To George Washington from Lieutenant Colonel Edward Antill, 27 March 1780
From Lieutenant Colonel Edward Antill
Flatt Bush [N.Y.] March 27th 80
May it please Your Excellency
Assur’d, this will be delivered You, by Mr Bradford now Exchang’d:1 I could not in Justice to myself, & Family,2 forego so good an oppertunity, to mention my Situation to You Sir; particularly as it is to escape the prying Eye, of Impertinent Curiosity.
Once more, in Anxious Expectation, of a Change, in our unfortunate Situation; we have waited the Result of the Commissioners meeting at Amboy: The Breaking off, that Negotiation (as we are inform’d) without Effect, has thrown a Damp upon our Spirits,3 and in a peculiar manner Affects me. It is perhaps, Unworthy a Soldier to Complain, as he is to Lay his Account, in Similar Difficulties, upon his becoming one: but, when He daily Sees, an affectionate & delicate wife, and four Small Children, heretofore Tenderly brought Up; driven from their Native Home, and encountring every difficulty of Poverty, & Distress, on his Account; it Calls up, in him, the feelings of an Humane Husband, and a Tender, & affectionate father: It would be unpolite, to detain Your Excellency, with a Detail of personal Sufferings; But appealing to your well known Tender feelings, & Humanity, I most Earnestly Request: you will endeavour my Exchange, on the Ground of my peculiar Situation:4 as I know of but one, of my Rank before me in Turn, and he a Single Man. Or that you would be graciously pleased, to order a Reasonable provision to be made, for my Wife, & Family in our lines, where I would Send them, (being Unable any Longer to Support them Here)5 and then, if we are to Continue Prisoners, Let England, Hallifax or Prison Ships, be our Doom I hope the Same Love of my Country, that dro⟨ve⟩ my Sword, will Support me with a Manly fortitude, thr’o Every Scene of Accumulated Distress.
With a Wish for a line from Col: Harrison in Return to this by Any officer Coming in who could bring it I have the Honor to be your Excellencies most Obedt & Most Hble Servt
Edwd Antill
ALS, DLC:GW. The docket reads: “Answd Verbally by Lt. Colo. [Maj. Oliver] Towles.”
1. Former prisoner Lt. James Bradford probably delivered Antill’s letter.
2. Charlotte Riverin (Riverain; c.1753–1785) had married Edward Antill at Quebec in May 1767. The couple had eight children before 1780, of whom four survived: Isabella Graham (b. 1768), Mary (1771–1834), Julia (1772–1787), and John (1779–1781). Charlotte Antill bore another child in September 1780. For genealogical details, see William Nelson, “Edward Antill and Some of His Descendants,” Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, 3d ser., 2 (1897): 25–55.
Charlotte Antill had written in French to the president of Congress on 17 Nov. 1777. A contemporary translation of her letter reads: “I have the honor of addressing myself to your Excellency to pray you to grant permission to me and my Children to go to my husband now a prisoner of war at New York. I flatter myself that the zeal with which he hath always served the United States of America and the Sacrifice which he & I have made in their cause ought to scatter all Suspicion injurious to his honor, and that his Fidelity will merit for me this Favor from your Excellency & the honorable Congress” (DNA:PCC, item 78). Congress read Antill’s letter on 22 Nov. and referred it to the Board of War (, 9:948). For doubts regarding the Antills’ loyalty, see , 6:896.
3. For the failed prisoner exchange negotiations, see both letters from the Commissioners for the Exchange of Prisoners to GW, 26 March [letter 1, letter 2].
4. Antill was not exchanged until November 1780.
5. In a letter written at Morristown on 10 May, GW instructed John Adam, deputy commissary of prisoners at Elizabeth, N.J.: “From the distressed situation in which I am informed Lt Colo. Antill is on Long Island—I desire that You will send him a Barrel of Beef and One of pork—and Two Barrels of flour. They ought to be good. If You can not procure them yourself—You will apply to the Commissary who must furnish them. The sooner Colo. Antill can receive this supply the better” (Df, in Robert Hanson Harrison’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW).