1From George Washington to Horatio Gates, 15 March 1783 (Washington Papers)
Agreeable to the Orders of the 11th instant, the Officers of the American Army being convened, His Excellency the Commander in Chief was pleased to open the meeting with the following address to them on the subject of their being called together which with some other papers were left for the consideration of the Assembly. The Honorable Major General Gates being President. (Here follows the...
2From Benjamin Walker to Horatio Gates, 16 February 1783 (Washington Papers)
His Excellency wishes you to take the opinion of the board of General Officers on the following question A General Court Martial sentences an Officer to be suspended for a given time. Q. in what manner does the suspension Operate? Is the Officer suspended not only from Command but from Pay and the other Emoluments of service? and if so Is he totally Detached from Service during the suspension?...
3From George Washington to Horatio Gates, 12 February 1783 (Washington Papers)
I do inclose you a Letter and Memorial of the 13th of January last from Brigadier General Hazen in behalf of him self and twenty four Officers of his Regiment, remonstrating generally on the want of System and some general established Rules in the Proceedings of Courts Martial, by which means the innocent have been at some times injured and the Guilty escaped the punishment due to their...
4From George Washington to Horatio Gates, 10 February 1783 (Washington Papers)
Your favor of the 9th covering an application from Brigadr General Putnam for leave of absence until the 15th of April has been handed to me this morning. I beg you will be pleased, Sir, to inform that Officer I do not consider myself at liberty to comply with his request—for it appears to me (considering the small number of General Officers with the Army, Genl Howe having also in consequence...
5From George Washington to Horatio Gates, 6 February 1783 (Washington Papers)
I am favored with Your Letter of yesterday’s date, and being satisfied with the reasons you give, fully approve of your decision’s being carried into effect. I am with great regard Sir Your Most Obedt Servt NHi .
6From George Washington to Horatio Gates, 14 November 1782 (Washington Papers)
I am upon the point of setting out for Kingston, by way of Poughkeepsy—possibly I may not return before Sunday—I therefore inclose you the Paroles & CoSigns to that day Inclusive that there may be a corrispondence (as usual) with those which have already been delivd to Genl Knox. The orders of this day are Issued & I shall thank you for a pointid attention to them. I am with respect Sir Yr...
7From George Washington to Horatio Gates, 27 August 1782 (Washington Papers)
On receipt of your Letter of the 17th covering the resolution of Congress of the 15th and informg your readiness & zeal to share a part in active military Duty, I have assigned to you a Command in the army under my immediate Direction, which is now on the point of entering the field. As soon therefore as you have adjusted your Concerns in Berkley, & prepared yourself for the Campaign, you will...
8From George Washington to Horatio Gates, 18 March 1782 (Washington Papers)
I have received your favor of the 20th of February, by which, I am surprised to find that my letter of the 1st of November from York in Virginia, in answer to yours of the 22d of May and 7th of October last, had never reached you. I take the liberty of inclosing a Copy of it. You will perceive by a Resolve of Congress of the 19th of December last, of which I inclose you a Copy, that after the...
9From Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates, 14 December 1781 (Jefferson Papers)
I have received your friendly letters of Aug. 2. and Nov. 15. and some of the gentlemen to whom you wished them to be communicated, not being here, I have taken the liberty of handing them to some others so as to answer the spirit of your wish. It seems likely to end as I ever expected it would, in a final acknowlegement that good disposition, and arrangements will not do without a certain...
10From George Washington to Horatio Gates, 1 November 1781 (Washington Papers)
Your letter of the 7th of October was received at a time when I was wholly occupied in the seige of York, which will plead my excuse for not answering it by return of Mr Blue who was the Bearer. Your letter of the 22d May last, alluded to in your favor, not being with me at this place, I can only reply from memory. If my recollection is right, that letter informed me of the Resolution of...
