George Washington to Colonel Timothy Pickering, 25 April 1781
To Colonel Timothy Pickering
Head Quarters New Windsor April 25. 1781
Dear Sir
The supply of flour for the Army must be kept up regularly, And the Means of transportation must be calculated accordingly. Should all other expedients for bringing on the flour from Ringwood, Warwick and the Deposits on the communication from Pennsylvania, prove abortive—Should the Justices refuse to issue Warrants for the impress of Teams—Or should their Warrants not be attended with success. You are then instantly to proceed to coercive Measures: The Detachment of the Marichausie Corps, in this case, with a discreet Officer or two of Your Department, ought to be sent a considerable distance into the Country to procure Teams that the whole burden may not fall on a single district—Such parties of Infantry as you may have occasion for, to impress the Teams in the neighbourhood of the Army, the Adjutant General will furnish, upon your application to him.
I will trust to your own discision and discretion for the vigorous & prudent execution of this Order, in the full expectation and confidence, that the same applications, anxieties, and sollicitudes, which have so incessantly surrounded me of late, On the Account of transportation, may not recur again, at least, untill the wh⟨ole⟩ of the flour on the communication has been delivered to the Commissary with the Army.1 I am Dear Sir Your Most Obedt Servant
Go: Washington
P.S. The foregoing was written before I received yours of the same date.2 Nothing further is necessary to be added, but that it appears to me, that Expresses are utterly improper to carry the impress into execution. And that the selling some Articles of Provision to bring on the remainder will open such a door to abuses, and other evils, that a stop ought to be put to it.
Go: W.
LS, in David Humphreys’s writing, DNA: RG 93, manuscript file no. 25281; Df, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW. GW signed the cover of the LS, which is docketed: “Acted upon” (see n.1 below). The draft, which also is in Humphreys’s writing, is dated 26 April but docketed 25 April.
1. GW’s aide-de-camp David Humphreys issued an order from headquarters on 26 April to “The Sergeant Commanding The Detachment of the Marichausie Corps With the Army”: “The Detachment of the Marishausie Corps, now with the Army, is to be employed in impressing Teams, under the Orders of the Quarter Master General” (DNA: RG 93, manuscript file no. 29463).
Humphreys also wrote Richard Platt, deputy quartermaster general of the main army, from headquarters on 26 April: “We have just returned from West Point, where Col. Pickering handed me the enclosed, & desired me to forward it.
“There is not a mouthful of Bread or flour at the Garrison for tomorrow—The General is seriously alarmed at the prospect and requests to know what is doing respecting the transportation of the flour, and whether any thing else is necessary to put the business in the speediest, and surest train of execution” (DNA: RG 93, manuscript file no. 25767). The enclosure presumably was GW’s letter to Pickering dated 25 April (see the source note above). For the visit to West Point, see William Heath to GW, 23 April, source note.
Platt replied to Humphreys from Newburgh, N.Y., at “½ past 7 P.M.” on the same date: “I am this moment favored with yours.
“About Noon Orders were sent to the Serjeant of the Marechausie Corps to assemble instantly his Dragoons & proceed to Gochen, where Capt. Mitchell intended [to] be by 8 O’Clock to morrow Morning, to give him further Directions.
“From the Authority already given by his Excellency, I conceive nothing farther is requisite, than an immediate Exertion in Consequence: and I have flattering hopes from the Activity and Zeal of Capt. Mitchell on this Emergency, of the flour being transported as expeditiously as possible—every measure so far as depended on the Q.M. Genl has been taken—my own Exertions will second the steps already taken, & whatever else appears proper will be done.
“Capt. Mitchell’s Instructions are upon the extensive scale contained in his Excellency’s Orders of this day—every district will be called on for it’s Teams—that contiguous to warwick commences first, and I am in hopes by the Evening of the Day after tomorrow, some Teams will arrive at New Windsor—I beg leave to suggest the propriety of having a Number of flatboats properly manned at New Windsor by that Time—I am induced to this for expedition sake & to guard against the possible delay consequent on the Transportation in larger Vessels” (DLC:GW). The Maréchaussée Corps earlier assisted with the impressment of teams (see GW to Platt, 31 March, source note; see also GW to Hugh Hughes, 24 April).
2. See Pickering to GW, this date.