I have recd your favrs of the 17th and 18th inst.1 In respect to the prisoners taken by Capt. Brewster, I shall not think myself justifiable in consenting to any of their exchanges, untill they have been sent to the State of Connecticut for further examination; for from the report made to me by Capt. Brewster and from your account they are a most pernicious and dangerous gang, upon all of whom the State may possibly have some civil hold.2

I am amazed that Lt Colo. Huntington should again trouble the line with a claim of Rank which he has often been told, upon former applications, had not the least foundation. Ther⟨e⟩ never was a lineal promotion in the 163 Regiments and he can have no right to his present Rank but from the 10th day of October 1778 the time of Lt Colo. Livingstons Resignation. Lt Colo. Gray is wrong in supposing that Lt Colo. Huntingtons Commission is antedated—These two points are so clear that they need no farther investigation; and as to any disputes that may subsist in the line of Captains, they ought in my opinion to have been settled before the new arrangement was made out and forwarded to the Bd of ⟨War⟩. To go into a revisal of Claims and make perhaps an intire alteration of what had just been transm⟨it⟩ted would betray so much inconsistency, that ⟨I⟩ cannot consent to the measure—There may be similar discontents in every line of the Army and they would think themselves from a preced⟨ent⟩ of this nature, entitled to a new hearing. I am &.