1. The enclosed letter has not been identified, but Greene related thoughts on the appeal when he wrote Capt. William Sizer from Morristown on this date: “I receivd the address of the Officers of the Artificers last evening upon the subject of the arrangement of the Corps—I beg you to inform them that the matter rests with the Commander in Chief, I having already done every thing in my power to forward the business, as far as depends upon me. I expect the General will have it completed in a few days” (DNA:PCC, item 173).

2. Congress had authorized the adjustment of the eleven artificer companies in a resolution passed on 12 Nov. (see Samuel Huntington to GW, 13 Nov., and n.2 to that document). In a letter to Lt. Col. Udny Hay written at Morristown on 14 Dec., Greene expressed anxiety over the delay in implementing this measure: “The state of the Artificers will be taken up immediately. It is committed to the direction of the Commander in Chief. Had it been left with me it should have been gone upon before this” (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 5:172–75).

Although GW replied to Greene on 31 Dec., he did not complete the arrangement of the artificer companies until February 1780 (see Greene to GW, 8 Feb. 1780, and GW to the Board of War, 10 Feb., both DLC:GW).