11From George Washington to Horatio Gates, 12 May 1781 (Washington Papers)
Your favor of the 29th of April from Philada was delivered to me on the 9th Instant by Colo. Stewart. That of the 15h of January from Berkely in Virginia reached me in due time. I should be sorry to think that either the public or yourself should have suffered from the unaccountable delay of my letter of the 8th of October—and I should with the greatest readiness set about an enquiry into the...
12From Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates, 17 February 1781 (Jefferson Papers)
The situation of affairs here and in Caroline is such as must shortly turn up important events one way or the other. By letter from Genl. Greene dated Guilford C. house Feb. 10. Ld. Cornwallis rendered furious by the affair at the Cowpens and surprise of George town had burnt his own waggons to enable himself to move with facility, had pressed on to the vicinities of the Moravian towns and was...
13[From Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates, 14 December 1780] (Jefferson Papers)
[ 14 Dec. 1780. Epistolary Record: “Th: J. to Gl. Gates. merely friendly & private.” Not located. Probably this letter expressed TJ’s cordial feelings toward Gates at the time of the latter’s quitting his command in the South.]
14From Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates, 19 November 1780 (Jefferson Papers)
The vessel which had been sent by Genl. Leslie, to Charles town as we supposed, returned about the 12th. inst. The enemy began to embark soon after from Portsmouth, and in the night of the 15th. compleated the embarkation of their whole force. In the morning of the 16th. some of our people entered Portsmouth. They had left their works unfinished and undestroyed. Great numbers of negroes who...
15From Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates, 10 November 1780 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favour of the third instant Enclosing Colo. Preston’s Letter, came to hand on the eighth. The proposals mentioned in the colonel’s Letter for sending volunteers to you were accepted and put as was necessary into such precise form as that all parties might know what they had right to expect. In doing this two circumstances happened to interfere with what had been expected. 1. We required...
16From Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates, 4 November 1780 (Jefferson Papers)
Richmond, 4 Nov. 1780. This letter is almost identical with TJ’s letter to Samuel Huntington of 3 Nov. , q.v., except that it lacks postscript. RC ( DLC ); in a clerk’s hand, signed by TJ; endorsed (in part): “Recd 11 Novr. 80.”
17From Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates, 28 October 1780 (Jefferson Papers)
Your Letters of the 14th, 20th, and 21st are come to hand, and your dispatches to Congress have been regularly forwarded. I shall attend to the caveat against Mr. Ochiltree’s bill. Your Letter to Colo. Senf remains still in my hand as it did not come till the enemy had taken possession of the ground on which I know him to have been, and I have since no certain information where a Letter might...
18George Washington to Major General Horatio Gates, 22 October 1780 (Hamilton Papers)
Preakness [ New Jersey ] October 22, 1780 . Has been directed by Congress to order a court of inquiry into Gates’s conduct as “Commander of the Southern Army.” States that Major General Nathanael Greene has been instructed to take over Gates’s command during inquiry. Df , in writing of H, George Washington Papers, Library of Congress.
19From Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates, 22 October 1780 (Jefferson Papers)
The Letters which accompany this will inform you of the Arrival of a large fleet of the Enemy within our Capes, and that they have begun their Debarkation. We are taking Measures to collect a Body to oppose them; for which purpose it seems necessary to retain such Regulars Volunteers and Militia as have not yet gone on to you. We have left the Counties of Lunenburg, Mecklenburg, Halifax, and...
20From Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates, 15 October 1780 (Jefferson Papers)
I am rendered not a little anxious by the Paragraph of yours of the 7th. Inst: wherein you say ‘it is near a Month since I received any Letter from your Excellency; indeed the receipt of most that I have wrote to you remain unacknowledged.’ You ought within that time to have received my Letter of September 3d. written immediately on my return to this place after a fortnights Absence; That of...
21From George Washington to Major General Horatio Gates, 8 October 1780 (Washington Papers)
I have received your several favors of the 30th August—3d and 15th September. The first reached me only two days before I sat out for Harford, to meet Count Rochambeau and the Chevalier de Ternay—the two last came to hand while I was absent. The first account, which I received of the unfortunate affair near Campden, was by a Copy of your letter of the 20th August, from Hillsborough, to the...
