[No. 3148.]

Artillerymen Complain That They Have Been Badly Treated in the Distribution of Donations.

Sir, The Artillery belonging to the State of New York have long been flattering themselves with the Idea of receiving from their State an equal Participation of the Donations from the State, with the Troops in Gen. Clinton's Brigade. A Supply has lately arrived of Shirts, Overalls &c. some of which have been contributed by the very Friends of the men in the Artillery. Application has been made to the Comdg. Officer of the above Brigade on the Subject, & we are told that we are not included in the Supplies. Thus are our Expectations constantly dissapointed; & we are just now, after all our applications to Congress & to the State left where we first sett out-& our Prospects of Succour from our State no better than they were before any application on the Subject, tho we have received the most flattering Promises from them. I leave you to judge, Sir, what must be the Feelings of both Officers & men in the artillery belonging to New York. They have never yet rec'd any Donations from their States who have Creditt for them as well as for their other Troops without any of the Expence of raising them; & still these men are left to suffer.

I am requested by the officers to beg an Explanation of your Excellency's Letter to Lt. Connelly of the 2d of Aug't accompanying the last supplies from the State; & to know from your Excellency, whether it is the Intentions of the State that we shall be excluded from these or any future supplies or not. I beg your Excellency will excuse the Liberty I have taken in addressing you on this disagreeable Subject, & belive that nothing prompts me to it but the application of my Brother

Officers & the Sufferings of a number of brave men, who can not relinquish the State to which they belong, tho they receive no Benefit from them.

I shall be obliged to your Excellency for an answer; you will please to direct to me at Gen. Knox's Quarters. I have the Honour to be, your Excellency's most Hum. Serv't

Jno. Doughty, Cap. 2d Regt. Art.

Park of Artill'y, 16 Aug. 1780.

His Excellency, George Clinton, Esq.

[No. 3149.]

Governor Clinton to Ab'm Yates, Jun., in Reply to His Relating to the New Issue of Continental Bills.

Pokeepsie Aug't 16th 1780.

Dear Sir, I am favored with your Letter of the 14th Inst. I have not rec'd any Information on the Subject of the new Bills since the rising of the Legislature. Considering the State of our Treasury & the little prospect there is at pres't of its being supplied with money to exchange for the new Emission, I cannot conceive it necessary to send an express to Congress for their appointment of the Persons to sign them. We shall undoubtedly receive it in season to prepare & sign the new Bills to exchange for the old by the Time we shall have it in the Treasury for that Purpose. The Embarrassm'ts occasioned by the want of money in our Treasury would possibly justify your signing the new Bills in the manner you propose: but as they cannot by any means be issued otherwise than in the proportion that the old are paid in to redeem them, it will answer no valuable purpose, neither will it in the least remove the embarrassm'ts bro't upon us by the low state of our Treasury.

I send you by this conveyance a Commission for the Persons whom the Council have appointed as signers of the Bills.

General Van Rensselaer on the Canajoharie Disaster.

Claverack, August 6" 1780.

Dear Gov'r, The distressed Situation of the County of Tryon since my Return from Fort Schuyler occasioned by the Destruction of Conajoharie & other Parts of the Country, has embarrassed & perplexed me so much that I have neglected writing to your Excellency on the Subject, having been under the Necessity of acting the Commissary of Purchases both for the Troops under my Command and the poor Inhabitants, who have lost their all. It is not in my Power to paint to your Excellency their Distresses. The Number of Widows and orphans who are left in this Country without a Friend to afford them any Relief is great, except what little it has been in my Power to grant them, which was small indeed having scarcely sufficient to feed the Troops from Hand to Mouth. It is a Matter in my opinion which demands the attention of our Legislature. wish his Excellency may point out some Mode by which they may be assisted for the present.

I

On my Return from Fort Schuyler I had all the Inhabitants from German Town and with their Effects, removed to the

German Flatts at their own Request, it being out of my Power to protect them at their Houses, since which the Enemy have drove of all their Cattle by which Means they are also reduced to the greatest Distress, it being the only Means left them for their Support, their Houses & Crops being all destroyed; add to this near thirty of their Inhabitants, chiefly Heads of Families either slain or made Prisoners in the Course of this Season. The Loss at Canajoharie by a Return made to me, amounts to seventeen killed, two scalped still living, and fifty one Prisoners; fifty two Houses and forty two Barns burnt. The Eastern Troops I met on the Road & have disposed of them in such a Manner as in my opinion will best protect the Inhabitants in collecting & thrashing their Grain.

[No. 3152.]

THE ARMY IN DESPERATE STRAITS.

The Commissary General and the Committee of Congress Point Out Threatening Dangers Unless Supplies Are Forthcoming.

Circular.

1

In committe of Congress, Camp Tapan, August 16th, 1780. Sir, Inclosed you will receive copy of a letter of the 15th instant, from the commissary general.

Circumstanced as our army at present is, the information contained in this letter becomes truly alarming. It requires the utmost attention of the officers, together with all the necessaries and even comforts of life, to render the service acceptable to recruits; and as the greatest part of the army, at present, consist of that class of men; if the time should unhappily arrive, when we will be reduced to the necessity of putting them on half allowance of provisions, or probably have none to give them,

the consequence must be, that those men, unaccustomed to endure this species of distress, and not brought to that state of discipline, which can give their officers that controul over them, they have acquired over the old soldiers, must revolt at the idea of tamely submitting to a service, when divested as they are of every other privilege the soldiers of all armies are intitled to, and are furnished with, they cannot receive even the means of subsistence. If reduced to the extremity, I have just mentioned, and an irrconcilable disgust should once take place among these men, and desertions (or perhaps something worse) begin, the contagion will, beyond a doubt, pervade the whole army: For it is not to be expected that the few old soldiers, now remaining, will be disposed to go on, enduring the calamities they have so often experienced, when they find others equally bound with themselves, and who have as yet had none of those difficulties to encounter, manifesting so refractory a spirit, at what they will conceive to be triffles, compared with their own sufferings. Should such an event take place, the train of ruinous consequences that will inevitably ensue, must at once strike you so obviously, as to render unnecessary my entering into a detail of them. We do, therefore, earnestly request of you, Sir, that the officers of your State, appointed to procure and forward the supplies, may be called on, in the most urgent manner, to give their utmost attention to the important business of keeping the army regularly supplied with your quota of the articles that has been assigned to your State as you must plainly perceive what embarrassments the least remission on the part of the States, or any of them, must throw us into: For it must be remembered, that the monthly supplies are no more than what is barely necessary for the consumption of the army, in that time.