Colonel William Grayson, Lieutenant Colonels Robert Hanson Harrison and Alexander Hamilton, and Elias Boudinot to Colonels Charles O’Hara and Humphrey Stephens, and Captain Richard FitzPatrick, 2 April 1778
Colonel William Grayson,
Lieutenant Colonels Robert Hanson Harrison
and Alexander Hamilton, and Elias Boudinot to
Colonels Charles O’Hara and Humphrey Stephens,
and Captain Richard FitzPatrick1
[Germantown, Pennsylvania] April 2nd. 1778.
Gentlemen
We have the honor of your favor per flag;
Having inform’d General Washington of the message delivered yesterday from Sir W. Howe, & of our intentions to return to camp immediately, in consequence of it;2 we do not think ourselves at liberty, to use so much delay, as would afford us the pleasure of the interview proposed.
We are Gentlemen with due respect yr. Very hble servts.
Willm. Grayson
R. H. Harrison
A. Hamilton
Elias Boudenot
To
Colo. O’hara
Colo. Stephens
Capt. Fitzpatrick.
Df, or copy, in writing of William Grayson, George Washington Papers, Library of Congress.
1. For background to this letter, see “Commission,” March 28, 1778.
2. On April 4, 1778, Washington wrote to Howe: “I was sorry to learn an objection had been made to the residence of my Commissioners at German Town, during the continuance of the negotiation, as it served to give interruption to a business, which we are mutually interested should proceed without more delay, than the nature of it requires. I had no idea, but that the Gentlemen on both sides were to remain constantly at German Town ’till the conclusion of the treaty” (George Washington Papers, Library of Congress).