George Washington Papers
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https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-01-02-0261

To George Washington from Major General Artemas Ward, 25 August 1775

From Major General Artemas Ward

[Roxbury, Mass.] 25 Augt [17]75

Sir,

Of the Ordnance, Implements, Ordnance Stores &c. which I wrote your Excy for the 22nd Inst:1 only the follg are sent Viz. two—12 Pounders—2 doz: Cannisters without powder, a proper complement of round Shot. Implements for the Cannon only 1 Sponge to each. also a Gin2—The cannon recd can be of no service witht powder. It appears a little mysterious that all the articles were not sent as I am informed that they were ordered by your Excy.

I have wrote yr Excy twice respectg Lt Stedson who has been confind a week to-day on a Complaint of Capt: Hamlen who charged him with maliciously aspersing his Character.3

I have now Sir to inform you that Lt Cadwell of Colo. Danielson’s Regt is confin’d for encouraging mutiny4 Would request of your Excy to give such directions respectg the above prisoners as that they may be bro’t to a trial with all convenient Speed.

This Division of the Army is put to very great inconveniences for want of a Laboratory.

Chief, if not all the Vessels which came to an Anchor near the light House are put to Sea.5 I am &c.

P.S. Am just informed by a young man from Boston that the wife of the Chief N. York Carpenter is come out of Boston, & that she has a number of Letters secreted about her.6

Copy, MHi: Ward Papers.

GW’s aide-de-camp Edmund Randolph replied to this letter on this date: “Our Situation with Respect to Powder requires Oeconomy in the Destribution of it. Each Division of the Army must receive equal Supplies: but, as their respective Claims and Necessities for that Article must be first ascertained, Colo. Burbenk [William Burbeck] will wait on you for this Purpose in the Afternoon. He will then settle the Proportion you may expect, & conclude something as to the Laboratory. The Judge-Advocate has been so thoroughly engaged in Courts martial for some Time past, that till this day he has not had an opportunity of attending to Stedson’s and Cadwell’s Cases. By Command of his Excellency, A Gentleman is dispatched in quest of Mrs Hampton” (MHi: Ward Papers).

1Ward’s letter of 22 August has not been found.

2A gin is a device, consisting essentially of a tripod and windlass, for lifting cannon on and off carriages.

3Prince Stetson (b. 1741) of Hanover, Mass., and Eleazer Hamlin of Pembroke, Mass., were officers in Brig. Gen. John Thomas’s regiment. Both men served at least part of the ensuing campaign in the regiment commanded by Col. John Bailey. Neither of Ward’s letters to GW concerning Stetson has been found.

4Daniel Caldwell was a second lieutenant in Col. Timothy Danielson’s Massachusetts regiment.

5Ward apparently is referring to the large British convoy about which GW wrote to Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., on 23 August.

6The woman was apparently “Mrs Hampton,” whom Edmund Randolph mentioned in his letter of this date to Ward. See source note. She was probably the wife of Jonathan Hampton, a New York carpenter, who, although said to be bankrupt before the Revolution, made a fortune during the war as an employee in the British engineering department (Jones, History of New York description begins Thomas Jones. History of New York during The Revolutionary War, and of the Leading Events in the Other Colonies at that Period. Edited by Edward Floyd De Lancey. 2 vols. New York, 1879. description ends , 1:336, n.1).

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