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 have the I shall be obliged to your Excellency for an answer; you will please to direct to me at Gen. Knox's Quarters. 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. I am &c. 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 embar rassed & 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. Ι wish his Excellency may point out some Mode by which they may be assisted for the present. 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 Circular. 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 neces saries 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, H 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. It is true, that the army does not at present amount to the numbers, on which the estimate was made, but as the men are daily coming in, we are to suppose that the complement of men, will be made up by the end of this month. But at all events, it is incumbent on us, to be provided to demands that can be made on us. answer the largest It is not only the immediate supply of the army, that the committee would wish to call your attention to, but likewise the necessity there is of the greatest punctuality in furnishing the supplies, agreeable to the requisitions that have been heretofore made, to prevent, in future, alarms of this nature, and our giving you further trouble on the subject. I have the honor to be, with the highest respect, Your Excellency's Most obedient servant, in behalf of the committee. His Excellency George Clinton Esqr. Jno. Mathews. Tappan, 15 August, 1780. Gentlemen, The army daily increasing and a declension of supplies, makes me dread the most fatal consequences. Our Continental magazines are quite exhausted, in every part of the United States, and no other method of procuring provisions, but through the respective states. The requisition of Congress upon the States was calculated to supply the American army, and its dependencies. That made by your honorable committee, was to answer the demands of the campaign, agreeable to a calculation for that purpose; many of the States have done little, others are moving slowly, and those who are using their utmost exertions, will fall short of the supplies required. I have this day received advice, that there is little flour at Elk, Christiana, and the communication to Trenton; of course the supply of that |