To George Washington from the Board of War, 7 September 1780
From the Board of War
War Office [Philadelphia] Septr 7. 1780
Sir
The Board are desirous of sending by a Flag about fifteen hundred Shirts & fifty Barrells of Flour & a Quantity of Medesins to the Prisoners at Charles Town. We beg your Excellency therefore to procure Permission from Sr Henry Clinton for the Schooner Blazing Starr Burthen Ten Tons Thomas Smith sailing Master Charles McCarthy Flagg Master & two Seamen to enter the Harbour of Charles Town with the Articles enumerated & return to Philadelphia from which Place she is to sail.1 We have the Honour to be with great Respect & Esteem Your very obedient Servants
Richard Peters By Order
Ships Provisions beside the above Articles.
Could a Permission of a general Nature to send in Cloathing & Provisions to the Prisrs be obtained it would save the Trouble of repeated ⟨A⟩pplications as the Board expect speedily to have other Articles to send.2
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. In a petition he wrote Samuel Huntington, president of Congress, on 21 Sept., Charles McCarthy described himself as “a Lieutenant in the Naval Service of the State of South Carolina” who had been “in Charles Town untill the Capitulation of the said Town” (DNA:PCC, item 42; see also Duportail to GW, 17 May, n.1).