by Mr. Charles S. Hall in his inter- 
 esting life of General Parsons : * 
 
 " There was a procession of the citizens and soldiery and a public dinner 
 which was spread under a long bower built of intertwined oak and maple 
 boughs near the North Point at the mouth of the Muskingum. The 
 wealth of the rivers and forests was drawn upon to enrich the feast. 
 Amongst the delicacies served was a pike weighing one hundred pounds. 
 Patriotic toasts were given and an eloquent oration delivered by Judge 
 Varnum. 
 
 Lamenting the absence of his Excellency Governor St. Clair 'upon this 
 joyous occasion,' with uplifted hands he prays ' may he soon arrive,' and then 
 turning first towards one and then towards the other, he thus apostrophizes 
 the all unconscious rivers flowing on either side : ' Thou gentle flowing 
 Ohio, whose surface as conscious of thy unequalled majesty, reflecteth no 
 images but the grandeur of the impending heaven, bear him, oh ! bear him 
 safely to this anxious spot ! And thou beautifully transparent Muskin- 
 gum, swell at the moment of his approach, and reflect no objects but of 
 pleasure and delight." 
 
 Thus in the fertile soil of Ohio, by a Rhode Island man, the first seeds 
 of western eloquence were sown." 
 
 * Life and letters of Gen. S. H, Parsons, by C. S. Hall, Binghamton, N. Y., 1905'6. 
 
33 
 
 One hundred and seven years later, on November 29th, 1905, a hand- 
 some bronze tablet was unveiled in the city of New York " to commemo- 
 rate the great ordinance of 1787 establishing the Northwest Territory, 
 and the sale of land to the Ohio Company of Associates." 
 
 The tablet is affixed to the portico of the United States Sub-Treasury 
 in Wall Street, the site of Federal Hall, where the Congress met which 
 enacted that ordinance. Upon it is an appropriate inscription, and in 
 prominent letters also appear the following : 
 
 ^^ Directors of the Ohio Comj)any, 1787 : 
 
 General Rufiis Putnam Rev. Manasseh Cutler 
 
 General Samuel Holden Parsons General James Mitchell Varnum 
 
 Major Winthrop Sargent, Secretary Colonel Richard Piatt, Treasurer." 
 
 From the American Pioneer, Cincinnati, 1842, p. 64, we cull 
 the following account of the opening of the United States 
 Court for the Northwestern Territory : 
 
 "The first court held northwest of the Ohio River under the forms 
 of court jurisprudence was opened at Campus Martins, Marietta, Septem- 
 ber 2d, 1788." * * * 
 
 On the preceding 7th of April, General Kufus Putnam, with 
 forty-seven men, had landed and made the first permanent set- 
 tlement, in what is now the State of Ohio. General Harmar 
 with his regulars occupied Fort Harmar. Governor St. Clair 
 and Generals Parsons and Yarnum, Judges of the Supreme 
 Court, arrived in July. 
 
 From a manuscript written by an eye witness, we have the 
 following account of the ceremonies on this first opening of 
 court : 
 
 " The procession was formed at the Point (where most of the settlers 
 resided) in the following order : 
 
 Ist The High Sheriff, with his drawn sword, 
 2d The citizens. 
 
34 
 
 3d The officers of the Garrison of Fort Harmar. 
 4th The members of the Bar. 
 
 5th The Supreme Judges (Generals Varnum and Parsons). 
 6th The Governor and clergyman. 
 
 7th The newly appointed Judges of the Court of Common Pleas 
 (Generals Rufus Putnam and Benjamin Tupper). 
 
 They marched up a path that had been cut and cleared through the 
 forest to Campus Martius Hall (stockade) where the whole countermarched 
 and the Judges took their seats. 
 
 After a blessing by the Rev. Dr. Cutler, the Sheriff Col. Ebenezer 
 Sproat proclaimed with his solemn " Oyez " the opening of a court for 
 the administration of even handed justice. 
 
