From George Washington to Lieutenant Colonel John Fitzgerald, 28 February 1778
To Lieutenant Colonel John Fitzgerald
Valley-forge Feby 28th 1778
Dear Sir,
This instant returning from the Comee1 & finding the Post here you must put up with a line or two in acknowledgement of your favr of the 16th Instt from York, instead of a long Letter, which it was my intention to have written you.
I thank you sincerely for the part you acted at York respecting C—y’s Letter; & believe with you, that matters have, & will, turn out very different to what that Party expected. G—s has involved himself in his Letters to me, in the most absurd contradictions—M. has brought himself into a scrape he does not know how to get out of, with a Gentn of this state—& C—, as you know, is sent upon an expedition which all the world knew—& the event has proved, was not practicable.2 In a word, I have a good deal of reason to believe that the Machinations of this Junto will recoil upon their own heads, & be a means of bringing some matters to light which by getting me out of the way some of them thought to conceal—remember me in the most affectionate terms to all my old friends & acquaintance in Alexandria & be assured that with unfeigned regard I am Dr Sir Yr affecte friend
Go: Washington
ALS, DLC: Digges-L’Enfant-Morgan Papers.
1. GW apparently attended the deliberations of the Continental Congress camp committee on every day that it met in February, except for 18 and 26 Feb., when he was not present, and 27 Feb., when he was “called away” (, 9:105, 158; for the purpose of the committee, see GW to a Continental Congress Camp Committee, 29 January).
2. Thomas Mifflin’s “scrape” was apparently with Brig. Gen. John Cadwalader, who suspected Mifflin of having encouraged Maj. Gen. Thomas Conway to fight a duel with Cadwalader over allegations concerning the so-called Conway Cabal (see , 301). For the abortive Canadian expedition, see Horatio Gates to GW, 24 Jan., n.1.