1To George Washington from Arthur St. Clair, 3 September 1783 (Washington Papers)
In case that Congress should think proper to direct a Peace Establishment there are some Gentlemen of the Pennsylvania Line who wish to be employed and have requested me to mention them to your Excellency. They are Colonel Richard Butler; Lieut. Colonels Harmer; and Mentges; Major Moore Capt. Bowen and Capt. Zeigler of the Infantry; and Captain Armstrong of Lee’s Legion. The Characters of the...
2To George Washington from Arthur St. Clair, 2 July 1783 (Washington Papers)
The unfortunate and disgraceful Event that has lately taken Place in Philadelphia must have occasioned your Excellency much Uneasiness, and you ought to have received an account of it from me; but I was prevented from giving it by the very ill state of my Health, and the total uselessness of my right Hand from a violent Return of the Gout which I have not been one Day free from since the...
3To George Washington from Arthur St. Clair, 17 April 1783 (Washington Papers)
Your very friendly and obliging Letter of the 19th of feby was Yesterday, together with the Order your refer to transmitted by General Hand, delivered to me on my Way to this City—there seems a strange Fatality to attend Letters that come to me thro’ the War Office, and from that Circumstance I must have suffered the Suspicion of inattention at least. I am fully sensible of the Necessity there...
4To George Washington from Arthur St. Clair, 26 November 1782 (Washington Papers)
Agreeable to my Promise I ought, in a very few Days to set out on my Return to the Army, but, I am sorry to say it, I find it will be impossible at the Time I proposed, as I am now as far from having compleated the Purposes for which your Excellency was pleased to allow me to be absent as the Day of my Arrival. I have had several Interviews with Mr Morris. He says, and I am sure it is so, that...
5To George Washington from Arthur St. Clair, 24 October 1782 (Washington Papers)
I have been thinking about the proposed Reduction of the Corps in the Army and it appears to me to be a very injudicious Measure. The Time is ill chosen—It cannot be carried into Execution without doing flagrant Injustice, and delivering over to instant wretchedness a number of Men who have, certainly, a Claim to the Gratitude of their Country—and a Suspension of it, at the same time that it...
6To George Washington from Arthur St. Clair, 10 September 1782 (Washington Papers)
I have been informed by Colonel Magaw, who is lately returned from Head Quarters that your Excellency had made some Enquiries about me, and the Time I proposed to go on to the Army—If your Excellency will please to recollect you proposed to point out the Time it would be necessary, and as I have received no Intimation of that kind; nor have heard with certainty whether any Command was pointed...
7To George Washington from Arthur St. Clair, 4 February 1782 (Washington Papers)
Your very obliging Letter of the 30th of November came to Hand a few Days ago and the Resolve of Congress enclosed in it was immediatly communicated to the Troops with which they appeared to be highly satisfied. Nothing could have been more acceptable than the kind Manner your Excellency has been pleased to speak of my Conduct—I do indeed aspire to your Approbation, and flatter myself that in...
8To George Washington from Arthur St. Clair, 26 November 1781 (Washington Papers)
On the 22d instant I arrived at Williamsbourough in North Carolina to which place I had gone in advance of the Troops (leaving them to be conducted from Petersburgh by General Wayne) in order to settle the Route it would be proper to persue and take the necessary measures for provisions. A report had prevailed, for a day or two, that the Enemy had evacuated Wilmington, and there I received...
9To George Washington from Arthur St. Clair, 14 November 1781 (Washington Papers)
On the Afternoon of the 9th instant I arrived at this place, and this day will have all the Troops and Stores over the River. You will doubtless be surprised at the time that the Passage will have taken up, and indeed it has been a very mortifying delay to me; but notwithstanding that Major Clayborne, the Quarter Masr Genl for the State had been sent forward to make the necessary preparations...
