To George Washington from Officers of the 1st Connecticut Regiment, 31 March 1778
From Officers of the 1st Connecticut Regiment
Camp, Valley Forge 31st March, 1778
To His Excellency Geo. Washington Esq.; General and Commander in Chief of the Armies of the United States of America: The Petition of the commissioned Officers of the first Connecticut Regiment, Humbly Sheweth, That Your Petitioners, since they took the field the last Campaign to the present time, have been destitute of a chief Colonel to the Regimt—Our Lieut: Colonel, daily expecting some other gentleman would be put over him to command the Regiment, did not exert himself for the honor & benefit of the same, as he probably would have done had his situation been otherwise. The necessary inconveniences then, we have laboured under on this account, are too obvious to be particularis’d to Your Excellency: To avoid which, in future, and that the regiment may make that respectable & martial appearance which was intended by the first worthy Colonel of it;1 Your Petitioners humbly beg leave to request of your Excellency that a Colonel be appointed to the said regiment before the opening of the approaching campaign. And Your Petitioners further beg leave to petition your Excellency, that we may be indulged in having Lieut. Colonel Sherman; (whose accomplishments as an Officer, & a Gentleman, we highly vallue,) appointed to the command of said regiment,2 which we humbly concieve would greatly add to the peace & honour of the Same; and Your Petitioners, as in duty bound shall ever pray. Signed in behalf of the comission’d Officers of the afforsd Regiment.
Christor Darrow Capt: Com’dt
DS, DLC:GW.
1. The petitioners are referring to Jedediah Huntington, who had been promoted to brigadier general in May 1777. Since then the 1st Connecticut Regiment had been commanded by Lt. Col. Samuel Prentice, who resigned in May 1778 after being passed over for the colonelcy of the 6th Connecticut Regiment (see Prentice to GW, 15 May, DNA: RG 93, War Department). The petitioners had previously spoken to Huntington about their opposition to an appointment of Prentice (see Jedediah Huntington to Jabez Huntington, 22 Feb., , 401–2).
2. Lt. Col. Isaac Sherman did not get this appointment, which went instead to Lt. Col. Josiah Starr, whose commission as colonel evidently was backdated to May 1777.