was not the only cup
of humiliation which was pressed to his lips. Not long afterward,
there arrived at the seat of war a few hundred North Carolina troops,
under command of Colonel Robert Howe; and the latter, with the full
consent of Woodford, at once took command of their united forces, and
thenceforward addressed his official letters solely to the convention
of Virginia, or to the Committee of Safety, paying not the slightest
attention to the commander-in-chief.[216] Finally, on the 28th of
December, Congress decided to raise in Virginia six battalions to be
taken into continental pay;[217] and, by a subsequent vote, it
likewise resolved to include within these six battalions the first and
the second Virginia regiments already raised.[218] A commission was
accordingly sent to Patrick Henry as colonel of the first Virginia
battalion,[219]--an official intimation that the expected commission
of a brigadier-general for Virginia was to be given to some one else.

On receiving this last affront, Patrick Henry determined to lay down
his military appointments, which he did on the 28th of February, 1776,
and at once prepared to leave the camp. As soon as this news got
abroad among the troops, they all, according to a contemporary
account,[220] "went into mourning, and, under arms, waited on him at
his lodgings," when his officers presented to him an affectionate
address:--

TO PATRICK HENRY, JUNIOR, ESQUIRE:

Deeply impressed with a grateful sense of the obligations we
lie under to you for the polite, humane, and tender
treatment manifested to us throughout the whole of your
conduct, while we have had the honor of being under your
command, permit us to offer to you our sincere thanks, as
the only tribute we have in our power to pay to your real
merits. Notwithstanding your withdrawing yourself from
service fills us with the most poignant sorrow, as it at
once deprives us of our father and general, yet, as
gentlemen, we are compelled to applaud your spirited
resentment to the most glaring indignity. May your merit
shine as conspicuous to the world in general as it hath done
to us, and may Heaven shower its choicest blessings upon
you.

WILLIAMSBURG, February 29, 1776.

His reply to this warm-hearted message was in the following words:--

GENTLEMEN,--I am extremely obliged to you for your
approbation of my conduct. Your address