To George Washington from Samuel Huntington, 28 August 1780
From Samuel Huntington
Philadelphia August 28. 1780
Sir,
Your Excellency will receive herewith enclosed two Acts of Congress of the 12. & 24. Instant making farther Provision for the Army in their present difficult Situation, more especially the Officers and Widows of Officers that have fallen, or may hereafter die in the Service.1 Congress have now under Consideration the Subject of Depreciation, in order to settle a just Scale of Depreciation for the Army, with as much Accuracy as the Nature of the Case will admit.2
I am this Day honored with your Excellency’s important Letter of the 20. Instant, which is referred to a Committee, and will no Doubt engage the serious Attention of Congress.3
We have received by this Days Post, just arrived; Intelligence from the Southward that General Gates has formed a Junction with a Body of Troops under General Caswell, within the State of South Carolina, as also various Accounts of some Advantages gained by our Troops in several Rencounters with Detachments of the Enemy, which, so soon as they can be digested and reduced to a proper Degree of Certainty, I shall do myself the Honor to communicate for your Information.4 I have the Honor to be with the highest respect your Excellencys most obedient servant
Sam. Huntington President
LS, DLC:GW; LB, DNA:PCC, item 15. GW replied to Huntington on 6 September.
1. Huntington enclosed a resolution adopted on 12 Aug. after “Congress took into Consideration the report of the Committee on the Memorial of the General Officers” (DLC:GW; see also , 17:725–27, and GW to Henry Knox, 17 July, n.1). He also enclosed a resolution adopted on 24 Aug. concerning rations for “Officers of the line of the Army commanding Corps when in Camp.” A resolution adopted on 25 Aug. is copied at the bottom: “That the half pay of General Officers, be proportioned to their pay” (DLC:GW; see also , 17:770–73, 777–78). The full enclosures appear in the general orders for 5 September.
2. For complications related to depreciation pay for officers, see the Board of War to GW, this date, and GW to the Board of War, 5 September.
3. See GW to Huntington, 20 Aug.; see also Ephraim Blaine to GW, 12 Sept., n.2.
4. Huntington probably never wrote his letter digesting apparently favorable military developments in the southern department, because he next reported the Continental army’s defeat near Camden (see Huntington to GW, 31 Aug.; see also John Armstrong to GW, 31 Aug.). For another erroneous report of good news regarding the Continental army in South Carolina, see the entry for 25 Aug. in , 260.