Major General William Heath to George Washington, 7–8 April 1781
From Major General William Heath
West point, April 7[–8]. 1781.
Dear General,
I am honored with yours of this date.
Your Excellency may rest assured that the water shall be well guarded by night—I will take the earliest opportunity to obey your orders respecting Judge Lawrence and Mr Beakman.1
I am not a little apprehensive that we shall very soon want provisions— The unhappy misapprehensions of the Deputy Quarter master at Hartford, will, I fear, create so much delay in forwarding the salted meat from Connecticut as will compel us to exhaust our reserves?2—Very few beef cattle have come in of late.3 The block house at Dobbs’ ferry, water guard, post at King’s ferry, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island troops, and troops at the lines depend for supplies from this post—And by the enclosed your Excellency will observe that even Fish Kill Landing is obliged to call for aid from this place—And Mr Commissary Stevens’s prospects do not seem to be very promising. I am leaving no measures untried to urge the forwarding of provisions, but think it my duty to lay before your Excellency our situation, as the most probable channel of ensuring relief.4 I have the honor to be With the highest respect Your Excellency’s Most obedient servant
W. Heath
LS, DLC:GW; ADfS, MHi: Heath Papers.
1. See GW to Heath, 7 April, found at GW to George Clinton, same date (second letter), n.1.
2. Nathaniel Stevens, deputy commissary general of issues at Fishkill, N.Y., wrote Heath on 24 April that Ralph Pomeroy, deputy quartermaster general for Connecticut, “informs me that a considerable quantity of the salt provisions in Connecticut is on the move, some of which has lately arrived at this place.” Stevens promised to forward the provisions to West Point and New Windsor as “fast as it is possible to get teams” (MHi: Heath Papers; see also Stevens to Heath, 16 March, and Heath to Stevens, 18 March, both in MHi: Heath Papers).
3. Stevens noted on a “Return of Provisions and Stores on hand and the Number of Rations Issued daily on an Average for the preceeding Week at West Point, Posts and Brigades in its Vicinity,” dated 8 April, that “26 Cattle will be on from Connecticutt” on 9 April, “& 110 is expected from Massachusetts by the middle of this week” (MHi: Heath Papers; see also GW to Pomeroy, 7 April, n.1).
4. Heath enclosed a letter from Stevens to John R. Stafford, assistant commissary of issues at West Point, written at Fishkill on 6 April with word that Fishkill Landing, N.Y., “is entirely destitute of meat, and we have none to spare from this post, neither have we any assureances of any’s comeing on soon, I wish you to consult General Heath, who is well acquainted with our circumstances.” A postscript indicated that Fishkill Landing “is out of rum also” (DLC:GW).
5. Capt. John Pray had written Heath the enclosed letter from Nyack, N.Y., on Saturday, 7 April: “The boats at Spiten Devel Creek were moved into the east River last Saturday.
“I have nothing more at Present but Expect to have something very perticular, on Monday next which will be convey’d to You with all possible dispatch.
“There was a heavy Fiering of Cannon at New York all day Yesterday. Suppos’d to be Some Shiping come in” (DLC:GW). Pray had been ordered to obtain this intelligence (see Heath’s second letter to GW, 23 March, n.5; see also Heath’s first letter to GW, 10 April, and n.3 to that document).
6. Heath wrote Pray on 7 April with orders to assign Lt. Joseph Shaylor to accompany a flag boat to New York City and “be very Eagle Eyed, and in particular observe what vessels Are in the river, and Harbour, and Where” (MHi: Heath Papers). Pray wrote Heath from Nyack on 9 April with intelligence and added a postscript: “The flag which arriv’d here last evening, has saild for New York this morning with [Shaylor] on board” (MHi: Heath Papers). Shaylor’s mission ended disappointingly (see Heath to GW, 12 April, and n.1 to that document).
GW replied to Heath from headquarters at New Windsor on 8 April: “I have received your favor of the 7th, with a Postscript of this day. I have written to the Dep. Quartr Mastr at Hartford to have the salted Provisions forwarded; and will urge the Quarter Master General to see that Order carried into execution.
“I have to request that you will Order a Sub., Sergt two Corpls & 20 Men to reinforce my Guard—this party to be releived once a Week” (LS, in David Humphreys’s writing, MHi: Heath Papers; Df, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW; see also GW to Pomeroy, 7 April, and to Timothy Pickering, 11 April). Heath replied to GW on 9 April.