1. GW is referring to a letter to his aide-de-camp Richard Kidder Meade from Lieutenant Colonel Gouvion that has not been identified. GW wrote Gouvion on this date: “In consequence of your letter of this date to Mr Meade & my anxiety to forward the works under your direction—You have full power to keep Capt. Mills’s Company of Artificers & those drafted from the line as long as you think necessary for the completion of the Works—I am truely concerned that you should have met with so many difficulties—they have occurred contrary to my expectation—The Rope you asked for when I saw you last the Qr Mr was directed to furnish the next day—the other Articles Viz. Scows & Plank he shall also be directed to supply immediately—& as I expect to be down to-morrow Col. pawling will then be directed to afford you every aid in his power” (Df, in Richard Kidder Meade’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW; see also GW’s first letter to William Heath, 27 Nov.). GW’s aide-de-camp Tench Tilghman had written Gouvion from West Point on 15 Nov.: “As part of the Army must, at any rate, leave this post in a very short time, His Excellency would wish to have the Works upon each side of King’s ferry compleated before we change the present position. He desires me to give you this notice, that you may take every possible measure for finishing them” (DLC:GW).

GW also wrote Brig. Gen. Samuel Holden Parsons or the officer commanding the Connecticut Division at Haverstraw, N.Y., on 21 Nov.: “As the Connecticut Troops are now on this side the river—I am to request that you will while they remain in the neighbourhood of Stoney Point afford Col. Gouvion any assistance he may require for the complition of the works there—You will be pleased to consult the Col. on the occasion … p.s. I wish you to use every expedition in distributing the Cloathing that you may be able to move at an hours warning” (Df, in Richard Kidder Meade’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW; see also GW to Heath, 25 Nov.).

2. In a letter written at West Point on 5 Nov., Claiborne had informed Lt. Col. Udny Hay about Q.M. Gen. Nathanael Greene’s order to send the artificer company of Captain Mills to King’s Ferry, N.Y. (see 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 5:17). The commanding officer could have been William Mills or Peter Mills, who both commanded companies in Col. Jeduthan Baldwin’s artificer regiment. William Mills tendered his resignation in January 1780 and was recommended for discontinuation upon consolidation of the regiment (see Baldwin to Greene, 28 Jan. 1780, in DNA:PCC, item 173, and “The Names, Rank and pretentions of the Officers of the eleven Companies of Artificers ordered to be incorporated by a Resolution of Congress of the 12th and 16th Novem[be]r 1779,” enclosed with GW to the Board of War, 10 Feb. 1780, DLC:GW). Peter Mills (1741–1830) served as a lieutenant in the 7th Connecticut Regiment between July and December 1775, joined Baldwin’s artificer regiment as a captain in August 1777, and resigned from the army in February 1781.

3. Claiborne had written Hay from West Point on 15 Nov. about the need for planks at King’s Ferry (see 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 5:85). No further correspondence between Claiborne and Hay on this subject has been identified.