From George Washington to Colonel Walter Stewart, 11 May 1779
To Colonel Walter Stewart
Head Qrs [Middlebrook] May 11: 1779
D. Sir
Mr Harrison has presented me with Your Letter to him of yesterday in favor of Mr Murran. The power of appointing Regimental Officers is with the respective States. If it were in me, from your character of the Gentleman, I should not refuse him the Ensigncy which you request. Your application to the State of pensylvania may p[r]obably procure it.1 I am Dr sir with great regard & esteem Yr Most Obedt sert
Go: Washington
Df, in Robert Hanson Harrison’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. Stewart’s letter of 10 May to Robert Hanson Harrison reads: “I beg leave to recommend to his Excellency for an Ensigncy in my Regiment, Mr William Murran a Young Gentleman lately from Dominica; I am well Acquainted with his family, know them to be very Genteel, and that they have bestow’d on their son a liberal and Polite Education.
“should his Excellency think proper to Appoint him, I must request his Commission may be dated the 1st Instant, that being the day he Consented to Join the Regiment” (DLC:GW).
William Murran (Murrin) was appointed an ensign in Stewart’s 2d Pennsylvania Regiment on 19 May and became regimental quartermaster in August. He was promoted to second lieutenant in July 1780 and left the army in January 1781.