George Washington to Colonel Timothy Pickering, 28 April 1781
To Colonel Timothy Pickering
Head Quarters New Windsor 28th April 1781.
Dear Sir
The necessity of getting forward what Flour is upon the communication urges me to a measure which I would not wish to adopt could it be avoided.1 It is, to make use of a part of a sum of Money sent to the pay Master General by the State of Massachusetts purposely for the payment of the troops of that line.2 You will in consequence of this receive a Warrant for 9000 Dollars of the new emission, which, that it may be applied solely for the purposes for which it is intended, you will keep in your own hands, and inform the Deputies at Sussex—Ringwood and Warwick that they may give the owners of Teams an assurance of being paid their freight immediately upon the delivery of the Flour here.3 Should there be any quantity at Trenton, and Colo. Neilson should be under difficulties respecting the transportation of it, you may spare him a part of the money, under strict injunctions to apply it solely to the present emergency.4 If your deputies can agree for part payment in Money it will be so much the better; as it will make the only sum which there is any chance of getting hold of, go so much the farther. You will, for obvious reasons, keep intirely to yourself from what fund this money is drawn. And as this will be but a temporary releif, you will endeavour, in the mean time, to make arrangements for bringing forward our future supplies without the disagreeable expedient of impress.5
I think you may now order in part of the Ox teams from Connecticut, as pasture will be good by the time they can arrive, and care should be taken that they come laden with provision or some kind of Stores.6 There were particularly 40 Hhds of Rum at Hartford7—I also think it will now be proper to distribute the Flour from Trenton on the sussex and Morris Roads.8 That from Morris may come safely to Kings ferry, which will shorten transportation and impose part of the Burthen upon a district which has not lately been harrassed.9 I am Dear Sir Yr most obt Servt
Go: Washington
P.S. Be pleased to make me a return of the number of Tents of the last Campaign which will be of service this and how the old ones are disposed of.10
LS, in Tench Tilghman’s writing, DNA: RG 93, manuscript file no. 26374; Df, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. For recent efforts to transport flour to the army, see Pickering to GW, 25 April, and GW to Pickering, same date.
2. For the transmission of this money, see William Heath’s second letter to GW, 25 April, and n.1 to that document.
3. GW’s warrant book for 30 April indicates $9,000 given to Pickering “for the use of his Department (special Warrant new Emission)” (Revolutionary War Warrant Book 5, 1780–1783, DLC:GW, ser. 5; for the type of money, see Philip Schuyler to GW, 12 March 1780, notes 3 and 4). In his diary entry for 1 May 1781, GW explained that he had issued the warrant out of “pressing necessity” (, 3:357). Despite the ability to pay, quartermasters still could not engage teams (see Pickering to GW, 12 May, DLC:GW).
4. Pickering wrote John Neilson, deputy quartermaster general of New Jersey, from Newburgh on 30 April: “I am informed that a considerable quantity of Stores, particularly 1500 barrels of flour or thereabouts, may be expected to arrive at Trenton by this time or very soon. Have you received any money or can you transport the above provisions without as heretofore, and with the necessary dispatch? The Army depend for their subsistence on the flour coming from the southward: I therefore wish to be informed immediately of your prospects respecting transportation.” Pickering then quoted from the final paragraph of the present document and added: “If also the deposit at Morristown were to be capital and the transportation from thence regular to Kings ferry some danger might possibly be apprehended from the Enemy or those gangs of Villains which infest the Mountainious country on that route. I shall be obliged to you for your opinion of the proper distribution abovementioned and of the powers of your Assistants at Morristown and Sussex to forward without delay what you shall send to them” (DNA: RG 93, Records of Quartermaster General Timothy Pickering, 1780–87).
Pickering again wrote Neilson from Newburgh on 4 May: “On the 30th ulto I wrote respecting the transportation of provisions, flour especially from Trenton to susex & Morristown. … In the above letter I asked you if you could continue transportation with the means already in your hands meaning so expeditiously as to forward the above quantity of flour as fast as it arrived or the whole in so short a period as that your teams should drop at Morristown and Sussex Court House together about forty barrels a day, on an average.
“The fact is that the army depend for their bread on the flour abovementioned and what is already at the posts between Trenton & the Hudson for the whole of this month and part of the next the transportation of this flour (say 2500 barrels) must be made certain—In this part of the country the people possess’d of teams have been exceedingly harrassed by impresses. I wish to give them some respite, by hiring teams to bring that quantity of flour to the army, the hire to be paid in part or the whole on the delivery of the flour. Money sufficient for this purpose I have in my hands. Yet I wish to part with it as sparingly as possible and would put off none of it in this Business if it can be avoided. But as I said above the transportation of the flour must not fail … perhaps you can engage teams for one third or one half of the whole hire to be paid on the delivery of the provisions. Indeed I cannot doubt your being able to effect this, yet if to prevent a failure you promise entire payment I will enable you to fulfil it. Whatever money is paid on this occasion must be solely for the transportation of provisions & of flour principally.
