Board of War to George Washington, 30 April 1781
From the Board of War
War Office [Philadelphia] April 30th 1781
Sir
We trust General Cornell will have informed your Excellency of the Measures we have taken from Time to Time on the Subject of Supplies & will have presented to you Copies of the Estimates we have made in which will appear to be included Demands for Articles necessary for the Campaign for all the Corps in the Army. We wish it had been in the Power of Congress to have complied with our Requests; but we are still unprovided with Means & therefore remain in a great Degree solemn Witnesses of public Wants which we are but too incapable of relieving.1
We have had the Honour of your Letter of the 20th April, previous to its Reciet we had caused to be delivered to Capt. Craig for the Use of the Fort Pitt Department all the Articles we could possibly spare & he is now on his Way to that Place with the Stores.2 The Pennsilvania Line & the Artillery going with it are amply provided & these Stores with the extensive Supplies sent from time to time to the Southward have exhausted our Magazines & we wish it were in our Power to replenish them.3 Among the many Articles of which there is a Deficiency Lead is peculiarly wanting in the Southern Army & from the Failure of the Virginia Mine & the Scarcity both of the Article & Money to purchase it this Want is of the most serious & alarming Nature.4 As to Artillery we concieve that Army will have a Sufficiency, being according to our Calculation including six sent on by the Marquis de la Fayette, four sent by Baron Steuben & six new carried on by Procter’s Detachment more than twenty Pieces allotted for that Army & certainly safe after the Battle of Guilford.5 But if your Excellency is of Opinion that more should be sent it shall be done.
When the Cloathing assigned for the Marquis’s Detachment arrives it shall be forwarded. We could obtain none here but we are told the Marquis has procured a Quantity at Baltimore on his own Credit so as to make the Troops comfortable.6 There being Leather sufficient at the Charlotteville Barracks belonging to the U. States to procure ten thousand Pairs of Shoes we some time ago gave an Order to the Commissary of Hides at that Place to barter the Leather for Shoes & send them on to General Greene & we hope Shoes by this Means are now on their Way from thence. We could wish Mr Moylan who is appointed Clothier General would proceed to philadelphia immediately that some Arrangements might be formed for envigorating that Department the Bussiness whereof is now totally at a Stand.7
Lt Col. Carrington is the oldest Lieut. Col. & therefo⟨re⟩ we will forward to him a Commission as Lieut. Col. Commdt of the 4th Regt of Artillery. As to any orders in Consequence of his Promotion we presume they will come most properly from your Excellency.8 We have the Honour to be with perfect respect & Esteem Your very obedient Servts
Richard Peters
By order
ALS, DLC:GW. The cover is addressed to GW at New Windsor.
1. These estimates have not been identified.
2. The board evidently enclosed a “Return of Military Stores delivered Capt. Isaac Craig for the use of the Western Department” prepared at Philadelphia on this date. The return listed an array of ammunition and paraphernalia for artillery (DLC:GW; see also GW to the Board of War, 20 April, n.1).
3. A detachment from Col. Thomas Proctor’s 4th Continental Artillery Regiment, which included companies from Pennsylvania, had been designated to march with the Pennsylvania line to the southern department (see Arthur St. Clair to GW, 15 April, and GW to Thomas Jefferson, 18 April; see also Samuel Huntington to GW, 20 Feb.).
4. For the failure of the lead mines in Virginia, see Jefferson to Huntington, 21 March, in , 5:198–99.
5. For the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, fought on 15 March, see Nathanael Greene to Huntington, 16 March, printed as an enclosure with Greene to GW, 17 March.
6. See Lafayette to GW, 18 April (second letter).
7. For John Moylan’s appointment as clothier general, see Huntington to GW, 29 April, and n.2 to that document.
8. GW replied to the board on 8 May (DLC:GW).