From George Washington to Colonel Rufus Putnam, 5 November 1776
To Colonel Rufus Putnam
Headquarters Whiteplains November 5th 1776
Sir
you are directed to repair to wrights Mills, & lay out any work there you concive to be necessary in case it is not already don; from thence you are to proceed towards Croton Bridge, and post the two Regiments of Militia in the most advantagous maner, So as to obstruct the enimies passage to that quarter.1
you are also to give what directions you think are proper to those regiments, respecting the breaking up the roads Leading from the North river eastward.
after this you are to go up to Pekes Kill and direct Lashers detachment to brake up the roads there, you are likewise to Lay out what works will be advisable there & ordor them to be Set about. Given under my hand at [headquarters].
Go Washington
Transcript in Putnam’s writing, “Memoirs of the Putnam Family,” OMC 94.
1. Wright’s Mills was a crossroad located about four miles north of White Plains and about six miles east of Tarrytown. Reuben Wright owned a mill on the Bronx River in that vicinity before the Revolutionary War. For the sending of three regiments of Maryland militia from Gen. Rezin Beall’s brigade to Pine’s Bridge on the Croton River, see Tench Tilghman to William Duer, 31 Oct., quoted in Robert Hanson Harrison to Hancock, 31 Oct., n.1.