Daniel Burt to George Washington, 9 April 1781
From Daniel Burt
Warwick [N.Y.]
April 9th A.D. 1781
May it Please your Excellency
Agreable to the Instructions received of Getting waggons to Transport Provisions from ringwood to the Fort1 I have done every thing in my power to have as many as Judged our Quota here by favourable means Was Oblidgded to Grant a press Warrent the Constable return’d this morning with The Warrent & Names of Twelve who he had warn’d & every man Said he would Not Go unless there was Some other way of pay Than Certificates. what is to be done Cant say But wait your Excellencys farther orders how to proceed2—There is Not one of the Twelve that Carted a Load last fall I was very particular in Enquiring That matter. I am with respect your Excellency⟨’s⟩ Most Obt & Very Humble Servt
Daniel Burt
ALS, DLC:GW.
The writer probably was Daniel Burt (1716–1805), a Connecticut native who settled at Warwick in 1760. Another possibility would be his son, Daniel Burt, Jr. (1740–1823), who evidently served as a private under Col. John Hathorn in the Orange County, N.Y., militia from 1779 to 1781. He had several children and died in Oswego, New York. For the local prominence of the Burt family, see , 422–25; see also Timothy Pickering to GW, 25 April 1781.
1. Writing from Newburgh, N.Y., on 3 April, Richard Platt, deputy quartermaster general of the main army, informed Maj. Gen. William Heath, who commanded at West Point, that an “Application has been made to the Justices of Ulster & Orange for Teams, to bring on the Provisions from Ringwood &c.” (MHi: Heath Papers; see also General Orders, 30 March, n.1, and GW’s second letter to Heath of 12 April).
2. Burt’s actions resulted from GW’s request for impress warrants to obtain teams (see GW to New York County Magistrates, 30 March, printed as an enclosure with GW to Platt, 31 March).