From George Washington to John Mitchell, 6 November 1779
To John Mitchell
West-point Novr 6th 1779.
Dr Sir,
Your favors of the 24th1 and 30th ulto are both at hand—accept my thanks for the trouble you have had in providing lodgings for Mrs Washington—I have no doubt of their being such as will prove agreeable to her—& shall write to her by the next Post to come up and occupy them till I shall be able to know where my own quarters will be & remove her to them—At present I am totally in the dark respecting this matter.2
I shall be much obliged to you for furnishing Mrs Washington with whatever she may have occasion for—Of Mrs Mitchells kind attentions I am sure she will have no cause to complain—I am sure also, she will hold them in grateful remembrance.3
If the Gentn to whom the inclosed letters are addressed should have left Phila. be plea[s]’d to forward them by the Post. or any other good conveyances.4 Mr Tournon [Ternant] talked of proceeding immediately to So. Carolina5—if no express should be going from Congress that way the conveyance by him may be a good one.
My compliments attend Mrs Mitchell—and I am Dr Sir Yr Most Obedt Servt
Go: Washington
ADfS, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. Mitchell’s letter to GW of 24 Oct. has not been found.
2. After a lengthy search and evaluation, GW chose Morristown, N.J., for the Continental army’s winter quarters (see Nathanael Greene to GW, 14 Nov., and n.1 to that document, and GW to Greene, 30 Nov., and n.2 to that document).
3. Philadelphia resident Jacob Hiltzheimer wrote in his diary entry for 21 Dec.: “Very cold; navigation in the Delaware closed by ice. Lady Washington arrived from Virginia with seven horses.” He then noted that she departed “for camp” on 27 Dec. ( 41).
A notice under “TRENTON, December 29” in The New-Jersey Gazette (Trenton) for the same date reads: “Yesterday Mrs. WASHINGTON passed through this town, on her way from Virginia to Head-Quarters at Morris-Town; when the Virginia troops present (induced through respect) formed and received her as she passed in a becoming manner.” For the presence of Virginia troops in Trenton at this date, see GW to Samuel Huntington, 29 Nov., source note.
Pvt. Elijah Fisher, then with the Commander-in-Chief’s Guard, wrote an entry in his diary for 31 Dec.: “Lady Washington arrived at Head Quarters at Morristown” ( 13). For Martha Washington’s travel from Philadelphia to Morristown, see GW to Philip Schuyler, 25 Dec., n.1.
4. GW probably enclosed his letters to Henry Laurens of 5 Nov. and to Gouverneur Morris of this date.
5. For Lieutenant Colonel Ternant’s travel to South Carolina, see GW to Benjamin Lincoln, 26 Oct., and n.3 to that document.