To George Washington from Lieutenant Osgood Carleton, 10 May 1780
From Lieutenant Osgood Carleton
Boston May 10th 1780.
Sir.
It is with reluctance that I trouble your Excellency with this letter, being fully Sensible you have enough to do with matters of far greater importance; but being advised thereto by the Hon. Genl Heath,1 I take this method to beg your Excellencies Advice and direction, with respect to the detachment of Invalids (to which I belong) Stationed in this Town—We are destitu[t]e of any Inspector neither is there any Pay Master Genl who will Act as Such in this Department; and have received no pay Since October last, I beg the favour to be informed, how we are to be inspected; by whom, when and where, we may receive our pay.
General Heath informed me, that he thought Some Officer of our Corps would be Appointed to Inspect the Troops here, if application were made, but that the Said Appointment he Supposed was lodged with the Inspector General, who he Supposed would Consult him (as he is Acquainted with our Officers) who to appoint, if this takes place. We could wish to have it done while General Heath is here if convenient. if it does not take place, we only beg to be informed how we are to proceed in future to get our pay.
I should not have made this appearance, had it not been Strongly recommended by Genl Heath, I hope your Excellency will overlook the incorrectness of the Composition, as I am no Scholar; and permit me to Subscribe myself, with the greatest respect. Your Excellencies Most Obedt Humble Servt
Osgood Carleton, Lieut. of Invalids.
ALS, DLC:GW.
Osgood Carleton (1741–1816), a French and Indian War veteran and mathematician, served as quartermaster in Col. Paul Dudley Sargent’s Massachusetts Regiment in 1775 and the 16th Continental Regiment in 1776. He became a lieutenant in the 15th Massachusetts Regiment in January 1777 and subsequently transferred to the Invalid Regiment “in consequence of a general debility brought on by a long fit of sickness” (Henry Knox to GW, 10 June 1783, in DNA:PCC, item 149). Between September 1782 and April 1783, Carleton was regimental quartermaster. He later published maps and Carleton’s Compendium of Practical Arithmetic. Applied to the Federal and other Currencies. … (Boston, 1810). For further biographical details, see Anson Titus, “Osgood Carleton,” , 55 (1901): 52–54, and David Bosse, “Osgood Carleton, Mathematical Practitioner of Boston,” Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 3d ser., 107 (1995): 141–64.
1. Carleton presumably spoke with Maj. Gen. William Heath, who was then at Roxbury, Mass., and in regular communication with Massachusetts officials over recruiting and other military concerns.