1. The enclosed resolutions, passed by Congress on 25 July 1777, concern contracts for supplying the army with “beer, cyder, vegetables, soap, vinegar and sour crout,” an increase in the size of the soap ration, and the auditing of the army’s accounts, as well as the matters discussed in the second and third paragraphs of this letter (DLC:GW; see also JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds. Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. 34 vols. Washington, D.C., 1904–37. description ends , 8:579–80).

2. Lt. Col. Return Jonathan Meigs led the successful expedition against the British on Long Island on 23 May 1777, and Lt. Col. William Barton was in charge of the detachment that captured British major general Richard Prescott at Rhode Island on the night of 9–10 July (see ibid., Joseph Spencer to GW, 11 July, and Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., to GW, 27 June; see also Hancock’s letters to Barton and to Meigs, both this date, in Smith, Letters of Delegates description begins Paul H. Smith et al., eds. Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789. 26 vols. Washington, D.C., 1976–2000. description ends , 7:377–78).