Major General William Heath to George Washington, 6 May 1781
From Major General William Heath
West point, May 6. 1781.
Dear General,
I am honored with yours of the 5th and 6th to which I shall duly attend.1
I hoped I should not have been compelled again to represent our situation on account of provisions; but supplies of meat have not arrived.2 All the Irish beef in the store has been gone for some days—We are at last forced in upon the reserves—that in fort Clinton has been taken all out this day—The pork which was ordered to be reserved, is all issued, except about sixteen barrels.3 The boats are now up from below for provisions, with representations that they are out.4 Every pound in the reserves will be gone in a few days, if relief does not arrive—and hunger must inevitably disperse the troops. If the authority of our country will not order on supplies, I will struggle to the last moment to maintain the post; but regard to my own character compels me to be explicit, that if any ill consequences happen to this post or its dependencies through want of provisions, I shall not hold myself accountable for them.5 I have the honor to be With the highest regard Your Excellency’s Most obedient servant
W. Heath
LS, DLC:GW; ADfS, MHi: Heath Papers; DfS, MHi: Heath Papers; copy, enclosed in GW to Samuel Huntington, 8 May, DNA:PCC, item 152; copy, DNA:PCC, item 169. For handling of the LS, see GW to Timothy Pickering, and Pickering to GW, both this date.
1. GW had written Heath on 5 May about recruits and pay for Massachusetts troops detached to the southern department. His letter on 6 May instructed Heath to approve court-martial proceedings (see Heath to GW, 5 May, n.3).
2. Nathaniel Stevens, deputy commissary general of issues at Fishkill, had written Heath on 3 May to expect barreled meat and fish at West Point (see Heath to GW, 1 May, n.3). When he again wrote Heath from Fishkill on 8 May, Stevens reported that barrels of shad should be at Fishkill Landing, along with “thirty four Barrels of the Meat I informed you of in my last.
“No Beef Cattle or Salt Meat has arrived from the Eastward for near ten Days, nor can I hear of any that’s moving—but as Colonel Hughes is gone wholly upon that Business, it is to be hoped he will be able to get some of it under Way, as well as the forty Hogsheads of Rum that has laid so long at Hartford” (MHi: Heath Papers).
3. Heath later explained how breaking into “these reserves,” gathered to survive a siege, had prompted this letter to GW (, 296–97).
A “Return of 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,” written on this date, records a total of twenty-four barrels of pork and twelve barrels of beef (MHi: Heath Papers). For earlier returns, see Heath to GW, 17 April, n.2.
4. David Pye, assistant commissary of issues, wrote Heath from King’s Ferry, N.Y., on this date to communicate that he could not fulfill “an Order to Deliver a Barrel pork to” Capt. John Pray at Nyack, N.Y., “for the Use of his Men,” because “there is none in Store. Neither have we any Beef.” Pye sent a boat to supply “as much as you will please to Order—And if any Rum should be glad on the Account of Ferryman &c. to receive a Quota. … P.S. Mr. Forsyth recd 10 Barr[el]s Flour & 6 Barr[el]s Bread this day Mr Knox was at Westpoint & the Waggons Sent to Ringwood for Flour was forced to New Windsor will reduce us short in that Article” (MHi: Heath Papers).