State of Matters Laid Before the Committee at Headquarters, c.25–31 May 1780
State of Matters Laid Before the Committee at Headquarters
[c.25–31 May Morristown]1
The plan adopted by the committee in their late circular letter to the States is a very judicious preliminary step—but something more definitive ought to be done.2
Offensive operations—on our part—are doubtless expected—We should in the first place then settle the number of Men requisite for the greatest enterprize we can undertake, and against the whole force the enemy can bring together. That is an enterprize against New York with the Troops acting to the Southward added to its present garrison.
The Enemy’s force at New York in this event cannot be estimated lower than fifteen thousand regulars besides refugees & militia which are reckoned four or five thousand—call the whole 17,500.
Double this number is the least we can ask to operate against it. That is 35,000 effective men besides two small corps we shall want in the Jerseys and at west point. In Europe to besiege Troops in their works, the proportion is Six to one in favour of the besiegers—We cannot ask less than two to one against New York, even allowing us the command of the water wch is an essential advantage.
The Corps of French Troops will probably not exceed five thousand effective men3—the remainder say 30,000 must be furnished by us together with abt 1500 for the two detachments above mentioned.
To have this effective force, our total must not on the lowest calculation be less than [ ]4 rank & file.
The compliment of Troops required by the last circular letter will be 22680—the ballance of 15,320 must be in Militia.5
It is therefore proposed to call upon the States from New Hampshire to Maryland inclusive for 15,320 militia rank & file, to be assembled at appointed rendezvouss by the last of June—to serve for three, at least two Months after they join the Army.
Operations of the present magnitude ought not to be undertaken but on good grounds, especially as another power will be involved in the consequences.
We should see Magazines formed before they commence—at least, we should be upon a certainty that they can be formed in time.
It is therefore proposed that Specific quantities of supplies be demanded of the States from New Hampshire to Virginia inclusive—to be at deposits determined on by the last of June, sufficient to subsist the force already mentioned together with the Corps of Artillery, Horse, & Staff of the Army & followers of it for at least two Months—and that the States be required to give explicit information whether they can comply with these requisitions & keep up Supplies in the same proportion to the last of November.6
Magazines of grain for forage ought also to be formed on the same principles.
Estimates are directed to be made for this purpose.7
AD, DLC:GW. GW docketed these notes: “State of Matters as laid before the Com[mitt]ee of conference at Morris Town May 1780.”
This document contains GW’s notes on the numbers of men required for combined operations with the expected French expeditionary corps and the requisition of specific supplies from the states for the campaign.
1. The dateline on the document—not in GW’s writing and probably added at a later time—reads: “Morristown (May 1780).” GW probably compiled these notes between 25 and 31 May, given that he mentions the circular of the Committee at Headquarters dated 25 May and used material from this document in his letter to the committee of 31 May.
2. GW is referring to the circular from the Committee at Headquarters to the states dated 25 May (see GW to the Committee at Headquarters, same date, n.1).
3. The French expeditionary army that arrived in July numbered between 5,100 and 5,500. There had been an insufficient number of ships to transport the intended 7,500 troops that assembled at Brest, France (see , 3:83; see also , 4–5).
4. GW later gave this number as 40,000 (see his letter to the Committee at Headquarters, 31 May).
5. GW later estimated the strength of the militia at 17,320 (see his letter to the Committee at Headquarters, 31 May).
6. For the committee’s response, see Circular to the States, 2 June, n.1.
7. Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene and Charles Stewart prepared an undated “Estimate of rations required to supply an Army of Thirty five Thousand rank & File.” The first section listed rations per day for all army personnel, supporting departments, and officials at headquarters. GW “and his suite, The Committee of Congress, Foreign Officers and their attendants” received 80 rations; 25 general officers each received 15 rations, for 375 total; 210 field officers—“supposing 70 Regts and 3 field Officers to each Regt”—each received 3 rations, for 630 total; 2,170 captains, subalterns, and staff officers—“31 to Each regiment (& 70 Regiments)”—each received 2 rations, for 4,340 total; and 35,000 rank and file each received one ration.