 Although this scene was exhibited thus early in the settlement of the 
 state, few ever equalled it in the dignity and the exalted character of prin- 
 cipal participation. Many of them belong to the history of our country 
 in the darkest as well as the most splendid periods of the Revolutionary 
 War. To witness this spectacle, a large body of Indians was collected 
 from the most powerful tribes, then occupying the almost entire west." 
 
 We learn from anotlier source that the Indians were specially 
 impressed by the commanding aspect and the piercing eyes of 
 the High Sheriff, Colonel Sproat, and that they gave him the 
 name of Hetuck, or " Buck-eye," from whence is derived the 
 cognomen by which the state of Ohio and its residents have 
 since become generally known. 
 
 Judge Yarnum assisted Governor St. Clair and Judge Par- 
 sons in framing a code of laws for the territory, but this was 
 his last official act, as his health which had been constantly 
 declining since he left home rapidly became worse, and it be- 
 came evident to all that the end was not far off. 
 
 It was about this time that Judge Yarnum, who was sup- 
 posed by many of his acquaintances to be if not an agnostic at 
 least devoid of deep religious convictions, wrote the following 
 touching and beautiful letter to his wife : 
 
35 
 
 "Marietta, 18th December, 1788. 
 My dearest and most amiable friend : 
 
 I now write you from my sick chamber, and perhaps it will be the last 
 letter that you will receive from me. My lungs are so far affected, that 
 it is impossible for me to recover but by exchange of air and a warmer 
 plimate. I expect to leave this place on Sunday or Monday next for the 
 falls of the Ohio. If I feel myself mend by the tour, I shall go no farther, 
 but if not, and my strength should continue, I expect to proceed to New 
 Orleans, and from thence to the West Indies & to Rhode Island. My phy- 
 sicians, most of them think the chances of recovery in my favor ; however, 
 I am neither elevated nor depressed by the force of opinion ; but shall 
 meet my fate with humility and fortitude. 
 
 I cannot however but indulge the hope, that I shall again embrace my 
 lovely friend in this world, and that we may glide smoothly down the tide 
 of time for a few years, and enjoy together the more substantial happiness 
 and satisfaction as we have had already the desirable pleasures of life. 
 
 It is now almost nineteen years since Heaven connected us by the ten- 
 derest and the most sacred ties, and it is the same length of time that our 
 friendship has been increased by every rational and endearing motive ; it 
 is now stronger than death, and I am firmly persuaded will follow us into 
 an existence of never ending felicity. 
 
 But my lovely friend the gloomy moment will arrive when we must 
 part; and should it arrive during our present separation, my last and only 
 reluctant thoughts will be employed about my dearest Martha. Life, my 
 dearest friend, is but a bubble, it soon bursts, and is remitted to eternity. 
 When we look back to the earliest recollections of our youthful hours, it 
 seems but the last period of our rest, and we appear to emerge from a 
 night of slumbers to look forward to real existence. When we look for- 
 ward time appears as indeterminate as eternity, and we have no idea of 
 its termination but by the period of our dissolution. What particular relation 
 it bears to a future state, our general notions of religion cannot point, we 
 feel some things constantly active within us, that is evidently beyond the 
 reach of mortality, but whether it is a part of ourselves, or] an emanation 
 from the pure source of existence or reabsorbed when death shall have 
 finished his work, human wisdom cannot determine. Whether the demo- 
 lition of the body introduces only a change in the manner of our being, or 
 leaves it to progress infinitely, alternately elevated and depressed accord- 
 
36 
 
 ing to the propriety of our conduct, or whether we return to the common 
 mass of unthinking matter, philosophy hesitates to decide. 
 
