George Washington Papers

From George Washington to Colonel Stephen Moylan, 5 January 1780

To Colonel Stephen Moylan

Head Quarters Morris Town 5th Jany 1780

Dear Sir

The Board of War are anxious to compleat an arrangement of the four Regiments of Cavalry, and have wrote to me on that account1—You will therefore be pleased to forward that of your Regiment2 as speedily as possible. As this will be put upon Record in the War office and will be the scale by which all future promotions will take place, I must request you to be as particular as possible in ascertaining the dates of the Commissions, and if any officers are intitled to promotions in consequence of Vacancies, you are to specify when the Vacancies happened, and who formerly filled them.3 The Majority of your Regiment and that of late Blands cannot be filled, untill the Regimental arrangements are compleated. I am Dear Sir yr &c.

Df, in Tench Tilghman’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW.

On this date, GW sent similarly worded letters to lieutenant colonels Benjamin Temple and William Washington.

2In the letter to Temple, the previous two words are replaced by: “the Regt late Colo. Blands (who resigned the 10th Decemr last).” In the letter to Washington, the previous two words are replaced by: “Colo. Baylors Regiment” (Df, in Tench Tilghman’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW).

3The letter to Washington ends at this point; in place of the next nineteen words, the letter to Temple reads: “There are several promotions to take place in the line of Feild Officers which cannot be determined untill the regimental arrangements are compleated” (Df, in Tench Tilghman’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW).

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