To George Washington from the Committee at Headquarters, 24 June 1780
From the Committee at Headquarters
In Committee of Congress Morris Town June 24: 1780
sir
We recieved your favor of the 23 Inst. yesterday about four oClock. We paid an immediate attention to it, as appears by the inclosed letter to the States.1
The Stores will be nearly all removed from hence this Evening, except such as are necessary for the detachment of the army at the Short hills.2
We propose joining your Excellency as soon as Genl Schuyler returns, whom we hourly expect.3 We are sir with the highest respect & Esteem Yr Excys most Obedt serts
Jno. Mathews
Nathl Peabody
LS, DLC:GW; copy, DNA:PCC, item 11; copy, DNA:PCC, item 39.
Physician Nathaniel Peabody (1741–1823), of Plaistow and later Atkinson, N.H., served in the state legislature, on the state’s committee of safety, and as adjutant-general of the militia prior to his election to Congress in 1779. He served in Congress until November 1780 and later became a member of the state’s constitutional conventions of 1781–83 and 1791–92. After the war, he served in the state legislature until his retirement from public life in 1795. He helped to organize the New Hampshire Medical Society in 1791.
1. The committee enclosed a copy of their circular letter to the states of 23 June: “Impressed with the necessity of giving you the earliest information of every important occurrance We therefore inclose you a copy of a letter from the Commander in Chief, this moment received.
“From the accumilated destresses of our Army which we are daily spectators of—From the jeopardy we have twice [seen] them in—and from the fatal consequences that must have resulted from a defeat (which would inevitably have been the consequence, had the enemy at first, and still will be, should they even now pursue their object.) We are constrained, again to call on you in the most pressing manner, to forward Your Quota of men and supplies agreable to our estimate of the 2d Inst. and prevent the total sacrifice of the few brave and intripid spirits that at present compose our Army, and avoid the indelible stain that must consequently be fixed on these states, should such an event take place. (Thus far Circular).
“(To the state of Pensyla & New Jersey)
“That part of the Generals Letter respecting the state of the stores here, is a matter of such pressing necessity, that we conceive it to be our duty to give the earliest attention to it. The situation of the Magazines at this post, is truely deplorable, the enemy are certainly pushing at them, and we are in no condition to move them for want of teams, if they do not affect their purpose at this time, it is evident they mean to persist untill the situation of our affairs renders it necessary for the remains of our Army to move from hence, when there will be no impediment to the execution of their plan. We hope therefore Sir, you will enable the Officers of the Department to improve this interval so as to effect their removal to a place of greater safety by having the Teams which are requested of your State immediately sent forward” (two copies, DLC:GW; see also Committee at Headquarters to GW, 30 June).
2. The committee is referring to Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene’s command, which had just repelled a British incursion into New Jersey (see Battle of Springfield, 23–24 June).
3. Philip Schuyler had left Morristown for Philadelphia about 14 June to present to Congress the committee’s plan for a new arrangement of the quartermaster general’s department (see Peabody to Samuel Holten, 14 June, and Schuyler to Samuel Huntington, 17 June, in , 15:318–19, 338–39; see also Schuyler to GW, 18 June). Schuyler reached GW’s headquarters by 5 July, and he requested the committee to join him there (see Schuyler to Huntington, 5 July, and Schuyler to John Mathews and Peabody, 6 July, in , 15:402, 405).