To George Washington from Colonel Daniel Morgan, 30 June 1778
From Colonel Daniel Morgan
10 oclock 30th June 78
Sir
The enemy are encampd that is the rear of them, at Nut swamp1—I am within three miles in thair rear—I send you a deserter who is an intillegent fellow, and can give you a Better account of thair situation then I can—I am sending out small parties round them to take maroders and to fall in with thair small pa[r]ties.
if any thing worth notice should happen your excellency shall have the earliest notice of it—I congatulate your excellency on the Victory gaind over the British army—thay have from every account, had a severe floging—if I had got notice of thair situation—to afell upon them we could have taken most of them I think—we are all very unhappy that we did not share in the glory.2 I have the Honor to be Your obedient servt
Dan. Morgan
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. Nut Swamp was located about two miles south of Middletown, New Jersey.
2. Richard Kidder Meade replied for GW on this date in a letter from Englishtown: “His Excy recd your favor of this date & thanks you for your congratulations on the victory of the 28th. It was a happy event, & will do honor to him, & the american arms. The particulars you must patiently wait to hear until you join us. You were written to by the Genl this morning, for your Government, & to that I refer you” (NN: Myers Collection).
GW’s aide Tench Tilghman had written another letter to Morgan on this date from Englishtown “to the Care of General Dickinson, who will be pleased to forward it”: “His Excellency desires you to remain as near the Enemy as you possibly can untill they have all embarked. General Maxwell will remain somewhere in the Neighbourhood of Monmouth Court House to support you. You are to consider yourself left for two purposes—to cover the Country from incursions of the Enemy, and to afford a shelter for deserters to repair to, for which reason you are to shew yourself as often and as near as possible. The spirit of desertion that prevailed so much in the British Army will undoubtedly be heightened by their late ill fortune. Be pleased to keep an exact account of the deserters that come to you, that we may be able to form some judgment of the Numbers that have come from them since they left Philada…. P.S. The Commy will leave provision to the 8th instant for you at Penolopy three Miles from this place. When that is exhausted, your Commy must look out in the Country” (NN: Myers Collection).