1. Paterson enclosed a letter that Capt. Ezra Selden had written him on this date from Stony Point, N.Y.: “In consequence of the information wich the Bearer of Capt. Prays Letter gave me, I immediately sent down an officer, with directions to gain me, some certain information of the Enemys situation he returned last night at Ten & Informs that He went down within about half a mile of Fort Lee, & on their return landed about a mile above spiten devil Creek, their they were informed that about Two hundred refuge[e]s, had march’d up to pines bridge since no information from them.

“The information that a Party was out this side the river of about 200 refuge[e]s continues and that they are between Bargan & Fort Lee, That the Shiping which appeared proves to be only eight or Nine cheifly Sloops & Schooners, only three square riged Vessels and not One Shipd, they Lye near Bulls Ferry.

“Capt. B—— of the Militia had marched towards Fort Lee with about 200 Men. … N.B. I send you a Deserter from the Enemy who came out from New york Last Sunday [13 May]” (DLC:GW). In his diary entry for 16 May, GW noted that Selden’s account of ships near Fort Lee, N.J., “contradicted” earlier intelligence from Capt. John Pray (Diaries description begins Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, eds. The Diaries of George Washington. 6 vols. Charlottesville, Va., 1976–79. description ends , 3:365; see also Paterson to GW, 15 May, n.1). For Loyalist activities at Fort Lee, see Jonathan Lawrence, Jr., to GW, this date, and n.1.

2. In his diary entry for 16 May, GW recorded that Lt. Col. Ezra Badlam’s “detachment of 200 Men” had halted at Stony Point “but was directed not to return till the designs of the enemy were better understood” (Diaries description begins Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, eds. The Diaries of George Washington. 6 vols. Charlottesville, Va., 1976–79. description ends , 3:365).

3. The enclosed return and letter from Col. Alexander Scammell have not been identified. For reports on casualties during a surprise attack on a detachment under Col. Christopher Greene’s command, and for an earlier letter from Scammell, see Paterson’s first letter to GW, 14 May, notes 2 and 3; see also GW to Samuel Huntington, 17 May.

4. GW replied to Paterson from headquarters on this date: “Since my return from the Point I am favored with yours—I think it will be expedient for Col. Badlam to remain in his present position, until the state of the Enemy is more thoroughly ascertained, from below. … P.S. Please to send up the Deserter” (Df, in David Humphreys’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW; the dateline on the draft renders “178” as the year, but the docket reads “May 16. 1781”). GW traveled to “the Posts at West point” on this date (entry for 16 May in Diaries description begins Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, eds. The Diaries of George Washington. 6 vols. Charlottesville, Va., 1976–79. description ends , 3:365).