To George Washington from Lieutenant Colonel Richard Varick, 26 February 1779
From Lieutenant Colonel Richard Varick
Bethel near Danbury [Conn.] Feby 26. 1779
Sir
I have the Honor of acknowledging the Receipt of Your Excellency’s Favor of the 15th instant, conveying to me Your Orders for my Removal to Head Quarters.
I am sorry to find That Lt Colo. Bradford has resolved to quit his Office, but shall in Obedience to Your Excellency’s Orders, repair to New Jersey as soon [as] possible, to releive him, in Confidence that the Honorable the Congress will be pleased to favor me with further Assistance, so that I may soon be indulged (leaveg the Departmt in Good Hands) to follow the Example of Lt Colo. Bradford;1 I am the more Induced to such a Step, because I am convincd, that on the present Establis[h]ment & in the now dispersed Situation of the Troops, no Officer can execute that Office agreeable to the Wishes of Congress.2 With Sentiments of the most profound Respect, I have the Honor to be, Your Excellency’s Most Obedt & Very Humble Servt
Richd Varick
ADfS, NNgWHM.
1. In a letter of 27 Feb. from Bethel, near Danbury, Conn., Varick wrote to Lt. Col. William Bradford, Jr. It reads: “I am sorry to find that You are bent on resigning. I intended to have compleated all my Musters in this Departmt before My Journey to New Jersey, but shall be in some Measure disappointed for I shall Set out so early as to be with You on or before the 20th March & hope soon to be indulged with Leave to quit my Office into proper Hands for I have no Prospect of hav[in]g the Department on a proper Footing & untill that is the Case, no Officer can execute It with Honor to himself” (NNgWHM).
2. Varick continued to serve as a deputy mustermaster until Congress abolished the mustermaster department in January 1780. For Varick’s assignment to supervise the copying of GW’s military papers, with the exception of incoming letters, see GW to Varick, 25 May 1781 (NHi: George and Martha Washington Papers), as well as 1 Jan. 1784 and the source note to that document (, 1:2–3); see also GW to Samuel Huntington, 4 April 1781 (DNA:PCC, item 152).