Nathaniel Stevens to George Washington, 8 May 1781
From Nathaniel Stevens
Fish kill [N.Y.] May 8th 1781
I would inform Your Excellency that Judge Wynkoop had procured Fifty four Barrels of Shad the 5th Instant which I have ordered brought to Fish kill Landing and proportionably distributed amongst the Troops at New Windsor, West point &ca together with what Mr Morrell may have procured, except the sixteen Barrels that went to Albany.1
I have no Knowledge of Salt meat, Cattle or Rum being on the Way from the New England States,2 and in Case I have no Returns from their Agents (which I wrote to by Your Excellency’s Direction, the 22d Ulto respecting Beef Cattle)3 by tomorrow’s post, I shall renew my Application by an Express, notwithstanding I am convinced they must have received my former ones, soon after they were wrote, considering the Conveyance by which they were sent.
I inclose my weekly Return4 & have the Honor to be with due Respect, Your Excellency’s Most obedient Servant,
N. Stevens D.C.G.I.
LS, DLC:GW.
1. Dirck Wynkoop and James Monell (not Morrell), assistant state agents for New York, had been directed to procure shad for the army (see Stevens to GW, 1 and 3 May).
2. Stevens began a letter to Maj. Gen. William Heath from Fishkill on this date with the same information regarding shad given to GW. He then continued: “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; see also Stevens to GW, 14 April, and n.2, and Charles Stewart to Heath, 12 May, found at GW to Heath, 9 May, n.7).
3. See GW to Stevens, and Stevens to GW, both 21 April.
4. The enclosed return has not been found, but Stevens had sent Heath 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—6th May 1781.” The return listed quantities in barrels: flour, 234; bread, 61; pork, 24; beans, 8; soap, 47; and beef, 12. Additionally, there were 2 tierces of beef and 159 hogsheads, 15 barrels, and 9 tierces of salt. Daily rations totaled 7,287. A postscript reads: “N.B. About 200 troops at Robinsons Mills, 150 on the Lines, & 300 at Kings Ferry are dependant on the above provisions—But 434 of the 1678 barrels of flour that was at sussex, Warwick & Ringwood the 19th Ult. has arrived, except what has come to Kings Ferry. 90 barrels of beef is expected from Ringwood, & 54 (if not more) barrels of Fish from Esopus” (MHi: Heath Papers; see also Ephraim Blaine to GW, 13 April, and GW to Pickering, 28 April).