A Military Treatise on the Appointments of the Army by Lt. Thomas Webb. Philadelphia, 1759.
$35.00
In 1774, when Washington was in Philadelphia, 100 men, under the tutelage of George Mason organized a militia in Fairfax County, Virginia and elected Washington as its commander. They asked Washington to order drums, fifes, and halberds. To that he added his own personal items of a silk sash, gorgets, epaulettes and a copy of this book, which he probably was familiar with from the Seven Years War.
The work contains 112 pp. and two folding plates. Webb offered “many hints, not touched upon before by any author,” and proposed “some new regulations in the army, which will be particularly useful in carrying the war in North-America.” His observations included the criticism that British weapons were generally too heavy for American service, (probably referring to the long land pattern musket), and that one of the major problems was in securing good flints.
In October, 1759 the twenty-nine-yearold Webb secured a commission as quartermaster in the 48th Regiment of Foot. The following year, he was promoted to lieutenant in the same regiment, which was transferred two days later to a new colonel, Daniel Webb. ”Webb’s” regiment (regimental numbers were rarely used), with Thomas Webb as one of its handful of lieutenants, was among the reinforcements brought to America in 1758 to stem the advance of the French in the north. On July 27, 1758, the tide turned with the capture of Louisburg Webb’s memorial tablet claims that “at the siege of Louisburg” he lost an eye. The following year, Quebec surrendered to the British. This even more famous engagement has also been pointed out as the occasion when Webb lost his eye,
Five years went by, and the Seven Years War had been over for a year before Webb was finally recommended for a captaincy and the command of a company in “Webb’s” regiment-whether as a reward for scholarship, bravery, or seniority, or a combination of all three, we do not know. He converted to Methodism and is considered one of the pioneers of establishing the Methodist church in America.
