From George Washington to Major General Arthur St. Clair, 2 February 1780
To Major General Arthur St. Clair
Hd Qrrs [Morristown] Feby 2d 17⟨80⟩1
Dr Sir
I have received Your 2d Letter of this date. As I wrote You this forenoon2 I leave the Enterprize in view entirely with You—and the execution to be attempted or not as You may judge proper from a full consideration of all circumstances—the intelligence you have received—and the characters of the persons who gave it. If it should appear to You that there is a strong probability of it’s succeeding the experiment can be made, if not—it may be best not to undertake it.
The Dragoon has Two or Three bundles of prepard combustible⟨s⟩ in charge and some port fires.3 I am Dr Sir Yr Most Obedt sert
Go: Washington
LS, in Robert Hanson Harrison’s writing, in private hands; Df, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW. The LS was offered for sale by Heritage Auctions on 4 Oct. 2012 (Sale 6084, lot 34021).
1. The dateline is mutilated on the LS; the portion of the date in angle brackets is taken from the docket.
3. Slow-burning port-fire cases, made of paper and containing a highly inflammable composition of nitre, sulphur, and meal powder, were used in the discharge of field artillery. Port-fire produces a very intense and penetrating flame that cannot be extinguished by water. Both port-fire and the even slower-burning slow-match were used by artillerymen in the discharge of their cannon.