Colonel Elias Dayton to George Washington, 9 May 1781
From Colonel Elias Dayton
Chatham [N.J.] May 9th 1781
Sir,
I have received your Excellency’s letter of the 1st Instt and shall do every thing in my power to comply fully with the requisition contained in it, altho’ I have of late experienced much greater difficulty in gaining good intelligence from the other side than formerly.1 I am in daily expectation of having an interview with the person mentioned lately,2 when I have effected which, I hope to be able to communicate many interesting and important matters.
I have just received accounts that the British fleet consisting of ten ships of the line, and containing between three & four thousand troops, sailed yesterday, but am not entirely satisfied with respect to their destination—This comes from a person in whom I do not place the most implicit confidence, and I have my doubts whether they have so great a number of ships or troops as he reports. I hope they have it not in their power to injure the French at Rhode Island; should the fleet at that place be unguarded, I would suspect that there was their object. They have industriously given out that they are going to Wilmington, which causes me to suspect that they are steering another course.3
I have now at this place prisoners of war Majr De Meibom & Ensign De Meibom of the Brunswick troops who were lately taken from Long Island by a party of men from New Brunswick—As they had been lately released from a long captivity are very desirous of going in upon parole and since Colonel Ogden & Capt. Dayton were indulged by the enemy I should be much obliged to your Excellency to permit me to shew them the like indulgence.4
Inclosed are the proceedings of a court martial upon Simon Kent a soldier in the first Jersey Regiment who is a deserter and a great thief & who, I believe, justly deserves death; but as he is the son of a good whig who begs that we would only spare his life, perhaps if your Excellency could order him on board a frigate, it might answer as good a purpose as to execute him he is so great a villain that I am confident he never will be of any service in the army.5
At the request of Colo. Stewart Comy General, a party was last week sent to guard the stores at Sussex court house—The number of men now on detachment amounts to 494 from the two Regts which makes it difficult to relieve our guards. If our men were relieved from Sidman’s & Pompton it would strengthen us considerably.6 I am your Excellencys most Obedient & vry Hbl. Servant
Elias Dayton
LS, DLC:GW; copy (extract), enclosed in GW to Samuel Huntington, 11 May, DNA:PCC, item 152; copy (extract), DNA:PCC, item 169; copy (extract), PHi: Wayne Papers. The extracts contain only the second paragraph and omit the third sentence.
Dayton may have enclosed “A Return of Recruits inlisted and joined the Jersey Brigade since Jany 1st to the first of May 1781,” prepared at “Jersey Camp” on 5 May. It showed eleven recruits in the 1st New Jersey Regiment, and thirty-three recruits in the 2d New Jersey Regiment, with three deserters in the latter (DLC:GW).
1. In his letter to Dayton on 1 May, GW had requested intelligence about the British army near New York City and about a detachment preparing to sail.
2. See GW to Dayton, 11 April.
3. For this expedition, which sailed to Virginia, see William Heath to GW, 1 May, n.1; see also Dayton to GW, 14 and 20 April. Dayton corrected his report when he wrote GW on 16 May.
4. For the parole of Major Meibom and Ensign Meibom, see GW to Thomas Durie, 11 May; see also GW to Riedesel, same date, found at Riedesel to GW, 21 April, n.5. For the captures of Col. Matthias Ogden and Capt. Jonathan Dayton, see General Orders, 6 Nov. 1780, and n.2 to that document.
5. The enclosed proceedings have not been identified. GW followed Dayton’s recommendation (see General Orders, 11 May 1781).
Simeon (Simon) Kent (1762–1851) enlisted in the 1st New Jersey Regiment for the duration of the war in late 1776 or early 1777. Muster rolls dated 5 Jan. and 2 May 1778 listed him as a deserter (see DNA: RG 93, Compiled Service Records of Soldiers who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, 1st New Jersey Regiment).
6. For these detachments, see Francis Barber to GW, 12 Feb. 1781, and n.1 to that document.
GW replied to Dayton on 11 May.