Walton, George, Signer of the Declaration of Independence from Georgia

Autograph letter signed ("Geo Walton"), 1 page (9 x 7 in.; 227 x 178 mm) on a bifolium (watermarked j honig & zoonen), Brunswick, Virginia, 14 April 1780, to "Colonel Walton White; of the American Dragoons in the southern Department," autograph address on integral blank ("favored by Cap. Lawson"); seal tear with marginal loss, reinforced at central fold.

Anthony Walton White was commissioned lieutenant colonel of the Third New Jersey Regiment of the Continental Army in February 1776. He served with distinction in the Northern theatre until February 1780, when General Washington gave him command of all of the cavalry in the Southern Department. On his way south, he evidently met with Walton, who was then heading north to resume his seat in Congress. Walton here suggests that the two maintain a correspondence and wishes White well in his new position: 

"The shortness of the time we were together at Wilmington, was the occasion of my forgetting to propose and injoin a constant correspondence; and the object of the present scrawl is only to remedy that omission. I, therefore, hope that you will not omit any opportunity which may present itself of writing to Philadelphia, or where else may be the seat of Congress.

"In truth, I wish you every glory, which your most sanguine wishes had figured to yourself, and every safety consistent therewith. ..." Just three weeks after this letter was written, White was surprised at the Santee River in South Carolina by Banastre Tarleton and taken prisoner.