21Enclosure: List of Returns Requested by the Board of War, January 1780 (Washington Papers)
The following Returns are to be sent immediately to the Board of War. Infantry 1. a General Return of the Number of Serjeants, Privates & Drummers & fifers whose times of Enlistment will expire by the first of July next Regimentally digested. 2d A like Return of the men employed out of the Regts as in the Commanders in Chiefs Guard, Waiters on Officers who are absent from their Regiments and...
22To George Washington from Major General Steuben, 26–30 January 1780 (Washington Papers)
Being arrived here on the night of Saturday the 22d Inst. I delivered next Day Early in the morning Your Excellency’s Letter to the President of Congress, & I am informed but to day that the Board of War is charged to Confer with me on the present State of the Army. I do not know as yet what this Conference will tend to, There is a talk of a Committee being to repair to Camp, in Order to give...
23To George Washington from Major General Steuben, 12 February 1780 (Washington Papers)
Since I had the honor to write last to Your Excellency, I have heard nothing from Congress on the Army but the Resolves which I send you here inclosed. They have I doubt not been already sent to Your Excellency, & I would have transmitted them to you sooner, had I not been prevented by a fit of Sickness which has kept me these four or five Days, and does Still Continue. I beg you will Excuse...
24To George Washington from Major General Steuben, 14 February 1780 (Washington Papers)
The Day before I had the honor of receiving Your Excellency’s Letter of the 8th instant, I had sent you a Copy of the Resolutions of Congress, wherein was the number of Men which each state is to furnish for next Campaign If, as I hope, the Officers are not included, & if the Number of Men to be Employed out of the Line of Battalions, does not Exceed the proportion, our Army will be...
25To George Washington from Major General Steuben, 23 February 1780 (Washington Papers)
The Delay which must result from collecting the Returns of all the dispersed Corps which you mention in your Letter of the 18th inst. is a difficulty which I apprehended as soon as I Saw the Resolutions of Congress on that Object. Besides that it will be almost impossible to make out those Returns with the necessary Exactness, We shall Certainly lose two months at a Time when we ought not to...
26Enclosure: Major General Steuben’s “Proposals for the formation of our Army for the next Campaign,” 13–15 March 1780 (Washington Papers)
The distribution of the Number of Men, which Each State is to furnish for next Campaign, permits us to Complete our Regiments of Infantry in the Line, to a Number, indeed, Below the Establishment, but which puts it, however in our Power to form Each Regiment into a Battalion, without changing the Principles of Formation, already Established in the Regulations. If We put Each Regiment on the...
27To George Washington from Major General Steuben, with enclosure, 15 March 1780 (Washington Papers)
Since the Departure of the last Letter I had the honor to write You, I have not in the least advanced in the Affairs which I had proposed to see brought to a Conclusion. Before it is known whether the Number of Regiments is to be preserved or whether an Incorporation is to take place, it is impossible to make any Calculations for the formation. I have exerted all the means in my Power to...
28To George Washington from Major General Steuben, 28 March 1780 (Washington Papers)
The propositions I made to Congress respecting the formation of the Army, of which I had the honor of transmitting your Excellency a Copy, remain yet on their Table without any decision thereon; they have however set aside the Report of the Board of War on a Motion for reducing the Batallions, as you will perceive by the resolve annexed, so that all reduction or incorporation is now out of the...
29To George Washington from Major General Steuben, 6 April 1780 (Washington Papers)
I had the pleasure of receiving your favor of the 2nd Instant yesterday. The necessity there was of having something done for the additional Regiments induced me to write the Board of War a Letter, copy of which I now inclose your Excellency, pressing their immediate attention to those Corps, but tho’ some days have since passed & the necessity of coming to an immediate decision in this affair...
30To George Washington from Major General Steuben, 11 April 1780 (Washington Papers)
The Minister of France, has fixed on Monday next for his departure from hence for a Visit to your Excellency I have therefore order’d a Detachment of the Marechaussée to attend in order to escort him to Camp. I expect every moment to hear the Committee are named to consult with your Excellency; as mentioned in my last, and I have fixed on Friday next for my departure for Camp. I am with...