GW traveled from Mount Vernon to Dumfries, Va. GW wrote in his diary that all of his horses, harnessed to his carriage, jumped overboard during the ferry ride at Colchester. “Providentially--indeed miraculously...no damage was sustained by the horses, Carriage, or harness.” He proceeded to Dumfries, where he had tea with his niece Mildred Washington Lee and Mrs. Thomas Lee.

GW wrote letters to Col. William Darke, Secretary of War Henry Knox, and Richard Butler, second in command of the offensive against the western Indians. In these letters,  GW authorized Col. Darke to appoint officers to his new Va. battalion, should he accept his commission to lead it.