From George Washington to a Continental Congress Camp Committee, 19 March 1778
To a Continental Congress Camp Committee
Head Quarters [Valley Forge] 19th March 1778
Gentn
Agreeable to General Reeds request I inclose you a list of the Field Officers in the Pensylvania line.1
The Board of General Officers upon reconsidering Colonel Putnams claim of Rank in the Massachusetts line and having before them his pretentions in consequence of his appointment as Engineer, have determined to place him in the arrangement next to Colonel Wigglesworth.2 I am With the greatest respt Gentn Your most hum. Servt
G. W——n
Df, in Richard Kidder Meade’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. Neither the list nor Joseph Reed’s request has been identified.
2. Rufus Putnam’s appointment as colonel of the 5th Massachusetts Regiment dated from 1 Nov. 1776, but on 5 Aug. of that year, while Putnam was acting as chief engineer for the army, Congress had appointed him an engineer with the rank of colonel (see , 5:630). For more on Putnam’s case, see his letters to GW of 10 Feb. and 12 Mar. and GW’s reply of 11 April. For the board of general officers, see General Orders, 13 March.