Samuel Loudon to George Washington, 12 April 1781
From Samuel Loudon
Fish-Kill [N.Y.], 12th April 1781.
Sir,
Since Mr Montanye the Phila. Post Rider was taken in the Clove, I can get no person, fit for the Trust, willing to take that Rout.1 Montanye did it with great reluctance. The bearer has undertook to ride, provided he is permitted to proceed by King’s Ferry; that road is very public, and the Post rarely travelled it alone.2
If your Excellency will either order your Letters to be sent over here on Wednesdays, or lay your Commands on me to send for them, it shall be compiled with, but the Clove road I cannot get a good man to undertake to travil; either Rout don’t facilitate the arrival of the Post sooner in Morristown or at this Place, I shall be glad to receive your Excellency’s instructions on this Head.3 I am with great deferrence & respect, Your Excellency’s Most Obt servt
Saml Loudon
P.S. Montanye, is a trusty Post: he has a small family here, who are now left with me to provide for in his absence: his speedy exchange is very necessary: the proper mode to obtain it, I’m ignorant of, whether to your Excellency, the Governor, or the Commissary of Prisoners.4
ALS, DLC:GW. GW’s aide-de-camp Tench Tilghman docketed this letter: “the post directed to go by Warwick—&c.” For this route from New Windsor to Philadelphia through Warwick, N.Y., see GW to Anthony Wayne, 3–4 Jan.; see also Ebenezer Hazard to GW, 24 April, and n.2 to that document.
1. Loudon refers to Smiths Clove, New York.
2. GW subsequently picked this route for post riders traveling from his army to Philadelphia (see GW to the Board of War, 28 June 1781, DLC:GW).
3. For the route GW selected, see the source note above.
4. Benjamin Montanye (Montagnie; 1745–1825), a blacksmith, had experience as a post rider when Loudon hired him soon after British forces took New York City in 1776. For Montanye’s capture on 29 March 1781, see GW to Elias Dayton, 4 April, n.2; see also Asher FitzRandolph to GW, 15 April, n.1, and , 2:213–14. He later returned to service as a post rider (see George Clinton to Robert Yates, 14 May 1783, in , 8:181–82). Montanye eventually became a Baptist minister in Orange County, N.Y., where he settled in 1794.
Loudon wrote New York governor George Clinton from Fishkill on 21 July 1781 about captured post riders having been “allowed no Wages, nor any consideration for their losses after they fell into the Enemy’s hands. This is extremely hard. Who will serve in that business if they are to be so treated? Montanye, who was first taken has a family; he lost his Horse, saddle and bridle.” Loudon added that Montanye had been “exposed to very considerable expenses in the Provo in New York, &c. These matters ought to be considered, and the men ought not to be left unnoticed nor unpaid. It sours their spirits, and renders them rather indifferent about our cause” (, 7:101).