1. This letter contained three enclosures: Board of War to Joseph Reed, 13 and 18 Nov., and Reed to the Board of War, 16 Nov. (all in DLC:GW). The board’s letter to Reed of 13 Nov. reads: “We do ourselves the honour to inclose you an extract from a Letter of his Excellency General Washington, relative to 2000 Coats ordered from the public Store for the Troops of Pennsylvania. The Mischiefs that may result from that Measure are so fully described in the Generals Letter as to supersede any thing we could say on the Subject. We trust it is not yet too late to prevent them by a redelivery of the Coats to the Clothier General. We did not advert to the great inconveniencies that now appear, or we should never have given the Order as it is our steady endeavour to do equal Justice to all the Troops of the United States. Even if this dis-tribution should not produce the inequalities so strongly apprehended: yet ’tis now in fact a Subject of Jealousy & Clamour—as we have personally experienced. We hope our Inclinations to comply with a request of your Excellency and the Honorable Council will not be the means of continuing our embarrassments, & the great uneasiness this Step has given to the General; on the contrary we are persuaded that your Excellency and the Honorable Council will chearfully comply with the wishes of the Commander in Chief & be ready to prevent or put an end to the Jealousies & Discontents which have arisen on the Occasion. This will be doing an important public Service and particularly oblige this Board.” The enclosure, GW’s letter to the Board of War dated 5 Nov., has not been found, but see Reed to GW, 15 Nov.; see also Board of War to GW, 12 Nov., and n.4 to that document, and GW to the Board of War, 23 Nov. (second letter), and to Reed, 25 November.

Reed’s letter to the board written at Philadelphia on 16 Nov. reads: “Your favor of the 13th instant has been duly recd & communicated to the Council. You do us Justice in believing it is much our wish to remove every difficulty however new or unforeseen which may arise in the discharge of Your duty. In the present case the inconveniencies are great & manifest; but we shall submit to the necessity; if after Stating the matter fully to the General, he insists upon it. But really we cannot see the occasion of any discontent if we have recd no more than our proportion—this was all we desired, & we do not now understand that we have more. If therefore Justice is done the other Troops in this respect, what difference does it make whither the Quota of Pennsylvania is delivered here, or at Camp? We have therefore thought it best to write to his Excellency on the Subject & shall abide by the final determination, he, & you may make—It happens very unfortunately that before your letter reached me, all the Clothing was packed up, cased & nailed, & would have set out in a Day or two. If after the great exertions we have made, & our plan executed so far, we are obliged to Yield to the Public necessity, we shall be greatly discouraged in future, as we think the other States might have exerted themselves equally which would have made the business very easy. At present it is proposed; rather than unpack the whole again, to send it forward, subject to the Orders of the General—unless this measure has objections of which we are not apprized. But if it is in contemplation to throw the whole into a common stock it will we think be Injustice to us, & to the Troops of the State, whom the General thinks we are specially bound to take care of.”

The board’s letter to Reed on 18 Nov. reads: “The Board have been honoured with your Excellency’s Favour of the 16th which will (if it wanted any proofs) evidence the impartial Views of Council & tend to continue the harmony & mutual Confidence subsisting between the Executive of this State & this Board. The Troops of Pennsylvania will undoubtedly draw from the common Stock a number of Coats equal to that delivered them by the Board, but not perhaps all of a colour; indeed we will be answerable as to numbers, if the State will deliver up those they now have in their possession, and let the Matter be determined at Camp. As the Coats are packed, we are of opinion they had better go on in the Packages, not to be opened, but by Order of the Commander in Chief—who will probably take the same Method of allaying Jealousies—as to Uniforms &c. practised last year Viz. by giving the Officers an Opportunity of drawing Lotts for the choice. At any rate we will be obliged if Council will be pleased to declare explicitly their consent, that the Matter shall rest as if no Coats had been delivered, & the Troops of their Line be subject to the same chance in the Dis-tribution of the general Stock of Coats with those of other States.

“The Clothier General is going to Head-Quarters to Morrow Morning, & his bearing this assurance to the General will effectually put an end to farther Clamour.”

The Board of War then wrote GW on 22 Nov.: “Lest Council should not have transmitted a Copy of their Determination in the redelivery of the 2000 Coats we have the Honour to enclose a Copy thereof & are happy by their Compliance with our Request there is an End to any Cause of Complaint the Troops of the other States might conceive they had on Acct of the Transaction” (ALS, DLC:GW). The enclosure was a copy of a resolution (found at the bottom of the ALS) that the Pennsylvania Supreme Executive Council passed on 19 Nov.: “Whereas the Honble the Board of War at the Request of this Board did sometime ago deliver two thousand Coats to the Commissary of Cloathing of this State as their Quota of the Cloathing on Hand other Deficiencies to be made up by the Exertions of the Board And it being now represented that the said Delivery has been productive of Discontent, tho’ in the opinion of this Council without the least just Reason, yet being desirous to remove even groundless Uneasiness Resolved That the said two thousand Coats be deemed to belong to the United States and be under the Direction of their Clothier as if no such Delivery had been made to the Clothier of this State. But the same being now cased & packed up they are to go forward to be under the Direction of the Comr in Chief who will order in this Matter with his usual Prudence & Justice to the State” (see also Pa. Col. Records, description begins Colonial Records of Pennsylvania. 16 vols. Harrisburg, 1840–53. description ends 12:174–75). GW received the board’s letter on 1 Dec. (see GW to the Board of War, 6 Dec.).

2. The Board of War is referring to Christiana, Delaware.

3. The Board of War was acting on erroneous intelligence that a French naval squadron had entered Chesapeake Bay (see Philip Schuyler to GW, 18 Nov., and n.2 to that document). For the resolution ordering reinforcements to the southern department, see JCC, description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds. Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. 34 vols. Washington, D.C., 1904–37. description ends 15:1255–56, and Samuel Huntington to GW, 11 Nov., and n.3 to that document.

4. See GW to Thomas Clark, 23 Nov., found at GW’s second letter to the Board of War, same date, n.3. For earlier marching orders given the North Carolina troops, see GW to Clark, this date, and n.2 to that document.