‘Till your letter of the 17th Ulto reached my hands, I had no conception that you were still absent from your Regiment—I am so far from yielding to your request to be tried on the charges exhibited against you, at Philadelphia or Hd Quarters, that you will receive this as a positive order to repair immediately to the Southern Army, where you may have an honourable acquittal if innocent—and an oppertunity of rendering your Country that Service which is due to your pay & subsistence, & to the proper feelings of every soldier.

You need be under no apprehension of an unfair or prejudiced trial—admitting your objection, in its greatest latitude to be good, which I can by no means suppose—there are a competent number of Officers belonging to the States of No. & So. Carolina and Virga to constitute a Court for your trial who can be actuated by no other motives than that of Justice. I am Sir yr Most Hble Servt