From Alexander Hamilton to Colonel Timothy Pickering, [9 February 1781]
To Colonel Timothy Pickering
[New Windsor, New York, February 9, 1781]
Dr Sir.
The bad condition of my horses and the scarcity of forage in Camp induced me to leave them at Saratoga1 to recruit against the Campaign. I am shortly to make a journey with the General to Rhode Island for which I shall want horses.2 I therefore request the favour of you to furnish me with a couple of the best Continental horses that can be found. One for myself—the other for my portmanteau. The last need only be strong. I wish the former if possible to be decent. I shall want them in three or four days. I am Dr Sir
Yr most Obed
A Hamilton
ALS, RG 93, Revolutionary War Records, Miscellaneous Records, National Archives.
1. H had been in upstate New York in December, 1780, for his marriage to Elizabeth Schuyler at her father’s house in Albany. See “Registry of Marriage of Elizabeth Schuyler and Alexander Hamilton,” December 14, 1780 (, II, 521).
2. H was preparing to accompany George Washington to Newport, Rhode Island, for a conference with the French commander, Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau. Washington postponed the trip until March 2. See Washington to Rochambeau, February 15, 1781 (LS, George Washington Papers, Library of Congress).