To George Washington from Major General Artemas Ward, 4 July 1776
From Major General Artemas Ward
Boston 4 July 1776
Sir
By yesterdays post I have the honour of your letter of the twenty sixth June and have this morning forwarded the two hundred Carbines agreeable to your directions. I have inclosed a Return of this Division of the Army. Also a Return of the Scotch Prisoners.1 By the next post I hope to be able to make a Return of the Scotch Cargoes.2
The Small pox prevails to such a degree3 in Boston, and so many of the Soldiers got the disorder, that I apprehend the remainder of them must soon be inoculated. I am Your Excellency’s Obedient Humble Servant
Artemas Ward
P.S. The Judgment of the Court of Enquiry respecting Lieut. Merril was by mistake not inclosed in my last, and is here inclosed.4
LS, DLC:GW; LB, MHi: Ward Papers.
1. The return of Ward’s division, dated 1 July and signed by Peleg Wadsworth, reports 2,526 “Effective Rank & File.” The commissioned officers total 172, and the noncommissioned officers total 201. Ward also enclosed a return of Capt. Edward Burbeck’s artillery company, dated 1 July and signed by Wadsworth, which shows a total of 65 officers and enlisted men. The enclosed “list of the number of Scotch hiland prisoners,” dated 4 July and signed by Joseph Otis, reports a total of 437 such prisoners, including 354 men, 55 women, and 28 children. All of these enclosures are in DLC:GW.
2. Ward sent these unidentified invoices to GW on 8 July under the cover of a one-sentence letter of transmittal (MHi: Ward Papers).
3. Ward’s secretary inadvertently wrote “dregree.”
4. See Ward to GW, 30 June. The report of the court of inquiry that considered Lt. Daniel Merrill’s case on 26 June is in DLC:GW. This court of inquiry, like the one that originally heard the case on 24 May, determined that Merrill was not guilty of illegal recruiting. For a discussion of the dispute that occasioned these inquiries, see GW to Ward, 13 May 1776, n.1.