“In my last I gave you the opinion of the General that provisions might now be distributed on the Morristown as well as sussex roads and I have made my estimate of payments on supposition that you would send a thousand barrels of the flour to Morristown from whence half might go to Kings ferry and the other half to Ringwood that the former should be preferred so far as is consistent with Safety” (DNA: RG 93, Records of Quartermaster General Timothy Pickering, 1780–87). Pickering wrote GW on 8 June that Neilson needed “money of Jersey emission or other money equally estimated by their people” to transport the flour (DLC:GW).
5. For impressment concerns, see GW to Richard Platt, 31 March, source note.
6. For the actions taken to hire ox teams in Connecticut, see Ralph Pomeroy to GW, 8 April, and n.2 to that document.
7. For this rum supply, see Nathaniel Stevens to GW, 14 April, and n.2 to that document.
8. For the road that ran to Sussex Court House, N.J., see GW to Platt, 31 March, postscript and n.3 to that document. Two roads led from New York through northeast New Jersey to Morristown.
9. Pickering wrote GW’s aide-de-camp Tench Tilghman from Newburgh on 29 April: “The inclosed estimate is made on supposition that by the present impresses no flour will remain at any of the neighbouring posts, and only 1000 barrels at Sussex Court House: That 500 more will be brought from Trenton to Sussex: and that 1000 will be carried to Morristown from Trenton, half of it to be transported to Kingsferry, & the other half to Ringwood: In the whole 2500 barrels.
“By the last letters recd from Mr Pomeroy he apprehends there will be some difficulty in getting forward the salted provisions from Connecticut: I have therefore added to the estimate the expence of transporting 1500 barrels from within 30 miles of some landing on the North river. Should a considerable quantity be dropped at Danbury (as seems probable) perhaps it may be best to raise there teams sufficient to bring on the whole of it at once, and send a small guard to escort it to Peekskill landing. The road to the latter place is better & shorter by several miles than to Fishkill landing” (DLC:GW). The enclosure—“Estimate of the expence of transporting 2500 barrels of flour & 1500 of salted meat”—showed the cost of moving the flour as $7,493⅓, and the salted provisions as $1,500, for a total of $8,993⅓ “of the new emission” (DLC:GW).
10. Pickering wrote Tilghman from Newburgh on 2 May: “I inclose you a rough state of the tents on hand at the posts mentioned in the return.
“In a few days I expect to be able to furnish one more accurate.
“Mr Meng informed me some time since, that most of the tents issued last campaign were very old, & had they been preserved & carefully turned in, that not more than half of them would have been for use this campaign” (DLC:GW).
The enclosed report dated at Newburgh on 2 May gives in tabular form the number of marquee, horseman, wall, common, and bell tents at seven locations and their condition: Fishkill Landing, N.Y., where tents were either “fit for use” or “wanting repair”; Fishkill, N.Y.; Newburgh; Morristown, N.J.; Rhode Island; Boston, where 3 marquee and 240 common tents were “(all new)”; and Springfield, Mass., where 20 marquee, 17 horseman, 33 wall, and 9 common tents also were “(all new).” Total tents in all locations and in all conditions were 35 marquee, 124 horseman, 68 wall, 1,863 common, and 82 bell. Pickering wrote remarks beneath the table: “The 406 common tents at Fishkill Landing are all new. Those at Boston are what Colo. [Jabez] Hatch supposes the tent cloth he purchased will make, & which before this time must be finished.
“Of the tents turned in at Morristown by the pensylvania line, only about 100 remain (as mentioned above) the rest (viz. about 140 common tents & perhaps 18 marquises) were delivered to the Marquis’s detachment, besides 11 horseman’s tents & 60 common tents sent from Newburgh.
“Mr Meng delivered the artillery, to line their cloaths, 2 horseman’s tents & 26 common tents. The artillery (as well as the other troops) returned many of their tents, some of which they applied to line their cloaths, besides those recd from the store.
“Nearly all the tents mentioned in this return I expect will be fit for use this campaign, after the repairs are completed.
“But I have called for returns of tents at the posts on this river, from which a better judgment may be formed. There are few elsewhere” (DLC:GW). For Major General Lafayette’s detachment, see GW to Lafayette, 20 Feb. (second letter). Pickering included a “Return of Tents in the army” dated 23 May and a “Return of Tents and Knapsacks prepared and preparing for the campaign 1781” dated 5 June when he wrote GW’s aide-de-camp David Humphreys from Newburgh on the latter date with another report on tents (DLC:GW).