From George Washington to James Mease, 9 August 1778
To James Mease
Head Qrs [White Plains] Augst 9th 177[8]1
Sir,
Major Clough has informed me thro Capt. Smith that he has lately received a letter from Colo. Baylor by which he is made acquainted that he has not been able to procure any Cloathing for the use of his Regt.2 As it is represented to me that they are much in want, you will deliver to Major Clough’s order such articles as he may demand or you be able to supply him with.3 I am &c.
G. W———n
Df, in Richard Kidder Meade’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
Also on this date GW’s aide Robert Hanson Harrison wrote Lt. Col. Samuel Smith of the 4th Maryland Regiment about clothing: “It being His Excellency’s wish & intention that all the Maryland Troops should stand upon an equal footing in point of cloathing; and he having been informed that the 2nd & 4th Regiments in the 2d Brigade had lately received pretty large supplies from the public Stores; I am to request by his command that you will make him a return as soon as you can of the cloathing with which these Two Regiments have been lately furnished, that a proper distribution may be directed of that which is to be now drawn from the Cloathier here, in consequence of his Order last night delivered to Genl Smallwood” (DLC:GW).
1. The draft is dated “1777” but docketed “1778,” which from context is correct.
2. The letter from Col. George Baylor has not been identified.
3. GW’s aide-de-camp Richard Kidder Meade wrote Maj. Alexander Clough on this date: “As His Excellency could not ascertain the quantity or articles of Cloathing that Colo. Baylors Regt is in need of; He was obliged to give you an unlimited order on Mr Mease, desiring from the scarcity of Cloathing in his hands that you will be as sparing as possible, demanding only of him, what the Regt cannot do without” (DLC:GW). Mease apparently did not satisfy Baylor, for the Board of War on 9 Sept. issued orders to Otis & Andrews in Boston for clothing the regiment, after Baylor “represented to the board the ill condition of his regiment, in point of clothing, & the impossibility of getting it elsewhere” (Board of War report to Congress on clothing, 5 Oct., DNA:PCC, item 147).