 1 know therefore but one source from whence can be derived complete 
 consolation in a dying hour, and that is the Divine system contained in 
 the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There, life and immortality are brought to 
 light ; there, we are taught our existence is to be eternal. And secure in 
 an interest in the atoning merits of a bleeding Saviour, that we shall be 
 inconceivably happy. A firm and unshaken faith in this doctrine must 
 raise us above the doubts and fears that hang upon every other system, and 
 enable us to view with a calm serenity the approach of the King of Terrors, 
 and to behold him as a kind and indulgent friend, spending his shafts only 
 to carry us the sooner to our everlasting home. But should there be a 
 more extensive religion beyond the veil, and without the reach of mortal 
 observation, the Christian religion is by no means shaken thereby, and it 
 is not opposed to any principle that admits of the perfect benevolence of 
 deity. My only doubt is, whether the punishment threatened in the N^ew 
 Testament is annexed to a state of unbelief which may be removed here- 
 after, and so restoration take place, or whether the state of the mind at 
 death irretrievably fixes its doom forever. I hope and pray that the divine 
 spirit will give me such assurance of an acceptance with God, through the 
 merits and sufferings of his Son, as to brighten the way to immediate hap- 
 piness. 
 
 Dry up your tears, my charming mourner, nor suffer this letter to give 
 too much inquietude. Consider the facts at present as in theory, but the 
 sentiments such as will apply whenever the change shall come. 
 
 I know that humanity must and will be indulged in its keenest griefs, 
 but there is no advantage in too deeply anticipating our inevitable sorrows. 
 If I did not persuade myself that you would conduct with becoming pru- 
 dence and fortitude, upon this occasion, my own unhappiness would be 
 greatly increased, and perhaps my disorder too, but I have so much con- 
 fidence in your discretion as to unbosom my inmost soul. 
 
 You must not expect to hear from me again until the coming Spring, as 
 the river will soon be shut up with ice, and there will be no communica- 
 tion from below, and if in a situation for the purpose I will return as goon 
 as practicable. 
 
 Give my sincerest love to all those you hold dear. I hope to see them 
 figain, and love them more than ever, Adieu, my dearest friend, Aud 
 
37 
 
 while I fervently devote in one undivided prayer, our immortal souls to 
 the care, forgiveness, mercy and all prevailing grace of Heaven in time 
 and through eternity, I must bid you a long, long, long farewell. 
 
 James M. Varnum." 
 
 On the 10th day of January, 1789, General Yarniim passed 
 away, at the Campus Martins at Marietta. 
 
 His remains were interred there with great solemnity and 
 respect. 
 
 The following was the 
 
 Order of Procession.* 
 Marshals. 
 Mr. Wheaton, bearing the sword and military commission of the de- 
 ceased on a mourning cushion. 
 Mr. Lord, bearing the civil commission on a mourning cushion. 
 Mr. Mayor, with the diploma and Order of the Cincinnati on a mourn- 
 ing cushion. 
 Mr. Fearing, with the insignia of Masonry on a mourning cushion. 
 
 Pall Supporters. 
 
 Q^ 
 
 Pall Supporters. 
 
 Griffin Greene, 
 
 
 Judge Crary, 
 
 Judge Tupper, 
 
 o 
 
 Judge Parsons, 
 
 William Sargeant, Esq. 
 
 Q 
 
 Judge Putnam. 
 
 Private Mourner's. 
 
 
 Private Mourners. 
 
 Mr. Charles Greene, 
 
 
 Mr. Richard Greene, 
 
 Mr. Frederic Crary, 
 
 
 Mr. Philip Greene, 
 
 Dr. Scott, 
 
 
 Dr. Tinley, . 
 
 Deacon Story. 
 
 
 Dr. Drown. 
 
 Private Citizens. 
 
 Thirty Indian Chiefs. 
 
 Officers of Fort Harmer. 
 
 Civil Officers. 
 
 The Gentlemen of the Order of the Cincinnati. 
 
 Freemasons. 
 
 Mr. Clark, Mr. Stratton, Mr. Leach and Mr. Balch superintended the 
 
 order of the procession, and the whole were preceded by Captain Zeigler 
 
 * Providence Gazette, March 7th, 1789. 
 
38 
 
 of Fort Harmer with troops and music. A very affecting oration was 
 delivered on the melancholy occasion (January 13th, 1789), by Dr. Solo- 
 mon Drown. 
 
