George Washington to John Hancock, 15 June 1781
To John Hancock
Head Quarters New Windsor 15th June 1781.
Sir,
I flatter myself that proper Measures have been before this Time taken to procure the Number of Men, for Continental and Militia service, required by my Letter of the 24th May from Weathersfield.1 In the Calculation which I then made of the Aid of Militia which would be necessary to support the Operations which we have in View, I included sixteen hundred from Pennsylvania, but that State having been since called upon to embody and march two thousand four hundred Men immediately to the Assistance of Virginia,2 I am obliged to add the Number which I shall be disappointed in from Pennsylvania to the Quotas required from the other States. Your Proportion of them will be five hundred, which, with the Requisition of the 24th of May will make in the whole two thousand seven hundred.3 Your Excellency will be pleased to consider this Number as independent of the five hundred, which I desired by my Letter of the 4th of June, might be ordered to Rhode-Island.4
From Circumstances, I have Reason to expect that our Operations5 will commence somewhat earlier than I at first expected.6 Your Excellency will therefore be pleased to give Orders for the two thousand seven hundred Militia intended for this Service, to march in such Time that they may punctually join the Army by the 15th of July next.7
I am convinced that I need not enter into a Repetition of the Arguments which were made Use of in my Letter of the 24th of May to induce the most strenuous Exertions to fill up the Continental Battalions. I will only say, that our Success will depend upon that being done. Without it there is not a Chance, and with it we have the fairest Prospect. These Men must be sent forward as fast as they are raised.
I am in Hopes that the Assembly will, at their present Meeting, take effectual Measures for supplying the Quota of Beef called for in the Requisitions which were laid before You by Major General Heath.8 Your Excellency must be fully sensible that our whole Dependance for Provisions is upon the Exertions of the States, ⟨and that without their punctual compliance with⟩ the Demands made upon them, the Force which will be collected must soon disband. Whereby the immense Expence which we are now incurring by our Preparations, will be so much dead Loss, and the Consequence, in a Political View, of a most serious and alarming Nature. I have the Honor to be with the highest respect and Esteem Your Excellency’s Most Obedt servt
Go: Washington
P.S. I must particularly entreat Your Excellency’s Attention to my requests of the 25th ulto and 2nd instant, for Powder and Cannon.9 If, as I have been informed, the State is possessed of large Quantities of Materials for making Powder, which can with Facility be worked up at the Mills of Stoughton and Andover, they can with more Safety and Convenience afford to make a Loan to ⟨the continent at this important moment, as they may⟩ replenish their Magazines by working up the materials. I have some Reason to expect to obtain twenty 18 Pound Cannon from the Navy Board at Boston, should I succeed, there will be no Occasion of borrowing any from the State. Of this Colo. Crane will inform your Excellency.10 We shall I imagine at any rate be under the Necessity of craving Assistance for so heavy a Transportation, and I shall therefore esteem it an additional Obligation, if thro’ Your Excellency’s Influence the Quarter Master can derive some Aid.
Go: Washington
P.S. The total Amount of your Ten Regiments of Infantry was 2827—in which are included 1417. Recruits which were all that had joined up to the 1st Instant—114. Recruits had joined the Regt of Artillery.11
LS, in Richard Varick’s writing, M-Ar; Df, DLC:GW; copy (extract), enclosed in GW to Thomas McKean, 2 Aug., DNA:PCC, item 152; copy (extract), DNA:PCC, item 169; Varick transcript, DLC:GW. The extracts contain the first three paragraphs. Missing material on the LS is supplied in angle brackets from the draft, which GW’s aide-de-camp Tench Tilghman penned. On 21 June, the Massachusetts Senate read “a Letter from General Washington dated Head Quarters New Windsor the 15th inst.” and sent it to the Massachusetts House of Representatives ().
GW wrote a similar letter on this date to Connecticut governor Jonathan Trumbull, Sr. (LS, in Richard Varick’s writing, Ct: Trumbull Papers; Df, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW; Trumbull docketed the LS as received on 19 June). For differences in the letter to Trumbull, see notes 3, 6, and 11 below; see also GW to William Livingston, to Joseph Reed, and to Meshech Weare, all this date. Trumbull replied to GW on 20 June.
3. This sentence in GW’s letter to Trumbull reads: “Your Proportion of them will be six hundred, which with the Requisition of the 24th of May will make in the whole two thousand one hundred” (see the source note above).
4. See GW to Hancock, 4 June, found at GW to Rochambeau, same date, n.5.
6. GW’s letter to Trumbull continues: “I am in immediate Want of Eight hundred Militia for a particular Purpose. Your Excellency will therefore oblige me, by ordering that Number to repair, as soon as possible, from the most contiguous Counties, to West Point. The Remainder to march in such Time that they may punctually join the Army by the 15th of July next” (see the source note above).
7. The Massachusetts legislature adopted a resolution on 30 June “for Raising Twenty seven Hundred Men, immediately, to join the Army of the United States at West-point, or such other place as the Commander in Chief shall Direct” ().
8. See William Heath to GW, 18 June, and notes 3 and 5–7 to that document; see also GW to Heath, 9 May, n.9.
9. See GW to Hancock, 25 May, found at GW to Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., same date, source note; and 2 June.
11. GW’s secretary Jonathan Trumbull, Jr., penned this postscript on the LS. The draft begins: “By a General Return of the 9th Inst.”
Trumbull, Jr., also penned the postscript on GW’s letter to his father, Jonathan Trumbull, Sr.: “By a general Return of the 9th instant—the total Amount of your five Regiments of Infantry was 1668. in which are included 563 Recruits—being all that had joined up to the 1st Instant” (see the source note above). The return dated 9 June has not been identified.