Robert B. Taylor to the Governor December 23, 1812

I received by the last mail your letter covering a Commission as Brigadier-General of the 9th Brigade, pursuant to a vote of the General Assembly.
The kind and flattering manner in which you have communicated it, claims my warmest acknowledgements. I beg you to believe, Sir, that such a proof of public confidence would at no time be received by me without the most lively emotions. The time and circumstances under which it has been conferred in spire my warmest gratitude to the Legislature, and bind me by every generous tie to the Country which has so highly honored me. I will not, however, conceal from you that on receiving the first intelligence of this appointment, my best judgment decided me to decline it. Attached both by habit and choice to the Cavalry service, I never meditated or desired a change. This generous confidence in the legislature moreover, demanded the sacrifice of every view of personal promotion at the shrine of public duty. It would be an unworthy requital of the favor of my country if with the consciousness of my inexperience and inadequacy, I accepted a station vastly disproportionate to my powers. Connected as it has been by your letter with the offer of immediate service, and probably with the chief command at this place, these motions have been strengthened. The safety of this part of the State and the glory of our arms may depend on the talent with which it is executed. I dare not trust those precious objects to the guardianship of a zeal, which however ardent and devoted, is equally destitute of experience or instruction.
For those reasons I earnestly wish to decline the appointment, while I cheerfully accept the proposal of immediate service.
 The Executive has already honored me far, very far beyond my merits, by promotion in the Cavalry. Not wholly uninstructed in that service, though I dare not aspire at distinction, I may hope to be not entirely unserviceable. I beg, therefore, that my services may be accepted in that situation where they may be employed most usefully to the State and most satisfactorily to me. In such an arrangement I do not ask such a force as is suited to my rank, but any, however inferior, which the Executive may bestow.
I will not, however, conceal the embarrassment which the office of immediate service as Brigadier has occasioned me. Should the Executive consent to accept my services in the Cavalry, I decline, without hesitation, the Commission now proffered. But if the offer of service he inseparably connected with the new appointment, if I am to be excluded from the field except in this new office, I have no alternative but to swept it. My Country may have cause to regret my inadequacy, but she shall never doubt my readiness to devote my life to her defence.
In this last event, I hope it will not be deemed arrogant if I solicit of the Executive the selection of some officers who are willing to accompany me into service, and on whose talents, activity, and skill I should greatly rely to sustain me in my command. I would beg too that as much time should be allowed me for previous arrangements as the publick good may seem to authorize.
I am, &c.

Fort Norfolk Documents

Before 1794, 1794, 1795, 1796, 1797, 1798, 1799, 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803, 1804, 1805, 1806, 1807, 1808, 1809, 1810, 1811, 1812, 1813, 1814, 1815, 1816, 1817, 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865

Source of Information

CALENDAR of VIRGINIA STATE PAPERS and OTHER MANUSCRIPTS, FROM JANUARY 1, 1808, TO DECEMBER 31, 1835, PRESERVED IN THE CAPITOL AT RICHMOND. ARRANGED AND EDITED, UNDER THE AUTHORITY AND DIRECTION OF H. W. FLOUENOY, SECRETARY Of THE COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA, AND STATE LIBRARIAN. VOLUME X. 1892