To George Washington from Henry Knox, 23 August 1792
From Henry Knox
New-York 23d August 1792
Sir
The express, with your letter of the 15th instant and Mr Seagroves and Major Calls dispatches, arrived at the War office about the hour of twelve on the 21st instant, and I received the letters by express yesterday in this City.1
I shall return to Philadelphia either to day or tomorrow, and will immediately take up the subjects of Mr Seagroves communications, in conjunction with the secretary of the treasury, and submit the result sir to you.2
Major Gaither has probably arrived and will soon be on the frontiers of Georgia. The Mr Rosecrantz of whom you are pleased to inquire appears to have been an agent of Gen. Waynes, employed through Capt. Cass at Fort Franklin, to obtain information of the movements of the Senekas.3
The dangerous situation of Major Washington is greatly to be regretted, I sincerely pray he may recover and again comfort his friends, by his virtues and amiable qualities.4 I have the honor to be sir with the highest respect Your obedient Servant
H. Knox
ALS, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW.
1. Knox left Philadelphia for a visit to New York City on the morning of 18 Aug. (see Knox to GW, 17 August). James Seagrove’s dispatches included his letters to GW of 5 and 27 July and his letters to Knox of the same dates. Those from Maj. Richard Call have not been identified.
2. For the result of Knox’s meeting with Hamilton, see Knox to GW, 28 and 31 Aug. (second letter).
3. Knox wrote to Anthony Wayne on 13 July 1792: “The President of the United States has directed Major [Henry] Gaither to repair to Georgia, to take the command of the troops there—Major Call will be ordered to join you” ( 32). Call’s reputed intemperance was the reason for this change in command (see Seagrove to GW, 5 July, and GW to Knox, 19 Aug. 1792).
In a letter of 27 July from Pittsburgh, Wayne had informed Knox that he expected Nicholas Rosecrantz to “accompany the Legation of the Five Nations to the Grand Council of the Hostile Indians, he speaks the Seneka, Delaware, & Shawanese Language’s” ( 47–48).
Capt. Jonathan Cass (1753–1830), a native of New Hampshire and a veteran of the Revolutionary War, was appointed a captain in the U.S. Army on 4 Mar. 1791 and promoted to major on 21 Feb. 1793. He resigned from active duty on 15 Feb. 1801. Fort Franklin was located at the mouth of French Creek, in present-day Franklin, Pennsylvania.
4. GW’s nephew George Augustine Washington, who was ill with tuberculosis, died on 5 Feb. 1793.