Nathaniel Stevens to George Washington, 1 May 1781
From Nathaniel Stevens
Fishkill [N.Y.] 1st May 1781
I would inform Your Excellency that I have employed Judge Wynkoop of Esopus and Mr Morrell of New Windsor to procure Six or Seven hundred Barrels of Shad for the Army, who are not to give more than three pecks of Salt for two hundred and twenty pounds of cleaned Fish.1
I inclose my weekly Return,2 and have the Honor to be with due Respect, Your Excellencys most obedient servant,
N. Stevens D.C.G.I.
LS, DLC:GW. GW’s aide-de-camp David Humphreys acknowledged this letter when he wrote Stevens on 2 May, postscript (see Stevens to GW, 3 May, and n.1 to that document).
1. Stevens provided similar information when he wrote Maj. Gen. William Heath on this date (see MHi: Heath Papers; see also GW to James Clinton, 5 May, postscript). For the instructions given James Monell (not Morrell) and Dirck Wynkoop, see Stevens to GW, 3 May, and n.2 to that document.
2. The enclosed return probably matched one reporting “Provisions and Stores on hand, and the number of rations Issued daily on an Average for the preceeding Week at West-Point, Posts, and Brigades in its Vicinity” that Stevens prepared on 29 April. Totals (in barrels) were flour, 32; bread, 39; pork, 89; beans, 19; peas, 0; vinegar, 2; soap, 22; candles, 5; beef, 63; and salt, 14. The return also listed 1 hogshead and 26 tierces (casks) of beef; 163 hogsheads and 10 tierces of salt; and 1 hogshead and 85 gallons of rum. Daily rations numbered 6,276. Remarks conclude the return: “N.B. About 200 troops at Robinsons Mills, 240 on the lines and 300 at Kings ferry are dependant on the above provisions.
“Messieurs Strahams [Strachan’s] and Forsyths returns have not came to hand, this week, consequently the provisions they have on hand could not be assertain’d. their Rations are put down agreeable to the last Weeks.
“But 27 of the 1,678 Barrels of flour that was at, Ringwood, Warwick and sussex the 19th Instant has arrived” (MHi: Heath Papers; see also Stevens to GW, 21 April, and the source note and n.4 to that document). Stevens enclosed this return when he wrote Heath on this date (see n.1 above).