Resentment of Gwinnett's followers arose among the Popular Party and a petition emerged with 505 signatures to Governor Treutlen demanding that General McIntosh be removed from the state. Public feeling was so high that William McIntosh, head of the clan, resigned his position as commander of the light cavalry in Georgia. General McIntosh sought to clear himself of the ignominy heaped upon him from all sides by champions of the dead leader (now a martyr). Three days after Gwinnett's death, McIntosh wrote a letter to Colonel John Lawrence, George Washington's military secretary saying that the death of his one-time rival "was evidently owing to the unskillfulness of his doctor." He pointed out that Mrs. Gwinnett, the widow, "publicly declared me innocent and blameless and often requested of my health. Mrs. Gwinnett, I am informed has entered a prosecution against the doctor who seems to be generally blamed for the death of her husband." Thus, a transfer was arranged for General McIntosh to go into the winter camp at Valley Force and suffer the privations in the snowbound wilderness of Pennsylvania.
No comments:
Post a Comment