To George Washington from Colonel Walter Stewart, 16 February 1780
From Colonel Walter Stewart
Camp [Morristown] Feby 16th 1780
Sir,
I beg leave to Inform your Excellency, that the Number of Deserters from my Regiment, and who are now in Pensylvania is very Great; That I am of opinion should your Excellency think proper to permit my Sending two officers who are well acquainted with the Country after them, many might be secur’d and brought to Camp, those officers can be Spar’d from my Regiment, as I shall afterwards have one to each Company.
I observe in your Excellencys Circular letter to the General and Field officers of the Pensylvania Line, Your Excellency remarks, that Captain Ashmead (who has long been return’d Absent without leave[)] should either be Superceded or Order’d for Tryal.1 This officer procur’d Your Excellency’s Permission to go on Furlough the 21st of Septemr for five Weeks on his Positively promising, and Pledging his Honor, that during the Course of that time He would resign his Commission,2 this promise he has paid no regard to, and some few days past (for the first time) He has Written to me, desiring his pay and Cloathing, & observing, that he should come to Camp as soon as his Wife got better;3 The Former I have not Suffer’d to be drawn since I return’d Him Absent Without leave, The latter I cannot think him Worthy off, Having before His different Courts Martial,4 and at other times, given Him the Character of an Inattentive officer, who was as often Absent from His Duty as in his Power, and when in Camp almost Constantly Intoxicated with Liquor; This Character I shall Transmit to Governor Reed, to whom I shall refer Him for his Cloathing.
As He has been since last Inspection left Entirely out of my Rolls,5 I must request your Excellency’s permission to Appoint Capt. Lt John Irwine to Command the Company formerly His, for as He made this Promise of resigning, in Presence of Genl Irwine, Lt Colo. Murry, & Myself, on which Promise He obtain’d his Furlough, I cannot think he can with the least degree of Propriety Claim his Post in my Regiment Again.6
It makes me Unhappy, knowing the7 Multiplicity of Business which comes before Your Excellency, so often to trouble you on this Subject, but I flatter myself this will be the last time I shall have the disagreeable necessity. I Am with Great respect Your Excellencys Most Obedt & hble servant
Walter Stewart Colo. 2nd Pena Regt
should Your Excellency approve of the two officers going after Deserters, I shall Send Lt John Stoy, & Lt Wm Moore.8
ALS, DLC:GW; ADf (incomplete), NHi.
On this date, GW’s aide-de-camp Richard Kidder Meade wrote to Stewart from headquarters at Morristown: “The Genl has rec’d your favor of this date & desires me to inform you that he does not object to some officers going in pursuit of deserters—tho’ it must be done on a more general scale than that which you request—yet as he wishes to See you before he decides on the case of Capt. Ashmead—you will be pleased to postpone sending them on the command untill you receive his Instructions on the subject, which will be given when you come here” (DLC:GW).
2. No correspondence between Capt. Jacob Ashmead and GW on this subject has been found. But the date mentioned by Stewart corresponds with the date of the report of a court-martial regarding a dispute between Ashmead and Col. Richard Butler (see General Orders, 21 Sept. 1779).
3. Ashmead married Mary Naglee in 1770.
4. Ashmead had been tried by courts-martial on 11 Aug. and 1 Sept. 1779 (see the general orders of 21 Aug. and 5 Sept. 1779). Ashmead resigned his commission in May.
5. On his draft, Stewart prefaced this sentence with the following words: “An officer possess’d of so small a share of Honour or Principle I can scarcely use any delicacy with, and.”
6. Ireland native John Irwin (1752–1808) of Philadelphia joined the 1st Pennsylvania Battalion as an ensign in January 1776. He became a first lieutenant and adjutant of the newly formed 2d Pennsylvania Regiment in January 1777, and he was badly wounded during the fighting at Paoli, Pa., in September 1777. Irwin became the regiment’s captain lieutenant in January 1779. He received promotion to captain in May 1780 and left the army the following January. In March 1781, he was appointed commissary to the commanding general and staff at New Windsor, New York. After the war, Irwin served in the Pennsylvania legislature as a representative of Westmoreland County, and in 1794 he received an appointment as a county judge, a position he held until infirmity caused him to resign.
7. The draft, of which only two manuscript pages are extant, ends at this point.
8. John Stoy (died c.1808) joined the 1st Pennsylvania Regiment as a sergeant, and in January 1777 he received a commission as a first lieutenant in the 2d Pennsylvania Regiment. He became the regiment’s captain lieutenant in May 1780 and left the army the following January.
William Moore (c.1750–1824) joined Col. Samuel Miles’s Pennsylvania Rifle Regiment as a sergeant in March 1776 and became a third lieutenant in the regiment the following July. In October 1776, Moore transferred to the Pennsylvania State Regiment (after November 1777, the 13th Pennsylvania Regiment). He was promoted to first lieutenant in April 1777 and was wounded at the Battle of Germantown the following October. Moore transferred to the 2d Pennsylvania Regiment in July 1778 and to the 1st Pennsylvania Regiment in January 1783. He left the army in November 1783.