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Lot Essay
Washington prepares for the Campaign of 1777 while expressing his fears that his efforts will be hobbled by inaccurate information and rampant fraud among those responsible for recruiting.
Washington asks McDougall for a return of all troops belonging to the State of New York, save for those who were sent to reinforce Ticonderoga in expectation of Burgoyne's expected advance from Quebec, and "that you will have them assembled with the utmost expedition at Peeks-Kills, there to hold themselves in perfect readiness to march at a moment’s warning." After urging McDougall to update him, "from time to time, of their arrivals and of the numbers in which they come," he rails against what he suspects to be "the most abominable fraud and embezzlement of the public money:– The accounts of desertions almost surpass belief, and afford the highest probability, that officers are tempted by the great bounty allowed, to exhibit a number of pretended recruits that never were in reality inlisted." Washington urged McDougall to "take every possible method to prevent its continuance, should it have found its way into the regiments of your state. From this and other causes, I have frequently had such misrepresentations of the progress of the recruiting service, that I have been in many instances deceived; and it is on this account I am peremptorily requiring accurate returns of the troops raising in every state that I may be enabled to form a just judgement of our real strength, at this time, and of our future prospects."
Washington's complaints would be a recurring theme throughout the conflict. Hobbled by a dependence on the states to raise and equip their own troops, endless desertions, not to mention by insufficient funds from Congress (which were rendered ever more useless by hyperinflation as the war dragged on), Washington spent the majority of his energy throughout the war simply holding his army together. The Continental Army had nearly disintegrated at the close of the Campaign of 1776 after losing New York City—only saved by the critical victories at Trenton and Princeton. But even then, Washington only managed to march an army of 3,000 to winter quarters at Morristown—many of whom would soon be rendered infirm for a period of time as they undertook inoculation for smallpox. The near-death experience of the Continental Army over that campaign made him ever more vigilant—and all the more distrustful of recruiting reports.
The earliest letter written for George Washington by Alexander Hamilton in private ownership. The body of the letter was prepared by Alexander Hamilton in his role as one of Washington's aides-de-camp—a role that he had assumed officially only on 1 March 1777. Hamilton's brave actions as an artillery captain at New Brunswick, Trenton, and Princeton during the Campaign of 1777 brought him to Washington's notice early in 1777. On 20 January 1777 Washington invited Hamilton to join his staff. Eager for a field command, Hamilton at first balked at the prospect of the far less glamorous position that would keep him deskbound writing letters for his commander—misgivings that he admitted to Washington two decades later. But the position, according to Chernow, "won him the patronage of America's leading figure and ushered him into the presence of military officers who were later to form a critical sector of his political following."1 Upon his appointment on 1 March, the now Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton began his work writing on behalf of the Commander-in-Chief. According to the Papers of George Washington, Hamilton penned at least six letters prior to the present one, but this is the earliest known extant one remaining in private ownership.
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1 Chernow, Ron. Alexander Hamilton ([New York:] Penguin Books, 2004), 85.
Washington asks McDougall for a return of all troops belonging to the State of New York, save for those who were sent to reinforce Ticonderoga in expectation of Burgoyne's expected advance from Quebec, and "that you will have them assembled with the utmost expedition at Peeks-Kills, there to hold themselves in perfect readiness to march at a moment’s warning." After urging McDougall to update him, "from time to time, of their arrivals and of the numbers in which they come," he rails against what he suspects to be "the most abominable fraud and embezzlement of the public money:– The accounts of desertions almost surpass belief, and afford the highest probability, that officers are tempted by the great bounty allowed, to exhibit a number of pretended recruits that never were in reality inlisted." Washington urged McDougall to "take every possible method to prevent its continuance, should it have found its way into the regiments of your state. From this and other causes, I have frequently had such misrepresentations of the progress of the recruiting service, that I have been in many instances deceived; and it is on this account I am peremptorily requiring accurate returns of the troops raising in every state that I may be enabled to form a just judgement of our real strength, at this time, and of our future prospects."
Washington's complaints would be a recurring theme throughout the conflict. Hobbled by a dependence on the states to raise and equip their own troops, endless desertions, not to mention by insufficient funds from Congress (which were rendered ever more useless by hyperinflation as the war dragged on), Washington spent the majority of his energy throughout the war simply holding his army together. The Continental Army had nearly disintegrated at the close of the Campaign of 1776 after losing New York City—only saved by the critical victories at Trenton and Princeton. But even then, Washington only managed to march an army of 3,000 to winter quarters at Morristown—many of whom would soon be rendered infirm for a period of time as they undertook inoculation for smallpox. The near-death experience of the Continental Army over that campaign made him ever more vigilant—and all the more distrustful of recruiting reports.
The earliest letter written for George Washington by Alexander Hamilton in private ownership. The body of the letter was prepared by Alexander Hamilton in his role as one of Washington's aides-de-camp—a role that he had assumed officially only on 1 March 1777. Hamilton's brave actions as an artillery captain at New Brunswick, Trenton, and Princeton during the Campaign of 1777 brought him to Washington's notice early in 1777. On 20 January 1777 Washington invited Hamilton to join his staff. Eager for a field command, Hamilton at first balked at the prospect of the far less glamorous position that would keep him deskbound writing letters for his commander—misgivings that he admitted to Washington two decades later. But the position, according to Chernow, "won him the patronage of America's leading figure and ushered him into the presence of military officers who were later to form a critical sector of his political following."1 Upon his appointment on 1 March, the now Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton began his work writing on behalf of the Commander-in-Chief. According to the Papers of George Washington, Hamilton penned at least six letters prior to the present one, but this is the earliest known extant one remaining in private ownership.
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1 Chernow, Ron. Alexander Hamilton ([New York:] Penguin Books, 2004), 85.