From George Washington to Captain George Lewis, 11 January 1778
To Captain George Lewis
Valley Forge Jany 11th 1778
Dear George,
I am sorry to find by your Letter to Mr Harrison that you still continue indisposed.1 If the state of your health requires leave of absence, I shall not object to your visiting your friends in Virginia to recover it. You will take this in your way as I shall want to see you before you go.
I wish you to have every part, & parcel of my Baggage removed from New Town to this place. I do not know in whose care, & possession it is; but am satisfied I ought to have a good deal there. among other things a Bed. end Irons Plates⟨—Dishes—& Kitchen Utensils—however, be it what it will let the whole come—pay, or bring an Acct. of the expenses attending the Storage &c; and hire or Express proper waggons for bringing these things.2 I am Yr. most affect.
Go. Washington⟩
AL (incomplete), in private hands typescript, DLC:GW; ALS, sold by Freeman & Co., Philadelphia, auction no. 1, item no. 190, 17 Feb. 1947. The mutilated text is supplied in angle brackets from the typescript. GW addressed the letter “To Captn Geo: Lewis of Baylors light Dragns Newtown” and signed it.
1. This letter has not been found.
2. GW’s baggage had arrived at Bethlehem, Pa., on 24 Sept. 1777 along with the heavy baggage of the rest of the army. The Moravians at Bethlehem recorded on 24 Dec. that “Gen. Washington’s baggage, which has been here exactly three months, near to our tile-kilin under guard, moved off to-day,” evidently bound for Newtown, Pa. (., 13 [1889], 78; see also GW to Thomas Polk, 23 Sept., General Orders, 8 Nov., and GW to Israel Putnam, 9 Nov. 1777). GW’s expenses for 18 Jan. 1778 included £3 “To Cash paid for a waggoners & Lt horseman Expences from Newtown to Hd Quarters wt. the Genls Baggage” (household account book, 11 April 1776–21 Nov. 1780, DLC:GW, ser. 5, vol. 28).