From George Washington to Brigadier General Charles Scott, 15 October 1778
To Brigadier General Charles Scott
[Fredericksburg] 15 Otbr 1778
Sir
The magistrates and select men of Norwalk have entered a complaint against two privates of Capt. Stoddard[’s] company, for violences offered to one of the inhabitants—and for the rescue of Gershom Dorman by Capt. Stoddard, whom a constable had in arrest.1 you will be pleased to deliver to the civil authority of the State the said Gersham Dorman of Capt. Stoddar[d]s Company and direct Capt. Stoddard himself to this place to explain his conduct in this affair, with such evidences as he may think necessary.2
This letter will be deliver[ed] you by some of the civil officers of Norwalk. I am &c. &c.
Df, in James McHenry’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. For the text of the letter of complaint that the Norwalk, Conn., magistrates and selectmen wrote to GW on 13 Oct., see GW’s letter to them of this date, n.1.
2. Gershom Dorman apparently was wounded and disabled in the engagement between Col. Elisha Sheldon’s 2d Continental Light Dragoons and Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton’s British Legion that occurred at Pound Ridge in Westchester County, N.Y., on 2 July 1779.