George Washington to Samuel Huntington, 8 April 1781
To Samuel Huntington
Head Quarters New Windsor 8th April 1781.
Sir
The inclosed Return, made up to the first of this month, will shew the number of Recruits which have joined this part of the Continental Army, since the formation of it upon the new establishment.1
My requests to the Executives of the several States have been earnest, and my orders to the Officers in them have been pointed and positive to send forward the Recruits as fast as possible. What to expect or rather to apprehend from these delays, Congress can more easily conceive than I can describe?2
Some States I am told, despairing of getting their Quotas for the War or three years, are resorting to the old expedient of temporary inlistments, while impediments of another kind withhold the Recruits from the Army, in others.3
The bare relation of these facts, without combining other circumstances of equal magnitude and uncertainty, or adding to them the difficulties with which we are surrounded for want of Money, will convince Congress of the impracticability of my fixing at this time on any definitive plan of Campaign, and of my inability to carry into effect those which have heretofore been the objects of contemplation. They will readily see that our future operations must be the result of the moment—dependant upon circumstances.
Under this view of matters here—The progress of the Enemy under Lord Cornwallis—and in consideration of the reinforcement which has lately gone to him;4 I have judged it expedient to order the Marquis de la Fayette to proceed with his detachment to the southern Army, and put himself under the orders of Major General Greene. The greatest objection I had to the measure, circumstanced as things now are, was, that the detachment was not formed for the Campaign, or for so distant a service as that on which they are now ordered, consequently neither Officers nor Men were prepared for it: But the urgent calls for succour to the Southern States—the proximity of this Corps to them—the expedition with which it can join the southern Army—and the public expence that will be saved by its advance, have overcome all lesser considerations in deciding upon it.5
I wish the march of the Pennsylvania troops could be facilitated, and that Moylans Cavalry could be recruited—equipped and marched without delay;6 for every judicious Officer I have conversed with from the southward, and all the representations I receive from thence confirm me in the opinion, that great advantages are to be derived from a superior Cavalry. Without Magazines and with an interrupted Communication, I do not see how Lord Cornwallis could have subsisted his Army had we outnumbered him in Horse.
I think it my duty to inform Congress that there is great dissatisfaction at this time in the York Line for want of pay—near 16 Months I am told is due to it.7 If it were practicable to give these and the Jersey Troops, if they are in the same predicament, a small portion of their pay, it might stop desertions, which are frequent, and avert greater Evils, which are otherwise to be apprehended. The four Eastern States have given a temporary releif to their Troops, which makes the case of the others, York particularly, more distressing and grievious to them.8 I have the honor to be with perfect Respect and Esteem Your Excellency’s Most obt and humble Servt
Go: Washington
LS, in Tench Tilghman’s writing, DNA:PCC, item 152; ADf, DLC:GW; copy, DNA:PCC, item 169; Varick transcript, DLC:GW. Congress read GW’s letter on 12 April (, 19:374). For Huntington’s apparent reply, see his second letter to GW dated 14 April.
In his diary entry for 12 April, Delaware delegate Thomas Rodney reported that Congress had read a letter from GW setting “forth that there was the greatest Necessaty for the detachment of 1200 Men Under the Marquis now at the head of Elk, and the Pensylvania line To go to the Southward, and that he was fearful they Could not go &c with pay &c.” Rodney then recounted the lengthy debate over how to pay the troops and its failure to secure any agreement. “It is to be lamented that Congress is So deficient in the abilities of Financing that No Member is capable of offering a System that is Worthy the Establishment of Congress None Whose Idea’s are at the Same Time both Simple & Systimatical enough for this purpose” (, 17:145–47, quotes on 145–46).
1. GW enclosed a “Return of Recruits joined each Line, together with the Number which have been sent back as Unfit for Service from 1st January To 1st April 1781.” The return, which Adj. Gen. Edward Hand signed, lists no recruits from New Hampshire; 59 joined, 5 returned as unfit, and 54 retained from Massachusetts; 125 joined and the same number retained from Rhode Island; and 270 joined, 35 returned as unfit, and 235 retained from Connecticut. Totals were 454 joined, 40 returned as unfit, and 414 retained. A postscript reads: “N.B. some Recruits from State of New York have joined Colo. Lambs Regiment of Artillery but the Number is not ascertained. Since the above the Returns are come in and Amount in all to 67. No Returns from Jersey” (DNA:PCC, item 152).
2. This paragraph ends with a period in GW’s draft.
3. For the recruitment quotas assigned each state when Congress reformed the Continental army, see General Orders, 1 Nov. 1780.
4. See Elias Dayton to GW, 9 and 15 March 1781.
6. For the transfer of the Pennsylvania line and Col. Stephen Moylan’s 4th Continental Dragoons to the southern department, see Huntington’s first letter to GW dated 20 Feb., and GW to Huntington, 27 February. On 28 April, Congress authorized a warrant “for thirteen thousand seven hundred and forty dollars new emission, for expediting a detachment of the Pensylvania line to the southward” (, 20:459). For the new congressional monetary policy, see Philip Schuyler to GW, 12 March 1780, and notes 3 and 4 to that document.
7. See William Heath to GW, 29 March 1781 (first letter); see also GW to Heath, 30 March.
8. The governments of Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Massachusetts had responded to GW’s requests with gratuities to their Continental troops (see William Greene to GW, 22 Jan.; Meshech Weare to GW, 31 Jan.; Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., to GW, 5 Feb.; and John Hancock to GW, same date; see also Heath to GW, 27 April, found at Heath’s second letter to GW, 25 April, n.3).