10th. A Letter from Governor Trumbull, inclosing the proceedings of a convention of Eastern Deligates gives better hope of a regular supply of provision than we have been accustomed to for more than two years as the business seem to be taken up Systematically and regular modes adopted to furnish supplies at stated periods.1
General Heath also writes very favourably of the disposition of the Eastn. States but still we are without the reinforcements of Men required of them.2
The Boats undertaken by General Schuyler, are, by his letters, in a promising way3—as those at Wappings Creek also are by the Q. Mr. Genls. report.4
Hazen’s, and the 1st. York Regimt. who had been ordered to West point arrived there, but not till the latter had mutinied on acct. of their pay & several had deserted. The other York Regiment were detained at Albany to bring down the Boats & boards.5
1. Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., to GW, 9 July 1781 (DLC:GW). The enclosure was the minutes of “a Meeting of Commissioners from the New England States convened at Providence the 26th Day of June 1781 to agree on some regular method of sending on supplies of Beef &c to the army during the present year” (DLC:GW).
2. William Heath to GW, 4 July 1781 (DLC:GW). See entry under 6 May 1781. For his reports on his mission, see , 3:196–225.
3. Philip Schuyler to GW, 1 and 6 July 1781 (DLC:GW). In June 1781 Schuyler had agreed to superintend the construction of 100 bateaux at Albany for the projected campaign against New York, at an estimated price of $35 to $40 per vessel (GW to Schuyler, 19 June 1781, Schuyler to GW, 20 June 1781, Jonathan Trumbull, Jr., to Timothy Pickering, 28 June 1781, DLC:GW). On 28 June 1781 GW wrote the president of Congress, urging that funds be forwarded promptly for the construction of the boats (DNA:PCC, Item 152). Schuyler encountered serious problems in obtaining supplies and qualified workmen; money was not forwarded promptly by Congress and Schuyler had to meet most of the expense from his own resources. He was not reimbursed by Congress until October (see , 160).
4. Two new whaleboats were under construction at Wappings Creek, south of Peekskill, N.Y. (GW to Alexander McDougall, 6 July 1781, CSmH).
5. Hazen’s Regiment (2d Canadian) and the 1st New York arrived in Albany 5 July and were to embark almost immediately for West Point (Philip Schuyler to GW, 6 July 1781, DLC:GW). For the disaffection of the troops, see James Clinton to GW, 10 July 1781, DLC:GW.