 This oration was subsequently published by the Ohio Com- 
 pany. It was reprinted in " The First Settlement of the North- 
 west Territory," a pamphlet published at Marietta in 1888. 
 
 General Varnum's burial place was on a ridge northeast of 
 the mound near the stockade, but his remains, with those of a 
 number of other officers, were many years afterwards removed 
 to Oak Grove Cemetery, where they now rest. 
 
 We here quote again from Mr. Wilkins Updyke, who says : 
 
 "It might have been gratifying to his vanity, but Gen. Varnum com- 
 mitted an unfortunate error in accepting the office to which he was ap- 
 pointed. He had impaired his constitution by a free and liberal life, and 
 with an enfeebled physical system, to leave his family, his circle of friends, 
 and the comforts of an old State, and a delightful mansion erected in ac- 
 cordance to his own taste, and ornamented to his fancy, to become a kind 
 of pioneer in a new and unsettled country, among strangers, and in a so- 
 ciety uncongenial to his habits, was delusive — fatally delusive. 
 
 Professional pursuits, in our populous cities, are both more reputable 
 and profitable than any of our national appointments. Yet the over-pow- 
 ering charm of being predistinguished from among the people as capable, 
 or being selected from among our associates as entitled to public honor, is 
 too alluring to individual vanity. But the abandonment of our country, 
 our firesides, and the endearing connections of home, is a sacrifice too dear 
 for it all. And so the unfortunate Varnum found it, on horseback, and 
 attended by a solitary companion (Griffin Greene), he left a country that 
 honored him, and an idolizing people, and traversed eight hundred miles 
 of wilderness, mostly devoid of the comforts of life. And at his journey's 
 end was tabernacled in a rude stockade, surrounded by excitements, his 
 disorders aggravated for the want of retirement and repose, breathing the 
 deadly exhalations of a great and sluggish river, and protected, by military 
 array, from the incursions of the western savage. The issue proved he 
 had no chance for life, and with a constitution too much impaired to return, 
 he there lingered and expired." 
 
39 
 
 Mr. Updyke concludes with the following epitome of General 
 Varnum's career : 
 
 "The career of Gen. Varnura was active, but brief. He graduated at 
 twenty, was admitted to the bar at twenty^two, entered the army at Uventy- 
 •seven, resigned his commission at thirty-one, was member of Congress 
 the same year, resumed his practice at thirty-three, continued his practice 
 four years, was elected to Congress again at thirty-seven, emigrated to 
 the West at thirty-nine, and died at the early age o^ forty. From the 
 time of his admission to the bar to his departure from the state was seven- 
 teen years ; deducting the four years he was in the military service, and 
 three years he was in Congress, his actual professional life was only ten 
 years." 
 
 vr w TT w 
 
 A century has passed since General Yarnum delivered at 
 Marietta the first oration ever delivered in this country in the 
 territory northwest of the Ohio. 
 
 Once again, and on the seventh day of April, 1888, there is 
 a celebration at Marietta, now in the great and flourishing state 
 of Ohio, on the occasion of the centennial anniversary of the 
 founding of the great Northwest. And again in an oration 
 delivered, the orator of the day is the Honorable George Frisbie 
 Hoar, a distinguished Senator of the United States from the 
 state of Massachusetts, and his oration* is a magnificent tribute 
 from posterity after the lapse of one hundred years, to the pi- 
 oneers of 1788, and incidentally to the subject of this biograph- 
 ical sketch. We quote therefrom as follows : 
 
 " I do not believe the same number of persons fitted for the highest du- 
 ties and responsibilities of war and peace could ever have been found in a 
 community of the same size as were among the men who founded Marietta 
 in the Spring of 1788. # * * 
 
 'I knew them all,' cried Lafayette, when the list of nearly fifty military 
 officers who were among the pioneers was read to him at Marietta in 1825. 
 ^ I knew them all. I saw them at Brandy wine, Yorktown and Rhode Is- 
 land. They were the bravest of the brave.' 
 
