To George Washington from Colonel Alexander McDougall, 26 July 1776
From Colonel Alexander McDougall
July 26th 1776
Sir,
All the Non-commissioned officers, rank and file of my Regiment, are enlisted without time, except one company, recruited before the instructions for raising the four Regiments, Issued from Congress.1 And I doubt not to be able to engage this on the same Establishment.
By the instructions to Colonel Dubois, I observe, he is authorised to give Ten Dollars bounty, to Such Soldiers as shall enlist for three Years, or during the present trouble.2
I shall be glad to be informed from your excellency, whether I can be authorised to offer the Same bounty, for as the Harvest is now near in, I think it probable Some ⟨re⟩cruits may [be] raised on this bounty. Regiments engagd ⟨w⟩ithout time, are more to be depended on for the defence ⟨of⟩ the Country, than those embodied for a short period: I therefore Submit it to the Generals Consideration, Whether it would not advance the Service, to enable the regiments raised for three years, or a longer time; to recruit out of the new levis, and those corps raised for a shorter duration.
When your attention to Subjects of more importance will permit, I shall be glad to be favoured with your orders on those points. I have the Honor to be Your Excellencys Humble servant
Alexr McDougall
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. The Continental Congress authorized the raising of these four New York regiments on 19 Jan. 1776 (, 4:69).
2. On 25 June 1776 Congress authorized Lewis Duboys to raise an additional New York regiment “to serve for three years, or during the war,” and the next day the delegates resolved to give a bounty of $10 “to every noncommissioned officer and soldier, who will inlist to serve for the term of three years” (ibid., 5:479, 483). In response to an inquiry that GW made in his letter to Hancock of 10 July, Congress affirmed on 16 July that any man in or out of the army who enlisted in the Continental service for three years was entitled to receive the $10 bounty (see note 4 to that letter, and , 5:565).