General Henry Clinton to George Washington, 21 May 1781
From General Henry Clinton
New York May 21st 1781.
Sir,
I have received Your two Letters upon the subject of Lieutenant General Burgoyne’s Recal,1 and also that dated the 16th Instant;2 the second of which fortunately reached me, before I had an opportunity of Communicating to him the Contents of the first.
In answer to that of the 16th, I am to acquaint you, that altho’ I was willing to allow Certain Articles (as mentioned in a proposal carried out by Colonels Irvine, Ely and Mathews,) to be sent to this place for the benefit of the prisoners in our possession,3 to whose Situation I am always happy to extend every Indulgence that propriety will admit, yet, as the same reasons which then occasioned an objection to a permission of this kind for Tobacco, still subsist, I cannot therefore acquiesce to the proposition, contained in Your said Letter, with regard to sending a Quantity of that Article to Charlestown in South Carolina.4 I am, Sir Your most humble Servt
H. Clinton
LS, DLC:GW; copy, P.R.O.: 30/55, Carleton Papers.
1. Lt. Gen. John Burgoyne, a paroled prisoner, was in England (see GW to Clinton, 16 April, found at GW to Abraham Skinner, same date, n.2; and to Clinton, 1 May, found at Samuel Huntington to GW, 23 April, n.2).
2. See GW to Clinton, 16 May, found at GW to the Board of War, same date, n.2.
3. Brig. Gen. James Irvine, Col. George Mathews, and Col. John Ely had written Andrew Elliot, lieutenant governor of New York and superintendent of imports and exports, from New York on 25 Nov. 1780 to have “Grain of all kinds, Flour, Beef, Pork, Live Stock, Onions, Lumbar, Boards, Scantling, Iron, Hemp, Pitch and Tar” sent to Long Island and sold so the proceeds could be used to assist prisoners (DNA:PCC, item 78). Clinton granted the request and provided regulations for the transportation and sale of the articles (see James Robertson, William Phillips, Samuel Birch, and Elliot to Irvine, Mathews, and Ely, 29 Nov., DNA:PCC, item 78). Another letter communicated the highest price allowed for the sale of certain items (see Elliot to Irvine, Mathews, and Ely, 29 Nov., DNA:PCC, item 78).