Samuel Huntington to George Washington, 5 April 1781
From Samuel Huntington
Philadelphia April 5. 1781
Sir,
I have the Honor of transmitting your Excellency the enclosed resolve of the 3d Instant, directing the recall of Lieut. General Burgoine and all other Officers Prisoners of War now absent on their Paroles from America to return immediately.
It is proper to inform your Excellency, that this resolution is adopted in Consequence of Information, that the late President Laurens is confined in the Tower of London as a State Criminal, under Pretext of his being guilty of treasonable Practices.
Should this Resolution embarrass or impede any Measures your Excellency may have adopted relative, or preparatory, to a general Exchange of Prisoners, it is taken for granted you will please to represent the same to Congress previous to any Proceedings for carrying the resolve into Execution.1
Before this comes to Hand your Excellency must have received Information that the Post on his Way from New Windsor to Morristown on the last Saturday was taken, and the Mail, as I am informed, is carried to New York. ’Tis also said that Letters from your Excellency were parcel of the Mail.2
The enclosed Copy of a Letter from General Greene seems to evince that the Field was dearly bought by Lord Cornwallis on the 15th Ulto, the Particulars of which Action it is presumed you have received.3
I have been favored with your Letters of the 24th & 31st Ulto, with the Despatches to which they refer.4 I have the Honor to be with the highest respect & Esteem sir your most obedient & most humble Servant
Sam. Huntington President
LS, DLC:GW; LB, DNA:PCC, item 15. GW’s aide-de-camp Tench Tilghman docketed the LS: “Recd 14th April.” For GW’s reply, see his letter to Huntington dated 16–19 April.
1. The enclosed congressional resolution adopted on 3 April reads: “Resolved, That the Commander in Chief be, and he is hereby directed to recall Lieutenant General Burgoyne, and all other british or german Officers, prisoners of War, now absent on their paroles from America, to return immediately” (DLC:GW). The original resolution continued with material that is struck out in the journals of Congress: “unless the Honorable Henry Laurens, Esqr., be also enlarged on his parole” (, 19:345). For the capture and imprisonment of Henry Laurens, see Stephen Moylan to GW, 7 Dec. 1780, and n.4 to that document. Congress on 2 March 1781 had postponed a decision on explicit retaliation for Laurens’s treatment (see , 19:227–28; see also Lafayette to GW, 9 Dec. 1780, and James Duane’s Draft Manifesto Respecting Henry Laurens, in , 17:120–23).
2. Huntington refers to Benjamin Montanye, a post rider captured with letters from GW on Thursday, 29 March, and brought to New York City on 31 March (see GW to Elias Dayton, 4 April, and n.2; Samuel Loudon to GW, 12 April; and Rochambeau to GW, 26 April, n.1; see also Huntington to GW, 7 April, n.2).
3. Huntington enclosed a copy of a letter Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene had written him from camp at Buffalo Creek, N.C., on 23 March. That letter begins: “On the 16th I wrote your Excellency giving an Account of an Action which happened at Gilford Court House the Day before. I was then perswaded that notwithstanding we were obliged to give up the Ground we had reaped the Advantage of the Action. Circumstances since confirm me in the Opinion that the Enemy were to much gauled to improve their Success” (DLC:GW; see also Greene to GW, 17 March, and the enclosure printed with that document). The enclosure dated 23 March does not include the postscript on the recipient’s copy: “I should be glad if your Excellency would transmit a Copy of this Letter to Genl Washington, as I have not time to write him” (, 7:464–66, quote on 465).
4. See GW to Huntington, 24 and 31 March.