22From Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates, 4 October 1780 (Jefferson Papers)
My Letter of Sept. 23d. answered your favours received before that date, and the present serves to acknowledge the receipt of those of Sept. 24th and 27th. I retain in mind and recur almost daily to your Requisitions of August; We have as yet no prospect of more than one hundred Tents. Flour is ordered to be manufactured as soon as the Season will render it safe, out of which I trust we can...
23From Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates, 23 September 1780 (Jefferson Papers)
I have empowered Colo. Carrington to have twelve Boats, Scows or Batteaux built at Taylors Ferry and to draw on me for the cost. I recommended the constructing them so as to answer the transportation of Provisions along that river, as a change of position of the two Armies may render them unnecessary at Taylors Ferry, and I am thoroughly persuaded that unless we can find out some Channel of...
24From Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates, 11 September 1780 (Jefferson Papers)
Your bill for £54,712 in favor of Mallett has been duly honoured. That for £95,288 we shall also discharge. Another bill (which being delivered back to be presented at the end of the ten days, I cannot recollect either the name of the holder or the sum) has been accepted. We are now without one shilling in the treasury or a possibility of having it recruited till the meeting of the Assembly...
25From Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates, 3 September 1780 (Jefferson Papers)
I am extremely mortifyed at the Misfortune incurred in the South and the more so as the Militia of our State concurred so eminently in producing it. We have sent from Chesterfield a week ago 350 regulars, 50 more march tomorrow, and there will be 100, or 150 still to go thence as fast as they come out of the Hospital. Our new recruits begin to rendezvous about the 10th: inst. and may all be...
26From Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates, 15 August 1780 (Jefferson Papers)
Your favor of Aug. 3. is just now put into my hands. Those formerly received have been duly answered and will no doubt have reached you before this date. My last letter to you was by Colo. Drayton. I spoke fully with you on the difficulty of procuring waggons here when I had the pleasure of seeing you, and for that reason pressed the sending back as many as possible. One brigade of twelve has...
27From George Washington to Major General Horatio Gates, 12 August 1780 (Washington Papers)
Nothing material has occurred since my last of the 8th: We are impatiently waiting the arrival of the second division of the French Fleet and Army, upon which the commencement of our operations in a great measure intirely depends. In mine of the 18th July I desired you to make frequent communications of the situation of affairs to the Southward—I cannot forbear repeating my wish on this...
28From George Washington to Major General Horatio Gates, 8 August 1780 (Washington Papers)
I was yesterday evening favored with your letter of the 21st of June. A few days since upon Col. Kosciusco’s application for leave to serve to the Southward, he obtained my permission, and I suppose designs setting out immediately. Capn Dallizen accompanies him. Gen: Clinton having gone up the Sound apparently with the intention of operating against the French armament at Rhode Island this...
29From Thomas Jefferson to Horatio Gates, 4 August 1780 (Jefferson Papers)
Your several favors of July 19. 21. and 22. are now before me. I have enquired into the state of the Cartouch boxes which were sent from our magazine. The Quarter master assures me they were in very good order. I must therefore conclude that the 300 complained of by Genl. Stevens were some sent from Petersburg by the Continental Quarter master or that they were pillaged of the leather on the...
30From George Washington to Major General Horatio Gates, 22 July 1780 (Washington Papers)
Since I wrote You on the 18th I have received a Letter from Genl Muhlenberg of the 11th transmitting me a List of the Officers mentioned below, belonging to Colo. Gist’s Regiment, who were omitted in the Return he sent me before —and in consequence were not included in the Arrangement intended to take place for the present with respect to the Virginia Drafts, which I inclosed You. These...
