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George Weedon |
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Engagements: • Indian Wars (1775 - 1924) intermittent• Revolutionary War (1775 - 1783) |
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Biography: | ||||
George Weedon George Weedon was born in 1734. Weedon served as a Lieutenant under George Washington in the French and Indian War, mainly assigned to garrison duty in western Virginia. After the war, he moved to Fredericksburg and opened a tavern. It was within Weedon's tavern that Thomas Jefferson, in January of 1777, wrote the Statute of Religious Freedom; the very first document of its kind to acknowledge government recognition of religious tolerance. In 1775, he was made a Lieutenant Colonel and second in command to Hugh Mercer. They were tasked with creating the 3rd Virginia Regiment, Virginia Line, Continental Army. He was promoted to Colonel in 1776 and succeeded Mercer in command of his regiment. On Mercer's death at Princeton, Weedon was promoted to Brigadier General in 1777 and again succeeded him. He fought in the Battles of Trenton, Brandywine, and Germantown. At Valley Forge, Weedon commanded a brigade in Nathanael Greene's division. His brigade included Stewart's 13th Pennsylvania Regiment along with the 2nd, 6th, 10th, and 14th Virginia Regiments. In 1778, he resigned after a dispute with the Congress over seniority. He went home to Virginia to lead a brigade of the State's militia at the request of Governor Thomas Jefferson. He led his militia unit in the Yorktown campaign, where his brigade successfully repelled the feared and infamous unit of Colonel Banastre Tarleton, thus closing the one means of British escape at Gloucester Point. Death and Burial Brigadier General George Weedon died in 1793 of natural causes. He is buried at the Masonic Cemetery in Fredericksburg, VA. |
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Honoree ID: 3208 | Created by: MHOH |