Dear Sir: I have yours of the 10th. In the settlement for arms, I plainly perceive that the loss is all likely to be thrown upon the public, and I don't know how it is to be avoided. I can only, as I did before, desire you to act up to the best of your judgment in this matter.
If some of those persons who have re-enlisted are in such a situation, on account of their health, that they require a time to recruit themselves, they certainly should be indulged with a furlough; but this favor should be granted with great caution, and where the case really requires it, otherwise it will be claimed by the whole.
You did very right in sending home all the officers that could be spared, to recruit. It is what I have done here. I have even incorporated two or three small corps into one rather than detain supernumerary officers.
Before I received yours recommending Mr. Huntington,18 I had appointed him to a majority in a regiment to be commanded by Colonel Webb, my late aide-de-camp.
[Note:Maj. Ebenezer Huntington, of Col. Samuel Blatchley Webb's Additional Continental regiment. ]
I beg you will keep me constantly advised of your own situation, and the movements of the enemy on your quarter, that I may regulate my conduct on this side accordingly. I am, etc.19
[Note:In the writing of Tench Tilghman. ]
[MS.H.S.]