George Washington to Colonel Samuel Blachley Webb, 25 February 1779
George Washington to Colonel Samuel Blachley Webb1
Middlebrook [New Jersey] February 25, 1779. States information about number of prisoners obtained. Directs Webb to present this information to Congress.
Df, in writing of H, George Washington Papers, Library of Congress.
1. Webb, a prisoner of the British on Long Island, sought to bring about not only his own exchange but that of his fellow prisoners. Webb, together with Colonel George Baylor, was sent to Philadelphia to present to Congress the information referred to in this letter. The material that Washington had collected consisted of two lists of officers who were British prisoners and a document entitled “State of Officers in Captivity, exclusive of those of the Convention troops.” The MS of this document is in the Yale University Library and is in H’s writing. See Worthington C. Ford, “British and American Prisoners of War, 1778,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, XVII, 322–24.