Varick transcript, DLC:GW.

On this date, Lt. William Colfax, commandant of GW’s guard, wrote Q.M. Gen. Timothy Pickering from New Windsor: “His Excellency has desired me to see that measures are taken for a more ample supply of wood: At present, there is not what is necessary for the consumption of one day: & I may as well call on the Elements for a supply, as Mr Kipp: he knows & does very little of the buisiness of his office. Agreeable to my request, Esqr. Nichols has impresse’d a number of teams to draw wood, part of which have been oblige’d to return home, twelve and fourteen miles, without performing any duty: there being no wood cut, that could possibly be come at or loaded. I have therefore to request, that you would order fifteen or twenty fatigue men to cut wood, at such places as esquire Nichols will direct: He has impresse’d more teams, & without fatigue men are furnished, they will be obliged to return as the others have done.

“If the fatigue men are sent here, I will undertake [to] oversee the buisiness of cutting would: at least for a supply for Hd Qu[arte]rs for I cannot depend on Kipp” (DNA: RG 93, manuscript file no. 24889; Pickering docketed this letter: “No wood at Head Quarters!”). Forage shortages also impacted GW (see his first letter to Pickering, 25 Jan.).