“I YESTERDAY RECEIVED A LETTER OF THE 28TH ULTO FROM HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR JEFFERSON”: DECEMBER 14, 1779 LETTER FROM GEORGE WASHINGTON IN RESPONSE TO A LETTER BY THOMAS JEFFERSON, WRITTEN AT A TURNING POINT IN THE REVOLUTION
WASHINGTON, George. Letter signed. Morristown [New Jersey]: December 14, 1779. Two sheets of watermarked laid paper (each 7 by 12 inches) conjoined.
Exceptional manuscript letter signed “G. Washington” as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army, text in the hand of Lt. Col. Tench Tighman, to General Woodford at a defining moment in the Revolution as Washington and his troops faced the brutal winter of 1779-80 encamped at Morristown, New Jersey, responding to an urgent letter from Jefferson, then Governor of Virginia, seeking Continental troops to bolster his weakened Virginia militia. A lengthy letter of significant content, most desirable in its connection with Thomas Jefferson.
In this letter, Washington is responding to an urgent request “from his Excellency Governor Jefferson” for additional Continental troops. That June Jefferson had been elected governor of Virginia and by November he was struggling with mounting inflation and the crucial need to raise and maintain a state militia for the ongoing Revolution. In a November 28, 1779 letter, Jefferson had written to Washington regarding the re-enlistment of soldiers whose service in the Revolution had ended: “We have, at present, very pressing calls to send additional numbers of men to the southward. No inclination is wanting in either the Legislature or Executive, to aid them or strengthen you: but we find it very difficult to procure men. I herewith transmit to your Excellency some recruiting commissions, to be put into such hands as you may think proper, for re-enlisting such of our soldiery as are not already engaged for the war….we must trouble your Excellency with the appointment of one or more officers of review. Mr. Moss, our agent, receives orders, which accompany this, to pay the bounty money and recruiting money, and to deliver the clothing. We have, however, certain reason to fear he has not any great sum of money on hand; and it is absolutely out of our power, at this time, to supply him, or to say, with certainty, when we shall be able to do it…Your Excellency’s directions to the officer of review, will probably procure us the satisfaction of being informed, from time to time, how many men shall be re-enlisted…”
In this December 14, 1779 letter to Brigadier General William Woodford (who had distinguished himself at the 1777 Battle of Brandywine and the 1778 Battle of Monmouth), Washington takes up Jefferson’s request. This letter, signed by Washington, is written (as much of Washington’s official correspondence was during this period) in the hand of Lieutenant Colonel Tench Tilghman, General Washington’s Secretary from August 1776. The manuscript text reads in full:
“Head Quarters Morristown 14th December 1779. Dear Sir, I yesterday received a letter of the 28th ulto from his Excellency Governor Jefferson of which the inclosed is an extract. It being impossible for me, under present circumstances to take up the Business, you will be pleased to follow the directions therein contained, and nominate such Officers to reinlist the old Soldiers as you shall deem best qualified for that purpose. Inclosed you will find blank instructions signed by the Governor. The Sub Inspector will be the proper Officer to review and receive the Men reinlisted with the Army; but as Congress will probably determine that those Men whose times of service will shortly expire shall not proceed to the Southward, Officers must, in that case, be left to command them, some of whom may also have reinlisting instructions delivered to them, and you may appoint an Officer out of that number (agreeable to the requisition of the act of the State) to review and receive the Recruits, and make returns of them from time to time to the Governor [Jefferson]. He may also review and receive any new Recruits, should the State think it expedient to send out Officers on that Service. I shall write to Colo. Davies by the post and inform him that it will be absolutely necessary for him, if he inclines to continue in the Office of Sub Inspector, to join the [Virginia] Line. He is to give his answer to you, and if he declines it, you have liberty to appoint Lt. Colo. Cabell to that duty. Colo. Bland having resigned, I am directed by Congress to appoint an Officer to succeed him in the Superintendency of the Convention troops at Charlotteville [sic]. I have fixed upon Colo. Wood for that purpose, to whom you will be pleased to deliver the inclosed. Should he be gone from Philadelphia, you will be kind enough to forward the letter to him by an Express who will deliver it to him carefully. I am with great Regard, Dear Sir, Your worthiest Servant [signed in his hand] G. Washington.”
By 1779 the American Revolution had returned to the Hudson River and at year’s end, “General Washington took the bulk of his army into the safe haven of a winter cantonment in Morristown, New Jersey… Washington braced for a winter that, for sheer misery, threatened to rival the trials of Valley Forge. As early as October, there wasn’t a single pair of shoes in army depots, and the situation was equally lamentable for shirts, overalls and blankets. Since the Continental currency now fetched only three cents to the dollar, Congress stopped printing money and appealed to the states to pay their own troops… In mid-December Washington informed Congress that his army had gone for days without bread… Once again a harrowing winter forced him to think analytically about the nation’s ills. On both the civilian and military side of the conflict, he condemned slipshod, amateurish methods. America needed professional soldiers instead of men on short enlistments” (Chernow, 365-9).
This letter from Washington speaks to those very dire concerns, even as Washington was forced to keep in mind a January 23, 1779 Resolution by Congress that had directed him “to reinlist for the continuance of the war, all such of the continental troops as are not expressly engaged for that period, as well as for raising new recruits in the United States, to complete the battalions to their proper complement; and for those purposes, besides the bounties of clothing, and at the expiration of the war of money and land heretofore provided by Congress, for encouraging the recruiting service, to grant to each able bodied soldier now in the service, and who shall voluntarily re-inlist during the war, a bounty according to the circumstances of his present engagement, but not to exceed in any case 200 dollars; and to each new raised recruit who shall inlist in any of the continental battalions during the ear, such a bounty as the commander in Chief shall judge proper, but not to exceed two hundred dollars.”
On December 15, 1779, only one day after this letter to Woodford, a disheartened Washington informed the President of Congress “of the deplorable distress of the great departments of the army. I beg leave to add that from a particular consultation of the Commissaries, I find our prospects are infinitely worse than they have been at any period of the War, and that unless some expedient can be instantly adopted, a dissolution of the army for want of subsistence is unavoidable. A part of it has been again several days without Bread and for the rest we have not either on the spot or within reach a supply sufficient for four days. Nor does this deficiency proceed from accidental obstructions as has been the case on former occasions but from absolute emptiness of our magazine everywhere and total want of money or credit to replenish them. I look forward to the consequences with an anxiety not to be described.” Before winter’s end Washington and his men encamped at Morristown endured a crushing record 28 snowfalls. Faced with a poorly fed army that had not been paid in months, “Washington receded deeper into himself, as if afraid to voice his true feelings aloud, lest it demoralize his men… What lifted Washington from the worst depths of dejection was the extraordinary heroism of his army, which had been reduced to 8,000 men, one-third still unfit for duty. Looking back upon the ghastly conditions of that winter, he found the army’s survival almost beyond belief” (Chernow, 369-70).
Text and signature quite fresh and clean, only faint foldlines, minor bit of expert archival restoration to conjoined edge, minor exert marginal repair to one leaf not affecting text. An exceptional war-time Washington letter in near-fine condition.