To Alexander Hamilton from Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, 12 July 1799
From Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
Charleston [South Carolina] July 12, 1799. “… I have found many officers in my division very fond of throwing off their uniform & appearing in frocks. I have directed them always to wear their uniforms; we discussed, & I think agreed on the propriety of that measure at Philadelphia,1 but I do not see it in the regulations. I wish some general rule was made on the subject, and particularly that the same system in every respect should be adhered to in my division which you establish in yours. Our artillery Corps here are very thin, I will be obliged to you to give them directions to recruit.”
ALS, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress.
1. This question was discussed at the conferences which H, George Washington, Pinckney, and James McHenry held in Philadelphia in November and December, 1798. See “Queries propounded by the Commander in Chief to Majors Genl. Hamilton & Pinckney,” November 10, 1798, printed as the second enclosure to Washington to H, November 12, 1798.