George Washington to Colonel Timothy Pickering, 11 April 1781
To Colonel Timothy Pickering
Head Quarters New Windsor April 11. 1781
Sir
You will take the earliest, and most efficacious Measures for the transportation of all the salted Provisions collected in the Towns westward of Connecticut River, to the Army. To facilitate this, I have written the enclosed Letter to His Excellency Govr Trumbull, requesting his influence and assistance1—which you will be pleased to forward, with the Dispatches for the Count De Rochambeau by the Chain of Expresses2—I must request, that you will pay the most pointed attention to the execution of this business of transportation; as not only the safety of our important Posts on this River, but the very existance of the Army, depends almost entirely, on the punctuality with which this Order is executed.3 I am Sir Your Most Obedt Servt
Go: Washington
LS, in David Humphreys’s writing, DNA: RG 93, manuscript file no. 25273; Df, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. See GW to Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., 10 April.
2. See GW to Rochambeau, 10 April, and an enclosed intelligence report.
3. Pickering wrote GW’s aide-de-camp David Humphreys from Newburgh, N.Y., on 13 April: “By the chain of expresses I forwarded to Governour Trumbull the General’s letter on the subject of provisions to be forwarded from that state; and at the same time wrote Mr Pomeroy in the most urgent terms to use every possible exertion to have them transported with dispatch; & for an immediate supply to set those first in motion which lay most convenient for the purpose. Today, after the receipt of his Excellency’s Letter on the same subject, I wrote to Colo. Hughes to forward all the provisions in his district destined for the highlands; and inclosed him the Genl’s letter to Mr Stevens relative to the article of rum, & to transport the same, if in his district; if not, to communicate to me the result of his conference with Mr. Stevens. I have also written to the Qr Master at Sussex Court House (an express will go off with the Letter to-morrow morn) to use every possible means to forward both provisions & short forage from thence. I have not repeated my requests to Mr Pomeroy, because I can add no new reason, or express more strongly the necessity of the most active exertions. Two expresses with the dragoons have been gone these two days to impress the delinquent teams in Ulster and Orange counties to bring flour from Ringwood.
“Be so kind as to inform the General of these matters” (DLC:GW; see also GW’s second letter to William Heath, 12 April, n.4). Pickering’s letters to Ralph Pomeroy, deputy quartermaster general for Connecticut; Hugh Hughes, deputy quartermaster general for New York; and the quartermaster at Sussex Court House, N.J., have not been identified.