and likely to remain, as I must hare somebody here in my absence, whom I can depend on; and it is only a piece of justice due to him, when I assure your Excellency that I believe the Army affords few better Colonels.

The raising of Wynkoop’s Regiment I had nothing to do with; it was an affair deferred by Congress to the Convention at New-York; and so little was I informed of what they were doing, that your Excellency may recollect that you and I both conceived the few that were here belonged to Clinton’s Regiment. As fast as they came up I employed them, and furnished such with arms as I could find arms for, although that, too, was the business of the Convention. I cannot here, for want of my papers, determine the exact time when the two companies in Tryon County were furnished with arms. However, I am certain they were furnished as soon as they could be. It is true that all the companies are very deficient in numbers, but none so low as eleven men. When General Sullivan was at Albany, part of O’Hara’s company (which is, however, the completest in the regiment) was there, and amounted to the exact number of eleven. These were supposed to be a company; the remainder being by your Excellency’s, General Putnam’s, or the orders of the Convention, either at New-York or the Highlands; and they have so lately joined, as only to have crossed Lake George on the 4th or 5th instant.

What General Sullivan says of tapping the pork barrels by the wagoners is undoubtedly a fact with respect to some of them; but much of the pork comes up in so bad a condition that it is obliged to be pickled here, and hence the blame ought not, by any means, to be general, and lay on the wagoners that have carried up pork without pickle.

As to the batteaumen, I believe I know when men work to advantage, as well as any man (excepting your Excellency) in the service; and I do, upon my honour, declare, that a better set of batteaumen I never knew than what were at Albany when General Sullivan was there, (except some of the troops who were employed as such,) and I have employed thousands of them, and can, consequently, speak from experience. But the fault did not lay with the batteaumen: it lay with the troops that were marching up. The first regiment was ordered off at six o’clock in the morning: their baggage did not come down till twelve; at two, the officers complained that they could not find the batteaumen; they were answered, “Here some of us are— we have been here all day; the rest are gone up to their dinner.” I was present, reprimanded the officers, and after-wards meeting General Sullivan, I expressed my dissatisfaction at the tardiness of the troops. He immediately ran to push them off, and, I suppose, the officers, to excuse themselves, faulted the batteaumen, as they did when I was there. But, to cut the matter short, the batteaumen were obliged to make a trip to Half-Moon every day, and they did it, when the troops would permit them, which was not often the case, although they sometimes forced them back without suffering them to eat a mouthful, until the batteaumen (tired of the ill usage) all threatened to do what some actually did—leave the service and forfeit their wages, rather than to be ill treated as they were. And nothing prevented it but my coming in the very moment when they were swinging their packs; and by promises to prevent such ill usage for the future, I prevailed on them to stay.

Nor were the wagoners that carried baggage treated one whit better. As soon as I can get to Fort George I will send your Excellency copies of my orders on the occasion, which, I think, were pointed, clear, and reasonable, and which, however, did not prevent a repetition of abuses; for Colonel Irvine and others, in direct defiance of those orders, which he saw at Albany, and which were shown him on the road by one of the Assistant Quartermasters, took away the stationed wagoners from the portages, without provender for their horses, provisions for themselves, or a blanket to cover them. Nor could those escape who had discharges to return home to recruit their horses worn out in the service. For this conduct, which deranged my affairs, and threatened a total stop to transportation, I put Colonel Irvine and another officer under arrest, until the matters were settled with the wagoners.

As to the wagonmaster, he is an industrious, active, and, I believe, an honest man. But it is not in his power, nor any man’s whatsoever, to procure wagons at all times; and at that time it was peculiarly difficult, both on account of the scarcity of forage, the badness of the roads, and the extravagant abuses the wagoners had met with from some of the troops that preceded General Sullivan’s Brigade.

But, my dear sir, nothing is more common than for some officers, when they have neglected their duty, to impute it to others; and I suppose, when General Sullivan reprimanded the officers and spurred them on, which he certainly did, they flew to that unjustifiable and ungenerous subterfuge.

I am well aware, my dear General, of the truth of your observation, that men, uninfluenced by principles of honour and justice, will abuse their trust. From a full conviction of this truth, which it is necessary for every man in business to know, I have made it the invariable rule of my conduct to watch every man’s conduct with attention; and by making the most of every moment I find time to do it too.

I have already observed to your Excellency, in mine of the 10th, that I had taken measures for forwarding flour; a sufficient quantity for the present is, I hope, arrived.

As to fortifying Ticonderoga and Fort George, and opening the road by Wood Creek, it is utterly impossible with the men I have now left; they are so fully employed in the batteaus, &c., that I do not believe there is now a relief at Fort George for a subaltern’s guard.

I have not a prospect of procuring an Engineer in tills country. I have a relation, of a mathematical turn and very ingenious, but he wants activity; besides him, I know not another in this quarter.

Your Excellency may depend upon it that no prisoners shall be sent by me by the way of New- York. Permit me to remind you that Dundee was ordered from Ulster County before I received your Excellency’s letter of the 21st ult., and that I took notice of it in mine in answer. I shall write to every Committee agreeable to your orders.

I am really at a loss to what place to send the prisoners that are in Ulster County. Connecticut will be much burdened; sixty at least are going there in a few days that were lately sent here from Tryon County and apprehended in this, and I expect a considerable number from Canada.

I have already given your Excellency an account of the number of batteaus, and of their disposition.

Your Excellency has great reason to be surprised that you have had no particular account of Bedel’s affair, and you complain with the highest justice of not receiving returns, which are certainly essentially necessary. As to the first, I have not had a line upon the subject from any person whatsoever in Canada, nor have I seen any account of it other than that in the letter from the Commissioners, which was left open for my perusal, and which I left open for your Excellency, if you should have returned to New-York by the time it reached that place; and your Excellency may be assured that, as I have never yet neglected to give you copies of any letters of the least consequence that were sent to me, I shall not now begin to be guilty of such an improper conduct; and I give you my honour that I have had intelligence from Canada conveyed to me by the New-York newspapers, which I think ought to have come immediately to me. As to returns, I have already informed your Excellency, in mine of the 11th and 12th instant, that I never had any except the one from General Wooster, which I then sent you. But I dare say I shall soon have the pleasure of transmitting you one, as General Sullivan promised me, before he left Fort George, that he would do all in his power to have them regularly transmitted; and as he now commands, I think we can depend upon having them.

I have long since given orders for a sufficient supply of provisions. I have mentioned the number of barrels of pork and flour that was necessary; none or a very trifle of pork is to be procured here. I shall again immediately draw an estimate of what is wanting, and transmit it to Mr. Trumbull.

I am fully convinced that your Excellency intended me all possible justice on the subject of the complaint preferred against me; and since you think it so absolutely unnecessary for any inquiry to be made, I shall rest satisfied, contenting myself with giving your Excellency’s opinion of the matter whenever it may be necessary.

By the enclosed your Excellency will see what progress has been made on the Resolution of Congress of the 3d instant. Whether your Excellency and Congress will approve of our mode of raising these Indians, I know not; or whether I shall be justified in issuing warrants for the money;