To George Washington from Henry Laurens, 5 September 1778
From Henry Laurens
[Philadelphia] 5th September [1778]
Sir
My last was dated the 31st Ulto forwarded by Messenger Jones, since which I have had the honor of receiving and presenting to Congress Your Excellencys dispatches, one of that date and one of the 3d Instant,1 the first is committed to the Board of War & remains there.
This will be accompanied by two Acts of Congress of the 3d Instant.
1. An Act for raising a Corps of troops by the name of the German Volunteers—for granting the Pay and Subsistence of a Lieutenant to Lieutenant Charles Juliat a Volunteer in the Infantry of General Pulaski’s Legion—for appointing Monsr Girard to the Rank of a Lieutenant of Dragoons by Brevet to serve at his own expence2—for laying aside the intended Expedition against the Seneca and other Indians, and for authorizing Your Excellency to pursue proper Measures for defending the frontiers against the incursions of those Indians.3
2. An Act for guarding this City by 300 Militia in place of the Confederal Troops who are to join the Main Army. I have the honor to be &c.4
LB, DNA:PCC, item 13. A note on the letter-book copy indicates that this letter was carried “by [Joseph] Burwell.”
1. Laurens evidently meant to refer to GW’s letters to him of 31 Aug. and 1 Sept., read in Congress on 3 and 4 Sept. (, 12:862, 880); no letter of 3 Sept. has been found.
2. Karl Josef Juliat (born c.1760), formerly a lieutenant in the Landgrave Regiment, had deserted and approached Congress with a letter of recommendation from Maj. Gen. Johann Kalb. He deserted from Pulaski’s Legion in New Jersey on 14 Oct. 1778, and Pulaski attributed an attack on his troops the next day to information supplied the enemy forces by Juliat (see Casimir Pulaski to Laurens, 16 and 18 Oct., DNA:PCC, item 164). Juliat subsequently served with Capt. Ernest Frederick von Diemar’s Corps of Hussars before returning to Europe in January 1781. Gérard de St. Elme served as a volunteer captain in Pulaski’s Legion, and Congress granted him the brevet rank of major when he returned to France in February 1779 (ibid., 13:182–83).
3. For this act, see ibid., 12:866–68.
4. For this act, see ibid., 12:865.