I am, with great esteem, gentlemen, your most obedient, and very humble servant,

BENEDICT ARNOLD.

To the Honourable Continental Congress.

GENERAL LEE TO GENERAL WASHINGTON.

Stamford, January 24, 1776.

DEAR GENERAL: It was unnecessary sooner to trouble you with my scrawl, as I could give you no information the least interesting. I find the people through this Province more alert and zealous than my most sanguine expectation. I believe I might have collected ten thousand volunteers. I take only four companies with me, and Waterbury's regiment, which is so happily situated on the frontier. Ward's regiment, I have ordered to remain at their respective homes until they hear further. These Connecticutians are, if possible, more eager to go out of their country than they are to return home when they have been out for any considerable time.

Enclosed, I send you my letter to the General Congress. That of the Provincial Congress of New-York to me, with my answer, I hope will have your approbation.

The Whigs, I mean the stout ones, are, it is said, very desirous that a body of troops should march and be stationed in their city; the timid ones are averse, merely from the spirit of procrastination, which is the characteristick of timidity. The letter of the Provincial Congress, you will observe, breathes the very essence of this spirit; it is wofully hysterical. I conclude, I shall receive the orders of the General Congress before, or immediately on my arrival, otherwise I should not venture to march into the Province, as, by the late resolve, every detachment of the Continental troops is to be under the direction of the Provincial Congress in which they are—a resolve, I must say, with submission to their wisdom, fraught with difficulties and evils—it is impossible, having two sovereigns, that any business should be carried on.

Have you seen the pamphlets Common Sense? I never saw such a masterly, irresistible performance. It will, if I mistake not, in concurrence with the transcendent folly and wickedness of the Ministry, give the coup-de-grace to Great Britain. In short, I own myself convinced, by the arguments, of the necessity of separation.

Poor, brave Montgomery! But, it is not a time to cry, but to revenge. God bless you, my dear General, and crown us with the success I am sure we merit from the goodness of our cause. My love to the ladies. I shall write a long letter to Gates, when I have time and materials. Adieu. Yours, most affectionately,

CHARLES LEE.

To His Excellency General Washington,

GOVERNOUR TRUMBULL TO GENERAL WASHINGTON.

Lebanon, January 24, 1776.

SIR: Your letters of the 20th and 21st instant, are received. I thought fit, this morning, to acquaint Colonel Burrell, appointed to command the regiment destined to Canada from hence, that a month's pay will be advanced to officers and men by you. This additional encouragement will enliven them to the service. Also, to inform, that I understood the route of the Massachusetts and New-Hampshire Regiments would probably be by Number Four to Onion River, with a Commissary to attend such as went that way. A month's pay was promised the men by my proclamation, and, on being acquainted with the readiness of the men, one of the Committee of Pay-Table should attend for the payment thereof at Litchfield, to prevent delay. Am unable to inform how and when the money from you may be received.

The men in that quarter are well spirited and zealous, but have yet received no intelligence of the progress made in the business; shall give you every necessary intelligence as it conies to my knowledge. Every necessary requisite for the march of this regiment will be provided on the best terms in my power. Shall forward the three regiments destined for your camp without delay.

I am, with sincere esteem and regard, your Excellency's most obedient, and humble servant,

JONATHAN TRUMBULL.

To His Excellency General Washington.

GENERAL WASHINGTON TO PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

[Road February 9, 1776]

Cambridge, January 24, 1776.

SIR: The Commissary-General being at length returned from a long and painful illness, I have it in my power to comply with the requisition of Congress, in forwarding an estimate of the expense attending his office, as also that; of the Quartermaster-General. You will please to observe, that the Commissary, by his account of the matter, has entered into no special agreement with any of the persons he has found occasion to employ, (as those to whose names sums are annexed are of their own fixing,) but left it to Congress to ascertain their wages; I shall say nothing, therefore, on this head, further than relates to the proposition of Mr. Miller to be allowed one-eighth for his trouble, and the delivery of the other seven-eighths of provisions, which, to me, appears exorbitant in the extreme, however conformable it may be to custom and usage. I, therefore, think that reasonable stipends had better be fixed upon. Both the Quartermaster and Commissary-Generals assure me, that they do not employ a single person uselessly, and as I have too good an opinion of them to think they would deceive me, I believe them.

I shall take the liberty, in this place, of recommending the expediency, indeed, the absolute necessity, of appointing fit and proper persons to settle the accounts of this Army. To do it with precision requires time, care, and attention; the longer it is left undone, the more intricate they will be, the more liable to error, and difficult to explain and rectify; as, also, the persons in whose hands they are, if disposed to take undue advantages, will be less subject to detection. I have been as attentive as the nature of my office would admit of, in granting warrants for money on the Paymaster, but it would be absolutely impossible for me to go into an examination of all the accounts incident to this Army, and the vouchers appertaining to them, without devoting so large a portion of my time to the business, as might not only prove injurious, but fatal to it in other respects. This ought, in my humble opinion, to be the particular business of a Select Committee of Congress, or one appointed by them, which, once in three months, at farthest, should make a settlement with the officers in the different departments.

Having met with no encouragement from the Governments of Massachusetts and New-Hampshire from my application for arms, and expecting no better from Connecticut and Rhode-Island, I have, as the last expedient, sent one or two officers from each regiment into the country, with money, to try if they can buy; in what manner they succeed Congress shall be informed as soon as they return.

Congress, in my last, would discover my motives for strengthening these lines with the Militia. But whether, as the weather turns out exceedingly mild, (insomuch as to promise nothing favorable from ice,) and no appearance of powder, I shall be able to attempt any thing decisive, time only can determine. No man upon earth wishes more ardently to destroy the nest in Boston than I do; no person would be willing to go greater lengths than I shall, to accomplish it, if it shall be thought advisable. But if we have neither powder to bombard with, nor ice to pass on, we shall be in no better situation than we have been in all the year—we shall be worse, because their works are stronger.

I have accounts from Boston, which I think may be relied on, that General Clinton, with about four or five hundred men, hath left that place within these four days; whether this is part of the detachment which was making up, as mentioned in my letter of the 4th instant, and then at Nantasket, or not, is not in my power to say. If it is designed for New-York, or Long-Island, as some think, throwing a body of troops there may prove a fortunate circumstance. If they go farther South, agreeable to the conjectures of others, I hope there will be men to receive them.

Notwithstanding the positive assertions of the four Captains from Portsmouth, noticed in my letter of the 14th, I am now convinced, from several corroborating circumstances—the accounts of deserters and of a Lieutenant Hill, of Lord Percy's Regiment, who left Ireland the 5th of November, and was taken by a privateer from Newburyport, that the Seventeenth and Fifty-fifth Regiments are arrived