George Washington Papers

George Washington to Colonel Daniel Brodhead or the Officer Commanding at Fort Pitt, Pa., 25 April 1781

To Colonel Daniel Brodhead or
the Officer Commanding at Fort Pitt, Pa.

Head Quarters New Windsor 25th April 1781.

Dear Sir

The information contained in yours of the 27th ulto corresponds with intelligence I rece’d a few days ago, by a good channel, from New York.1 It is—that Colo. Conolly (who you must very well know) is to collect as many refugees as he can at New York and proceed with them as soon as the season will permit to Quebec—That upon his arrival in Canada he is to join Sir John Johnson and that they are to proceed by the Route of Venango against Fort Pitt and the Western Frontier. It is added that Conolly is to carry with him blank Commissions for persons already in the Country and that he expects to be joined by several hundred disaffected in the Neighbourhood of Fort Pitt.2 Upon this information and what you may have discovered, I think you should without loss of time secure or remove every suspected character from about you and to such a distance that they cannot readily join the Enemy should they come down. I have communicated this intelligence to Congress as an additional motive to their taking measures to have a competent supply of provision thrown into the Garrison.3

If Capt: Brady is materially useful to you, you may detain him for the Campaign, giving the Commanding Officer of his Regt notice of the cause of detention.4 I am &.

Df, in Tench Tilghman’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW. For the conveyance of the recipient’s copy, see GW to Isaac Craig, 25 April, found at Craig to GW, 15 April, n.4.

2For this intelligence, see Elias Dayton to GW, 20 April.

3See GW to Samuel Huntington, this date.

4See Brodhead to GW, 27 March, postscript and n.7.

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