George Washington to Colonel Daniel Brodhead or the Officer Commanding at Fort Pitt, Pa., 16 April 1781
To Colonel Daniel Brodhead or
the Officer Commanding at Fort Pitt, Pa.
Head Quarters New Windsor 16th Apl 1781.
Dear Sir
I have received your favors of the 18th and 25th Feby and 10th of March.
Inclosed you will find a power for holding a General Court Martial at Fort Pitt for the trial of all persons who shall be brought before them—The proceedings, if any capital, or any which affect Commd Officers, to be sent to me for approbation.1
I shall write to the Board of War and desire them to send up such of the Stores demanded by Capt. Craig as we have it in our power to furnish.2
It was not my intention to give Colo. Clarke an unlimited order upon the Magazines at Fort Pitt. By referring to the latest Returns from thence I found we could furnish the quantity of the several Articles mentioned in my letter—If his wants should be greater, and what he further requests can, in the opinion of the Commandant, be spared, I wish he may be supplied, but not otherwise. In short, it is my desire that every assistance, consistent with the safety of the post may be given to that Expedition if it should be prosecuted.3
The keeping up the post of Fort McIntosh must entirely depend upon the utility of it, and the means you have of supporting it. Of this you, who are upon the spot, will be the best able to judge.4 It would have been utterly out of our power to have built and maintained a Fort at Cuskuskie for the Cooshocking Indians even had they remained in Friendship with us, but as you seem to think in your last, we have lost their interest, the matter falls of course.5
I have never failed of transmitting your representations on the score of provision to Congress. Immediately upon the rec[e]ipt of your last I wrote to them and informed them that the post must be evacuated in case of an invasion, if supplies were not immediately thrown in.6 When I was called upon last Fall to fix upon the places of deposit for the specific supplies demanded from each State, I directed Pennsylvania to form an ample Magazine at Fort Pitt—Why it has not been done, the Executive of that State can only answer?7 I am &.
Df, in Tench Tilghman’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW. Col. John Gibson, who had assumed command at Fort Pitt, replied to GW on 25 Aug. that he had received the recipient’s copy on 13 June and convened the court-martial on 29 June (DLC:GW).
1. A version of the enclosed power is appended to the draft: “A General Court Martial whereof [ ] is to be president, is to sit at Fort Pitt at such time as the Commandant shall direct for the trial of all such persons as shall be brought before them. Given under my hand and seal at Head Quarters at New Windsor state of New York the 16th day April 1781.”
2. See GW to the Board of War, 20 April, and n.1 to that document; see also Brodhead to GW, 18 Feb., and n.4 to that document.
3. Brodhead addressed supplies for Virginia brigadier general George Rogers Clark’s proposed expedition against Detroit when he wrote GW on 10 March. The returns have not been identified.
4. See Brodhead to GW, 25 Feb., postscript.
5. See Brodhead to GW, 18 Feb., n.3, and 10 March, and n.3 to that document.
7. See Joseph Reed to GW, 24 April; see also GW’s circular to state executives, 10 Dec. 1780, and n.8.