Per day the hospital department received 250 rations; the commissary general, the “Commissary of Magazine [Issues],’” and their clerks and assistants, 20 rations; the forage department, 50 rations; the geographer and surveyors, 20 rations; the clothiers department, 20 rations; the engineers, sappers, and miners, 200 rations; 40 brigade commissaries and their clerks (at 2 rations each), 80 rations; 10 clerks and storekeepers in the quartermaster general’s office “at Camp” (at 2 rations each), 20 rations; 60 wagon officers (at 2 rations each), 120 rations; 50 officers of artificers (at 2 rations each), 100 rations; 40 “Officers of Boats &ca” (at 2 rations each), 80 rations; 800 artificers, 800 rations; 400 sailors and boatmen, 400 rations; 1,500 wagoners, 1,500 rations; 12 “Supervisors of roads, Expresses, Guides, Horse Yard Keepers &ca,” 24 rations; butchers, 60 rations; the commissary of hides department, 20 rations; women and cooks, 800 rations; “Waggoners employd from Delaware & North River to Camp hauling provisions, Forage & Stores,” 600 rations; “Drovers of Cattle,” 50 rations; and the provost (presumably for himself, his assistants, and prisoners), 61 rations. The calculations yielded a need for 45,700 rations daily.
Greene and Stewart pointed out that 45,700 “rations, at one pound & a quarter of bread or flour ⅌ Man ⅌ day for thirty days” required 8,569 “Barrels of Flour each Barrell weighing two hundred pounds.” To meet this need, they proportioned 2,000 barrels from Maryland, delivered at Trenton; 500 barrels from Delaware, also delivered at Trenton; 500 barrels from New Jersey, delivered at “Camp”; 4,500 barrels from Pennsylvania, with 1,000 delivered at Easton, 1,000 at Coryell’s Ferry, and 2,500 at Trenton; 1,200 barrels from Connecticut, delivered at the Hudson River or on Long Island Sound; and 169 barrels from New York, delivered at Albany or Schenectady. They calculated the total number of barrels of flour for thirty days supply of rations at 8,869, “Estimating the barrels to contain two hundred pounds of flour each” even though “barrels usually are not packed and on an Average do not weigh more than One hundred & Seventy pounds at the time of delivery.”
Greene and Stewart then calculated “An Equal quantity of Beef … the mode of Estimating Cattle on foot has been very injurious to the public and may be of ruinous consequences in the present case it is proposed that the Cattle furnished be slaughtered at Camp and the exact weight fixed, this will do equal Justice to the States and to the Army.” For a period of thirty days, Greene and Stewart set targets in pounds per day for the delivery of beef to the main army’s camp: New Hampshire, 10,000; Massachusetts, 6,000; Connecticut, 25,000; Delaware, 3,000; Pennsylvania, 7,000, and New Jersey, 2,125. For the same period, New York delivered 4,000 pounds of beef per day at Albany or Schenectady. For a 30-day campaign, the army required 57,125 pounds of beef per day.
Greene and Stewart continued: “Rum allowing a gill to each ration will require 18 Hog[shea]ds ⅌ day avaraging the H[ogs]h[ea]ds at 100 Gallons Each great peculation is made on this costly and usefull article and tho it is not proposed by this Estimate to fix a Gill of Rum as part of a ration yet provision should be made for having it to Issue when the Commander in Chief thinks proper.
“Twenty Hhds ⅌ day for 30 days amount to—600 Hhds.” For delivery at the army’s camp, Greene and Stewart sought 25 from New Hampshire; 25 from Rhode Island; 100 from Massachusetts; 100 from Connecticut; and 300 from Pennsylvania. Fifty hogsheads from Maryland required delivery at Trenton.
“Soap and Candles should be instantly provided in New Jersey by the Superintendant Contracter and regularly furnished to the Troops. What provision Colo. Blain has made for Vinigar I dont know, but the health of the Army requires a considerable quantity of that Article.
“The Officers of the Army as well as the Troops in General in the Summer season are anxious for Bacon there is little or none provided for the Campaign in Addition to the Beef.” Greene and Stewart wanted bacon from specified states: Virginia, 30,000 pounds; Maryland, 20,000; Delaware, 5,000; Pennsylvania, 30,000; Connecticut, 30,000; and Massachusetts, 30,000. The total was 145,000 pounds. “This quantity would be three days supply for the whole and we think may be readily furnished by all the above States.”
Greene and Stewart ended with a note to GW: “We think the foregoing Estimate is as accurate as the information we have of the resources in the several States will admit of. Considerable supplys in Forage will be required of Virginia and Delaware States and from Massachusetts and Rhode Island, we expect fresh Meat will be called for to supply the French Fleet, on this supposition, we rated them lower in this Estimate than we should otherwise have done” (LS, MH: Stewart Papers).
Other estimates for the support of an “Army of 35,000 men” are in DNA:PCC, item 39. Among these estimates are ones for “House Carpenters Tools,” “Saddlers Tools,” and “Intrenching Tools.” For earlier estimates for an army of 40,000 men and Stewart’s revised estimates for an army of that size, see Greene to GW, 28 May, n.1.