To George Washington from Major General Philemon Dickinson, 20 June 1780
From Major General Philemon Dickinson
Tuesday Eveng 7 oClock [20 June 1780]1
Sir,
This moment an officer (Major Edgar2) who lives near Woodbridge came to my Quarters, & gives the followg Intelligence—That Genl Clinton had landed 4,000 Men upon Staten Island, the main body were marching towards Amboy, & a large Column to the Blazing-star3—a report prevails, that a number of Boats were come round into Princes Bay—In consequence of the above, I have order’d Major Edgar with half his Battalion & four Horsemen upon the lines—with directions to give me the earliest Information—I have likewise order’d the disaffected, & the Cattle, removed from the lines—The Major adds, that the Inhabitants were removing their Effects, & greatly alarmed.
The earliest Intelligence shall be communicated to your Excellency, by your Most Obt
Philemon Dickinson
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. The date appears at the bottom of the letter in a hand other than Dickinson’s and on the docket in the writing of GW’s secretary Robert Hanson Harrison.
2. Clarkson Edgar, first major of the first regiment of Middlesex County, N.J., militia, had served in 1779 at the same rank in a state regiment.
3. On 19 June, the regiments that returned from South Carolina with British general Henry Clinton disembarked at Cole’s Ferry on Staten Island. Some troops marched to cantonments on roads leading to the Blazing Star ferries and Billop’s Point opposite Perth Amboy, N.J., but none proceeded beyond Richmond. See GW to George Clinton, this date, n.11.