From George Washington to Jeremiah Wadsworth, 14 February 1779
To Jeremiah Wadsworth
[Middlebrook, 14 Feb. 1779]
Sir
If my Order of the 12th Inst. respecting the Magazine of Provisions at Fort Pitt did not explicitly declare that the Quantity there directed to be laid up by the first of May is to be over & above the necessary Supplies for the Troops in that Quarter, I now inform you that this was my meaning—& I have further to desire that you will form a Magazine under like Circumstances and for the same time (that is four Months) for one thousand Men at Sunbury on Susquehannah.
For particular reasons, I think it adviseable that the Magazine at Pittsburgh should be drawn from the Frontiers of Virginia and the Parts of Pennsylvania contiguous to that Post; and that the Supplies for Sunbury be drawn from the West Side of the Susquehannah—You will consult the Quarter Master General on the Means of transportation that no disappointment may take Place in either of these Cases.1
You will furnish me with Returns of the Provision & other Articles in your Department which are on hand the first day of every Month and where they lie. Given at Middlebrook this 14th day of February 1779.
G. Washington
LB, CtHi: Jeremiah Wadsworth Papers; LB, PHi: Chaloner & White Papers; ADfS, DLC:GW; copy, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. At this place on the draft manuscript, GW wrote a paragraph, apparently omitted from the document sent to Wadsworth, which reads: “Genl. Bayley having repeatedly expressed his fears on acct of the Provisions which have been laid up at Co’hos I am to repeat my desire (if you have not already done it) that you will cause the same to be removed lower down the Connecticut River so as to be out of reach of any sudden excursion of the Enemy from Canada.” GW had previously given this order in his letter to Wadsworth of 20 January.