George Washington to Brigadier General Jacob Bayley, 12 March 1781
To Brigadier General Jacob Bayley
Newport 12th March 1781
Sir
I recd your favr of the 25th ulto at this place.1 It is not in my power to comply with the request of the Men of Major Whitcombs Corps or with that of the Inhabitants of Coos to leave those Men upon the Frontier2—Congress finding the great expence incurred and little advantages derived from a number of detached Corps, small in respect to Men but full of Officers, have been pleased to direct all such to be reformed and the Men to join the Regiments of the States to which they respectively belong.3
It would, as I have upon several former occasions mentioned, give me great pleasure to afford effectual cover to every part of the Country, but while I am scarcely furnished with the means of securing the most essential posts, I am every day under the painful necessity of refusing requests similar to the one now made by you in behalf of the Inhabitants of your neighbourhood. I am &.
Df, in Tench Tilghman’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW. The draft is addressed to Bayley at Coos, Vermont.
1. For GW’s travel to Newport, see his letter to Alexander Hamilton, 7 March, source note.
3. For this congressional reform of the Continental army, see General Orders, 1 Nov. 1780.
GW also wrote Maj. Benjamin Whitcomb from Newport on 12 March 1781: “After the positive order given to you to send the Men of your Corps to the Regiments of the States to which they respectively belong, I little expected to have heard that they were still at Coos, and to have received a petition from the Men themselves desiring the indulgence of remaining there—You very well know that the order was given in conformity to a Resolve of Congress for reforming the Corps and I shall therefore expect a strict compliance with it the moment this reaches you” (Df, in Tench Tilghman’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW; see also GW to Whitcomb, 1 Jan., and New Hampshire Rangers to GW, c.25 Feb.).