From George Washington to Major General Horatio Gates, 17 November 1779
To Major General Horatio Gates
West point Novr 17th 1779
Sir
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,1 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,2 and the Enemy having their whole force at New York and at it’s immediate dependencies, without any appearances at this time, of detaching more than four Thousand Men (which is but equal to the Garrison lately at Rhode Island,3 or the Reinforcements which came under convoy of Admiral Arbuthnot and Sir Andrew Hammond)4 I am obliged to make my disposition for the Winter, with an eye to these circumstances and the abilities of the Quarter Master—Forage Master & Commissary to support us with provision—forage and the means of transporting them to the places of Cantonment.5
Accordingly, the following is the Arrangement I have made, as best calculated in my Judgement to answer those purposes and to cover the Country—secure this important post—and to guard the main army from insult, in it’s Winter quarters.
Moylans{BR
Sheldons {A} Dragoons—East of Danbury
Baylors{CE}
Poor’s Brigade at Danbury.
1st 2d 3d & 4th Massachusetts Brigades at West point—King’s ferry & Continental Village. From these Brigades a light party of 3 or 400 Men to be relieved once a fortnight, is to be advanced with a small party of Horse towards Kingsbridge to cover the Country.
A small corps at the entrance of Smith’s Clove above Sufferans.
Lee’s partizan Corps with some light Troops to attend to the Monmouth shore.
The Heavy Artillery at Easton—the Light parke at Morristown or pluckemin.
The Main Army (from which Detachments for a fortnight will be made towards the North River & Staten Island) will lay on the heights—some where back of the Scot’s plain in Jersey.
I have been thus particular because it is my intention to offer You the command on the North River, in which will be included Poor’s Brigade and the Horse in Connecticut, if you should incline to accept it rather than a command in the main Army.6
To save the marching of Troops I should have been glad to have stopped the Regiments from Rhode Island at Danbury, & continued Poor’s where it now is, but there are some reasons which favour his going to that place. The one which operates strongest, is the desire of having the Regiments with you, which have not yet undergone the designed Arrangement of Congress, near Head Quarters, that they may be effected with more ease in the course of the Winter;7 but you will, as mentioned in my last, halt these Troops at Danbury till farther Orders,8 as I would not wish to draw them further till some other Arrangements are made & Poor’s Brigade ready to take their place. It will not be necessary however for You to remain there with them—but you will come forward to this post or to the Army, if it should have left it when you arrive, as your choice shall happen to be.9
The Four Brigades of Massachusetts, like those of the States in general, will suffer a considerable diminution in the course of the Winter. We are now verging fast towards the end of the three Years for which a great part of the Army was inlisted. Every day almost between this & Spring, will decrease our Force. I am sir Yr Most Obedt sert
Go: Washington
P.S. Yours of the 16th is come to hand.
LS, in Robert Hanson Harrison’s writing, NHi: Gates Papers; ADf, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW. The final paragraph and closing of GW’s draft are in Harrison’s writing. The postscript on the LS and the ADf is in the writing of GW’s aide-de-camp Tench Tilghman.
1. For GW’s departure from West Point on 7 Nov., see James McHenry to Clement Biddle, that date, found at GW to Moses Hazen, 6 Nov., n.5. GW returned to West Point on 10 November.
2. GW is referring to his intention to attack the British in and around New York City after rendezvousing with a French fleet under Vice Admiral d’Estaing. Due to the lateness of the season, GW had curtailed preparations for combined operations even before he received official notice of the American and French defeat at Savannah on 9 Oct. (see Samuel Huntington to GW, 10 Nov.; see also Planning for an Allied Attack on New York, c.3–7 Oct., editorial note, and GW to Gates, 16 Nov., and n.1 to that document).
3. For the British evacuation of Rhode Island on 25 Oct., see GW to Duportail and Alexander Hamilton, 30 Oct., and notes 1 and 2 to that document.
4. For the British reinforcement that arrived on this convoy in late August, see GW to John Jay, 11 Aug., n.5.
5. The search for suitable winter quarters did not end until late November (see Nathanael Greene to GW, 14 Nov., and n.1 to that document, and GW to Greene, 30 Nov., and n.2 to that document).
6. Gates declined this offer of command at West Point in a conversation with GW (see GW to Huntington, 27 Nov.). GW then chose Maj. Gen. William Heath to replace Maj. Gen. Alexander McDougall as commander at West Point (see GW’s two letters to Heath of 27 Nov. (letter 1; letter 2); see also McDougall to GW, 6, 16, and 21 Nov., and GW to McDougall, this date and 21 November).
7. GW is alluding to an arrangement under a congressional committee authorized in June 1778 (see 11:570, 676; see also General Orders, 9 Sept. 1778). Much of the committee’s work had been performed at White Plains, N.Y., during that August and September.
8. See GW to Gates, 16 November.
9. Gates reached Heath’s camp at Peekskill, N.Y., on 23 Nov. (see 237).