[No. 3340.]

Colonel Pawling Requests the Return of Money Taken from Two Prisoners.

Marbletown Nov'r 4th 1780.

Their reasoning

D'r Sir, The Party which was with me, at the taking of Hoff & Cole, claim a Right to the money, taken from those Prisoners. I hear several of them murmur much about it. is, that they think themselves as well entitled to the money, on the other Effects which have been converted to their Benefit. I wish, if your Excellency shou'd think proper, you wou'd be pleased to return the money to me & send it in Care off Mr. Van Deusen, or otherwise transmit me a Receipt for it, that I may thereby give them the Satisfaction of not having pocketted it myself-four Guineas, & six hard Dollars, with a bundle of paper money was what I gave Mr. Benson. I am, D'r Sir, with Esteem Your most Obed't Hum. Serv't

His Excellency Governor Clinton.

A. Pawling.

Pokeepsie 5th Nov'r 1780.

Dear Sir, I have received your Letter of yesterday. The Paper Money taken on Hoff and Cole was delivered to the Sheriff of your County before I left Kingston. He was directed to count it in your Presence & give you his Receipt for it. I never opened it, therefore, know not the amount of it. I conceived as he had Charge of the Prisoners & was liable for the Expence incurred in keeping them several Days at Tavern, he was the most proper Person to deliver the Money to. The Hard Money remains in the Pockett Book in which it was delivered to me unopened. I have no Claim to it; but if Hoff & Cole shoud be considered as

Prisoners of War & exchanged as such, I shoud not in that Case conceive it either Consistent with Justice or Policy to deprive them of it. If as Spies or Murderers, Humanity shoud not render it necessary to deliver it to them to relieve their necessities while under Confinement. The Captors without determining the Question of Right may have it. I do not wish to be troubled with the Possession of it & to you as Commanding Officer of the Post near which they were taken, I will chearfully deliver it taking your Receipt; but in this Case I cannot authorize or even advise you to distribute it. I am &c.

[To Lieutenant Colonel Pawling.]

[G. C.]

[No. 3341.]

General Heath's Comments on the Policy That Permits Our Flour to Leave the Country.

Headquarters West Point, Nov'r 5 1780.

Sir, I was yesterday honored with yours of the 3d Inst; am sorry to hear that the Enemy are again in motion towards the Frontiers, as many defenceless inhabitants will probably be rendered very miserable by it: however, as Gansevoort's Regiment is nigh at hand, and the militia of that part of the country very spirited, I hope they will be able to give a good account of them. We have a report this evening that the enemy have landed at or near Portsmouth in Virginia; it is also said that another embarkation is talked of at New York.

We are in great want of Flour; the whole Garrison has been without this day, and a part of it for several days. I am informed that large quantities of Flour are sent and sending to the

Eastward; some of which it has been hinted will be sent from America. Is it not ill policy to allow our country to be drained of provisions, when it every day grows more apparent, that if the war continues, America will become more and more the seat of it, and at present her army are but just kept from starving. It is hard to forbid men's buying and selling, but it is harder for an army to endure pinching hunger. I have the honor to be, with the greatest respect and esteem, your Excellency's most obedient Serv.

Governor Clinton.

W. Heath.

[No. 3342.]

The Governor Awaits Official Information in Regard to the Fate of the Detachment Sent Out from Fort Schuyler.

Poughkeepsie Nov'r 5th 1780.

D'r Sir, I have the Honor of enclosing to your Excellency the Intelligence I have received since my last. Genl. Schuyler in another Letter to the militia officers of the 3d at 2 O'Clock P. M. mentions that the Enemy were then at Fort George & advancing.

Thro' miscarriage of Letters or some other means, I have not yet rec'd an official acc't of the Fate of the Detachm't sent out from Fort Schuyler: but there is too much Reason to believe the disagreeable acc't of them contained in the enclosed extract of a Letter handed me by Colo. Drake, whose son was of the Party, is true, & if so, their misfortune was occasioned by a Departure from the most explicit orders. I have the honor to be &c. G. Clinton.

His Excellency Genl. Washington.

[No. 3343.]

WASHINGTON TO CLINTON.

New York's Quota under the Army Organization-The Situation in the North and the South from the Commander-in-Chief's Standpoint.

Head Quarters Prackness, Novemb'r [6th] 1780.

Dear Sir, I have received your several favours of the 18th, 30th and 31st ulto. I congratulate you upon your safe return from your late excursion, and upon the success which attended General Ransalaer's attack upon the enemy in their retreat. It is to be regretted that your Excellency was not near enough with the Reinforcement to take advantage of their situation. The damage, which has been done, will, I fear, be severely felt by the public as well as by individuals. We had the most pleas ing prospects of forming considerable Magazines of bread, from the Country which has been laid waste, and which, from your Excellency's letter, is so extensive, that I am apprehensive we shall be obliged to bring flour from the Southward to support the troops at and near West-point. You will be pleased to give me your opinion upon the quantity of flour that may yet, with probability, be procured above, in the course of the Winter, that I may form some calculation of the quantity which it will be necessary to draw from Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland.

I am very sorry that the troops of your State should look upon it as a hardship to do the garrison duty of Fort Schuyler. I had always allotted it to them, as thinking it would be agreable to both officers and men to guard their own Frontier, especially, when they were not continued an unreasonable time upon the tour. The Frontier posts of Pennsylvania and Virginia have been constantly garrisoned by their own Regiments, which have not been relieved these two years. The troops of the line in

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general are, in point of Cloathing, upon a footing with the rest. of the Army, which is very bare, and which has a poor prospect of being well supplied. But as Colo. Weissenfelds Regiment is going to a distance, and where he will not have an oppertunity of drawing those temporary supplies which the troops with the main Army sometimes do, I have given orders to have it as well furnished as our Magazines will admit.

I have appointed Brigadier General Clinton to take the command in the Northern department, and have ordered him to repair to Albany for that purpose. I am convinced he will second every measure which may be thought expedient for the security of the Frontier.

I am much obliged to your Excellency for the attention which you promise to pay to the provisioning Fort Schuyler. I daily expect four or five hundred Barrels of salt beef from Connecticut; as soon as they arrive upon the North River, part of them shall be sent up to Albany for the Garrison of Fort Schuyler, I desired Governor Trumbull to hurry them on that they might be got up in all this month.

I am very happy to find that the Legislature has vested your Excellency with the power of complying the requisitions of Congress for Compleating the new Army. I find that the Resolve of the 3d of Oct'r had only reached you, and that your calculation of the deficiency of 313 men had been founded upon that. Congress, by a subsequent act of the 21st, have made some very material and salutary amendments, the principal of which aregiving half pay for life to the officers, confining the term of service expressly to the War, and augmenting the number of men in each Regt. to 612 Rank and file. I, therefore, state your exact deficiency at 449 men, upon the following principles: