Major General Samuel Holden Parsons to George Washington, 30 April 1781
From Major General Samuel Holden Parsons
[Redding, Conn.] Apl 30h 1781
Dear General
The Fever by which I have been confined has left me exceedingly weak, and unable to attend to any business of importance, nor do I expect to recover my strength soon unless a Journey to which I am advised, shall restore me—I hope to be able to join the Army by the forepart of June, but have no expectation of being sooner able to do my Duty there—Two severe Fevers in Six Months are very forceable proofs of a ruined Constitution, and reasons of great weight with me to pay more attention to my health, than a Camp life will admit of; If I find I can go through the Fatigues of another Campaign; which I most ardently desire, I shall join the Army; but should the State of my Health prevent my joining before the Campaign opens I must resign.1
I believe very little more progress can be made in the matters committed to my conduct at present; Capn Walker will be able to inform you on the Subject, a considerable check is put to the proceedings of the Disaffected in this Quarter, but no radical cure is effected.2 I find a Report is confidentially circulated among them, that the British Gover[n]ment have given assurances to Colo. Allen that the State of Vermont shall be made a seperate Province, if the War terminates in their Favour, and that he shall be appointed Governor of the new Province; how far this Report is justly founded, I cannot determine, the difference which has happened between him and that State may give some reason to suspect it to be true.3
I do not wholly dispair of possessing myself of a Register of Names who have conformed to British Government, I have proofs of the existance of such Registers, by those who have seen one of them; the Keeper of which is now under Guard, but the Register was not to be found.
The Person on whom our principal dependance was placed, has been very faithfull and employed almost his whole time in the Service, and been at considerable Expence; which by reason of his indigent circumstances he is unable to support, I must therefore beg your Excellency to order him to be paid.4
I herewith transmit you the Proceedings of a Court Martial on the Trial of Uriah Rowland, I do not consider myself to have any Authority to approve a Sentence in a Capital Case; I do not suppose myself a General Officer Commanding in this State, within the meaning of the Act of Congress. Being here for a special purpose only, and without Troops to Command, and I believe the Act giving power to a General Officer Commanding in any State was repealed, at the time when Congress reassumed the Power of pardoning Offenders.5 There is also a Relation between the Prisoners Family and me, which is a prudential Reason for being excused if I have a Right. He has served—Three or four Years in the Army as a Non Commd Officer with good reputation; is about 24 Years of age, as brave and intrepid as any Man, has many Qualities which might render him a very usefull Man. Since he has been over to the Enemy he has been very active in their Service, and has done much Mischief, he says he was induced to bring over some goods from Long Island, which he recev’d in payment of a Debt, from a Man who had joined them, and being discovered he fled to the Enemy, but says he has always retained sentiments friendly to the Country.6 I am with great Respect yr Excellency’s Obedt Servt
Saml H. Parsons
LS, DLC:GW. Parsons wrote the date in the dateline. GW’s aide-de-camp David Humphreys docketed the letter: “Reading April 30th & May 2nd 1781.”
1. Parsons returned to the army later in the spring (see GW to a Board of General Officers, 12 June, NHi). For the onset of his most recent fever, see Parsons to GW, 23–26 March, found at Parsons to GW, 14 March, n.7.
2. For orders to investigate a Loyalist plot in Connecticut, see GW to Parsons, 22 Feb. (second letter); see also Parsons to GW, 14 March, and n.6 to that document.
3. Loyalist colonel Beverly Robinson had written Vermont colonel Ethan Allen from New York on 2 Feb. in an effort to persuade him “to join the Kings Cause and to asist in Restoring america to her former peacible & happy Constitution.” Robinson assured Allen that if “the people of Vermont take a decisive & active part with us,” the king would make Vermont a separate province, but he mentioned nothing about Allen becoming governor (, 1:107–8; see also Robinson to Allen, 30 March, in , 1:108–9). In a letter dated 9 March at Sunderland, Vt., Allen wrote Samuel Huntington, president of Congress, that Vermont leaders decided “to take no further notice of the Matter” (, 1:109–10). For Allen’s earlier interactions with British officials, see , 2:59–93; John Mercereau to GW, 8–9 July 1780, source note; and GW to Mercereau, 12 July, and n.2 to that document; see also Philip Schuyler to GW, 31 Oct.–1 Nov., and notes 4, 7 and 10.
4. Parsons refers to William Heron. For Heron’s collusion with the British, see GW to David Waterbury, 29 April, n.1, and 11:62–65.
5. Generals commanding in states received authority to review courts-martial proceedings in a congressional resolution passed on 14 April 1777, but another resolution adopted on the same date restricted their pardoning power to cases not involving death sentences (see , 7:265–66).
6. The enclosed court-martial proceedings have not been identified, but GW authorized Uriah Rowland’s execution, which Parsons then ordered for 8 May (see GW’s reply to Parsons, 3 May, postscript, and , 28–29).
Uriah Rowland (c.1757–1781) enlisted in the 2d Continental Artillery Regiment as sergeant in February 1777 and became quartermaster sergeant in August 1778. Upon his transfer to a new company in July 1779, Rowland produced a certificate “specifying he was inlisted for three years only” rather than for the war (DNA: RG 93, Compiled Service Records of Soldiers who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, 2d Continental Artillery).