To George Washington from Brigadier General Samuel Holden Parsons, 6 April 1780
From Brigadier General Samuel Holden Parsons
Redding [Conn.] 6th Apl 1780
Dear General
By Letters from Colo. Sherman & other Officers I am informd of the Distresses of the Connecticutt Line of Officers, for Want of Clothing1 and should be happy if I could give them fairer Prospects of Supplies from this State. the Legislature have voted Monies for that Purpose and appointed their Agent to purchase, but the Monies are not collected nor is any Clothing yet procurd;2 the Truth is, Monies are exceeding scarce & hard to be levied; but I beleive the State are desirous of doing all the Officers can expect & I hope by the End of next Month they will be supplied with the most material Parts of their Clothing, however constant Exertions are necessary to Stimulate the Legislature and the Agents to furnish these necessary Supplies; and if your Excellency should consider the Matter of sufficient Importance to induce you to write the Governor on the Subject it would be of great Service to the Officers.
The Accounts between the Army & State I have Reason to beleive will be settled to our Satisfaction, but to secure this there is no Stage of the Settlement but requires an Attention, the too great Popularity of the Government of our State tends to bring the Rights of Officers into Hasard when every Soldier may rest assurd of full & complete Justice3—I think with proper Attention the prospects of recruiting our Line are good,4 I could wish a proper Number of Officers, Serjeants & Musick were orderd into the State for that purpose.
I intended to have been at Camp next Week but on receiving the Letters on the Subject of Clothing and the Settlement we are making with the State have induc’d me to beleive tis necessary for me to continue in the State until those Things are nearly compleated, unless the State of the Army should require my earlier Attendance in Camp, of which I shall hope to be informd.
I have just heard that my Son is a prisoner in New York, taken in the Recovery from New London. if any Opportunity presents for his exchange I shall be much obliged to your Excellency for your Friendship in procuring his Discharge.5 I am with the greatest Respect yr Excellency’s Obedt h[umbl]e Servt
Saml H. Parsons
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. The letters from Col. Isaac Sherman and “other Officers,” presumably to Parsons, have not been identified.
2. During the session begun on 6 Jan. and adjourned on 2 March, the Connecticut legislature passed a resolution directing “Chauncey Whittlesey, Purchasing Clothier for this State … to draw on the Treasurer for the sum of one hundred thousand pounds continental currency … to purchase for the officers of the Connecticut Line of the continental army, respectively, suits of cloathing suitable to their rank and station … And the officers to whom such cloathing, or any part thereof, shall be delivered as aforesaid, shall be charged for the same in the settlement of their pay at 300 per cent. computed from the sterling cost of such articles of cloathing respectively” (, 2:455–56).
3. Parsons probably is referring to “the committee appointed by the army to endeavour compleating a settlement of arrears due the army” through negotiations with a committee of the Connecticut General Assembly (, 2:455).
In the postscript of a letter dated 9–10 June, Parsons informed Thomas Mumford: “The Committee for settling accounts have reported and found balances due to us which are satisfactory. This report is accepted. The ways and means for discharging the debt were not reported when I left Hartford” (, 287).
4. For recruiting efforts in Connecticut, see Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., to GW, 10 March, and n.1 to that document, and 22 March; see also GW to Trumbull, 4 April and n.2 to that document, and , 223–24.
5. On 23 March, the British frigate Galatea sent into New York City the privateer Recovery from New London, Conn., “of 16 guns, and 120 men” (New-York Gazette: and the Weekly Mercury, 27 March 1780; see also , 2:194–203). The prisoners included William Walter Parsons, whose escape his father reported when he wrote GW on 25 April.