From George Washington to Lieutenant Colonel John Visscher, 29 May 1779
To Lieutenant Colonel John Visscher
Head Qrs Middlebrook May 29th 1779
Sir
I am sorry, and ask your pardon for keeping the inclosed so long1—I recollect your giving it to me at Fish Kill landing sometime last fall—in a hurry, or by accident, it got intermixed with other papers and lay unthought of till a late assortment of Papers brought it to light within these few days.
I do not recollect how the matter stands with respect to Lt Col. Livingston—No resignation of his has ever come to my knowledge, and if it had, their might be a good deal of difficulty in introducing a gentleman not of the line, into it, at this time, in the rank of Lieutt Colonel—therefore, & inasmuch as it may be satisfactory to you to repossess the Inclosed petition I now return it and am Sir Yr Very Hble Servt
Go: Washington
ADfS, DLC:GW.
1. The enclosed petition has not been identified. Visscher, a lieutenant colonel of the New York militia, may have been expressing his desire to secure a Continental commission as lieutenant colonel in place of Henry Brockholst Livingston, who had left the army in January 1778. Visscher did not secure the Continental commission and was left out of the arrangement of the New York state forces at the end of 1779.