Dear Sir: I am favoured with yours of the 14th. I could have wished that the Regiments that I had ordered had come on because I do not like Brigades to be broke by Detachment. The urgency of Colonel Hamilton's Letter was owing to his knowledge of our wants in this Quarter, and to a certainty that there was no danger to be apprehended from New York, if you sent away all the Continental Troops that were then with you and waited to replace them by those expected down the River. I cannot but say that there has been more delay in the march of the Troops than I think necessary and I could wish that in future my orders may be immediately complied with, without arguing upon the propriety of them; if any accident ensues from obeying them, the fault will lie upon me and not upon you.
I have yet heard nothing of Poor's or Paterson's Brigades or of Colo. Charles Webb's Regiment. Learned's Brigade will be at Coryells ferry to night or to morrow, and Lee's and Jackson's Regiments arrived here this day.
Be pleased to inform me particularly of the Corps that have marched and are to march and by what Routes they are directed, that I may know how to dispatch orders to meet them upon the Road if necessary. I am &ca.17
[Note:The draft is in the writing of Tench Tilghman. ]