From George Washington to Brigadier General Jedediah Huntington, 10 May 1780
To Brigadier General Jedediah Huntington
Head Quarters [Morristown] 10th May 1780
Dear Sir
The Bearer Mr Smith having obtained permission from the State of Maryland to go to Great Britain by way of New York, you will be pleased to direct an Officer to attend him with a Flag to Staten Island. As Mr Smith is anxious if possible to overtake the May packet, you will be pleased to order the Flag as speedily as possible—His papers having been properly examined here, there need be no detention upon that Account.1
Governor Livingstons Lady having removed down to his seat near Elizabeth Town, be kind enough to give orders to have the strictest attention paid to the preservation of the inclosures, Gardens, and improvements of every kind—Mrs Livingston would not chuse a guard as she looks upon one rather as an inducement to the Enemy to come up to the House.2 I am &.
P.S. The Jersey Brigade will march to releive you tomorrow if they can procure Waggons.3
Df, in Tench Tilghman’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. For Robert Smith, see William Fitzhugh to GW, 23 April, and n.1.
2. Susannah French Livingston, wife of New Jersey governor William Livingston, apparently had been at the family’s farm at Parsippany, N.J. (see William Livingston to his wife, 9 March, and James Duane to William Livingston, 5 May, in , 3:322–24, 372–73). On 14 June, a week after the Battle of Connecticut Farms, N.J. (7–8 June), GW’s aide-de-camp Tench Tilghman wrote William Livingston from Springfield, N.J.: “I was down below your House this morning. I called in; and had the pleasure of seeing Mrs. Livingston. … Was it not fear of the House being hurt, as much by our parties as by the enemy, if deserted, they would all come away. Mrs. Livingston says if she could get any body on whom she could depend to stay upon and take care of the place she would not hesitate” (, 3:434).