31From George Washington to George Clinton, 12 March 1778 (Washington Papers)
I am honored with yours of the 5th instant, and cannot sufficiently express my thanks for your attention to my letter of the 16th Feby. I have the pleasure to inform you, that by the exertions of our friends in different quarters the Army has been pretty well supplied since, and I hope will continue to be so, if proper steps are taken by the present Commissaries, or if there should be a change...
32From George Washington to George Clinton, 24 April 1778 (Washington Papers)
In the affair of Princetown the winter before last, a box was taken from the enemy, which by appearances was supposed to contain a quantity of hard money. It was put into a small ammunition cart, on the spur of the occasion and has since disappeared. I am informed there were some suspicions at the time against one Crane, a Capt. Lieutenant in the artillery—who, it was imagined had converted...
33From George Washington to George Clinton, 17 March 1778 (Washington Papers)
I am favd with yours of the 8th instant inclosing a letter from you to Congress upon the subject of Affairs in the North River department. I agree perfectly with you as to the propriety of drawing every man down the River except the garrison of Fort Schuyler and have backed your opinion forcibly with my own. I cannot think it was the intention of Congress to make the command of the Forts...
34From George Washington to the Commanding Officer at Alexandria, Virginia, 20 March 1778 (Washington Papers)
The Director General and the other Gentlemen of the Faculty having determined that it will be more convenient to innoculate all the Levies that have not had the small pox, at or near the Camp, I desire that you will suffer none of them to be detained at Alexandria or George Town for that purpose. If the small pox should be in either, the troops are not to halt at or enter them. The Officers...
35Grant of Authority to the Commissioners for Prisoner Exchange, 28 March 1778 (Washington Papers)
By His Excellency, George Washington Esquire, General and Commander in Chief of all the Forces of the United States of America. To Colonel William Grayson, Lieutenant Colonels Robert Hanson Harrison and Alexander Hamilton and Elias Boudinot Esquire Commissary General of Prisoners. Whereas a proposition was made, by me, on the 30th day of July 1776, to His Excellency General Sir William Howe,...
36From George Washington to the Commissioners for Prisoner Exchange, 1 April 1778 (Washington Papers)
The inclosed Resolutions of Congress came to my hand this instant, and as they are essentially necessary for your Government I have sent them immediately by Express. The first four Resolves are absolute and therefore you are obliged to insist upon the terms therein directed. But do not let the last embarrass you or impede your Business. I have so perfect a reliance upon your judgment and upon...
37From George Washington to the Commissioners of Indian Affairs, 13 March 1778 (Washington Papers)
You will percieve by the inclosed Copy of a Resolve of Congress that I am empowered to employ a Body of four hundred Indians if they can be procured upon proper Terms —Divesting them of the Savage Customs exercised in their Wars against each other, I think they may be made of excellent Use as Sevnts and light Troops mixed with our other parties. I propose to raise about one half the Number...
38From George Washington to Continental Artillery Officers, 2 March 1778 (Washington Papers)
It gives me singular pain to learn by your Memorial of the 10th inst., that there are any discontents in a corps of Officers, so eminently distinguished by their Services—you cannot be more ready to point out grievances, than I am desirous of redressing them, as far as depends on me—at the same time I must confess that I cannot consider all the Articles of complaint, in the same light in which...
39From George Washington to a Continental Congress Camp Committee, 1 March 1778 (Washington Papers)
The Armoury department is in as bad a situation as it can well be, and requires measures to be immediately taken to put it upon a proper footing; otherwise the army must be greatly distressed on the score of arms, and the public will be at a great expence to little purpose. Mr Dupree, who has come from Lebanon, to represent the disordered defective state of the department, will give you full...
40From George Washington to a Continental Congress Camp Committee, 6 March 1778 (Washington Papers)
However inconvenient, & distressing to the Service in this quarter it may be to part with another Majr General, yet, in obedience to a resolve of Congress I must do it, if neither Genl Putnam nor Heath, in the judgment of the Comee, will answer the purposes of the Command at Rhode Island. The Comee best know the designs of Congress in assembling a body of Troops in that State; consequently,...
