To George Washington from Brigadier General Peter Muhlenberg, 23 December 1778
From Brigadier General Peter Muhlenberg
Decembr 23 1778.
Sir
Five Thousand One Hundred Dollars, are now wanting, for Colo. Davis’s Regt to pay the Bounty to Thirty four Drafts who have inlisted, at 150 Dollars pr Man.
Captn Minnis will receive the Money & give a Receipt for it in my Name.1 I am Sir Your Most Obedt hble Servt
P. Muhlenberg B.G.
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. Muhlenberg had written to Robert Hanson Harrison on 21 Dec.: “By the returns I have receivd from Colo. Parker & Colo. Davies, I find the first has reinlisted Thirty of his Regt The latter Seventy, They are both Anxious to receive the Money, that the Men may be paid agreeable to the promises made them—If it is possible to draw the Money I wish it may be sent by Captn Minnis who waits on you for that purpose I should have waited on His Excellency myself, but have been confinid to my Room these two days, with a pain in my side occasind by a bad Cold” (DLC:GW). GW’s warrant book records outlays to Muhlenberg of $15,000 on 20 Dec., and $5,100 on 22 Dec. (Revolutionary War Warrant Book 3, DLC:GW).
Callohill Mennis (Minnis; 1751–1812) served in 1775 as a lieutenant in the York County, Va., militia, and became an ensign in the 1st Virginia Regiment in February 1776. He was promoted to first lieutenant with a commission dating from December 1776, and in November 1777 he was promoted to captain. Minnis served as brigade major in 1778–79, and in September 1779 he became an aide to Muhlenberg. Mennis was captured at Charleston in May 1780 and remained a prisoner until at least the spring of 1783, although he was officially transferred to the 7th Virginia Regiment in February 1781 and removed from the army lists in January 1783. Mennis reintroduced himself to GW in 1797, and John Marshall recommended him in 1799 for a command in the army then being formed for a possible war with France (see Mennis to GW, 2 June 1797, and John Marshall to GW, 12 June 1799).