To George Washington from Brigadier General William Irvine, 1 January 1780
From Brigadier General William Irvine
Crane’s Mills [N.J.]1 January 1st 1780
Sir
My reasons for taking Post here; in preferrence to Westfield, were, not only on account of a better neighborhood for Cantoning the Troops, but also that it is more convenient both to Elizabethtown & Raway—about five miles from each of these places and ten from Woodbridge—The inclosed is from Lt Colonel Olney who Commands at Elizabethtown2—the person he alludes to lives in that Town, & has I am informed, been frequently employed on the same business as I do not know the man cant say what degree of credit he deserves—General Maxwell can inform your Excellency on this head.3
As General Parsons told me he would inform your Excellency fully of the difficulties that attended this Post for Want of Provision & other matters I shall not at present trouble you with it4—I am clearly of opinion it will be impracticable to put an entire stop to Trade—whilst so many Flaggs pass & such a Vast number of people in them—it is more than employment for an Officer to examin all their letters and packages—without paying attention to his Guard. I am With the greatest Esteem Your Excellencys Most Obedient Servant
Wm Irvine
P.S: It is reported that two of the Enemys fleet are drove on Shore at South Amboy—and that the Militia of that place are on Board—the particulars I have not yet been able to learn.5
ALS, DLC:GW; ADf, PHi: William Irvine Papers.
1. Crane’s Mills (now Cranford), N.J., was located along the Rahway River approximately four miles west of Elizabeth, New Jersey (see Map 2). Stephen Crane constructed a sawmill and a gristmill in the area in the late seventeenth century, and his descendants John and Joseph Crane continued to operate the mills during the Revolution.
2. The enclosed letter from Lt. Col. Jeremiah Olney to Irvine, dated 31 Dec. 1779 at Elizabeth, N.J., reads: “Your favr of yesterday have Received. Shall attend Strictly to Your directions Respecting the Flagg Drifted on the meadow’s have Sent an officer & party to Git of[f] the Flagg if possible, as there is not the least Doubt but ’tis the Same Taken by the Deserters from D’Harts point—Your favr to Mr Clark have Seal’d & forwarded—Mr H[atfiel]d who I Sent on Staton Island wednesday Evening for Intelligence, Return’d this Morning & Confirms the Report of the Fleet’s Sailing on Sunday last from the Hook, Consisting of about 200 Sail. haveing on Bord between Ten & Fourteen thousand Troops—Sr Harry Clinton & Lord Cornwallace have Saild with the Fleet—There distination is Georgia—Genl Knephausen Commands at New York—Genl Skinner Commands on Staton Island, where are at present Buskirk’s Lord Rodons. Bartons. & the 57 Regmt with the Queens Rangers—have Just Dispatch’d a Flagg with Colonel Simco & Colonel Billop—I Sent those Gentlemen in preference to others, who have been longer waiting for very Obvious Reasons” (DLC:GW).
3. On the draft, Irvine included the following text in place of the last twenty-five words: “I am also told he is employed on the other side—for which reason he shall not go again without your Excellencys Express orders—Col: Olneys reason for pushing off Cols. Simco & Billop was he had reason to fear they were making connections in Town.”
4. Irvine’s detachment had relieved Brig. Gen. Samuel Holden Parsons’s detachment on the lines near Elizabeth, N.J. (see General Orders, 26 Dec. 1779). Parsons probably made a verbal report to GW; no letter from Parsons to GW on this subject has been found. In his draft, Irvine explained these “difficulties”: “I beg leave to represent to your Excellency that the number of Troops assigned to this Command is by no means Sufficient—the Coast is so extensive that more than half are constantly on duty—I think 1000 men would be few enough—Two days Provision is eaten by the time the Troops arrive here; then it takes two days to relieve the out Posts—all which time they are generally without a mouthfull—General Parsons I presume has informed your Excellency that he was to Act as Commissary—Quartermaster—in short every thing—I have been in the same situation being obliged to Borrow—Corn, Buckwheat &ca from the Inhabitants to keep the Men from sta⟨r⟩ving—I know not yet how they will be paid[.] It gives me great pain to trouble you with Complaints—but they are facts tha⟨t⟩ cannot be concealed—Men will not—cannot be kept together long without Provisions.”
5. Irvine is referring to the British fleet that sailed from New York Harbor on 26 Dec. 1779 carrying an expeditionary army to Georgia and South Carolina. The wrecked ships may have been two of the ones reported in The New Jersey Gazette (Trenton) of 12 Jan.: “PHILADELPHIA, January 6. By a gentleman from Brunswick [N.J.], which place he left last Tuesday [4 Jan.] morning, wer are informed, that in the late snow storm a large copper bottom brig of 20 guns and 120 men, belonging to the enemy, was drove ashore near Middletown Point [N.J.], and about 80 of the men taken prisoners, the rest having escaped in a boat; and that 20 hogsheads of rum and 4 pipes of wine, &c. were found on board her. A British store ship was also driven ashore at the same time. The same gentleman says, he was informed at Brunswick, that a British 40 gun ship had been drove ashore near Egg-Harbour [N.J.], and 100 of her men perished, and the rest taken prisoners, and that a number of transports that left New-York lately, had been drove ashore, and lost.”
Under a dateline of 11 Jan., from Philadelphia, the same paper reported: “We are informed by a gentleman, who arrived in this city, from Egg-Harbour yesterday afternoon, that the British ship of war Roebuck of 44 guns, a frigate of 28 guns, a small armed vessel and a transport, have been drove ashore near that place.” The British frigate Roebuck was not wrecked.