too, Sir, and my engagements with the committee previous to the coming out of the enemy, will, I trust, sufficiently apologize for my not acknowledging before the honor of your favors of the 13th ultimo and the 1st instant, which came to hand in due order and time. I have the honor to be, &c.1

SIR,

TO GOVERNOR LIVINGSTON.

HEAD-QUARTERS, Whitemarsh, 11 December, 1777.

I had the honor of receiving yours of the 1st Inst. some time since, but the situation which the Army has been in must apologise for my not answering it

sooner.

General Howe, after making great preparations, and threatening to drive us beyond the mountains,

1 On November 28th, Robert Morris, Elbridge Gerry, and Joseph Jones were appointed a committee of Congress, to go to headquarters, and "in a private confidential consultation with General Washington, to consider of the best and most practicable means for carrying on a winter's campaign with vigor and success—an object which Congress has much at heart."— Journals, 28 November, 1777. A letter written by the committee to Washington, dated at Whitemarsh, 10 December, 1777 (in Morris' MS) is important :-"Among them any reasons offered against a winter's campaign we were sorry to observe one of the most prevalent was a general discontent in the army, and especially among the officers. These discontents are ascribed to various causes, and we doubt not many of them are well founded and deserve particular attention, and in the course of the present winter, will be taken into consideration by Congress, and we hope effectually remedied. That a reform may take place in the army, and proper discipline be introduced, we wish to see the military placed on such a footing as may make a commission a desirable object to the officer, and his rank preserved from degradation and contempt; for these purposes we intend to recommend to Congress: That an half pay establishment be formed and adopted in the American service; That a pensionary establishment take place in favor of officers' widows; That a new regulation of rank, confining it as far as possible to the

came out with his whole force last Thursday evening, and, after manoeuvring round us till the Monday following, decamped very hastily, and marched back to Philadelphia.

In my opinion, trying the officers taken by General Dickinson on Staten Island, for high treason, may prove a dangerous expedient. It is true, they left the State after such an offence was declared to be treason; but, as they had not taken the oaths, nor had entered into our service, it will be said they had a right to choose their side. Again, by the same rule that we try them, may not the enemy try any natural born subject of Great Britain, taken in arms in our service? We have a great number of them; and I therefore think, that we had better submit to the necessity of treating a few individuals, who may really deserve a severer fate, as prisoners of war, than run the risk of giving an opening for retaliation upon the Europeans in our service.'

line of the army be adopted; That an equitable mode of paying for back rations be ordered. Should these several regulations be approved and established by Congress (and we have reason to suppose they will), we trust the prevailing discontents will subside and a spirit of emulation take place among the gentlemen of the army to promote the public service and introduce that order and discipline amongst the troops so essential to the military character. As a further inducement the committee have it also in contemplation to propose in Congress that the officers be permitted to dispose of their commissions under such regulations as may render the measure eligible." The Committee formally reported to Congress the need of completing the army before an active movement could be made.

1 The officers here mentioned were natives of New Jersey, who entered into the service of the enemy. As this was treason by the law of New Jersey, they were imprisoned, and the Governor considered it his duty to try them in the courts of justice. He conformed to General Washington's advice, however, and put them on the footing of prisoners of war.

The British General Campbell, then on Staten Island, had claimed these of

I am pleased to hear, that your Assembly are in so good a disposition to regulate the price of necessaries for the army. I could wish that they would not forget to regulate the prices of country produce, which the commissaries tell me has risen to so exorbitant a rate, that there is no purchasing a single article from the farmers. I am, &c.

SIR,

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

HEAD-QUARTErs, near the GULF, 14 December, 1777.

On Thursday evening I had the honor to receive your favor of the 8th instant. From several letters, which have lately passed between General Howe and myself, I am fully convinced, that any propositions by me to release the Baron St. Ouary from captivity, either by an exchange or on parole, would be unavailing. He has explicitly stated his sentiments, and has declared himself to be utterly against a partial exchange. The situation of the Baron, through the interest and acquaintance of the Marquis de Lafayette with an officer in the guards, is much more comfortable than that of any of our officers, who are prisoners, he being on parole in the city, whilst they are

ficers from Governor Livingston, and also another person, who had been captured with them. The officers, three in number, were given up, but, in regard to the other person, Governor Livingston wrote: "He is no officer, and had committed a number of robberies in this State before he joined the enemy; and I can hardly think that General Campbell will be of the opinion, that, in consideration of law, a man can expiate the guilt of a prior robbery by a subsequent treason."

all confined in the State-House. I do not know that it is the practice in Europe not to consider volunteers as prisoners. I am inclined to believe that it is not, and that they are generally held as such, unless the contrary is particularly stipulated by cartel. However this may be, they have been held in the present contest on both sides on the footing of other prisoners, and exchanged as such. as such. Besides this, I fear that a proposition calculated for the peculiar benefit of the Baron, would be ill received by our unhappy officers, who have been much longer in confinement, whose sufferings are far greater than his, and who claim a right to exchange in due course.'

The inquiries, directed in the resolutions contained in your letter of the 30th ultimo, respecting the loss of the forts in the Highlands and of Fort Mifflin, I shall order to be made, as soon as circumstances will admit. These, however, it is probable, will not be effected in a short time, from the situation of our affairs and inevitable necessity. On Thursday morning we marched from our old encampment, and intended to pass the Schuylkill at Madison's Ford, where a bridge had been laid across the river. When the first division and a part of the second had passed, they found a body of the enemy, consisting, from the

1 In their resolve, respecting the Baron St. Ouary, Congress designated him as a gallant gentleman from France, engaged as a volunteer in the service of the United States, and lately by the fortune of war made prisoner by the British." They instructed General Washington to apply for his release, on the ground that volunteers were not to be regarded as prisoners of war; but, if General Howe should not accede to this doctrine, then an enlargement by exchange or on parole was to be solicited for the Baron St. Ouary.-Journals, December 3d.

best accounts we have been able to obtain, of four thousand men, under Lord Cornwallis, possessing themselves of the heights on both sides of the road leading from the river and the defile called the Gulf, which I presume are well known to some part of your honorable body. This unexpected event obliged such of our troops, as had crossed, to repass, and prevented our getting over till the succeeding night. This manœuvre on the part of the enemy was not in consequence of any information they had of our movement, but was designed to secure the pass whilst they were foraging in the neighboring country. They were met in their advance by General Potter, with part of the Pennsylvania militia, who behaved with bravery and gave them every possible opposition, till he was obliged to retreat from their superior numbers. Had we been an hour sooner, or had the least information of the measure, I am persuaded we should have given his Lordship a fortunate stroke, or obliged him to return without effecting his purpose, or drawn out all General Howe's force to support him. Our first intelligence was, that it was all out. Lord Cornwallis collected a good deal of forage, and returned to the city the night we passed the river. No discrimination marked his proceedings. All property, whether of friends or foes, that came in their way, was seized and carried off.1

1

1 John Laurens in a letter to his father gives an account of this day's movements: "When we marched from Whitemarsh Camp and were in the act of crossing the Schuylkill, we received intelligence that the enemy were advancing on this side of the river; in fact a ravaging party of four thousand under the command of Lord Cornwallis had passed the river and were driving Potter's