George Washington Papers

To George Washington from Brigadier General Nathanael Greene, 4 August 1776

From Brigadier General Nathanael Greene

Camp on Long Island
Sunday [4 Aug. 1776] 11 OClock

Dear Sir

Inclosd is a list of the principal Tories in the different Towns, given by one Mr Skinner a Young Gentleman bred to the practice of the Law, and perfectly acquainted with all most all the political Charactors in the Province1—Your Excellency will please to examin it, and if it meets your Approbation, signify the time youl have the execution take place, by give [giving] your orders on the back of the List. I have the honnor to be your Obedient Servant

N. Greene

ALS, DLC:GW. Tench Tilghman docketed this letter: “From B. Genl Greene Augt 4. 1776.” That date was a Sunday.

1Abraham Skinner’s undated list of thirty-seven prominent Loyalists on Long Island is in DLC:GW (see also Showman, Greene Papers description begins Richard K. Showman et al., eds. The Papers of General Nathanael Greene. 13 vols. Chapel Hill, N.C., 1976–2005. description ends , 1:276–77). Skinner was commissioned a third lieutenant in Col. Edward Hand’s rifle regiment about this time, and on 1 Jan. 1777 he became a second lieutenant in Hand’s 1st Pennsylvania Regiment. He was promoted to first lieutenant in that regiment the following May, and in October 1777 he was captured at the Battle of Germantown. Exchanged in June 1778, Skinner became a deputy commissary of prisoners at Goshen, N.Y., by July 1779, and on 15 Sept. 1780 Congress appointed him commissary general of prisoners, a position that he held for the next two years (see JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds. Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. 34 vols. Washington, D.C., 1904–37. description ends , 18:828, and GW to Skinner, 22 Sept. 1782, DLC:GW).

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