 * Published by Charles Hamilton, Worcester, Mass., 1895. 6th edition. 
 
40 
 
 Washington and Varnura, as well as Carrlngton and Lafayette, dwell 
 chiefly, as was Washington's fashion, upon the personal quality of the 
 men and not upon their public offices or titles. Indeed to be named with 
 such commendation, upon personal knowledge, by the cautious and consci- 
 entious Washington, was to a veteran soldier better than being knighted 
 on the field of battle. 
 
 Your hearts are full of their memories. The stately figures of illustri- 
 ous warriors and statesmen, the forms of sweet and comely matrons, living 
 and real as if you had seen them yesterday, rise before us now," and 
 amongst them " Varnum, than whom a courtlier figure never entered the 
 presence of a queen — soldier, statesman, scholar, orator — of whom 
 Thomas Paine, no mean judge, who had heard all the greatest English 
 orators in tlie greatest days of English eloquence, declared the most elo- 
 quent man he had ever heard speak." 
 
 Notes to the foregoing biography of General James M. Vamum. 
 
 His Military and Civll Commissions. 
 The only one of these commissions now known to be in existence is 
 that issued to him by William Greene, Governor, Captain General and 
 Commander in Chief of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Planta- 
 tion, as Major General of the State of Rhode Island, which bears date 
 May 10th, 1779. It was under and by virtue of this commission that 
 Varnum, although no longer in the Continental Army, acted in coopera- 
 tion with the Comte de Rochambeau and his force in Rhode Island, during 
 the later years of the war of the Revolution. This commission is now in 
 the possession of General James M. Varnum of New York, the namesake 
 and kinsman of the officer to whom it was issued. 
 
 His Sword. 
 One of his swords is still in existence, and in excellent preservation. 
 It is the same shown in the portrait of General Varnum, a copy of which 
 appears in this volume. 
 
41 
 
 His Will and Estate. 
 
 General Varnum by his will dated October 28, 1782, gave all his estate 
 to his wife. 
 
 The will was admitted to probate at East Greenwich, May 30th, 1789, 
 and his father in law Crorael Child was appointed his administrator. 
 
 The inventory shows that his personal estate was small — less than £300. 
 
 Books of Reference. 
 Memoirs of the Rhode Island Bar, by Wilkins Updyke, Providence. 
 
 (Contains a long and interesting Biography.) 
 Register of the Society of the Cincinnati in Rhode Isla^id, by Asa 
 
 Bird Gardiner. (In press.) 
 General James 31. Varnum of the Contineyital Army, by Asa Bird 
 
 Gardiner (James M. Varnum collaborating). " Magazine of American 
 
 History," Sept., 1887. 
 
 The case of Trevett against Weeden, by James M. Varnum, Esq., 
 Major-General of the State of Rhode Island, &c., Counsellor at law and 
 Member of Congress for said State. Providence — Printed by John 
 Carter, 1787. (Copy in possession of James M. Varnum of New 
 York.) 
 
 Oration, delivered at Marietta, July 4th, 1788, by the Hon. James M. 
 Varnum, Esq., one of the Judges of the Western Territory, &c. New- 
 port, R, I. Printed by Peter Edes, 1788. (Copy in possession of 
 James M. Varnum, of New York.) 
 
 Oration of Dr. Solomon Drown at the funeral of General Varnum at 
 Marietta on January 13th, 1789. (Original in possession of Henry 
 R. Drowne, Esq., of New York.) 
 
 Oration of Dr. Solomon Drown at Marietta, April 7th, 1789, containing 
 allusion to General Varnum. Worcester, Mass. Isaiah Thomas, 
 1789. 
 
 Memorial of James Mitchel Varnum. His Pxihlich Services and 
 Excerpt from his Diary of Events. Printed for subscribers. Provi- 
 dence, 1792. (This book is referred to and quoted from in "Paul 
 Jones, Founder of the American Navy." Mr. Buell, the editor, made 
 these extracts in 1886, but the compilers of this work have been unable 
 after diligent inquiry to find a copy.) 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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