George Washington to Brigadier General George Rogers Clark, 25 April 1781
To Brigadier General George Rogers Clark
Head Quarters New Windsor 25th April 1781.
Sir
At the request of His Excellency Govr Jefferson I have already given orders to the Commandant of Fort Pitt to afford you every assistance in his power in the prosecution of your intended expedition.1
I, a few days ago, received a peice of intelligence from New York which it may be material for you to know—It is—that Colo. Conolly who formerly lived upon the Ohio, who was taken in the year 1775 and lately exchanged, is to proceed to Quebec as soon as the season will permit with as many Refugees as he can collect at New York—that he is to join Sir John Johnson in Canada and that they are to proceed with their united forces by the Route of Buck Island, Lake Ontario &c. to Venango. Their object is to be Fort Pitt and the Western posts. It is also said that Conolly carries blank Commissions to be given to persons already in the Country and that there are several hundred persons now in the neighbourhood of Fort Pitt who are to join him.2 As this last corresponds with a suspicion which Colo. Brodhead entertains I have written to him to take measures to secure or remove every suspected person.3 I am Sir Yr most obt and humble Servt.
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, this date, found at Craig to GW, 15 April, n.4. Clark replied to GW on 21 May (DLC:GW).
1. For Clark’s projected attack against the British at Detroit, see Thomas Jefferson to GW, 13 Dec. 1780, and GW to Daniel Brodhead, 29 Dec.; see also GW to Brodhead or the officer commanding at Fort Pitt, Pa., 16 April 1781; Samuel Huntington to GW, 20 April; and GW to Huntington, 1 May.
2. For this intelligence, see Elias Dayton to GW, 20 April. For Loyalist lieutenant colonel John Connolly’s exchange, see Board of War to GW, 25 April 1780.
3. See Brodhead to GW, 27 March 1781, and GW to Brodhead or the officer commanding at Fort Pitt, this date.