George Washington Papers

To George Washington from Lieutenant Colonel Loammi Baldwin, 18 September 1775

From Lieutenant Colonel Loammi Baldwin

Chelsea [Mass.]
Sept. 18th 1775

May it please your Exeelency

I am constrained by the petitions of the officers & the Complaints of the Soldiers in our Regiment once more to Trouble your Excellency with the dificuties we Labour under for want of Fire Arms. By the returns this day received, there are wanting 43 Stands of Arms, with a small quantity of Powder, Ball, & Flints, to compleat the proportion allowed for each man—I should not now have had occasion to apply for this application to your Exy but by reason of my distance from Head Quarters the Arms have been taken up before I could apply & some times before I could even hear of there being any to be disposed of. Your Ex. will be pleased to remember that the above was one of the difficulties which I mentioned to Yr E. in a Letter the begining of the week before last when I desired permission to go & settle that with the other affairs.1 I have spared no pains thro’ the course of the Summer to procure those Articles of Guns, and as we expect to be mustered on Wednesday next, pray your Excellency’s particular attention to this request,2 of

Sewall’s
Point
Capt. Mighill no return
Cogswell 15 Guns  5 lb. Powder
Sherman  3 Guns 10 lb. Powder—Balls & Flints
Corey  6 Guns 10 lb. Powder, &c.
Pettengill  2 Guns 15 lb. Powder, Ball & 150 Flints
Medford Capt. Jno. Wood, no return.
Rd Dodge  2
Bar. Dodge  6
Rogers  4
Sprague  53

ADf, MH: Baldwin Papers.

1This letter has not been identified.

2The following Wednesday was 20 September. George Baylor replied to Baldwin on 19 Sept.: “His Excellany General Washington has determind, that none of the Armes, now in store, shall be deliver’d to any of the Regiments that they ought to have been provided with Armes, when raisd” (MH: Baldwin Papers).

3These officers were Thomas Mighill, Thomas Cogswell, Isaac Sherman, Timothy Corey, Joseph Pettingill, John Wood, Richard Dodge, Barnabas Dodge, William Rogers, and Samuel Sprague.

Index Entries