From George Washington to George Clinton, 20 June 1780
To George Clinton
Head qrs Springfield June 20th 1780
Dr Sir
I had this morning the honor to receive your Favor of the 13th Instant.
I thank Your Excellency for your attention to my request, for the return of General Clinton & his Troops—and flatter myself they are before this, at or well on their way to West point.1 The measures taken for ensuring the Supply of provisions to Fort Schuyler, were certainly very proper. It was an object I had very much at heart, and I wish the quantity forwarded had been greater. It is of such importance that the Garrison should be in perfect safety with respect to this—that I have written to General Howe and requested him to send Another hundred Barrels of Flour from West point to Albany, to the care of Colo. Vanschaick for their support.2 And as I find by General Clinton’s Letter that only Forty Barrels of beef were sent with Colo. Gansevort,3 I request that Your Excellency, if the quantity has not been received before this or is not in train for which I took the liberty to inclose You an order on the Commissaries in Connecticut some time since,4 will have the goodness to apply to General Howe, who is instructed to furnish & send on your requisition, a Hundred Barrels to Albany. I mean that there should be this quantity at least, exclusive of the Forty Barrels gone on to the post.
I am much concerned at the dissatisfaction and spirit of desertion, which I find prevailing in Colo. Vanschaick’s Regiment at Fort Schuyler.5 Your Excellency will have been fully informed on this head—and therefore I will not add any particulars with respect to it. It is much my wish that the Troops of the Garrison should be relieved—and it may be the more material to do it, from the disposition in which they are; it cannot however be done by the Continental Troops without manifest injury under our present circumstances and prospects. I would therefore propose and hope, that the plan concerted heretofore between Your Excellency & Myself, for sending a part of the Officers & Men raised by the State for Frontier service, may take effect and a number be sent for the defence of the post, which will still remain under the command of Lt Colo. Vandyck.6 In order to make matters more secure, I wish the Detachment destined for the relief, if circumstances will admit, not to be under Three Hundred rank & file. If the post can be relieved in this way, which I hope may be the case, the provisions I have now mentioned, had better go under the escort of the Detachment, and Your Excellency will be so obliging as to correspond with Colo. Vanschaick upon the subject and to direct him such aid of transportatn as may be requisite on the occasion.
I am much obliged by the state of preparation in which Your Excellency has put the Militia for succouring the Highland posts—and am convinced You will give General Howe, such a reinforcement on his application, as will make the Garrison complete for the present in point of number. I have also no doubt that there is the best disposition possible, both in Your Excellency and the State to comply with the requisitions of the Committee, and that You will second the intended Operations by every exertion in your power.7
I am exceedingly happy in Your Excellency’s safe return, and am sorry You should have thought it material, either to give me a detail account of your proceedings after Sir John—or having done it, that any apology was necessary for the favor—or for the result of the expedition. You have only to regret that all You wished did not happen; but your zeal and your active—judicious exertions must convince every body most fully, as they do me, that all that was practicable & more than could have been expected, was done by You to accomplish the ruin of himself and party. I hope the rapid mannner in which the Enemy were pursued & forced to retreat, will be attended with ⟨good conse⟩-quences⟨.⟩ The succour You rece⟨ived from the Militia of⟩ the Grants upon your request, is a very agreable consideration and the conduct of themselves and Officers upon the occasion greatly to their credit.
You will have heard & will see by the papers the fate of Charles Town. On Friday afternoon8 & Saturday between Sixty & Seventy of the Enemy’s Vessels came into the Hook. It was a fleet from South Carolina9—and according to the accounts I have received it is said, they have brought from four to Six Thousand Troops.10 Sir Harry Clinton from information obtained just now through Two channels, has returned himself.11 I have the Honor to be with the most perfect esteem & respect Yr Excellency’s Most obedt st
Go: Washington
LS, in Robert Hanson Harrison’s writing, NjP: De Coppet Collection; Df, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW. Mutilated material in the LS is supplied in angle brackets from the draft.
1. Brig. Gen. James Clinton’s New York brigade began arriving at West Point on 19 June (see Robert Howe’s first letter to GW, that date, source note).
2. See GW to Howe, this date.
5. See Goose Van Schaick to GW, 1 June, and the source note to that document.
6. See GW to George Clinton, 18 May, and same to GW, 21 May.
7. For the requisitions imposed on New York by the Committee at Headquarters to support combined operations with the French expeditionary army, see Circular to the States, 2 June, n.1.
8. The previous Friday was 16 June.
11. GW is referring to Col. David Forman’s letter to him of 19 June and an unsigned intelligence report with the same date: “I have Been hear near a week with the army and in that time made three attempts to See you. … I am in the Gides and Can Know almost anything that is On foot if a Communication Could Be Opened … and if you approove of it.
“As to the moovements of the army no One Can at preasent tell any thing of the Armys Intention admiral arberthnot was hear Day Before yesterday and held a Conferrance with Genl Niphousen and Sir henry is to Be hear this Day at two Oclock and to Revew the whole Line which are to Be perraded at that time I am told By Mr Bole who is this minute from the Island that the forty s[e]cond Ridgnt and the Queens Rangers are Landed at the Island this mornning I suppose that Some thing will Be Done as Soon as Sir he[nry] C[linton] and Niphousen Consults to Geather I have Sent ⟨Lee⟩ to proceure a pass [to] go out to woodrufs farm for the purpos of Convaying this and Shall my Self try to See Bunnel In the Evening if any thing Should ⟨illegible⟩.
“Sunset[.] Sir the forty second Seventy first and Queens rangers are now Between hear and Mr Bankers Sir H[enry] C[linton] Quarters is to Be at Mr Bankers and General Leslies at Mr ⟨Bomels⟩ (DLC:GW). GW’s aide-de-camp Tench Tilghman docketed the report: “Intelligence communicated to Coll [Elias] Dayton.” A person in the Royal Provincial Corps of Guides and Pioneers apparently supplied the information. The intelligence report may refer to Abraham Bancker’s residence, and “Bunnel” may have been the Loyalist Isaac Bonnell. There appear to have been several Woodruffs in the Elizabeth area at the time.
British officer Archibald Robertson wrote in his diary on 19 June: “Sir Henry Clinton Landed on Staten Island. Having been in New York I joind him at Cole’s Ferry at 8 Morning. All our Troops from the Southward landed and cantooned on Staten Island. the 42d from [blank] Ferry to Decker’s, the Light Infantry from thence to Richmond, the Queen’s Rangers heights of Richmond, British Grenadiers Richmond. Hessian Grenadiers along the Road from Cole’s Ferry to Richmond. Head Quarters along the Road from Cole’s Ferry to Richmond. Yagers near Elizabeth Point” (, 232).