George Clinton to George Washington, 26 April 1781
From George Clinton
Kingston [N.Y.] 26th April 1781
Dear Sir
When I had the Pleasure of seeing your Excellency at Pokeepsie I took the Liberty of mentioning the Expediency of laying in a Quantity of Fish for the Use of the Troops especially those stationed on the Frontiers1—I find they are taken more successfully than usual That they can be purchased cheaper, for Salt than the Rate I mentioned & that a
Map 7. Even with the primary theater of war having shifted to the South, the British kept a covetous eye on West Point fortifications and the Hudson River. (Illustrated by Rick Britton. Copyright Rick Britton 2022)
Geo. Clinton
ALS, DLC:GW. GW’s aide-de-camp Tench Tilghman docketed this letter: “about putting up Shad. referred to Mr Stevens” (see Nathaniel Stevens to GW, 1 May).
1. GW wrote Jabez Huntington, sheriff of Windham County, Conn., from New Windsor, probably on 26 April after his return from Poughkeepsie: “At the urgent solicitation of several of the Selectmen and respectable inhabitants of the town of Poughkeepsie I hereby authorize you to discharge from Custody Benjamin Howling now a prisoner and confined by Military warrant in the Gaol of said County” (ALS, presumably misdated 6 April, MHi: Lamb Family Papers; see also William Heath to GW, 23 April, source note).
Benjamin Howling, apparently confined in the Windham County jail, has not been otherwise identified.
2. See the source note above.
Dirck (Derick) Wynkoop (1732–1796), of Kingston, N.Y., was a militia private for Ulster County, N.Y., in 1775. After serving in various governmental capacities, he became a judge in Ulster County in May 1777 and then a state purchasing agent, a position held into 1781 (see Wynkoop to Clinton, 24 June 1779, in , 5:102). A member of the New York legislature in 1780 and 1781, Wynkoop remained prominent in Ulster County after the war as a judge and politician.