William Peachey, a captain, major, and lieutenant colonel in the French & Indian War, was the 5th Virginia Regiment's first colonel. He resigned shortly after the regiment entered service, perhaps because he did not want to serve in the Continental Army.


Peachey lived at Milden Hall in Sharps, Richmond County, about ten miles down the Rappahannock River from Tappahannock. He was a captain in Colonel Washington’s 1st Virginia Regiment during the French & Indian War from 1755 to 1757 and major of the 2nd Virginia Regiment in 1758. He was remembered by several veterans of that war as commander of a “battalion of regulars” in frontier service in 1759, evidently with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

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The Richmond County Court House, now in the village of Warsaw, was built in 1748. It's arcades were filled in in 1777, breaking from the classic appearance of a Virginia court house. The 5th Virginia rendezvoused here in the spring of 1776.

When the Fourth Virginia Convention authorized the 3rd through 9th regiments, he was appointed colonel of the 5th Virginia Regiment with Charles Scott as his lieutenant colonel and Josiah Parker as his major. That appointment was made on February 13, 1776. Company officers then recruited and received their commissions in Williamsburg in March, then proceeded to their rendezvous at Richmond Court House. Paired with the 3rd Virginia Regiment, they were tasked with protecting the Northern Neck, between the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers.


When Maj. Gen. Charles Lee arrived in Williamsburg to take command of the Southern Department (Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia), he was appalled that the Committee of Safety had dispersed the colony’s nine regiments along the coast. He ordered them consolidated on the Virginia Peninsula, judging Williamsburg the most likely target of a British attack. The regiment’s companies began marching back to the provincial capital on April 5 and were there by April 12. 


Colonel Peachy then abruptly resigned. Health does not seem to be the issue, since he lived to 1802. There is no record of the reason, but it was at about this time that the 5th Virginia was taken into Continental service. Some officers refused the new commissions, and Peachey may have been one of them. Lt. Col. Charles Scott was promoted to replace him on May 7. Scott served well, bravely holding the bridge over Assunpink Creek at Trenton on January 2 and leading Virginia troops during the winter Forage War that followed. Scott became a brigadier general on April 2, 1777, and Josiah Parker, now a lieutenant colonel, took command.

GABRIEL NEVILLE is the author of The Last Men Standing: The 8th Virginia Regiment in the American Revolution.