To George Washington from Major General Nathanael Greene, 24 December 1779
From Major General Nathanael Greene
Morris Town 24th Decemr 1779.
Sir
I am not well acquainted with the facts represented by Colo. Moylan; but think they may be well founded.1 I know nothing with respect to Mr Hubbard’s Relations, where they live, or what influence they can have over him: but it is natural to suppose, if his friends live where the Colo. says they do, that they would attempt to influence him to have the Horse remov’d at a distance.2 Mr Hubbard is a very plain, honest, blunt fellow; and no Man more attentive to the public Interest. I imagine the Horse can be kept at Colchester much cheaper, than at Middletown and the neighbourhood of it, as a great quantity of Hay is provided there; but the position is altogether out of the line of support, and leaves, exposed, the Country, which they were intended to cover. Mr Hubbard says he has no Hay provided in the quarter where Moylan wishes to be posted; but there is not the least doubt of there being a plenty there, and that a sufficiency may be had for the support of the Cavalry.3
With regard to the article of Cash, I have frequently mentioned to Your Excellency our distress on that head, and our prospects are not mending.4 I wish not to have the Quarter Master gratified further than is perfectly consistent with the good of the service, both in point of Expence, and cover to the Country. On the one hand, care should be taken not to oppress the Staff unnecessarily to gratify the Line; neither should the Staff be supported in any unreasonable opposition to the Line.
Colo. Biddle thinks the Horse can be furnished at Weathersfield and Middletown, if the Department is supplied with Cash, and not without. I am Your Excellency’s Most Obt Huml. Servt
Nath. Greene Q.M.G.
LS, DLC:GW; ADfS, NjP: De Coppet Collection.
1. Greene probably is referring to unfound letters from Col. Stephen Moylan to GW dated 15 and 16 Dec. that apparently argued against the transfer of two cavalry regiments in Connecticut from Middletown and Weathersfield to Colchester for the winter (see GW to Moylan, 20 Dec. [found at GW to Greene, same date, n.2] and 25 Dec.). For Moylan’s grudging compliance with orders to move the camps to Colchester, see his letter to GW, 4 Jan. 1780 (DLC:GW).
2. Nehemiah Hubbard, then deputy quartermaster for Connecticut, had been a merchant in Middletown.
3. Hubbard had written Greene a letter on 13 Dec. that has not been identified. Greene’s reply, written at Morristown on 21 Dec., instructed Hubbard to follow Moylan’s orders on where to quarter the cavalry (see 5:190–91). When Hubbard responded to Greene from Hartford on 27 Dec., he promised to follow orders “although it may not be altogether so Agreeable” ( 5:212).
4. Greene was more explicit on this topic in a letter to Brig. Gen. George Weedon written from Morristown on 25 Dec.: “The Army is in great distress for want of Provision and forage; owing to the great Departments of the Army being kept in a starvd condition for three or four Months past for want of money. Our affairs are in a disagreeable train from the wretched state of our business of finance. This has been so badly conducted for want of capacity or from worse motives, that a thick cloud hangs over our heads at this hour threatning us with destruction, that never would have appeard in the political horison, had there been common prudence in the affairs of finance” ( 5:209).