Samuel Huntington to George Washington, 28 May 1781

From Samuel Huntington

Philadelphia May 28. 1781

sir,

Your Excellency will receive herewith enclosed, an Act of Congress of the 25th Instant containing the general Principals to be observed in Promotions in the Line of the Army.

This Plan hath been adopted upon mature Deliberation, to be observed as a general Rule in Promotions, as subject to the fewest Objections of any that could be devised (though not altogether free from them) under the peculiar Situation & Circumstances of the federal Army, raised & recruited from so many distinct sovereign States.

Your Excellency will also note the Promotion of Lieut. Colonel Tilghman and Major McHenry, as also the Provision made for Officers who are Hostages & for Aids de Camp as specified in this Act.1

For your Excellency’s Information I have also enclosed a Resolve of the 26th Instant, ordering a Copy of Major General Greene’s Letter of the 22d of April to be transmitted to several of the States.2 I have the Honor to be, with very great Respect Your Excellency’s most obedient & most humble Servant

Sam. Huntington President

LS, DLC:GW; LB, DNA:PCC, item 16. Huntington wrote Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene a similar letter on this date (see Greene Papers description begins Richard K. Showman et al., eds. The Papers of General Nathanael Greene. 13 vols. Chapel Hill, N.C., 1976–2005. description ends , 8:322). GW replied to Huntington on 6 June.

1. The enclosed resolutions dated 25 May are in DLC:GW; see also the general orders for 5 June. Several exchanges preceded these actions (see GW to Huntington, 20–26 Dec. 1780; Remarks on a Congressional Committee Report, 3 April 1781; and GW to John Sullivan, 11 May; see also Sullivan to GW, 2 Jan., 17 May, and this date; and GW to the Board of War, 8 May, and to Sullivan, 29 May).

2. The enclosed congressional order on 26 May transmitted Greene’s letter to Huntington dated 22 April “to the Executives of the States from New Hampshire to New Jersey,” to inform them of “the dangerous situation of the Southern states” and prompt “the utmost exertions for sending forward to the main Army their quotas of Men agreeably to the Requisitions of Congress of the third & twenty first day of October last whereby alone the Commander in Chief can be enabled to give effectual succour to the Southern States, and prosecute with Vigor the Operations of the ensuing Campaign” (DLC:GW; see also JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds. Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. 34 vols. Washington, D.C., 1904–37. description ends , 20:548; Huntington to GW, 23 May, and n.1 to that document; and Huntington to Certain States, this date, in Smith, Letters of Delegates description begins Paul H. Smith et al., eds. Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789. 26 vols. Washington, D.C., 1976–2000. description ends , 17:267). For the congressional troop requisitions, see General Orders, 1 Nov. 1780.

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Source Project: Washington Papers
Title: Samuel Huntington to George Washington, 28 May 1781
Author: Huntington, Samuel
Recipient: Washington, George
Date: 28 May 1781

Reference

Cite as: “Samuel Huntington to George Washington, 28 May 1781,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-32-02-0194. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 32, 6 May–4 July 1781, ed. William M. Ferraro. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2023, pp. 266–267.]

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