From George Washington to the Officer Commanding the New Jersey Brigade, 28 January 1781
To the Officer Commanding the New Jersey Brigade
Ring Wood [N.J.] Jany 28th 1781
Sir,
If the Posts at Smiths Clove & Dobbs ferry have been deranged by the late disorders in the Jersey line they are again to be re-establis⟨h⟩ed agreeably to former Orders.1 And as the Pensa Troops have crossed the Delaware,2 you are, till Some other arrangemen⟨t⟩ is made of the Stores at Morris Town to detach about 50 Men properly Officered to be relieved once a fortnight to that place.
The Objects of the Officer Commanding there are to cover the public Stores which are at Morris town—to aid the Qr Mr at that Post in forwarding the Provision and other Stores to their respective places of destination—and, where necessary to afford escorts.
The Letters herewith inclosed you will please to forward immediately—the one for the Commissary of Prisoners requires dispatch.3 I am Sir Yr Very Hble Servt
Go: Washington
ADfS, DLC:GW; copy, MWA; Varick transcript, DLC:GW. The draft is addressed to the officer at Pompton, New Jersey.
1. For the mutiny in the New Jersey brigade, see Israel Shreve to GW, 20 Jan., and the source note to that document. New Jersey troops had been stationed to guard Smiths Clove, N.Y., and man the blockhouse at Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., during the army’s winter encampment (see General Orders, 26 Nov. 1780, n.3).
2. After the settlement of their mutiny, the troops of the Pennsylvania line were either disbanded or furloughed in Pennsylvania (see Anthony Wayne to GW, 21 and 28 Jan. 1781; see also Wayne to GW, 2 Jan., and the source note to that document).
3. The enclosed letters have not been identified, but see Shreve to GW, this date.