1. Johnston and Howell are referring to a letter from GW’s secretary Robert Hanson Harrison to Capt. Joseph Baldesqui, written at New Windsor on this date. The letter has not been identified, but the draft reads: “The Honorable the Congress having been pleased by their Resolution of the 17th of May last to direct that you should settle the Accounts of General Count pulaski’s Legion, and the Auditors of Accounts for the main Army, in pursuance of Instructions from the Honorable the Board of Treasury, having applied to his Excellency the Commander in Chief, to direct you to do the same—I have it in command to inform you, that you are to adjust and settle the said Accounts with Messrs Johnson & Howel, Auditors—previous to your going from this place—unless you receive permission for the same hereafter from his Excellency or some other proper authority” (DLC:GW). Congress had received a report on 17 May from Johnston that stated it was “impracticable to settle” the accounts of Pulaski’s Legion “for want of regularity in keeping those accounts and of proper vouchers” (JCC, description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds. Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. 34 vols. Washington, D.C., 1904–37. description ends 14:598). Congressional action on that date required that Baldesqui “be detained until he shall have settled the Accounts of the Legion” (John Jay to Benjamin Lincoln, 30 May, in Smith, Letters of Delegates, description begins Paul H. Smith et al., eds. Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789. 26 vols. Washington, D.C., 1976–2000. description ends 12:554; see also Casimir Pulaski to Congress, 4 and 18 Feb., and 28 March, all DNA:PCC, item 164).

Joseph Baldesqui became a captain and paymaster in Pulaski’s Legion in May 1778. Baldesqui described how he came to join the Continental army, and his subsequent experiences, in an undated memorial to Congress, which that body considered on 11 Dec. 1779. That item reads: “I was taken with a Very Valuable Vessel, & Cargo my own property, (which I had fitted out destined for these states) and Carried to New york, where I was a prisoner five month in the Most Loathsome, & Distrerssing Confinement on board a prison ship, from which I made my escape by swiming to the Jersay shore.

“it was at that time that I Met with General Count Pulaski, with whom I had been acquainted in france, he Desired me to accept a commission in his corps … The Certifficate that I Join here proves how I have behaved in that Corps, and permit me to assure you that I have expended Nearly Twenty Thousands pounds in your service. but Neither this, nor my sufferances (great as they are) pains me Most; my Reputation has been Wounded by a resolution of your honourable house passed the 17th of may Last, founded on an unhappy Misrepresentation of the States of my accounts, arising I have no Doubt altogether from a Misaprehension of facts; these accounts have Since been settled to my honour, & satisfaction as it appears by the certifficate of M[ess]rs Johnston & howell auditors of the Main army, which I also transmitt before your eyes; but the resolution refferred to stands uncontradicted by any subsequent act of your honourable house. it has been printed in your Journals, and will make impressions highly injurious to my integrity & honour, these impressions I am anxious to have effaced as Much as possible, which can only be done by an other act as publick as the former, declaring my innocence in the Matter in question, and by granting to my Past services, & Laudible ambition a brevet of Major, what would sufficiently prove your being satisfied of me” (DNA:PCC, item 41; see also JCC, description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds. Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. 34 vols. Washington, D.C., 1904–37. description ends 15:1368). Congress did not act on Baldesqui’s request for a brevet and accepted his resignation on 29 Dec. (see JCC, description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds. Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. 34 vols. Washington, D.C., 1904–37. description ends 15:1417-18).

2. These instructions from John Gibson have not been identified.

3. Baldesqui apparently traveled to Philadelphia and wrote a letter on 28 July that prompted Congress to adopt a resolution on 29 July, reading: “That the Board of Treasury be authorized to cause the accounts of the said legion, for the reason set forth in the said letter, to be settled on such proofs as in the discretion of the auditors or commissioners of accounts shall be judged satisfactory” (JCC, description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds. Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. 34 vols. Washington, D.C., 1904–37. description ends 14:895). Congress finally approved Baldesqui’s accounts on 28 Dec., indicating that he “discharged his duty with strict integrity and honor” (JCC, description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds. Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. 34 vols. Washington, D.C., 1904–37. description ends 15:1414; see also Samuel Huntington to Baldesqui, 30 Dec., in Smith, Letters of Delegates, description begins Paul H. Smith et al., eds. Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789. 26 vols. Washington, D.C., 1976–2000. description ends 14:310-11, and n.1 above).