41From George Washington to a Continental Congress Camp Committee, 1 March 1778 (Washington Papers)
As I do not recollect your determination respecting the resolve of Congress, in the case of Woodford &ca Mr Harrison waits upon you for that purpose; and to explain the matter so far as it relates to Weedon & Scott. By him you will receive the proposals for collecting Cavalry —I also send, for your perusal, a Letter &ca just received from Genl Howe; which shews in a very conspicuous point of...
42From George Washington to a Continental Congress Camp Committee, 19 March 1778 (Washington Papers)
Agreeable to General Reeds request I inclose you a list of the Field Officers in the Pensylvania line. The Board of General Officers upon reconsidering Colonel Putnams claim of Rank in the Massachusetts line and having before them his pretentions in consequence of his appointment as Engineer, have determined to place him in the arrangement next to Colonel Wigglesworth. I am With the greatest...
43From George Washington to a Continental Congress Camp Committee, 9 April 1778 (Washington Papers)
By a Resolve of Congress, the appointment of Officers to the Corps which Brigadier General Count Pulaski is authorised to raise, has been refered to your decision in conjunction with me —as I know the superior confidence which a Commandant places in officers of his own choice, I have given him my approbation of the Gentlemen whom he has nominated; it remains with you to decide in their favor,...
44From George Washington to the Continental Navy Board, 1 March 1778 (Washington Papers)
I am informed that a number of the continental flat Boats still remain at Bordentown. I wrote to Commodore Hazelwood to have them removed higher up the River, but why he has not done it I do not know. I am very apprehensive that the Enemy will one day or other make an excursion and destroy our Vessels Boats and Stores at that place. To prevent as much of this as possible I shall esteem it as a...
45From George Washington to the Continental Navy Board, 11 April 1778 (Washington Papers)
I am favd with yours of the 31st ulto. All the Articles which you send over are to be directed to the Commy Genl of purchases or his deputy in Camp and they will give Receipts upon delivery. I have never had an answer from General Howe respecting Caps. Robinson and Galt. Our Commissioners are now sitting at Newtown to endeavour to procure a general Release of prisoners and to settle a more...
46From George Washington to John Coryell, 1 March 1778 (Washington Papers)
I am very anxious to have all the continental flat Boats below Trenton carried up the River as far as Easton or near it, that they may be intirely out of the Enemy’s reach—I have desired the Gentlemen of the Navy Board to order Commodore Hazelwood to collect all those and carry them up as far as Trenton and when he has got them there to let you know it. I shall therefore be exceedingly obliged...
47From George Washington to Denis-Nicolas Cottineau de Kerloguen, 4 April 1778 (Washington Papers)
I have received your obliging Letter of the 26th Feby with the Inventory of yr Cargo and congratulate you upon your safe Arrival in America—the delay of Your Sales incident to the compliment which you were so polite as to pay me, has probably been much greater than you were aware of, and I should not be surprised if in the mean time from an idea of your letters having miscarried, you should...
48From George Washington to John Parke Custis, 1 March 1778 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found: to John Parke Custis, 1 Mar. 1778. On 3 April, Custis wrote Martha Washington: “My Affecte Regards to the General. . . . I return Him many Thanks for his Letter of the 1st of which got to my Hands on Tuesday last” ( Fields, Papers of Martha Washington Joseph E. Fields, ed. “Worthy Partner”: The Papers of Martha Washington . Westport, Conn., and London, 1994. , 178–79).
49From George Washington to Bartholomew Dandridge, 29 March 1778 [letter not found] (Washington Papers)
Letter not found: to Bartholomew Dandridge, 29 Mar. 1778. On 12 April, Dandridge wrote GW , “your kind, tho’ short, note in my Sisters Letter of the 29th ult. I have received.”
50From George Washington to Colonel Elias Dayton, 8 March 1778 (Washington Papers)
I am favd with yours of the 20th Feby and am sorry to find from it that the ill state of your health added to the situation of your private Affairs renders it highly inconvenient on the last account and impossible upon the former to remain in the Service. I am so well convinced that you have no others motives for quitting the service than those you have alledged, that you have my consent as...
