Colonel Timothy Pickering to George Washington, 6 May 1781
From Colonel Timothy Pickering
Newburgh [N.Y.] May 6. 1781 ½ past 10. Evening
Sir,
I find that one great cause of the failure of transportation of the salted provisions from Connecticut has been the general want of forage; of private forage I mean. The farmers there in general have not a lock of hay for their own stocks.1
Your Excellency’s wishes are anticipated. Colo. Hughes went off yesterday from Fishkill by one o’clock for Danbury (which I assure myself he reached last night) to forward the salted provisions from thence and the towns in its vicinity;2 and I have lodged money in the hands of his assistant, Major Campbell, who will pay for the transportation on the delivery of the meat at Peek’s kill landing. In my instructions to Colo. Hughes & Major Campbell I have conformed to your Excellency’s directions on this head.3 If an attention to their farms at this season should occasion a backwardness in the owners of teams to turn out, I have desired Colo. Hughes to make use of the military force on the spot to compel them. This to take place only in case the offer of a partial or even an intire payment for the transportation should fail of its intended effect. From Colo. Hughes’s perfect Knowledge of those parts of the country & great activity, I cannot doubt the arrival of some salted provisions to morrow at peek’s kill landing.
The original letters recd from your Excellency I return herewith.4
I am not informed yet what steps Mr Pomeroy is taking since my last urgent letters to him relative to an immediate supply & the general transportation of salted provisions, agreeably to former orders.5 I am, with the greatest respect yr Excellency’s most obedt servant
T. Pickering Q.M.G.
P.S. I would not detain the messenger to take a copy of this letter; & will thank your Excellency to direct a copy to be sent me.
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. During its May session, the Connecticut legislature received a committee report and a “memorial and representation” from Ralph Pomeroy, deputy quartermaster general, that showed he was “destitute of money and unable to procure forage for teams to transport provisions necessary for the immediate supply of the army.” The legislature then authorized town selectmen to assist Pomeroy “or his deputies in taking by warrant from authority or by agreement, as the case may require, such forage as may be wanted for the purpose of transporting said provisions” (, 3:395–96). For efforts to transport salted meat from Connecticut, see GW to Pomeroy, 7 April, and Pomeroy to GW, 14 April; see also GW to Pickering, 11 and 28 April.
2. Col. Hugh Hughes, deputy quartermaster for New York, arrived in Danbury, Conn., on the morning of 6 May. For his efforts to transport supplies, see Pickering to GW, 9 May, and n.1 to that document.
3. See GW to Pickering, this date. Pickering’s instructions to Hughes and John Campbell, deputy quartermaster general, have not been identified.
4. For these letters, see GW to Pickering, this date, and n.1 to that document.
5. Pickering’s letters to Pomeroy have not been identified. The two men had corresponded in March about hiring ox teams (see Pomeroy to GW, 8 April, and n.2 to that document).