I have been honored with yours of the 14th inst., to which I shall pay due attention.1 With respect to that part of your Excellencys letter, which refers to Fish Kill; I scarsely know how to express myself. I am ever exceedingly cautious, not to invade the jurisdiction of others, neither do I choose to have my own infringed. I did not seek the Command at Fish Kill; but as Your Excellency was pleased, & that repeatedly, to declare it rested in me, it became my duty to excercise it.2 I therefore attempted to discharge the trust reposed in me—if I have been wrong I stand ready to be corrected; if my conduct has been consonant to the established rules of discipline, I expect to be supported—I take the liberty to enclose coppy of my Instructions to Colonel Hazen, & of my orders of the 13th3—I have endeavoured carefully to inform myself of my Duty. I think I know it. unless the doctrine that the Q.M. Generals Department, is not subject to the Command of the Military be true. In a Military Command I conceive there must be one head, or Commander in Chief—supreme over all Departments; the Officers commanding at seperate Posts subordinate to him; if the Commander in Chief has the command of the Q.M.G. & his Department, the Commanding Officer at every Post, has command of those Officers of the Staff Department, stationed at the Post, for the purpose of supplying it; & from hence I conclude, that if Your Excellency has the Command of the Q.M.G., Colonel Hazen who is Your Representative at Fish Kill, has command of the A.Q.M. at that Post; if this is denied the Military can have no jurisdict⟨ion⟩ over the Staff, from the Q.M.G., to the Q. Master of a Brigade, and will not this be imperium in imperio, & a two head⟨ed⟩ Monster whose Offspring must be confussion & disorder. That there is a Resolve of Congress, impowering the Deputies & Assistants of the Q.M.G. to draw provissions on the⟨ir⟩ own order is true, & without it they & the public service would suffer greatly, as at Danbury, Litchfield, Hartford and many other places, where the public service requires branches of the Q. Masters Department to be stationed without any Military Officer, but can this be supposed to exempt the Staff Department from the rules & regulations of the Army, or of any part of it, or at any Post where an Officer commands; if in one instance, why not in all? I thought my Instructions, & order, altho simply expressed, to be founded on principles of reason & of right; I think so still, & altho in obedience, to your pleasure signifyed in your letter of yesterday,4 I have suspended the order of the 13th—I still retain my own opinion of having done my duty, in justice to myself & every Officer in the Army, to the principles of Discipline & Military propriety, I cannot myself rescind, what I have so done; & it is a matter in which if I have acted with propriety, Your Excellencys command is equally concerned; & I now request your opinion whether my conduct has in this particular been right or wrong.

I am this moment honored with yours of this date—A number of boats returned here the last evening with flour; they will be sent up the river again, but it would be much better, & less fatigueing to the men to bring it from a distance in sail Craft—The men are exceedingly fatigued when they return.

The public service is much injured on account of the want of paper—The Muster Rolls, Pay Rolls, & reports cannot be made out for want of it—and I am this day told that the Officers have been obliged to cut the leaves out of the Company books, untill few are left.5 I have the honor to be with the greatest respect Your Excellencys Most Obedient Servant