10To George Washington from Arthur St. Clair, 3 November 1781 (Washington Papers)
General Greenes Army, by the Return, including The Cavalry & Artillery amounts to 2719 Waynes & Gists Brigades to 2112 The Cavalry & Virginia Infantry, suppose 500 5331 The Cloth in Gerlach’s Invoice will make, Coats & Vests for 899 Uniforms made 420 With Genl Greene
11To George Washington from Arthur St. Clair, 29 September 1781 (Washington Papers)
I have been honoured with your Excellencys Letter of the 15th instt which came to hand on the 26th—previous to the receipt of it Congress had ordered me to draw all the Levies of this State to Philadelphia from an Apprehension, that strongly prevailed, and some Intelligence they credited, that Sir Henry Clinton with a Body of about five thousand Men intended, by way of Diversion to your...
12To George Washington from Arthur St. Clair, 20 July 1781 (Washington Papers)
I have received your Excellencys Letter of the 10th instant, and am very sorry that the Situation of Affairs and the State of the Army will not permit my being employed in that part of it under your Excellencys immediate Command. I shall therefore prepare for a southern March; but there is no probability that it can take Place very soon, as there will be much difficulty and delay in equipping...
13To George Washington from Arthur St. Clair, 4 July 1781 (Washington Papers)
By your Excellency’s Letter of the 23 of June I find that you expect me to go on to the southward as soon as the State shall have such a Number of Troops in their Line as will give me a suitable command; and that the Time of my joining the army must depend on that Circumstance. I must have misunderstood your Excellency very much about this matter, or there is some mistake in it—I think you...
14To George Washington from Arthur St. Clair, 24 June 1781 (Washington Papers)
I have now the Satisfaction to inform your Excellency that a Bill passed the Legislature of this State Yesterday from which there is Reason to expect that a considerable Reinforcement will be added to the Line. The Principle of it is to oblige the Classes of the Inhabitants to find a Man each, and in case of Delinquency the County Commissioner is required to provide one, without limitation of...
15To George Washington from Arthur St. Clair, 16 June 1781 (Washington Papers)
Upon my Arrival at this Place I found the Assembly met, and no apparent Disposition amongst them to do any thing to forward the recruiting service—indeed a Passage in the Presidents Message which represents the line as in respectable strength seemed calculated to induce them to believe it unnecessary. I therefore thought it my duty to call their Attention to that object and wrote the Speaker...
16To George Washington from Arthur St. Clair, 21 May 1781 (Washington Papers)
A gentleman is just now arrived here who left New York last Thursday. He says that the British, from every thing he could learn, are certainly about to evacuate that Place—that he is pretty well assured there are not more than eight hundred Troops there, and another Embarkation on foot; that he actually saw some Vessels with Horses on Board, and some of the Troops with their Knapsacks on ready...
17To George Washington from Arthur St. Clair, 15 April 1781 (Washington Papers)
I have been favoured with your Excellencys Letter of the 8th Inst: which has been in Part answered by mine of the 6th: in that however I was too sanguine as to the Time when the Detachment would march, which I fear it will not do in less than three weeks yet—The Application from the State to Congress for a Loan of so much Money as was necessary to put it in motion miscarried, and there is now...
18To George Washington from Arthur St. Clair, 6 April 1781 (Washington Papers)
My last to your Excellency was of the Second of March since which an excrutiating fit of the Gout, which still deprives me of my right hand, has rendered me almost totally incapable of business. as soon however as I was able to bear any motion, I had myself brought down here to be at hand to forward the preparations for marching the detachment, and to keep the Assembly in mind of the necessity...
19To George Washington from Major General Arthur St. Clair, 2 March 1781 (Washington Papers)
Your Excellencys Letters of the 3d and 13th of February came duly to hand, but I delayed answering them from an Expectation that you was a⟨bs⟩ent from the Army, and because I had nothing explicit to inform you of with regard to the Recruiting, that Business not having come before the Assembly untill yesterday, although General Wayne, General Irvine and myself have constantly attended to press...
20To George Washington from Major General Arthur St. Clair, 17 January 1781 (Washington Papers)
In Obedience to your Excellencys Desire by your favour of the 12th, I set out the night before last from Morris Town and got to this Place this Morning, where I have had an interview with Colonell Butler. My Information with Respect to the Negotiation which I communicated on the 15th was right —The Terms of it are that all those enlisted for the Bounty of twenty Dollars, and whose Enlistments...
