LS (photocopy), in Tench Tilghman’s writing, DLC:GW, ser. 9; copy, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW. Tilghman addressed the cover of the LS: “To Colonel Mackintosh at Fairfeild.” The copy is addressed to “Colo. Mackintosh,” and the Varick transcript is addressed erroneously: “To Colo. L[achlan] McIntosh. Georgia.”

Starting with the letters written on this date, GW’s secretaries and aides-de-camp quit recording his official outgoing correspondence in letter books as had been the practice since he took command of the Continental army in July 1775. Instead, they began docketing and filing loose drafts or copies of the commander in chief’s letters much as they were doing with the letters, petitions, and reports that he received. Although no reasons were given for this change in procedure, the new system had two evident advantages for the headquarters staff. The correspondence file, unlike the imperfectly arranged and unindexed letter books, facilitated the frequent references to particular letters which were necessary in dealing with various administrative matters (see, for example, GW to Hancock, 24 Dec. 1776), and the use of drafts as file copies eliminated some of the copying work required in keeping letter books.

Under the new system as under the old one, GW sometimes wrote official letters himself, but his usual procedure was to give oral or rough written instructions for a letter to a secretary or an aide who then wrote it (see GW to Hancock, 10–11 July 1775 and 16 Sept. 1776, source note). If the letter as written met GW’s approval, he signed it, and a copy was made for the files by a secretary or an aide before the signed letter was sent to the addressee. The retained file copy is identified in the source lines simply as a copy. If, however, GW decided that changes were required, the necessary insertions and deletions were made on the original letter, and a clean corrected letter was prepared for GW’s signature and then sent to the addressee. The amended original letter, which usually was not signed, was docketed and filed as a retained copy (see Fitzpatrick, Writings description begins John C. Fitzpatrick, ed. The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745–1799. 39 vols. Washington, D.C., 1931–44. description ends , 1:xliii-xliv). It is identified in the source lines as a draft.

Little is known about the arrangement of the original headquarters filing system other than that by 1781 it was in considerable disorder because of misfiling during routine use and improper packing for GW’s many moves (see ibid., xlvi-xlvii; Richard Varick to GW, 19 July; and GW to Varick, 21 July 1781, DLC:GW). Conscious that the system no longer functioned very well as an administrative reference tool and that it was totally inadequate as a permanent historical record, GW in the spring of 1781 engaged Richard Varick to reorganize and refile all of the headquarters papers in such a manner “that references may be more easily had to them” and to supervise the copying of the outgoing correspondence, general orders, and proceedings of councils of war into uniform folio volumes which were to “be indexed in so Clear and intelligent a manner, that there may be no difficulty in the references” (GW’s instructions to Varick, 25 May 1781, DLC:GW; see also GW to Samuel Huntington, 4 April 1781, DNA:PCC, item 152). The forty-four volumes of copied documents that a team of clerks finished by the end of 1783 are known as the Varick transcripts, and they are cited as such in the source lines.