From George Washington to Army Auditors, 3 June 1779
To Army Auditors
[Middlebrook, 3 June 1779]
Gentlemen
You will be pleased upon receipt of this to remove with the papers of your Office to Germantown about eight or ten miles from Pluckimin.
You are at all times to hold yourselves in readiness for a further removal to a place of safety—should the enemy make any attempt to penetrate that part of the country.1 Given at Head Quarters Middlebrook 3 June 1779.
Df, in James McHenry’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW. McHenry addressed the draft manuscript to “the Auditors of the Army.” The docket of that manuscript, however, reads: “To the Auditors & Pay-Masters.” At the bottom of the draft, McHenry wrote a reminder that reads: “In the copy to the Paymaster need (money & paper).”
The letter from GW to Paymaster John Pierce, Jr., written on this date, reads: “You will be pleased upon receipt of this, to remove with the Money & Papers of your Office to Germantown, about eight or 10 Miles from Pluckimin.
“You are, at all times, to hold yourself in readiness for a further removal to a place of safety, should the Enemy make any attempt to penetrate that part of the Country. Given at Head Quarters Middle brook” (Varick transcript, DLC:GW).
1. GW broke up the winter encampment at Middlebrook in response to British operations up the Hudson River (see William De Hart to GW, 30 May, n.1, and General Orders, 1 June, n.1). The military situation in New Jersey and lower New York was then very fluid.