31From George Washington to Major General Horatio Gates, 18 July 1780 (Washington Papers)
I have been informed by a Letter, with which His Excellency Governor Jefferson has just honoured me, that the Legislature of Virginia had a Bill depending before them, for raising Five Thousand Men to serve Eighteen months, for supplying their Battallions; and I have been requested by him to make some provision for Officering them. No mode has occurred to me more proper for the present, than...
32George Washington to Major General Horatio Gates, 4 June 1780 (Hamilton Papers)
Morristown [ New Jersey ] June 4, 1780 . Asks Gates “whether the situation of [his] private affairs will permit [him] to take the field this campaign or not.” Df , in writing of H, George Washington Papers, Library of Congress.
33From George Washington to Major General Horatio Gates, 4 June 1780 (Washington Papers)
As the opening of the campaign is fast approaching, and it is time to form a general disposition of the Army with a view to it, it is essential I should know, as soon as possible, what General Officers will be present. For this purpose, I am to request you will inform me, without delay, whether the situation of your private affairs will permit you to take the feild this campaign or not, and if...
34From John Adams to Horatio Gates, 18 March 1780 (Adams Papers)
The Marquis de la Fayettes Brother, the Viscount de Noailles tells me, he should be glad to take Letters to America, and I dont know to whom I can give him a Letter with more Propriety than to the General of Saratoga. I should be proud to return any Civilities you may shew him to any of your Friends, who may travell to Paris. I want very much to know, what Scope the Ennemy have from New York,...
35From Benjamin Franklin to Horatio Gates, 5 March 1780 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: Library of Congress I embrace this Opportunity of the Marquis de La Fayette’s return to the Army, to Salute you, my dear old friend, and to present you with my best Wishes for your Health and prosperity. He will deliver you a Book lately published by General Burgoyn to explain and account for his misfortune. The perusal may amuse you to make the work compleat— Methinks he ought to have...
36From George Washington to Major General Horatio Gates, 17 November 1779 (Washington Papers)
Your Letter of the 15th came to hand this morning. My answer to that of the 8th was somewhat delayed by reason of my absence on a tour to the advanced posts of the Army, which threw a good many Letters in my way on my return, but being dispatched on the 13th it must have reached You soon after the date of Yours of the 15th. All prospect of a cooperation with the French fleet having ceased, and...
37From George Washington to Major General Horatio Gates, 16 November 1779 (Washington Papers)
I wrote to you on the 13th desiring you to continue your march to Peekskill or Kings Ferry. We have since that time recd advices of a disagreeable nature from the Southward. The following is the best account which I have been able to obtain from Major Clarkson, and which I give you for your private satisfaction only—as perhaps the official account may be somewhat different. Much more time...
38From George Washington to Major General Horatio Gates, 13 November 1779 (Washington Papers)
I have been favored with your letter of the 8th advising me of your march to Hartford, and that you expected the whole would reach that place to-day. You will be pleased to proceed by such a route as you may judge the most eligible and direct to Peck-kill or Kings-ferry. And if it is your opinion, that Col. Greenes Regiment can be usefully employed in the State of Rhode-Island, you may give...
39From George Washington to Major General Horatio Gates, 2 November 1779 (Washington Papers)
After my letter of yesterday was dispatched—I received your favor of the 27th Ulto from Major Armstrong by Express, from Peekskill. The Major said he had been detained by a want of horses and bad roads—& being charged with dispatches more immediately for Congress—he was prevented from calling on me as he wished. I regret the disappointment—as it possibly may have deprived me of information of...
40From George Washington to Major General Horatio Gates, 1 November 1779 (Washington Papers)
Major General Greene communicated to me on friday last a letter from Mr Bowen D.Q.M.G., giving an account of the total evacuation of Rhode Island, on the night of the 25th Ultimo. Not hearing from you on this event, I have concluded that your express must have met with some accident; and under this idea I communicated Mr Bowen’s advice for the satisfaction of Congress. I am anxious to learn...
