To George Washington from Officers of the New York Line, 21 March 1780
From Officers of the New York Line
Camp [Jockey Hollow, N.J.,]
March 21. 1780
May it please your Excellency
The Officers of the New York Line being reduced to the last extremity for the want of Clothes; and as it will be some Months before the Supplies (which we are Informed) the State has Ordered can Arrive, beg your Excellency will please to order that such Articles of Clothing now in Store as can be spared be furnish’d us we paying for the Same1 and thereby much Oblige Your Excellencys most Obedient and Very Hume Servants
Jonathan Hallett Capt. Commandt
the 2d N. York Regt2
In behalf of the Officers of the Same
Joseph McCraken Major
Comadent of the 4knew york
Regt In Behalf of the offocers
J. F. Hamtramck Capt. Commdt 5th N.Y. Regt3
In behalf of the officers of the Samme
J. Gregg Cap. Commadant 3d N. York Regt4
In behalf of the Officers of the same
LS, DLC:GW. An undated note on the docket of this document reads: “Colo. [Philip Van] Cortland[t] went himself to the Cloathier’s store and saw there was no officers’ Cloathing there.”
1. For earlier complaints from New York officers, see Officers of the New York Brigade to GW, 1 Feb., and GW to George Clinton, 5 Feb., and n.4 to that document; see also Clinton to GW, 10 March. For difficulties securing clothing for the New York line, see GW to Jedediah Huntington, 20 April, source note.
2. Jonathan Hallett (1748–1825 or 1827) served as a lieutenant and adjutant in the 3d New York Regiment before becoming captain in the 2d New York Regiment in November 1776. He remained in the army until the end of the war.
3. John Francis Hamtramck (1757–1803) began as a captain in the 5th New York Regiment in November 1776 and transferred to the 2d New York Regiment in January 1781. He joined the U.S. army as a captain in April 1785 and attained the rank of colonel the year before his death. GW and Hamtramck exchanged compliments in 1799 (see Hamtramck to GW, 28 Jan. 1799, and GW to Hamtramck, 25 March 1799, both at GW to Alexander Hamilton, 25 March 1799, n.1, in 3:436–37).
4. James Gregg (d. 1785) served as a lieutenant and then captain in the 3d New York Regiment. Indians scalped him near Kingston, N.Y., on 13 Oct. 1777. Gregg transferred to the 1st New York Regiment in January 1783 and remained in the army until June of that year.