Major General Arthur St. Clair to George Washington, 4 July 1781
From Major General Arthur St. Clair
Philada July 4th 1781
Sir
By your Excellency’s Letter of the 23 of June I find that you expect me to go on to the southward as soon as the State shall have such a Number of Troops in their Line as will give me a suitable Command; and that the Time of my joining the Army must depend on that Circumstance. I must have misunderstood your Excellency very much about this matter, or there is some mistake in it—I think you informed me you had not intended that I should serve in that Quarter this Season, and, but for the Situation of my Family, I should have joined you before now—It will indeed be distressing to a very great Degree to serve in any Place where there is not a probability, that in case of necessity, I could visit them, which the Distance in Carolina, and my Rank in Virginia would preclude—Mrs St Clairs Case is truly deplorable, and requires every Attention; but she has a double Claim upon me, as her misfortune was undoubtedly brought on by her anxiety at the Time the great Clamour against me, and has returned annually about the same time ever since; and she is now so ill as to render confinement necessary.1 All Places are in themselves equal to me, tho, independent of the above Circumstance, I own I should wish to make this, which will I think certainly be my last Campaign, with your Excellency. It may perhaps have escaped your Attention that if I go to the southward I must necessari⟨ly⟩ command the Marquis, and that may disgust him2—if however you think it necessary, I shall prepare myself for it immediatly, and give up, as I have ever done, every consideration of personal Concern. I beg the favour of an Answer as soon as possible3 and am with great Esteem and Attachment Dear Sir Your most obedient humble Servant
Ar. St Clair
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. Phoebe Bayard St. Clair suffered from mental illness (see also St. Clair to GW, 16 June). The stress arose from St. Clair’s court-martial (see his letter to GW, 15 Nov. 1778, and n.1 to that document).
2. St. Clair had become a major general more than five months before Lafayette, who then commanded in Virginia.
3. GW replied to St. Clair from headquarters near Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., on 10 July: “I have been favour’d with yours of the 24th ultmo & 4th inst. I am pleas’d to find by the first that the Assembly of Pennsylvania have at length passed a Law which seems likely to procure the number of Men voted.
“You certainly misunderstood me when you was at New Windsor, if you conceiv’d it was my intention that you shou’d serve this Campaign with the Army in this quarter; I at that time foresaw the difficulty there wou’d be in providing commands for the General Officers who were already here, and which I have only been enabled to do by appointing Genel Heath & Lord Sterling to the Command of Wings, which are in fact no more than Divissions, and which also have their Majrs General attach’d to them. There wou’d be an indelicacy, as you very justly observ⟨e,⟩ in sending you to Virginia at present⟨,⟩ because you must necessarily supercede ⟨the⟩ Marquis de la Fayette who has had mu⟨ch⟩ trouble, and who appears to be just no⟨w⟩ reaping the fruits of his labour; I ca⟨n⟩ therefore only advise you to remai⟨n in⟩ Pennsilvania awhile longer, where ⟨you⟩ may be very usefully employ’d in f⟨orward⟩ing the Levies under the new Law, & ⟨will⟩ at the same time have an oppertunity ⟨of⟩ attending to Mrs St Clair, whose scituatio⟨n I⟩ sincerely lament. Should Genel Gr⟨eene⟩ come into Virginia, the difficulty w⟨ould⟩ cease, & you might go there at once wi⟨thout⟩ any inconvenience” (LS, torn right edge along second page, in David Cobb’s writing, CSmH; Df, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW; mutilated material is supplied in angle brackets from the draft, which GW’s aide-de-camp Tench Tilghman penned; GW signed the cover of the LS, which is addressed to St. Clair at Philadelphia; see also St. Clair to GW, 24 June).