To Alexander Hamilton from Richard Kip, 15 April 1778
From Richard Kip, Junior1
Pompton [New Jersey] April 15th 1778.
Sir, Last Decm’r a Twelvemonth a Small Box was Taken at or Near Princetown And Deposited in an Amunition Cart2 & Supposed to be Taken From thence by Capt. Crane.3 I can Assure you that I have Seen a Box in Crane’s Possession That answers the Description & Since the Discovery he is prepareing to Leave the Continent. He Now Resides in Clarks Town, Orange County. A Line to Collo. Gilbert Coper4 at Kakeate with Direction to Detect Or Apprehend In haste May Still Serve to Recover the Money &c. for those Justly Entitled to the Same. In haste I Rem’n S’r your V H S.
Rich’d Kip, Jun’r., Ass. D.Q.M.G.
To Collo. Hammilton.
, III, 173.
1. This letter was enclosed in George Washington to George Clinton, April 24, 1778.
2. On April 24, 1778, Washington wrote to Clinton: “In the affair of Princetown the winter before last, a box was taken from the enemy, which by appearances was supposed to contain a quantity of hard money” (George Washington Papers, Library of Congress).
3. Washington was more explicit, for he stated that “there was some suspicions at the time against one [Joseph] Crane, a Capt. Lieutenant in … [Knox’s Continental Artillery], who it was imagined had converted the box and its contents to his own use,” Washington to Clinton, April 24, 1778 (George Washington Papers, Library of Congress).
4. Lieutenant Colonel Gilbert Cooper (or Cuyper), Orange County Militia of New York.