From George Washington to John Warren, 23 February 1777
To John Warren
Head Quarters Morris town 23d Feby 1777
Sir
I have yours of the 10th Instant.1 Your continuing to act in the Hospital, upon the uncertainty of being provided for under the new Arrangement, is very commendable, but I can assure you it was ever my Intention to take particular Care that those who had filled their old Stations with reputation, should not be degraded in the new appointments. The plan for the establishment of the General Hospital i[s] now before Congress, and whenever I receive their Approbation, the Officers will be appointed.2
I cannot promise that you can be fixed at Rhode Island, but I dare say in the Settleme⟨nt⟩ of the Surgeons and Physicians who are to superintend the different departments, the private conveniencies of Gentlemen will be attended to, if thereby the public will not be injured. I am Sir Yr most obt Servt
Go: Washington
LS, in Tench Tilghman’s writing, MHi: Warren Papers. The material in angle brackets is mutilated.
1. The draft of Warren’s letter to GW of 10 Feb. 1777, which is mutilated in several places, reads: “By the late Suspension of Doctor Morgan, from the Directorship of the eastern Department; the Commission which I formaly held in the General Hospital is vacated[.] I am now only employed in the General Hospital in this City by Dr Shippen without any positive Assurances of an Appointment upon the new Establishment. As by Resolve of the honorable continental Congress Your Excellency has the sole Power of regulating the medical and chirurgical Department in the Army, and of appointing all Officers in it, I beg your Excellency to excuse the Trouble I give you, by this Application, requesting to be inform’d, whether, in the proposed Arrangements upon the new Establishment, ⟨I⟩ have been considered. I w⟨oul⟩d not have troubled ⟨yo⟩ur Excellency with this Request, but as I have some pressing ⟨so⟩licitations to engage in another Department and it is possible that I should form a Determination in the length of a few Days. Having served as a Senior Surgeon in the General Hospital ever Since the Commencement of the War, and, must consequently be considerabl⟨y ex⟩perienced in the Business of Hospitals especially as I have both upon long Island and at Hackensack had the Sole Direction of the Hospitals there established. As to Diligence and Assiduity, those who have been more immediately concern’d in the Inspection of those Hospitals, will judge whether, they may be applied to my Conduct or not Whilst these Matters supposed to rest with Congress General Green was so kind as to propose me for an Appointment to some Directorship; and by the members of Congress, I was encouraged to expect it. If I should have the Honour of being appointed to any Kind of Directorship, one in New England (if agreeable at Rhode Island,) would please me most, as I could then conveniently correspond, with those Persons at Boston, who have the charge of my late Brothers affairs, whereas at present, it is attended with great Difficulty and Uncertainty—If your Excellency will be pleased to inform me what I may expect, as soon as Opportunity offers, by a Letter directed to me to be left at G⟨en⟩eral Gates’s, it will greatly oblige me” (MHi: Warren Papers).
2. Tilghman inadvertently wrote “in now” on the manuscript.