To George Washington from Major General Philip Schuyler, 30 September 1776
From Major General Philip Schuyler
Albany September 30th 1776
Dear Sir
I have the Honor to acknowledge your Excellency’s Favor of the 27th Instant, with the paper inclosed, which I shall immediately transmit to General Gates.
The Resolution of Congress of the 14th Instant received since I wrote your Excellency on the Subject of Barracks, has empowered the Commander in this Department, to build Barracks where he may think Proper;1 but no Nails can as yet be procured.
Major William Edmenston of the British 48th Regiment, who is now a prisoner sent down by the Committee of Tryon County, has requested my Leave to wait on you, in Order to get exchanged, which I have refused until I should receive Orders thereon.2
We have Intelligence from Oswego, since the 20th Instant—No Enemy then there. I am Dr Sir with great Respect Your Excellency’s most obedient humble Servant
Ph: Schuyler
LS, DLC:GW; LB, NN: Schuyler Papers.
1. Schuyler proposed building barracks at Schenectady in his letter to GW of 23 September. For Congress’s resolution of 14 Sept., see , 5:757.
2. William Edmeston (Edmestone), who immigrated to New York from England in 1755, lived on a 10,272–acre plantation called Mount Edmeston in Tryon County about ninety miles west of Albany. A brevet major and captain in the 48th Regiment, Edmeston expected “to serve as an officer when General Sir William Howe came into the district” ( , 249). On 18 Oct. 1776 the Albany committee of correspondence ordered Edmeston to be sent to nearby Berkshire County, Mass., and on 21 Jan. 1777 it sent him to Boston ( , 1:580–81, 662). After being exchanged sometime in 1777, Edmeston became a lieutenant colonel of the 48th Regiment. He was captured by a French privateer in 1779, but he made his way to England the following year and spent the remainder of the war in Europe, serving as a lieutenant colonel of the 48th Regiment until 1782 and of the 50th Regiment from 1782 to 1783.