From George Washington to Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., 8 December 1779
To Jonathan Trumbull, Sr.
Head Quarters Morris town 8th Decemr 1779.
Dear Sir
I have been honored with your Excellency’s favors of the 23d ulto.1 It gives me great pleasure to find your intention of laying the state of the troops of your line before your Assembly at as early a period as possible. I have directed the Returns which you call for to be made out, and I hope they will be transmitted in time to meet the Assembly at the opening of the Session.2 I had, previous to the receipt of your Excellency’s letter, furnished Congress with a very exact Return of the state of the Army, specifying the different terms of service, and earnestly requested them to call upon the different legislatures to make up the deficiencies which would soon follow by the expiration of the former inlistments.3
With respect to the expediency of immediately filling the Vacancies which have happened in the Connecticut line, and which your Excellency has been pleased to refer to my consideration, I am clearly of opinion, that justice to the Officers in succession, and good policy require the measure. Making promotions is very different from introducing new Officers. The approbation of the particular Gentlemen named by you, does not in anywise lay with me, I can only hope that they are intitled by the course of succession, as established by the regulations of the Army, to the Vacancies to which they are nominated. The recommendation is to be transmitted directly by the State, and not thro’ me, to the Board of War, who will issue the Commissions in consequence.
You will be pleased to be particular in ascertaining the dates at which the Vacancies happened, and naming the Officers who occasioned them.4 I am with the highest Respect and Regard Yr Excellency’s Most obt Sert
Go: Washington
LS, in Tench Tilghman’s writing, Ct: Trumbull Papers; Df, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW. Trumbull docketed the LS as received on 22 Jan. 1780.
1. Trumbull’s letters to GW of 23 Nov. have not been found.
2. GW is referring to his letter to Brig. Gen. Samuel Holden Parsons written at Morristown on 6 Dec.: “In consequence of a requisition from His Excellency Govr Trumbull you will be pleased to direct an accurate Return to be made of the Names and Ranks of all the General—Feild—Commissioned and Staff Officers of the Connecticut line. And likewise a Return of the Numbers—Names—Regiments and Companies of those non-Commissioned Officers and Soldiers who are inlisted during the War, specifying the Towns to which they belong, and also distinguishing those who have been hired either by one Man or two, in consequence of a former Resolution of Congress, and the names of those by whom they were hired.
“As these Returns are to be laid before the Assembly at their meeting upon the 6th January next, you will be pleased to have them made out, if possible, and transmitted by that time” (LS, MHi: James Schouler Papers; Df, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW). During its session begun on 6 Jan. 1780, the Connecticut General Assembly enacted several resolutions to recruit and re-enlist soldiers for the Continental army (see 2:452–55).
3. See GW to Samuel Huntington, 18 Nov., and notes 2 and 12 to that document.
4. Trumbull and the state council of safety acted to fill vacancies in the Connecticut line through recommendations to the Board of War on 2 March 1780 (see 2:506–7).