To James Madison from Wade Hampton, [ca. 9 March 1814]
From Wade Hampton
[ca. 9 March 1814]
Sir,
To the causes which induced a notice to the war office in my letter of the 31st. of August last, of an intention to retire from the army at the close of the campaign, others have occurred, all of them unforeseen, and beyond my controul.1
I request this letter may be considered as my resignation of the commission I hold in the Army of the United States. I have the honor to be Sir very respectfully yr. obt servt
W. Hampton
RC (DNA: RG 107, LRRS, H-323:7). Undated; docketed as received in the War Department in March 1814. Cover bears John Armstrong’s draft of a reply accepting Hampton’s resignation in accord with “the Presidents orders.” Conjectural date assigned on the basis of the docket, the fact that Armstrong’s reply was dated 16 Mar. 1814 (DNA: RG 107, LSMA), and the assumption that Hampton, who had left Virginia for his home near Columbia, South Carolina, in January 1814, would have written this letter approximately a week before its arrival in the War Department (Hampton to Armstrong, 12 Jan. 1814, DNA: RG 107, LRRS, H:284–7).
1. For the letter, see Armstrong to JM, 5 Sept. 1813, 6:593.