To George Washington from Colonel John Lamb, 12 August 1779
From Colonel John Lamb
Fishkills [N.Y.] 12th August 1779
Sir,
As Lt Isaac Guion, has been Elected Paymaster, Lt Joseph Ashton, Adjutant (vice, Lt Isaac Hubbell) and Lt Chilion Ford, Quarter Master, to the Regt under my Command; on the 1st Instant; I beg leave to recommend them, to your Excellency, & request it may be inserted in General Orders.1
As I conceive myself greatly injured, by the Board of General Officers, appointed to settle the Rank of the Officers of Artillery; I must beg your Excellency’s permission to resign; This Step I can with great truth assure your Excellency, I take, with the greatest reluctance; After making such a Sacrifice, of Time, Health, & Property, as I have done, by being in the Service.2
I shall ever retain, the most grateful Sense, of your Excellency’s tenderness, and attention to me, respecting my Appointment, to the Regt at a time, when I was neglected, by the Public by being, a Prisoner with the Enemy.3 Wishing your Excellency, every Species of Earthly felicity, & a succession of honors, I beg leave to subscribe, myself, with the greatest Respect, your Excellency’s Most Obdt Hume Servt.
LB, NHi: Lamb Letterbooks, 1778–1782.
1. The appointments were announced in General Orders, 11 September. The announcement had been delayed while GW awaited certificates from Lamb (see GW to Lamb, 13 Aug., and also Lamb to GW, 19 Aug. and 2 Sept.). Ashton’s appointment was dated 1 July (see Lamb to GW, 2 Sept., and General Orders, 11 Sept.).
Isaac Guion (1755–1823), of New York, served as a second lieutenant in Nicholson’s Continental Regiment from March to November 1776. Appointed a second lieutenant in the 2d Continental Artillery in January 1777, he became a first lieutenant in that regiment in September 1778. After his appointment as regimental paymaster, which took effect in September, he was promoted to captain-lieutenant in August 1780. He left the army in June 1783. Guion later served in the United States army, receiving an appointment as captain of infantry in the United States Army in March 1792 and attaining the rank of major before leaving the army in June 1802.
Joseph Ashton (born c.1750; died c.1817), of Pennsylvania, joined Lamb’s company of New York Artillery as a first sergeant in July 1775 and was captured at Quebec in December 1775. After his exchange in August 1776, Ashton received an appointment as a second lieutenant in the 2d Continental Artillery in January 1777 and became a first lieutenant in May 1778 ( 5th ser., 3:1037). Ashton’s appointment as adjutant was effective as of July 1779 (see General Orders, 11 Sept.), and he served in that office until January 1781. He transferred to the 4th Continental Artillery in January 1781, and became a captain-lieutenant and paymaster in that regiment in April 1781. Ashton transferred to the Corps of Artillery in June 1783 and served until June 1784. He later served in the United States Army, receiving an appointment as a captain of infantry in August 1784 and attaining the rank of major before leaving the army in November 1792.
Isaac Hubbell (c.1747–1787) of Stratford, Conn., served as a private in the Lexington Alarm in April 1775 and as a private in the 5th Connecticut Regiment from May to November 1775. Appointed a first lieutenant in the 2d Continental Artillery in January 1777 and adjutant of that regiment in October 1777, he resigned as adjutant in June 1779 and became captain-lieutenant of the regiment in July 1779. In September 1780, Maj. Gen. Benedict Arnold appointed Hubbell deputy adjutant general and sub-inspector for the garrison of West Point. Hubbell served as regimental paymaster from January 1781 to June 1783, when he transferred to the Corps of Artillery. He left the army in November 1783.
Chilion Ford (died c.1800) of New Jersey, received appointment as a second lieutenant in the 2d Continental Artillery in April 1777, and he became regimental quartermaster in August 1779. Ford was promoted to first lieutenant in October 1780 and served to June 1783.
2. For GW’s convening of this board, see General Orders, 5 Aug., and n.1 to that document. For the board’s report, which placed Lamb junior to Col. John Crane, see Board of General Officers to GW, 8 Aug., and General Orders, 10 August. For the long-standing dispute of rank among the colonels of the artillery corps and GW’s appointment of a board of officers to resolve the issue, see GW’s Circular to the Continental Artillery Colonels, 4 March, and n.1 to that document. For Lamb’s dispute with Crane in particular, see Lamb to GW, 28 March, 29 May, and 6 Aug. (see also John Popkin to GW, 8 July 1779). For Lamb’s subsequent course on his intent to resign, see GW to Lamb, 13 Aug., n.3.
3. See GW to Benedict Arnold and GW to Philip Schuyler, 3 April 1776.