From George Washington to Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer and Josiah Beall, 27 June 1780
To Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer and Josiah Beall
Head Quarters Ramapaugh [N.J.] 27th June 1780
Gentlemen
I was last Evening honored with yours of the 22d Inst. containing propositions of both Houses for substituting a compleat additional Battalion inlisted for the War, in lieu of the aid of Militia required by the Committee of Cooperation in conjunction with me. The reasons urged by you, in support of this alteration, are weighty, and such as, all circumstances considered, I think are sufficient to induce an acceptance of your offer, provided you can be upon a certainty of filling and marching the Battalion to the place of rendezvous by or near the time fixed upon for the junction of the Militia or at furthest by the last of July—But this you will be pleased to observe is only my opinion upon the subject. As the Committee of Cooperation are yet at Morris Town, some distance from hence, I have taken the liberty, to save time, of putting this letter under a flying seal to them, and have desired them, if they coincide with me, to forward it to you, with their approbation of the measure.1
It cannot yet be determined whether the whole or any of the Levies to compleat your Continental Battalions will be wanted to the Southward—perhaps circumstances may require that part of them should be sent to that quarter, and part came to this. It would be therefore most convenient to form them into two Corps for the present, under the care of such number of Officers as Major General Baron de Kalb will be able to spare from the Line. The number I am confident will be but few, as the Regiments were most of them very deficient of Subalterns when they marched from this Army. Inclosed you will find a letter to the Baron upon the subject.2
I cannot help impressing upon you, Gentlemen, the indispensible necessity of filling and forwarding the additional Battalion in the time I have before mentioned, or of having the whole, or the greater part of the Militia required, ready for service, in case you see no probability of compleating the Battalion. As twenty five hundred Militia from your State were, by our Estimates, deemed essential to the cooperation, you will easily perceive that so great a diminution of force, altho’ the composition will be better, must be attended with many inconveniencies. The compleating your Continental Battalions is a matter of equal importance.
Give me leave, Gentlemen, to present, through you, my warmest acknowledgments to both your Houses for their ready attention to and compliance with the several requisitions, more especially of provisions, which I have lately been under the necessity of making from them:3 And from the tenor of the letter which I have now the honor of answering—I am confident that no means will be left untried to furnish the Men in question, either upon a permanent establishment, or if that cannot be done in a reasonable time, for a temporary service. I have the Honor to be with the most perfect Respect Gentlemen Your most obt and most humble Servt
Go: Washington
LS, in Tench Tilghman’s writing, MdAA; Df, DLC:GW; copy, DNA:PCC, item 11; copy, DNA:PCC, item 39; Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
2. GW enclosed a letter to Maj. Gen. Johann Kalb written at Ramapo on this date: “I have been favored with your letter of the 6th of June inclosing one of the same date to the honorable the Board of war.
“The Assembly of Maryland proposing to raise 1469 men to fill up their seven Regiments to their compliment, it is necessary that a certain number of officers be drawn from their troops under your command to assist in this purpose. I have therefore to request that as many field officers and others as can be spared without material injury to the service; or as may be in some measure adequate to the forming of these recruits, and disciplining them under two corps or divisions, may be immediately dispatched to Annapolis where they will apply for further instructions to the executive of the State.
“The public prints will anticipate any news I could send of the late incursions of the enemy into Jersey I beg therefore to refer you to my official letters to congress on this subject. The enemy still continue to make demonstrations, without seeming to have in view any determinate object but that of embarrassing our measures” (LS, in James McHenry’s writing, NHi: Gates Papers; Df, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW). For the recent British incursions into New Jersey, see Battle of Connecticut Farms, 7–8 June, and Battle of Springfield, 23–24 June.
3. In addition to calls on the states for militia and Continental troops by GW and the Committee at Headquarters, GW recently had called on the states to deposit designated provisions at certain depots (see Circular to the States, 2 June, and n.1 to that document, and GW to the Committee at Headquarters, 25 May, and n.5; see also Circular to the States, 26 March).