To George Washington from Colonel Joseph Ward, 19 January 1780
From Colonel Joseph Ward
Morris Town January 19th 1780
Sir
I beg leave, to inform your Excellency, that in compliance with your Excellency’s pleasure, signified to me in a letter from Colonel Harrison, the 13th Instant,1 I immediately wrote to the Majors of Brigade (as I had no Officers in Camp) and requested them to muster their respective Brigades, and make a return of their muster Rolls to me. In the mean time I proposed to muster the Artillery, and the Corps not annexed to any Brigade in the line, myself.
Being just informed, by an Act of Congress, which I received inclosed in a letter from his Excellency the President, dated the 12th Instant, That the Troops are in future to be mustered by the Inspectors of the Army; and that the Officers in the mustering Department are discharged.2
I therefore conceive that I have nothing farther to do respecting the Musters, but to deliver the Rolls I have received this month, to such Officer as your Excellency may be pleased to direct; and to give him such information as may be in my power respecting the Department, to enable him with the greater facility to complete the business for the present month. I have the Honour to be With every Sentiment of Esteem and Respect, Your Excellency’s most Obedient and most Humble Servant
Joseph Ward
ALS, DLC:GW; ADfS, ICHi: Joseph Ward Letterbook.
1. On 13 Jan., GW’s secretary Robert Hanson Harrison wrote to Ward: “As it is Essential that the Troops should be mustered in order to their being paid—His Excellency requests if there is a want of Officers in the department to do the business—that You will endeavour to prevail on and appoint such Officers as You may deem proper to muster them for the Months of November & December, who will be paid what is reasonable for the trouble. The sooner the Musters can be made the better, that the Abstracts may be lodged with the Deputy pay Mr Genl & Auditors for examination” (DLC:GW).
2. For this act abolishing the mustering department, see Samuel Huntington to GW, 14 Jan., n.1; see also 16:47. For Huntington’s letter to Ward, dated 14 Jan., see 14:345; see also Ward to GW, 10 Dec. 1779.