George Washington to Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., 22 May 1781
To Jonathan Trumbull, Sr.
Weatherfield May 22. 1781
Dear Sir
I have the honor to enclose to your Excellency a Resolution of Congress respecting mounting and equipping the Corps of Dragoons raised by the State of Connecticut.1 I am the more induced to wish this may be done, as Colonel Sheldon’s, is now the only Regiment of Cavalry destined to act with the Army under my immediate command, and as the number of men in that Regiment now mounted, are totally unequal to the services which must be expected & required of them.2 Being impressed with the importance of the subject; I take the liberty therefore to recommend it to the earliest & most effectual attention of Your State.3 I have the honor to be Your Excellency’s Most Obedt Servt
Go: Washington
LS, in David Humphreys’s writing, Ct: Trumbull Papers; Df (mutilated), DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW. GW signed the cover of the LS, which is addressed to Trumbull at Hartford. The top of the draft is torn off, and “equipping” is the first legible word. The absence of a dateline may explain the draft being docketed 23 May by both Humphreys and GW’s recording secretary Richard Varick.
1. The enclosure has not been identified, but Congress had resolved on 8 May that Connecticut officials “use every possible exertion to remount Colonel Sheldon’s regiment and to equip them with such accoutrements as they can furnish them with to enable them to take the field” (, 20:490; see also Charles Thomson to GW, 10 May, and the source note to that document).
2. Mounting and equipping Col. Elisha Sheldon’s regiment remained a problem (see GW to Sheldon, 31 May and 6 June, and Sheldon to GW, 2 and 13 June). The other cavalry regiment in GW’s army had been transferred to the southern department (see GW to Samuel Huntington, 8 April, and n.6).