From George Washington to the Board of War, 7 November 1780
To the Board of War
Head Quarters Passaic Falls 7th Novemr 1780
Gentlemen
I am honored with yours of the 31st ulto in consequence of which I yesterday issued a General Order of which the inclosed is a Copy. I was induced to give so considerable an extent of time to the operation of the order, because many of the Officers who are the objects of it, are at a distance from the Main Army.1
I shall be obliged by your care of the inclosed for Major Genl Greene, Colo. Armand and Major Lee—Should they have left Philada be pleased to forward them to the Southward—by Express. I would wish that to General Greene to reach him as speedily as possible as it contains a Certificate of Genl du portails exchange and a passport for him to return by land.2 You will also be pleased to forward the letter for Colo. Wood with dispatch. It contains an order to send forward a number of the Officers of Convention who have been exchanged at a late meeting of the respective Commissaries3—We have at length liberated all our privates in New York and all our Officers upon Long Island, except Brig. Irvine—nine Colonels—one Captain and thirty Nine Lieutenants.4 I have the honor to be &.
Df, in Tench Tilghman’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. For correspondence—including the Board of War to GW, 31 Oct.—related to identifying officers eligible for depreciation pay from Congress, see GW to the Board of War, 5 Sept., and the source note to that document. The enclosed copy of the general orders for 6 Nov. has not been identified.
2. GW presumably enclosed his letters to Colonel Armand and Maj. Henry Lee, Jr., written on 5 Nov. (see also Armand to GW, 21 Nov.). His letter to Greene, with enclosures for Brigadier General Duportail, must be the one dated 8 November.
3. GW means his letter to Col. James Wood dated 8 Nov.; see also GW to Abraham Skinner, same date.
4. The Board of War replied to GW from Philadelphia on 16 Nov.: “The Board have been honoured with your Letter of the 7th inst: The Letters transmitted therewith were immediately forwarded agreeably to your Excellency’s Request. … We presume that your Excellency has forwarded to Genl Greene a similar Order with the one enclosed to us relating to the Officers who are the Subjects of it serving with the Southern Army” (ALS, by Board of War secretary Richard Peters, DLC:GW; see also n.1 above; GW’s aide-de-camp Tench Tilghman docketed the letter: “no answer necessary”).