Varick transcript, DLC:GW.

GW’s main army had been in winter camp at Jockey Hollow, near Morristown, since December 1779. GW kept a brigade-sized corps deployed in the vicinity of Springfield and Elizabeth, N.J., to protect the approaches to Morristown from the east and monitor British activities on Staten Island and in the New York City area. In May, four Massachusetts brigades and the New Hampshire troops remained positioned near West Point, N.Y., and Danbury, Conn., respectively, to protect communications with New England. The 2d and 4th Continental Dragoons were still in their winter camps in Connecticut. Other regiments held posts on the frontier at Fort Pitt in Pennsylvania and at Fort Schuyler in New York.

Assistance with GW’s correspondence during this period came from his aides-de-camp Alexander Hamilton, Richard Kidder Meade, and Tench Tilghman, as well as his secretary Robert Hanson Harrison and assistant secretary James McHenry. In late June, David Humphreys joined GW’s headquarters as an aide-de-camp (see General Orders, 23 June). GW and his correspondents typically referred to these men as his family (see below and GW to James Duane, 13 May and 5 June; Duane to GW, 26 May; and GW to Lafayette, 20 May). Maj. Caleb Gibbs, who commanded GW’s guard, also helped with correspondence and managed the money to pay GW’s expenses (see below and the source note to the general orders for 30 May).

Gibbs wrote a receipt at Morristown on this date: “Received of the Dy Pay Master General four thousand eight hundred dollars for the use of defraying the expence of His Excellency General Washington’s family which I am to account for” (Revolutionary War Receipt Book, 1776–1780, DLC:GW, ser. 5). GW’s warrant book for 12 May indicates that Gibbs received $4,800 “for the use of the Commander in chief” (Revolutionary War Warrant Book 5, 1780–1783, DLC:GW, ser. 5).