To George Washington from Joseph Trumbull, 30 October 1775
From Joseph Trumbull
Lebanon [Conn.]
Octobr 30th 1775
May it Please Your Excellency
I have been very unhappily detained here by Sickness; which has been very severe, but by the goodness of God is now going of, And as that goes of my Anxiety about my business increases—I sent some time ago A request to Your Excellency for a supply of Cash without which nothing can be done; that Cash I have not received, which Possibly was well judged in my Friends considering the then Alarming state of my health, I have now procured Capt. Wadsworth1 the bearer To wait on Your Excellency in my name & stead; to request a Warrant to the Pay Master General for One hundred And Twenty Thousand Dollars, the greatest Part of which is now due to my Agents in New York, And this Colony, And the rest will be needed by them imediately to make the necessary supplies for the Army within my Department for the comeing Winter. I hope to be able to Attend my Duty in Camp Again, but have been and am reduced so low, that it must be two or three Weeks first; however Your Excellency may depend on my Attendance as soon as it can be thought prudent for me to Venture.2 I am with the greatest respect and Esteem Your Excellencies most Obedient and very Hume Servant
Jos: Trumbull Com[missa]ry Genl
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. Jeremiah Wadsworth (1743–1804) of Hartford, formerly captain of a merchant ship, became in April 1775 one of nine commissaries appointed by the Connecticut general assembly to supply the colony’s troops with stores and provisions. On 18 June 1777 Congress named Wadsworth deputy commissary general of purchases, a position that he filled through the following August, and in April 1778 he succeeded Joseph Trumbull as commissary general. Wadsworth resigned from the Continental service in December 1779 and subsequently acted as commissary for the French forces in America.
2. Trumbull did not return to the army until sometime in December.