To George Washington from Colonel Silvanus Seely, 4 November 1779
From Colonel Silvanus Seely
E[lizabeth] Town [N.J.] 4th Novr 1779
Sir
By a new hand1 I have Recieved the following Particulers from the Enemy.
That General Lashly Saild yestorday in a Frigate of 30 guns hir Name unknone.2
That 10000 Tun of Shiping had bin Taken up in New york for Transporting Troops to Halefax as is Reported.3
Coll Buskerriks Regt to Remove from Powels hook to Staton Island but what Regement they are to be Relievd by Unknone.4
As the above accounts Comes by a New hand I dare not give full creadit to them but thought best to send them on—not knowing but your Exelency might have som Other accounts that would Coroborate with Those—I hope soone to have a more Particuler account and Shall loose no time in sending it on5 untill when I am Your Most Obedient Humble Servent
Silvs Seely
Coll Commandt State Regt
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. This person has not been identified.
2. In a dispatch written at New York City on 8 Nov., Hessian major Carl Leopold Baurmeister reported: “General [Alexander] Leslie has gone alone to Georgia on a warship, which makes everyone wonder” ( 318). In his journal entry for 2 Nov., New York City printer Hugh Gaine identified “the Blond, Frigate” as the ship that sailed to Georgia, but he inaccurately gave the general aboard as Maj. Gen. Edward Mathew ( 2:69).
3. For the British decision not to reinforce Halifax, see Samuel Culper, Jr., to John Bolton, 29 Oct., n.5, printed as an enclosure to Benjamin Tallmadge to GW, 1 November.
4. Loyalist officer Lt. Col. Abraham Van Buskirk commanded the 4th Battalion of the New Jersey Volunteers.