From George Washington to Colonel Timothy Pickering, 25 January 1781
To Colonel Timothy Pickering
New Windsor Jan. 25th 1781
Dr Sir
Yours of this date is before me—When I wrote to Colo. Lutterloh I had no knowledge of your letter to Humphrey on the score of Forage.1
That which Roberts may get will, it is to be hoped serve till the farmers (enabled by the Snow) can bring in more—At any rate I cannot avail Myself of your private Stock.
I shall be obliged to you for sending me by Eight oclock tomorrow Morning a Sleigh, pair of Horses and driver to go as far as Smiths Tavern in the clove (12 Miles) from whence it will return as I have directed Mr Strubing (wit⟨h⟩ the light Horse) to have a relief at that place.2 take no notice that the Sleigh is designed for my use. I am Dr Sir Yr Obedt Servt
Go: Washington
ALS, CSmH; ADfS, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW. The final sentence of the postscript appears only on the ALS. The draft has a cover signed by GW.
On 27 Jan., GW’s aide-de-camp David Humphreys wrote Pickering from headquarters: “I am happy to inform you, that we have a sufficient quantity of Hay arrived for the present. But of 29 Sled loads, ordered for Head Quarters, 6 have been stopped by Mr [Asa] Worthington Inspector of Cattle. This is a very extraordinary affair; & will occasion much confusion, if not checked in the beginning.
“Col. Lutterloh had directed seventeen Tons of Hay to be sent to Hd Quarters, of which not Eight, by the highest estimation, have been brought. I shall represent Mr Worthingtons conduct to the General on his Return—And in the Meantime, will it not be eligible to give the bearer the means of making up the deficiency, and getting forward as much as may be, while the good Sleighing continues?” Following Humphreys’s signature, a note in another hand, evidently from Henry Lutterloh, commissary general of forage, to Pickering, reads: “Mr Roberts will explain the making up the deficiency. If you please, I will have all the hay taken away from Mr Worthington” (DNA: RG 93, manuscript file no. 26042).
1. GW’s letter to Lutterloh has not been found.
2. GW planned to move toward Ringwood, N.J., in order to more closely monitor efforts to suppress the mutiny in the New Jersey line (see GW to Robert Howe, 25 Jan., and to William Livingston, 27 Jan.).
3. Lt. Col. John Popkin’s letter to GW has not been found.
4. For this artillery detachment, part of the corps organized to suppress the mutiny, see GW to Howe, 22 Jan., source note; see also Pickering to GW, 26 Jan., and the source note to the document.