From George Washington to Brigadier General Edward Hand, 21 October 1778
To Brigadier General Edward Hand
Head Quarters Fredericksbg 21st October 1778
Sir
I am favd with yours by Genl Clinton.1 I have furnished Genl Schuyler with the Resolve of Congress directing the Expedition to Chemung, and desired him in conjunction with Governor Clinton and yourself to take the matter fully into consideration, that if thought practicable at this season of the Year it may be undertaken, if not, that I may stand justifiable to Congress for laying it aside.2
You have in my opinion put the present supply of the inhabitants of the German Flats upon the proper footing, I will lay their distressed situation before Congress3 and if they approve of their being supplied at public expence, it may be continued untill they can settle themselves again and procure the means of livelyhood. I am &c.
Df, in Tench Tilghman’s writing, DLC:GW; AL[S], offered for sale in Life in Letters, 2 (April 1939), item 1; Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. See Hand to GW, 20 October.
2. For Congress’s resolution of 13 Oct. regarding Chemung, see Henry Laurens to GW, 13 Oct., and note 5 to that document. For the report on this subject that George Clinton, Philip Schuyler, and Hand wrote on 22 Oct., see GW to Henry Laurens, 26–27 Oct., and note 6 to that document; see also George Clinton’s plan of 20 Oct. for an expedition to Chemung in Clinton to GW, 21 Oct., n.2.
3. GW referred this matter to Congress in his letter to Henry Laurens of 22–23 October.