From George Washington to David Brooks, 3 June 1779
To David Brooks
[Middlebrook, 3 June 1779]
Sir.
You will be pleased upon receipt of this to pack up the clothing in your charge, and have it removed as soon as possible to Germantown near Pluckimin.
Upon application to the Quarter master he will order you the necessary assistance on the occasion.
You are at all times to hold yourself in readiness for a further removal of the Stores, should the enemy make any attempt to penetrate that part of the country.1 Given at Head Quarters Middlebrook 3d June 1779.
G.W.
Df, in James McHenry’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
David Brooks (1756–1838) served as a lieutenant in the Pennsylvania battalion of the “flying camp,” organized in June and July 1776, and was taken prisoner at Fort Washington, N.Y., in November of that year. While paroled, he was employed as a deputy to assistant clothier general Daniel Kemper and appears to have received an appointment in the clothier department as an assistant clothier at Newburgh, N.Y., before his final exchange in January 1780 (see GW to the Assistant Clothier at Newburgh, 7 Sept. 1779, and to Brooks, 22 Sept. [both DLC: GW]). Brooks remained in the clothier department until 1782. He moved after the war to Dutchess County, N.Y., where he became a lawyer, judge, and Federalist congressman.
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.