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U.S.DOCUMENT REGARDING COL.FRANCIS TAYLOR'S SERVICES.
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REVOLUTIONARY SERVICES
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Rep. No. 380. Ho of Reps.
29th Congress 1st Session.
COLONEL FRANCIS TAYLOR.
[To accompany bill H.R.No.288]
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March 5, 1846.
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Mr. Orider, from the Committee on Revolutionary Claims
made the following
REPORT:

The Committee on Revolutionary Claims, to whom was referred the memorial of Edmund H.Taylor, the administrator with the will annexed of hte estate of Colonel Francis Taylor, deceased, asking an allowance of the commutation of five years' full pay, with interest, in lieu of half pay for life, having examined the same and the evidence, which is of the most satisfactory character, in support thereof, now report:
That Colonel Taylor entered the service of the United States as a Captain the last of 1775, in the Virginia continental line, and continued in actual service until a consolidation of the Virginia regiments took place in 1778, when he retired as a supernumerary major, and so continued awaiting the orders of the Congress until about the first of January, 1779, when he again was called into actual service by the Congress in a resolution passed the 9th of January, 1779, which required that a bat-talion of 600 men be forthwith raised in Virginia of Continental establishment, and the officers to be appointed out of those of the Virginia line who had been left out of the late arrangement of the countinental army (See the printed journals of the Continental Congress, by Way a Gideon, vol.3d, page 179.). Col.Taylor was appoint-ed lieutenant-colonel of the said battalion, and, upon the death of Colonel Charles Lee, was promoted to the rank of colonel, and commanded the regiment which was rais-ed to guard the covnention prisoners(as they were termed)until the same was dis-banded in June, 1781. The regiment he commnaded was disbanded upon the removal of the prisoners from Winchester, Virginia, where they ahd been kept; and by the dis-charge of the troops, Colonel Taylor became supernumerary, and so remained until the close of the war.
Your committee are entirely satisfied that the regiment he commanded was a continental regiment, as it was taken upon continental establishment by Congress, in the passage of the resolution of the 9th January, 1779, aforesaid, and ordered thereby to be officered by those officers who had been left out of the late arrangement, and were then made supernumeraries.In the army registers of Virginia, this reg-iment has been always classed among the continental corps, and which fact,says the auditor of that commonweath, is satisfactory proof that such officers were conti-nental officers. (See a report No.457, from the Committee on Public Lands, at the first session of the 28th Congress,page 193.) Mr. Jefferson, while governor of Vir-ginia, in a letter to the commander-in-chief of the American army, under date the 28th November 1779, expressly mentions Colonel Taylor's regiment of guard to the convention troops as being of the continental line. (See Jefferson's Works, Vol.1st; page 170. The settled decisions of both the War and Treasury Departments of this government are that the regiment was a continental regiment. The executive of Vir-ginia so decides. Besides, both Houses of Congress as well as various committees have repeatedly decided that this regiment was a continental regiment. Congress so decided in the passage of the act of May 25th, 1832, allowing Major John Roberts, an officer of this regiment, his commutation pay with interest; also in the passage of the act of the second of March, 1833, allowing Captain John Thomas, another offi-cer of this regiment, his commutation pay with interest; also in the passage of the act of June 30th, 1834, allowing the heird of Lieutenant John Taylor, another officer of this regiment, his commutation pay. The Committee on Revolutionary Claims deci-ded that this regiment was a continental regiment in their report conceding the