From George Washington to John Beatty, 23 December 1779
To John Beatty
Head qrs [Morristown] Decr 23. 1779
sir
Your Letter of this date to Mr Harrison has been laid before me.1 On account of the very distressed situation of Monsr de Antroche, as represented by You, I have no objection to your permitting him to go to New York on parole to return when called for. If he can effect his absolute exchange for the Officer intitled in regular course, It will be agreable to me.2
With respect to Mr Boudinot’s request for borrowg Captain Pitcairn & Lieutenant Campbell—it might not be any injury to our Officers to lend them—if the State has Others of their rank to replace them—and such borrowings & lendings, if the system of State & Continental prisoners is to be kept up, which however I would wish to see abolished, might facilitate the business of exchanges—But as Our Officers have expressed such uneasiness at state exchanges, by which, prisoners in many instances not a twentieth part so long in captivity as some others have been, have been exchanged—and no arguments, they viewing their former captivity on a large scale of liberality—can convince them of the propriety or justice of limited exchanges or any not conducted on a general Continental footing—I can not consent to Captain pitcairn & Lieut. Campbells being sent. You can explain to Mr Boudinot the difficulties that would attend it. And I should hope that no inconveniencies would result from our not being able to comply with his request3—as the Enemy may carry on the Exchanges for the Hessian Officers Mr Boudinot mentions as belonging to the State. possibly the Enemy’s wishes to get favourite Officers may b⟨e⟩ an impediment; but they are not to be indulged as th⟨ey⟩ please.4 I am sir Yr Most Obed⟨t st⟩
G: Washington
Df, in Robert Hanson Harrison’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. Beatty’s letter, presumably to GW’s secretary Robert Hanson Harrison, has not been identified.
2. Joseph-Louis (Louis Joseph), chevalier d’Anterroches (1753–1814), a French nobleman and cousin of Lafayette, fled France for England in 1775 to pursue a military career against his father’s wishes. He volunteered with the 29th Regiment of Foot and became an ensign in the 62d Regiment of Foot on 21 Nov. 1776. D’Anterroches was taken prisoner at the Battle of Freeman’s Farm on 19 Sept. 1777, and his active service apparently ended. His “very distressed situation” may have involved an engagement to Mary Vanderpoel, a New Jersey woman whom he married on 30 Jan. 1780. After the war, d’Anterroches settled in Elizabeth, N.J., and sought financial assistance from GW (see the mother of d’Anterroches, Jeanne-Françoise Teyssier [Tessier] de Chauny, Comtesse d’Anterroches, to GW, 18 Sept. 1786, in 4:249–52, and d’Anterroches to GW, 6 Feb. 1790, in 5:100–102; see also GW to Henry Knox, 8 March 1787, and Knox to GW, 26 March 1787, in 5:74–75, 110–11). D’Anterroches subsequently left his wife and children in the United States and returned to France.
3. New Jersey governor William Livingston had written Elisha Boudinot, New Jersey commissary for prisoners, from Mount Holly on 6 Dec. reporting a proposed prisoner exchange that included Capt. Thomas Pitcairn of the 82d Regiment of Foot for New Jersey militia captain Nathaniel FitzRandolph, and Lieutenant Campbell of the 74th Regiment of Foot for Charles Jackson, a tavernkeeper captured with FitzRandolph on 2 Feb. (see 3:248–49; see also Livingston to Boudinot, 2 Nov., in 3:190–91). Boudinot subsequently wrote a letter to Livingston from Elizabeth on 11 Dec. that in part reads: “I am very much affraid the late proposal of an Exchange by Col. Hendrickson, will not take place as Capt. Pitcairn & Lieut. Campble belong to Col. Beaty the latter being exchanged with him for a Lieut. in the Militia & some Privates. The Col. thinks he is not at liberty to lend me those Gentlemen, without Consent of the General; an application is therefore gone to Head Quarters” ( 3:258–60). Livingston replied to Boudinot from Mount Holly on 20 Dec.: “I have just received your Letter of the 11 instant. …
“Capt. Pitcairn & Lieut. Campbel were represented to me as Prisoners of this State. If not I hope His Excellency the General will turn them over to effect the Exchange on the Application you have made” ( 3:275).
Livingston disputed GW’s decision not to categorize Pitcairn and Campbell as state prisoners and eventually secured Pitcairn’s transfer to state jurisdiction for purposes of an exchange (see Livingston to GW, 8 March 1780, DLC:GW; see also GW to Livingston, 16 March and 27 April 1780, both NN).
Thomas Pitcairn served as a lieutenant in the 14th Regiment of Foot before becoming a captain in the 82d Regiment of Foot upon its formation in early 1778. He was aboard a ship that sank in late March 1779 while sailing from Halifax to New York with “the flank company and half the light company of the 82d regiment” (New-Jersey Gazette [Trenton], 14 April 1779). Taken prisoner, Pitcairn remained in captivity until his exchange in 1780. He subsequently served with his regiment in North Carolina.
At least five men with the surname Campbell—Archibald, Colin, John, Duncan, and Kenneth—held commissions as lieutenants in the 74th Regiment of Foot prior to February 1778.
4. GW is referring to a letter that Boudinot wrote Beatty on 11 Dec. involving a possible exchange of Hessian prisoners for Pitcairn and Campbell (see 3:259). Beatty replied to Boudinot from headquarters at Morristown on 24 Dec.: “In answer to your application for borrowing, Captain Pitcairn and Lt Campbell, I am to signify to you, that by Letter received yesterday from His Excellency the Commander in Chief, I am instructed not to consent to the granting your request—His Ideas and reasoning on the matter, are nearly the same with my own, He wishes to see the System of State and Continental Prisoners abolished. …
“I hope no great inconvenience, will result from our non compliance in this particular: as you may carry on the Exchanges for the Hessian Officers you say you are possessed of, as belonging to the State—possibly the Enemy’s wishes to get favourable Officers Exchanged may be an impediment for some time but if they are not indulged they will ’ere long be more compliant.
“Wishing you the Compliments of the Season” (NjP: Thorne-Boudinot Collection).