1. Robert Hanson Harrison wrote Schuyler on 26 Nov. at GW’s command, enclosing a copy of Congress’s resolution of 23 Nov. regarding the transfer of these troops. “You will please to order ’em,” Harrison instructs Schuyler, “to fall in on the Communication leading from New York to Philadelphia, at Brunswick or between that & Prince town & to direct their March by a back & secure Route, that It may not be liable to be intercepted by the Enemy. I have mentioned Brunswick supposing & hoping that we shall be able to make a stand there; However His Excellency begs You will direct the Commanding Officers of those Troops to send him frequent Expresses to advise of their Approaches & by which Means their Destination may be explicitly pointed out; At present it is Conjectural, It must depend on Circumstances.

“I have not Time to add much therefore shall only inform You, that the Enemy are in Possession of Heckensec & are now pushing this Way. from Report they are this Side the Posaic. Their Number is not asscertained but is supposed considerable. they were Marching in four Heavy Columns Yesterday Eveng.” In a postscript to this letter, Harrison writes: “The Officers must enquire the Situation of our Army & that of the Enemy from Time to Time & regulate their Movements accordingly & in such a Manner as not to run the Most [distant] shadow of risk, of falling in with the letter” (LB, NN: Schuyler Papers; see also the draft and Varick transcript in DLC:GW). For Congress’s resolution of 23 Nov. on this subject, see Hancock to GW, 24 Nov., n.3.

Schuyler replied to Harrison on 3 Dec.: “I had already anticipated the Resolution of Congress and his Excellency’s Request with Regard to the Pennsylvania & Jersey Troops—Besides these part of seven other Regiments are on the way to join the General, the last embarked Yesterday at Albany with General Gates, whom I had desired to open all my public Letters and he writes me that he will carefully comply with the Directions contained in Your’s” (NN: Schuyler Papers).

2. See GW to William Howe, 1 December.

3. British officer Archibald Robertson says in his diary entry for 26 Nov.: “Lord Cornwallis moved on by New Bridge to Pissaic River, cross’d it and staid at Aquakenunk. The 4th Brigade marched to Hackensack. One Battalion of 2d Brigade march’d near New Bridge to keep up the Communication.” This morning, Robertson writes, “the 4th Brigade moved to Aquakenunk and took up the Quarters of the 1 and 2d Light Infantry and 16th Light Dragoons who marched this day to 2d River” (Lydenberg, Robertson Diaries description begins Harry Miller Lydenberg, ed. Archibald Robertson, Lieutenant-General Royal Engineers: His Diaries and Sketches in America, 1762–1780. New York, 1930. description ends , 113–14; see also Ewald, Diary description begins Johann Ewald. Diary of the American War: A Hessian Journal. Translated and edited by Joseph P. Tustin. New Haven and London, 1979. description ends , 19–21, and Baurmeister, Revolution in America description begins Carl Leopold Baurmeister. Revolution in America: Confidential Letters and Journals, 1776–1784, of Adjutant General Major Baurmeister of the Hessian Forces. Translated and annotated by Bernhard A. Uhlendorf. New Brunswick, N.J., 1957. description ends , 72–73).

4. GW enclosed with this letter an unidentified “list of prisoners taken by the enemy during the campaign of 1776” (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds. Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. 34 vols. Washington, D.C., 1904–37. description ends , 6:993). After reading this letter on 30 Nov. and referring it to the Board of War, Congress directed the Board of War “to confer with Colonel Miles, who is come from new York on his parole, to expedite the exchange of prisoners” (ibid.).

5. See Richard Peters to GW, 19 November.

6. The phrase following the word “justified” does not appear in the draft or the Varick transcript.

7. The draft reads: “to order their return or not as they shall judge proper.”