21To George Washington from Major General Arthur St. Clair, 14-15 January 1781 (Washington Papers)
Morristown, N.J., 14–15 Jan. 1781 . “Negotiations with mutineers; settlement of the enlistment question; quietness of the British; wish to return to Pennsylvania; detachment to be ordered to the Pennsylvania huts.” The remainder of the letter reads: “Janry 15th. Since writing the above I have received Your Excellencys Letter of the 12th and can now inform You with certainty that Terms are...
22To George Washington from Major General Arthur St. Clair, 11 January 1781 (Washington Papers)
I was favoured last Night with a Letter from the Comittee of Congress dated the 9th Instant; by which I am informed that the Mutineers were on their March to Trenton; that Matters wore a favourable Aspect with regard to them, and there were great Hopes that every thing would be accommodated in an amicable Manner. But as there is no mention made of the Principles I fear Governor Reeds Proposals...
23To George Washington from Major General Arthur St. Clair, 9 January 1781 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found : from Maj. Gen. Arthur St. Clair, 9 Jan. 1781. On 12 Jan., GW wrote St. Clair regarding “your letter of the 9th.”
24To George Washington from Major General Arthur St. Clair, 8 January 1781 (Washington Papers)
Your Excellency will have received an Account of the serious Nature of the Mutiny of the Pennsylvania Troops and their apparent Disposition to keep Post at Prince Town by the Marquis’s Letters and mine of Yesterday. Since Which we have no Accounts from them—but last Night a Person was sent to Us, charged with a Letter to their Leaders by Sir Henry Clinton who with Genl Kyhausen, is upon...
25To George Washington from Major General Arthur St. Clair, 7 January 1781 (Washington Papers)
Your Excellency has heard of the shameful Defection of the Pennsylvania Line, and I am very much concerned to inform You that as yet, there is no Prospect that we know of of any Desire appearing in them to return to their Duty. I happened to be in Philadelphia the Day the Accounts of it arrived there, and set out early next morning in Company with the Marquis de la fayette to make trial of...
26To George Washington from Major General Arthur St. Clair, 2 November 1780 (Washington Papers)
In cantoning the Troops there are two Objects which seem to claim particular Attention—The securing West Point; and covering Jersey in such a manner as to preserve an easy communication with Pennsylvania. But West Point requires 2800 Men, and for the northern Posts dependent upon it, and the necessary Detatchments below, a thousand more will not be an extravagant Allowance. I will suppose that...
27To George Washington from Major General Arthur St. Clair, 7 October 1780 (Washington Papers)
I received your Excellencys letter of yesterday and am very glad that you have ordered up the Troops which are to compose the Garrison, as it is very necessary they should be here, that Things may be got into some kind of order before the Winter. at present they are very much deranged. The laying in a proper stock of fire wood is a very heavy, but a very essential Business, and the Militia...
28To George Washington from Major General Arthur St. Clair, 9 September 1780 (Washington Papers)
The Attack upon New York always appeared to me a very doubtful and hazardous Enterprise. I think it now out of the Question altogether, from the advanced Season of the Year; the scantiness of our Force; the precariousness of our Supplies; and the want of a sufficient Fleet, in which a decided Superiority is necessary to give the Undertaking the least probability of Success. If the second...
29To George Washington from Major General Arthur St. Clair, 12 July 1780 (Washington Papers)
The Fleet having entered the Bay of New York, and that City being the Object, it appears necessary to pass some Vessels of Force through the Narrows in order to oblige the Ennemy to discover their Intention with regard to Staaten Island. If they do not mean to keep Possession of it the Garrison will be instantly withdrawn. But it may be that they may chuse to sacrifice some Part of their...
30To George Washington from Major General Arthur St. Clair, 3 July 1780 (Washington Papers)
The Reduction of New York together with the british Army, is certainly, of all Others, the most desirable Object, as it would put an immediate End to the War; But the Siege of any Place, altho’ not regularly fortified, furnished with such a Garrison as that will be, is a very serious Business, and tho’ it may finally succeed, carries not with it that Degree of probability that, in our...