1To Alexander Hamilton from Mahlon Ford, 4 April 1800 (Hamilton Papers)
Fort Norfolk [ Virginia ] April 4, 1800 . “… such a picture of destruction, I never saw at any post, when I took the Command—and in endeavouring to remedy it I have affronted the late Commanding Officer, who was Capt Blackburn (who knows nothing about Military Matters and never will, as he says himself, he only serves for the lo[a]ves and Fishes) in such a manner, that I was reduced, either to...