To George Washington from Major General Nathanael Greene, 15 October 1780
From Major General Nathanael Greene
West Point Oct: 15: 1780
Sir,
The letter from Governor Clinton which will accompany this, will give your Excellency an account of the Inroads of the enemy upon our Frontiers, of the surrender of Forts George & Ann, and that prepera-tions were making for the Investiture of Fort Schuyler.1 The enclosed paper containing the examination of Serjeant Ceely who came here last night being forwarded by General Bayley may give your Excellency some Idea of the enemy’s force.2
I think it will be of importance to give the enemy as early a check as possible, and for this purpose I have ordered Colonel Gansevoort’s regiment to embark immediately for Albany, and have put Clintons whole Brigade under marching orders.3 I do not think myself at liberty to go further without your Excellency’s directions, but hope the step I have taken will meet your approbation.
Provisions are as scarce and difficult to be got to the Northward, as they are here. I was obliged to give an order last night, that fifty head of cattle be sent from this place to prevent the forts to the Northward from being evacuated for want of provision.4 This was previous to my hearing of the Incursion of the enemy tho’ I expected it from the preparations making in Canada.
The propriety of detaching largly from this place will depend in a great degree upon the number of men that lately embarked at New York, of which your Excellency I hope, is more fully informed than I am.5
I will have the transports in readiness to embark the remainder of Clinton’s Brigade against the Return of the express.6
Colonel Hay set out yesterday to the Northwd to provide in that quarter; and as Colonel Hughes begins to act in the Qr Masters department, I hope the exertions here will be equal to the emergency of the occasion.7 I am, with great respect, your Excellency’s most obedient, humble Servant
Nath. Greene M. Gen.
LS, DLC:GW; ADfS, MiU-C: Greene Papers.
1. See George Clinton to GW, 14 Oct., and n.1.
2. The undated enclosure contains intelligence from Justus W. Seeley on British preparations at St. Jean for an expedition into New York (DLC:GW; filed under “Justice Ceely” in 1776). Brig. Gen. Jacob Bayley wrote GW from Newbury, Vt., on 3 Oct.: “Yesterday come in here Justice Sealy who Informs he left Canada the fifteenth of Septr I Perceived he had been an Officr in the Enemy’s Servis I therefore thot it my Duty to Send Capt. Aldrich to your Excelency with him. it appears to me he is a volunteer to this Country and means for the future to Persue the Intrest of the United States by his accounts agreeing in many Instances with what we have been assured of by our Spies and others we are not aquainted with his former Carrector but Capt. Aldrich will Make Inquiry at New Milford at which Place his family and Friends live, and will aquaint Your Excelency” (ALS, DLC:GW).
Justus W. Seeley (1745–1812) of New Milford, Conn., deserted to the British after receiving a commission as lieutenant from Vermont. He subsequently served as a drummer for Capt. Justus Sherwood, a Loyalist officer and intelligence operative. Seeley later settled in the British province of New Brunswick, where Seeleys Cove bears his name.
George Aldrich (1738–1815) served as lieutenant in the 3d New Hampshire Regiment in 1775 and as captain with Maj. Benjamin Whitcomb’s rangers beginning November 1776. Aldrich left the army in January 1781 and later became a New Hampshire militia brigadier general and state legislator.
3. See General Greene’s Orders, this date, in , 6:387.
4. See Greene’s first letter to Udny Hay, 14 Oct., in , 6:381.
6. See Greene to Hugh Hughes, this date, and Hughes to Greene, 16 Oct., in , 6:389–90, 401.
7. GW replied to Greene on 16 October. For the dispute between Lt. Colo. Udny Hay and Col. Hugh Hughes, who succeeded Hay as deputy quartermaster general for New York, see Hay to Greene, 6 and 9 Oct., in , 6:343–44, 362; see also Hay’s first letter to Greene, 13 Oct., in , 6:379.