Among the first men in America to "fan the flames of sedition," as an
English traveler said of him long before the war, was Mine Host George
Weedon, keeper of the Rising Sun Tavern, Postmaster, and an Irish
immigrant. At his place gathered all the great of his day, spending hours
dicing and drinking punch.
Over and over among these men--Washington, Mason, Henry, the Lees,
Jefferson and every Virginia gentleman of that section, George Weedon
heard discussion of the Colonies' problems, and he forcibly gave vent to
his opinions.
Time and again he expressed the idea of freedom before others had thought
of more than protest. His wild Irish talk in the old Rising Sun Tavern
helped to light the torch of liberty in America.
When war came, Weedon was elected Lieutenant-Colonel of the First
Virginia, of which Hugh Mercer was chosen Colonel. August 17, 1776, he
became its Colonel, and on February 24, 1777, he was made a
Brigadier-General.
In the Battle of Brandywine, General Weedon's division rendered
conspicuous service, when they checked the pursuit of the British and
saved our army from rout. He commanded brilliantly at Germantown. Wherever
he fought, his great figure and stentorian voice were prominent in the
conflict.
He admired Washington and his fellow-generals. It was not because of
these, but because he thought Congress to have treated him unfairly about
rank, that he left the Army at Valley Forge. He re-entered in 1780, and in
1781 was given command of the Virginia troops, which he held until the
surrender of Yorktown, where he played an important part.
George Weedon was the first President of the Virginia Society of the
Cincinnati, a fraternity of Revolutionary officers which General
Washington helped to organize, and this was, indeed, a singular honor. He
was a member of the Fredericksburg Masonic Lodge, of which Washington was
also a member. After the war, he lived at "The Sentry Box," the former
home of his gallant brother-in-law, General Mercer.
[Sidenote: _A Song For the Yuletide_]
General Weedon was a man of exuberant spirits, loud of voice and full of
Irish humor. He wrote a song called "Christmas Day in '76," and on each
Yuletide he assembled at his board his old comrades and friends, and,
while two negro boys stood sentinel at the door, drank punch and roared
out the verses:
"On Christmas Day in '76
Our ragged troops with bayonets fixed,
For Trenton marched away.
The Delaware ice, the boats below
The lights obscured by hail and snow,
But no signs of dismay."
Beginning thus, the brave Irishman who verbally and fought among the
foremost for America for over physically thirty years, told the story of
Washington's crossing the Delaware, vividly enough, and every Christmas
his guests stood with him and sang the ballad.[2]
[2] See Goolrick's "Life of Mercer."