George Washington Signs an Ornate Society of the Cincinnati Document For a Hero of the Battle of Guilford Courthouse

William Barrett was a Virginian who served in the Revolutionary War from 1777 to 1783, becoming a Captain in the 3rd Regiment of Continental Dragoons, under the command of Col. William Washington, a cousin of George Washington. Barrett was seriously wounded at the great victory at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, which opened Gen. Nathanel Greene’s southern campaign in 1781. The losses by the British in this battle contributed to Cornwallis’s surrender at Yorktown seven months later. Barrett was awarded a pension at war’s end.

The Society of the Cincinnati was founded in 1783 to preserve the ideals and fellowship of the Revolutionary War officers and to pressure the government to honor pledges it had made to officers who fought for American independence. George Washington took a great interest in the Society and was its first president. A gorgeous engraved membership certificate was produced on vellum, showing American Liberty with a Union Flag and eagle, as well as broken British emblems and Britannia herself fleeing America. These certificates, signed by Washington as Society president and General Henry Knox as Society, were presented to their former colleagues in arms.

Document signed, Mount Vernon, March 1, 1787, certifying the membership in the Society of “William Barrett Esquire of the Commonwealth of Virginia”. The document is countersigned by Henry Knox, who had been the Continental Army’s chief of artillery and would soon serve as the first Secretary of War. Washington’s signature is completely legible though somewhat light, and better than most one sees on these documents, which were printed on a type of vellum that did not hold the ink well.