To George Washington from Brigadier General Peter Muhlenberg, 23 May 1780
From Brigadier General Peter Muhlenberg
Fredericksburg [Va.] May 23d 17[80]
Sir
enclosd I have the Honor to transmit Your Excellency, a Letter I have receivd by this days post from Doctor Rickman; together with the return of the Sick remaining in the Hospital1—as the post is just going out, I shall beg leave, just to mention to Your Excellency that I yesterday receivd a Supply of Money for the Recruiting Service2—Colo. Febiger will superintend at this post, & Colo. Green at Winchester,3 I shall set out with Colo. Green for Winchester to Morrow Morning & shall return in Six days, & then take a ⟨tour⟩ to Chesterfield Courthouse—Next Week I shall send on the first Detachment of Fifty4—our Accounts from Charlestown by this days post are so various & Contradictory, that they cannot be depended on—thus much is certain that the Town was safe on the 3d of May. I have the Honor to be Your Excellencys Most Obedt hble Servt
P: Muhlenberg
ALS, DLC:GW. Muhlenberg wrote “1778” for the year, but GW’s secretary Robert Hanson Harrison correctly docketed the letter as 1780.
1. The enclosed letter from William Rickman, director and chief physician of the hospital in Virginia, to Muhlenberg was written at Petersburg, Va., on 16 May: “I should have acknowledged the receipt of Your favour by return of Post but was absent from Williamsburg and at this Place and did not receive it untill My return on Sunday last In obedience to Your orders I yesterday came to this Town on My way to Rocky Ridge in order to establish an Hospital at or near that Station but Your Letter to Colonel Davis directing Chesterfield Court House for the General Rendevous and establishment of the Military Hospital for the Troops came to His hands this morning I shall therefore pursuant to Your last orders direct the Medcines &c. to be sent to that Station and the Sick and Surgeons to be removed thither.
“In the last month I wrote the Honble The President of Congress requesting permission to resign the Office I now hold I have not as yet received His answer and while I continue to Act shall at all times be happy in executing Your Orders.
“enclosed is a Return of the Patients now in the Hospital likewise a letter for Doctor Brown which I have left open for Your perusal and request the favour of You to forward to Him” (DLC:GW). Muhlenberg’s letter to Col. William Davies has not been identified, but for its probable contents, see Muhlenberg to GW, 8 May. The letter from Rickman to William Brown, physician general in the middle district, has not been identified. The letter of 23 April from Rickman to Samuel Huntington, president of Congress, with the former’s resignation request, is in DNA:PCC, item 78.
“A Report of the Sick now in the Hospital near Petersburg the 16th May 1780” came with Rickman’s letter to Muhlenberg. Rickman’s report listed sixteen soldiers and two women from two Virginia brigades suffering from maladies such as venereal disease, ulcers, asthma, fevers, scurvy, and tumors (DLC:GW).
2. Muhlenberg had been charged with recruiting men for the Virginia line and sending them south (see GW to Muhlenberg, 20 April, and n.1 to that document; see also William Woodford to GW, 8 March).
3. Fredericksburg and Winchester, Va., served as two of the assembly points for Virginia recruits.
4. GW had directed that Virginia recruits and draftees be formed into units of fifty men and sent to join other units en route to South Carolina (see his letter to Muhlenberg of 20 April).