From George Washington to William Livingston, 29 June 1776
To William Livingston
New York June 29th 1776.
Dear Sir
Since Col. Reed left this I have Received certain Intelligence1 from the Hook that about forty of the Enemies Fleet have arrived there, and others now in sight that there cannot be a doubt but the whole fleet will be in this day and tomorrow, I beg not a moments time may be lost in sending forward such parts of the Militia as Colo. Reed will mention. We are so very weak at this post that I must beg you to order the three Companies which I mentioned in my last for Staten Island immediately to this City.2 If Colo. Herd is the commanding Officer I must request you will lay my several Letters wrote to you before him, without delay.3 I am sir with Esteem Your Most Obedt Hume servt
Go: Washington
LS, in Samuel Blachley Webb’s writing, MHi: Livingston Papers; LB, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. The LB reads “certain Information.”
2. This letter has not been identified.
3. Livingston recently had declined the New Jersey provincial congress’s request of June to take command of the militia destined for New York, and on 25 June the provincial congress appointed Nathaniel Heard brigadier general of that force (New Jersey provincial congress journal, 21, 25 June, in , 4th ser., 6:1626, 1629).
Nathaniel Heard (Herd; 1730–1792) of Woodbridge, N.J., who had been appointed a colonel in the militia the previous November, commanded the New Jersey militia brigade that reinforced GW’s army until it was disbanded on 1 Dec. 1776. He subsequently continued as a brigadier general in the state’s militia until the end of the war.