1. The enclosure docketed “No. 1,” from Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates to Huntington written at Hillsborough, N.C., on 27 Sept., described the circumstances of his army following its defeat near Camden in August. It also mentioned his request to the governors of Maryland and Virginia “to send your Excellency Copies of every Letter, and paper transmitted to them” with a plea that all pertinent communications “be immediately copied, and sent to his Excellency, the Commander in Chief, for Notwithstanding whatever may have been formerly insinuated to the Contrary; it was never in my Intention or design to be guilty of the smallest neglect to the exalted character, who so eminently fills that station” (DLC:GW).

The enclosure docketed “No. 2” was from George Elliot, assistant deputy quartermaster general, to Gates written at Petersburg, Va., on 19 September. It proposed supply solutions and noted that “the troops are collecting fast and no provision making for Q.M. stores for them” (DLC:GW).

The enclosure docketed “No. 3,” from Gates to William Finnie, deputy quartermaster general, was written at Hillsborough on 27 September. It asked him to confer with Virginia governor Thomas Jefferson “upon the measures to be taken for supplying and forwarding the continental troops from Petersburg” (DLC:GW).

The enclosure docketed “No. 4” was from Gates to Jefferson, also written at Hillsborough on 27 September. It urged prompt efforts to equip and march the troops to avoid “a most injurious delay to the public service” (DLC:GW; see also Jefferson Papers description begins Julian P. Boyd et al., eds. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. 41 vols. to date. Princeton, N.J., 1950–. description ends , 3:668–69). Jefferson forwarded this letter to Congress along with the ones involving Elliot and Finnie to Gates (see Jefferson to Huntington, 3 Oct., in Jefferson Papers description begins Julian P. Boyd et al., eds. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson. 41 vols. to date. Princeton, N.J., 1950–. description ends , 4:7).