Extract of a letter from Major General Heath to Colonel Pickering Q.M.G: dated Head Quarters Highlands Feby 5th 1782.

‘Dear sir’

‘I was the last evening honored with letters from his Excellency the commander in chief—in one of them he is pleased to express himself as follows.’

"If colonel Pickering has not left the north river, he can inform you whether any, or what steps have been taken to procure a return of the horses and cattle of the French Army which were in the camp at West Chester—Should nothing have been done, the request will go properly from him to General de Beville, the quarter master general."

‘Please my dear sir, to let me be favored with those returns as soon as possible. You are fully sensible how anxious the state is for a settlement, and how essential it is that those returns should be previously obtained.’

Sometime in last autumn, General Heath, who then commanded & still commands the American troops on the Hudson, was directed by Congress to take equitable measures for ascertaining the quantity of forage consumed by the allied army while it lay near Dobbs ferry, in the county of West Chester in the state of New York. This resolution of Congress was handed to me during the siege of york town. So far as the American troops were concerned, I was already prepared with my returns of the number of horses & oxen which had been supported by the forage obtained in West Chester County, and supposed I had no occasion to meddle with what concerned the French Army. But this moment I have received from General Heath a letter on the subject, from which it appears to be the opinion of General Washington, that the application for the necessary returns of the horses & oxen of the French Army, which were subsisted on the forage taken in West Chester county, should be made by you to me. An extract from this letter I do myself the honour to inclose.

No account having been taken or appraisement made, at the time, of the several quantities & species of forage collected & used by the allied army while in West Chester County there is no way left for ascertaing the same, but by finding the numbers of horses & oxen which during the time were subsisted on that forage. But there will be some difference between the French and American Army: the former I suppose received very considerable supplies of grain from elsewhere; but the latter subsisted almost entirely on the West Chester forage. To prevent therefore an undue charge, it will be necessary for you to certify, as nearly as you can, the quantities of grain for forage, which were supplied to your army from other places than West Chester County. This Certificate, with the returns of the horses and oxen in your army while we lay in that county, I beg you to transmit to me as speedily as possible, that so I may fulfil the views of the Commander in Chief. I have the honour to be &c.

On the 8th instant I received the letter from General Beville of which the inclosed is a copy. I also inclose copies of my two letters which he refers to, & of the extract from yours which I sent him therewith. From the information these will furnish, you will judge what further steps are to be taken relative to the forage consumed by the allied army in the county of West Chester, in the state of New-York. I have the honour to be, with great regard, sir, your most obedt servt