WASHINGTON, George (1732-1799). Letter signed ("Go:Washington") as Commander-in-Chief to Governor Joseph Reed of Pennsylvania, Morristown, 20 February 1780.

Four pages bifolium, 330 x 209mm (silked, small losses along horizontal folds obscuring some words, mild toning). Body of letter in the hand of Robert Hanson HARRISON (1745-1790).

Recruiting additional troops for the Pennsylvania Line. A lengthy letter to Governor Reed, demonstrating Washington's command of even the most minute details of the ever-present problem of recruiting for the Continental Army. By 1780, recruitment had become complicated by rampant inflation and sagging morale as the war ground to a stalemate in the north. Observing that the Congress's quota for Pennsylvania was "fixed at 4855," Washington encloses "a Special Return [not present] of the Non Commissioned Officers and Privates for Ten Battalions with this Army – and of the Men be longing to her in the German Battalion, Spencers - Hazens & Webbs Regiments – Lambs & Proctor's Regiments of Artillery & Jones' & Coran's Companies – Artillery … Lee's Partizan Corps & Voorhees's Massachusetts Troop designating in a particular manner, the proportion engaged for the War, and by Monthly columns the periods when and in what proportion the Services of the Rest will expire." Based on the data, Washington determined that "the deficiency to be raised is 1422." Observing that not all the returns from the corps detached from the main army were complete (and promising to send them soon), he noted that the lack of full data should not be an excuse to delay recruiting efforts. In a postscript Washington adds some additional data on Broadhead's Regiment noting 116 who had enlisted "for the War." These enlistment terms would prove to be a recurring problem for the Continental Army as many soldiers signed enlistment documents that specified that their term was either for either three years or the duration of the war, but without any clarification of which term held priority. The following year the Pennsylvania Line would stage the largest mutiny of the war over this issue. Not published in Fitzpatrick, Writings. Provenance: John Gribbel (his sale, Parke Bernet, 22-24 January 1941, lot 733).