From Alexander Hamilton to Colonel Charles Stewart, 5 September 1777
To Colonel Charles Stewart1
Wilmington [Delaware] Septemr. 5th 1777
Sir,
Inclosed in your letter to Mr Ludowick2 you will find one from His Excellency confirming your orders. We expected you to call here this morning; but as you have not done it, I send you the letters, that they may be immediately forwarded by express. No time should be lost in the matter3 as it is a point of the most urgent necessity.
I am Sir Your most Obed serv
A Hamilton ADC
ALS, Harvard College Library.
1. Stewart was commissary general of issues.
2. Christopher Ludowick, superintendent of bakers.
According to John Bakeless “General Washington himself dealt with a few secret agents directly. One of these was probably the German baker—and specialist in fancy gingerbread—Christopher Ludwick, who, as “Baker General” of the Continental Army, supplied such bread as he could to the troops at Valley Forge. German born, long in business in Philadelphia, he was the ideal agent to encourage German troops to desert and could hardly help mingling espionage with these duties” ( [Philadelphia, 1959], 207). Washington wrote to Ludowick on September 5, 1777 (George Washington Papers, Library of Congress).
3. This is a reference to Washington’s demand that more bread be provided for the Army.