41From George Washington to Major General Horatio Gates, 22 October 1779 (Washington Papers)
I was, in due time, favd with yours of the 15th I very much approve of your intention of marching immediately to Har[t]ford, with the Continental and State troops under your command, should the evacuation of Rhode Island take place. I will not undertake to decide upon the propriety of throwing a Garrison of Militia into Newport, because, it in a great measure depends upon the pleasure of the...
42From George Washington to Major General Horatio Gates, 16 October 1779 (Washington Papers)
I have been duly honored with yours of the 8th 11th and 13th instants, which I deferred answering immediately, as I have been in hourly expectation of receiving accounts from the southward which would inform me with certainty of the event of Count D’Estaings operations in that quarter and whether, and when he might be reasonably expected in this: But I have not received a Syllable since mine...
43II. From George Washington to Major General Horatio Gates, 3 October 1779 (Washington Papers)
I transmit you by Express, an Extract of a Letter of the 26th Ulto which I have just received from His Excellency, the president of Congress, accompanied by an Act of the same date, of which the inclosed is a Copy. The transcripts of the Letters to Monsr Gerard, mentioned in the Act, by some means have been omitted to be sent. I have no other information with respect to Count D’Estaings...
44From George Washington to Major General Horatio Gates, 2 October 1779 (Washington Papers)
I have duly received your two favors of the 24th and 25th Ultimo. The proceedings of the Court Martial on Milligan are herewith returned. I do not conceive it necessary for me to take any order in a case which you are fully authorised to determine; and to which, from your situation and knowlege of circumstances you must be more competent. In my letter of the 29th, you will find an answer to...
45From George Washington to Major General Horatio Gates, 29 September 1779 (Washington Papers)
I have been favd with yours of the 9th and 17th instants. The former, inclosing Copy of a letter from Lt Edwards respecting the Commissary of prisoners department—A representation from Colo. Webbs Officers on the subject of their Commissions—and extract of a letter from Colo. Chase D.Q.M.G. at Boston. The latter, containing Copy of a letter from the Officers captured in the Sandwich packet. Mr...
46From George Washington to Major General Horatio Gates, 14 September 1779 (Washington Papers)
I have been favd with yours of the 5th and 6th instants. I sincerely hope, that the intelligence communicated in the latter may prove true. It is corroborated by two other arrivals at New London; and four sailors, who deserted a few nights ago from a Sloop of War in the North River, declare that advice had been received of the arrival of a French Fleet at the Hook; but having heard nothing of...
47From Alexander Hamilton to Major General Horatio Gates, 4 September 1779 (Hamilton Papers)
[ West Point ] September 4, 1779 . Requests that Gates forward letter from Conrad Alexandre Gérard to Baron von Steuben. ALS , New-York Historical Society, New York City.
48From George Washington to Major General Horatio Gates, 28 August 1779 (Washington Papers)
On the 24th instant a New-York paper announced the arrival of a 74 Ship—(one of Admiral Arbuthnot’s) and that the whole fleet were about 30 leagues Eastward. Our advices since confirm their arrival in the Hook on the 25th. I have not yet learned what regiments, it has brought, or the general amount of the reinforcement. I have been favored with your account to Col. Hay. I wish for a...
49From George Washington to Major General Horatio Gates, 24 August 1779 (Washington Papers)
I have been duly favored with your letter of the 13th inst. The situation of the prisoners at Rutland seems to make it necessary, to give one of them the permission which is asked. But to render this of as little advantage as possible to the enemy, you will be pleased to order him to Rhode Island, to proceed from thence, by water to New-York, and return by the same passage to Rutland. It will...
50From George Washington to Major General Horatio Gates, 17 August 1779 (Washington Papers)
I have recd your favr of the 11th instant. From the progress of General Lovells operations at Penobscot, I should have little doubt of his success, were it not for the Reinforcement said to have gone from New York (notice of which I transmitted the Council of Massachusetts) which I fear will arrive before General McLean can be brought to surrender. It will at least render the Work more...