Colonel Timothy Pickering to George Washington, 7 May 1781
From Colonel Timothy Pickering
Newburgh [N.Y.] May 7. 1781
Sir
Orders will be given forthwith to have a vessel got ready to carry a 100 barrels of flour to Albany.1
The necessary orders have been given, & in the most pointed terms, relative to the flour on the communications between this & pensylvania; & as (other means failing) actual payment is to be resorted to, I cannot entertain an idea of disappointment.
An express will go to-morrow for Boston. I will send him by the way of Danbury with a letter to Colo. Hughes, extending his powers.2 This may require an additional expenditure of money.
By the same express I will again write to Mr Pomeroy, shewing the additional distressing demands for provisions to supply the troops above, & the indispensable necessity of transporting immediately all the salted meat westward of Connecticut river.3
I have directed the express from Albany to proceed with your Excellency’s letters, & injoined him to call on Governour Clinton at Poughkeepsie to leave your Excellency’s letter4 and a letter from the president of Congress, addressed to him.5 I have the honour to be with the greatest respect your Excellency’s most obedt servt
T. Pickering Q.M.G.
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. For the directive that prompted these orders, see GW to Pickering, this date.
2. Pickering’s letter to Col. Hugh Hughes, deputy quartermaster for New York, has not been identified. Hughes had been authorized to use military impress to transport supplies and had traveled to Danbury, Conn. (see Pickering to GW, 6 May; see also GW to Hughes, 24 April).
3. This correspondence has not been identified. For efforts to send meat from Connecticut, see Pickering to GW, 6 and 12 May; see also Ralph Pomeroy to GW, 14 April.
5. Pickering probably refers to a circular dated 1 May from Samuel Huntington, president of Congress, to several state officials (see , 17:203).