51From George Washington to Timothy Dwight, Jr., 18 March 1778 (Washington Papers)
I yesterday received your favor of the 8th Instt, accompanied by so warm a recommendation from Genl Parsons that I cannot but form favorable presages of the merit of the work you propose to honor me with the dedication of. Nothing can give me more pleasure than to patronize the essays of genius, and a laudable cultivation of the Arts & Sciences, which had begun to flourish in so eminent a...
52From George Washington to Robert Erskine, 11 April 1778 (Washington Papers)
I recd yours of the 26th March inclosing an elegant draft of part of Hudsons River. If your Affairs are in such a situation that they will admit of your attendance upon the Army I shall be glad to see you as soon as possible. Capt. Scull, who is intended for one of your Assistants, has been for some time employed in surveying the Country adjacent to the Camp. I am Sir Yr most obt Servt. Df ,...
53From George Washington to John Ettwein, 28 March 1778 (Washington Papers)
I have received your Letter of the 25th instant by Mr Hasse; setting forth the injury that will be done to the Inhabitants of Letiz by establishing a General Hospital there—it is needless to explain how essential an establishment of this kind is to the welfare of the Army, and you must be sensible that it cannot be made any where, without occasioning inconvenience to some set of people or...
54From George Washington to Israel Evans, 13 March 1778 (Washington Papers)
Your favor of the 17th Ulto inclosing the discourse which you delivered on the 18th of December—the day set apart for a general thanksgiving—to Genl Poors Brigade, never came to my hands till yesterday. I have read this performance with equal attention & pleasure, and at the sametime that I admire, & feel the force of the reasoning which you have displayed through the whole, it is more...
55From George Washington to Bryan Fairfax, 1 March 1778 (Washington Papers)
Your favor of the 8th of Decr came safe to my hands—after considerable delay in its passage. The Sentiments you have expressed of me in this Letter are highly flattering—meriting my warmest acknowledgements, as I have too good an opinion of your sincerity and candour, to believe that you are capable of unmeaning professions—& speaking a language foreign from your heart—The friendship I ever...
56From George Washington to Bryan Fairfax, 21 April 1778 (Washington Papers)
I have been favoured with your Letter of the 29th Ulto. I think with you, that a Sterling debt cannot with any degree of propriety, be discharged in currt money at 33⅓ pr Ct because Bills will cost the purchaser 200. & have lately sold at 230. In this proportion most commodities have risen—But, as you do not raise many things for Sale, as Rents and Currt Money debts are discharged without...
57From George Washington to George William Fairfax, 11 March 1778 (Washington Papers)
Immediately on my appointment to the command of the American Army and arrival at Cambridge (near Boston) in the year 1775, I informed you of the impracticability of my longer continuing to perform the duties of a friend by having an eye to the conduct of your Collector & Steward, as my absence from Virginia would not only withdraw every little attention I otherwise might have given to your...
58From George Washington to Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Flower, 11 March 1778 (Washington Papers)
I have received your Letter of 27th Ulto inclosing your Instructions from the Board of War relative to procuring Leather for Military Accoutrements—to which I have nothing to add—the common and milder method of Contract is to be prefered for supplying the Army, and when that fails recourse must inevitably be had in the last Resort to compulsive means—From the importance of the object, I cannot...
59From George Washington to Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Flower, 18 March 1778 (Washington Papers)
As seven of the Gallies at Bordentown are to be stripped and Sunk, not having men sufficient to work them, I desire you will send down travelling Carriages to remove the fine heavy Cannon belon[g]ing to them. If you have not carriages ready for the whole; send down as many as you have, with orders to remove part of them at first some distance from the Water, and then return for the remainder—I...
60From George Washington to David Forman, 25 March 1778 (Washington Papers)
I am favoured with yours of the 13th instant. The opinion of the council of your state is so directly opposed to the continuance of the men at the salt works you are erecting, that to avoid the imputation of partiality and remove all cause for censure both with respect to you and myself, I am induced to direct they may, for the present, join, and act with, Col: Shreves regiment, in the...