1. Knox’s letter to Spaight of 24 March enclosed a copy of “An Act to provide for the Defence of certain Ports and Harbors in the United States,” 20 March (Stat description begins Richard Peters, ed. The Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America, from the Organization of the Government in 1789, to March 3, 1845 . . .. 8 vols. Boston, 1845-67. description ends . 1:345–46). GW, according to Knox, requested that Spaight assume responsibility for the “general direction of the business” in North Carolina. Knox wrote that an engineer would soon be appointed to plan and direct construction, and he asked Spaight to inform him of “any good cannon of and above the calibre of eighteen pounds and which could be appropriated to the fortifications” in North Carolina (Nc-Ar: Governors’ Letterbooks). Knox’s letter to Spaight is nearly identical to the one sent to New Hampshire governor Josiah Bartlett on the same date (see n.3 of Knox to GW, 19 March). On the appointment of engineer Nicholas-Francis Martinon and the initial plans for fortifying the ports and harbors at Wilmington, which was on the Cape Fear River, and Ocracoke Inlet, N.C., see ASP, Military Affairs description begins Walter Lowrie et al., eds. American State Papers. Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States. 38 vols. Washington, D.C., Gales and Seaton, 1832–61. description ends , 1:95–101.