From George Washington to Brigadier General John Stark, 30 June 1780
To Brigadier General John Stark
Head qrs Ramapough [N.J.] June 30th 1780
Dr Sir
You will be pleased to repair immediately to the State of New Hampshire in order to receive & forward to the army the Levies required of the State by the Honourable the Committee of Congress for filling their Three Batallions.1 I have not heard from the State upon the subject and therefore cannot inform You of the place which may have been appointed for their Rendezvous, but this You will learn; and if You do not find the Levies already assembled at it, You will exert every degree of industry in your power to effect it. You know how precious moments are to us, and I am persuaded your efforts, both to collect & forward the Levies, will correspond with the exigency. That the business may be the more facilitated—You will take with You Four Officers from General Poor’s Brigade, to whom I write on the subject,2 if this number should not be already in the state, and with whom you will forward the Levies, either in a body or in Detachments from 150 to 200 men, as circumstances may best suit with all possible expedition. If there are more Officers in the State than this number, You may retain them for this service. In receiving the Men You will pay particular attention to their being sound & healthy and in every respect fit for service; and none but such as answer this description must be taken; as they would otherwise prove an incumbrance and a great expence without being of the least advantage.
Besides the Levies for filling the Three Battallions, it has been deemed essential to render the success of our operations the more certain, to call upon the State for between 900 & a Thousand Militia to join the army & continue in service for three months from the time of their arriving at Claverack on the North River, the place assigned for their Rendezvous by the 25th of next Month.3 It is much my wish that You should have the directio⟨n⟩ and command of these. You will therefore use your best endeavours to have them assembled, and armed & equipped in every respect in the best manner circumstances will admit for taking the field—and march with them so as to arrive with certainty at Claverack by the time I have mentioned.
I shall only add that I shall be happy to hear from You very frequently on the subject of this important and interesting business, both as it respects the Levies for the Battallions—and the Militia;4 and that entirely confiding in your greatest address & assiduity to promote it—I am Dr Sir with much regard & esteem Yr Most Obedt st
Go: Washington
LS, in Robert Hanson Harrison’s writing, NhHi: Stark Papers; Df, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW. GW signed the cover of the LS.
1. The three New Hampshire Continental regiments needed 504 rank and file to fill their quota (see GW to the Committee at Headquarters, 25 May, and n.5).
2. GW wrote Brig. Gen. Enoch Poor from headquarters at Ramapo on this date: “From the importance of getting the Levies required for filling the three Battallions as soon as possible—I have prevailed on General Stark to repair to the State in order to collect and forward them. And that the business may be the more facilitated, I request that You will send with him Four Officers, unless there should be as many belonging to the Regiments already in the State. In such case You will write to those who are there to assist him in the business & take his directions. If there are no officers there—it will be well on account of the public demand for Horses, if Officers can be sent who are provided with them; but If this cannot be done—You will be pleased to apply to Colo. Hay who will endeavour to furnish them. The Officers, if any are sent, will be as economical as possible and will keep a particular account of their Expences. When they return they will deliver the Horses they may get to Colo. Hay again” (Df, in Robert Hanson Harrison’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW).
Poor replied to GW from the garrison at West Point on 1 July: “I have attended to your request of the 30th Ulo delivered by General Stark—The New-Hampr. Quota for the three Battalions are to be draughted the 4th Instant and rendezvous at Winchester Amherst and Kingston, to which places Officers are already ordered to receive them and to whom I have now sent further instructions by the General to obey such orders as he may give them—The Court have requested me to send another Officer to Springfield by the 10th to receive the whole, which I think may arrive by the 14th.
“New England seem once more awake and I hope they may not again slumber till the fulfilment of our Purposes. … P.S. Since the foregoing was written I have consented to let Colo. Cilley go with a view to forward on the Militia at the particular desire of Genl Stark and hope it will meet your Excellency’s Approbation” (LS, DLC:GW).
GW also had written John Sullivan from Ramapo on 30 June: “I write to you under a persuasion that the present moment in our affairs calls upon the virtue of every individual, as well as every state: and that there has been no period of the war more important, or where men of influence could do more substantial good to their country. Either the evils that must follow, should we not be able to co-operate to effect with the French assistance, which is daily expected, or the issue of a successful co-operation comprehend the most powerful motives for our utmost exertions. Your State is called upon for levies to fill up her three regiments to five hundred and four rank and file and an additional force of between nine hundred and a thousand militia to serve for three months. The former are to be sent forward with all possible dispatch; and the latter are to rendezvous at Claverac by the 25th of next month. I have ordered Brigadier General Stark with some other officers to assist in collecting and forwarding the levies to camp, and to march the militia when assembled from Claverac. But let me intreat you on this occasion to use that spirit in your private station, which you have always displayed in a public one. Your endeavours may have a happy tendency, in rousing others—in promoting a general emulation throughout the State, and in impressing on the minds of the people, the ruin which may be produced by languid measures or the good to result from vigorous ones. When we speak on this head we cannot use too forcible a language: nor should the reasons why we ask for the most cogent and instant exertions be hid from the people, that if we fail in our operations from a defect in the demanded succour they may have only themselves to censure.
“To Genl Starke I shall beg leave to refer you for the late movements of the enemy in this state—& if he can, to explain the principles of them—I cannot do it with any certainty myself and it would require a folio volume were I to launch into the field of conjecture to come at them” (Df, in James McHenry’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW; GW wrote the dateline and final paragraph on the draft).
3. The circular to the states of 2 June called for militia to join the army by 15 July, but GW changed the date to 25 July in his circular to the states of this date.