To George Washington from Brigadier General Francis Nash, 14 August 1777
From Brigadier General Francis Nash
Trenton [N.J.] August 14th 1777
Sir
Inclosed is the proceedings of a Board of the Field Officers of my Brigade, which I am requested by them, to lay before your Excellency, for your direction.1
You have also inclosed Sir, the proceedings of a General Court Martial, whereby you will find, that two Soldiers belonging to my Brigade, are sentenced to Death, which is also Submitted for your Excellency’s final determination.2 I have the Honor to be Your Excellency’s Mo. obedt & very Hble Servant.
F. Nash
ALS, PHi: Gratz Collection.
1. For the subject of this enclosure, which has not been identified, see GW to Nash, 17 August.
2. The enclosed court-martial proceedings against John Marsh and Willough by Johnson of the 1st North Carolina Regiment are in DLC:GW. At his trial on 19 July Marsh confessed that he had “deserted from his command at Eagles’s mills on Cape Fear [N.C.] to the enemy, with whom he went to Charles Town [S.C.] from that to New York, was taken prisoner at Trenton [N.J.] & afterwards entered into the service of the United States, in a Georgia battalion.” Johnson, when he was tried on 22 July, acknowledged that “on his March from N. Carolina, near the Virginia line, about the last of April, he deserted from the said regiment. He also acknowledged that it was the third time of his desertion.” Both men were convicted and sentenced to be shot to death, but GW left the final determination of the men’s fates to Nash (see GW to Nash, 17 Aug.), and it is not known if their sentences were carried out.