Gov. CLINTON'S REPLY TO LETTER FROM BOARD OF WAR MAY 30TH. On the 17th of last month I had the honor of laying before the Legislature, your Letter of the 30th May with the Acts of Congress therein referred to previous to their rising on the 1st Inst. They passed several Laws for the More effectual collection of the specific supplies allotted to this State. As soon as I can procure copies I shall transmit them with the State Agent's Returns & Reports which will give you the most satisfactory Information on the subject.

I am &c.

[No. 3804.]

The Governor to James Clinton in Relation to Military Commissions -Allied Troops Assembling in Westchester County.

Pokeepsie, 4th July 1781.

Dear Sir, Since my last I have been favored with yours of the 30th June. I now enclose you warrants for the Gentlemen who are appointed to fill vacancies in the two N. York Regt's of Infantry with a warrant for Alex'r*, as a second Lieut of

Colonel Emmerick an opportunity of joining by the way of Cortlandt's house, still in possession of the rebels. The Yagers moved forward and took possession of Cortlandt's Bridge; the refugees and the advanced parties of the Yagers engaged the rebels' advanced posts and drove them to their main body, which immediately filed off to the left, and retreated towards William's Bridge. The passage being now open, Colonel Emmerick was desired to leave Spuyten Duyvil and to join, which he did, and informed General De Losberg that he drew two hundred rebels into his ambuscade at Phillips' house, of which he killed three and took nine; that the rebel army was moving in two columns, (one of which was already seen on Valentine's Hill advancing towards Cortlandt's Bridge.) The troops were now ordered to fall back to their former position, leaving one hundred Yagers at Fort Independence, and observe all the motions of General Washington's army, who himself reconnoitred Spuyten Duyvil at Three o'clock in the afternoon. At four o'clock the troops moved into the lines and to their encampment.

The loss of the Yagers is three men killed; one officer, one sergeant, twenty-six men wounded, and five missing. That of the rebels is very considerable; intelligence was received that they embarked one hundred and one wounded men at Sing Sing, and sent them up the North River, besides a great many who died of their wounds before they reached that place, and one officer and seventeen men who were left on the field, with seventeen stands of arms.-Rivington's Gazette, July 14.

Alexander Clinton, the son of General James Clinton, had been commissioned an ensign in the First Regiment, September 29, 1780, and was transferred to Colonel John Lamb's Artillery Regiment by a commission of second lieutenant, dated June 29, 1781.STATE HISTORIAN.

Artillery, which you will please to have delivered. I also enclose you Copies of the Resolutions of Council, correcting the Mistakes which took place in their Appointments of 29th June 1779 & respecting the claim of Leut Wendell to Precedency of Rank to Leut Van Woert; when this matter is adjusted I know of no other dispute which can possibly exist in the Line. In my letter to the Board of War transmitting copies of the new appointments, I have mentioned the above alteration and Requested that the Commissions to the Gentlemen concerned may be made to conform thereto.

A Law passed last Session for the encouragement of the apprehension of Deserters which shall be published as soon as possible. One year's exemption from all Militia Duty, Drafts & Detachment and ten Pounds New Emission is the Reward offered to any Person who shall apprehend & deliver a Deserter from our Troops at any Military Post.* We have no news. The Allied Troops are assembling fast in West Chester County. I am Yours Sincerely.

*July 4.-The imagination can scarcely conceive of a more miserable condition than that of the inhabitants of New York, between the Highlands and Albany. The persons favoring independency, which consist only of such as despair of escaping the vengeance of their countrymen, abandon themselves to all the cruelty of cowardice. Alive to suspicion, the general consideration is about spies and harborers of spies, and in the extremity of their terrors, the slightest preparations pass with the tyrants in office for demonstrative proof. Hence women are committed to their jails, capital executions grow more frequent, and to the reproach of humanity, there was an instance within a month past of a man under public condemnation, being hanged in his prison to gratify the pride of the sheriff, who (obliged to be executioner himself) was ashamed to perform the office of hangman in the fields. Albany was reserved for this first and rare instance of infamy.

And though the credit of paper money is totally extinct in all parts of the continent, (and for that reason the late mint of specie or hard money paper not wholly issued, but withheld if possible to increase its value, or rather the demand for it,) their late mob assembly have published a tax law, to oblige every man to give a bushel of wheat for every sixty dollars of his former assessment, in old continental, and if he has no wheat, then twelve shillings in lieu of a bushel of wheat, and on failure in ten days, two bushels or twenty-four shillings. This wheat, it is said, is for the supply of Washington's army, but really intended to be sold to the French for hard money; and what will be done with that, no person is at a loss to conjecture. Miserable people, the prey of plunderers of their own creating! "How long, O Lord!" is the cry of the oppressed! By the abandoning of Fort Stanwix, all the western country is deserted down to -Schenectady, and the persecutors who dare to continue in Kingston have fortified and

[No. 3805.]

Governor Clinton to President of the Board of War as to Specific Supplies from this State and a Resolution of the Legislature as to Exchange of Flour Between New York State and Philadelphia. 'Poughkeepsie, July 5, 1781.

Sir, I had the honor of addressing a Letter to you yesterday acknowledging the receipt of yours of the 7th Ulto. since which Colo. Hay, our State Agent, has furnished me with the enclosed Report, by which and the returns (he informs me he has forwarded to your Hon'bl Board,) you will have the fullest information I am able to afford of the prospects of compleating the specific supplies allotted to this State. I think it my Duty at the same time to observe that little Dependance ought to be placed, for the regular subsistance of an Army, on a State already almost exhausted by the War, surrounded by the enemy, & its best Graineries daily exposed to their Ravages.

The Legislature at their last meeting came to a Resolution, a copy of which is enclosed, respecting the exchanging of Flour in Phila for the same article in this State. The immense saving which would arise to the public by this measure in point of Transportation as well as the Ease it would afford the Inhabitants, who are now charged with the whole of that Burthen, to the great injury of Agriculture, which should at this time meet. with every encouragement, induces me sincerely to wish it may

drawn ditches around their houses, in expectation of the Indians as soon as the harvests are in stack.

The advocates for peace and the re-union, and who have been so ever since the fatal declaration of independence, and who are a vast majority, grow every day more numerous, and it is remarkable that not a single instance can be assigned of the apostasy of a loyalist to the wicked and interested views of the usurpers.

There is a new set of mob legislators met at Poughkeepsie; a little time will show whether they mean to expose themselves to all the vengeance of which the majority of the late assembly and senate live in constant dread, many of them changing their lodgings, to elude the search of the avengers of the innocent blood they have shed. Mr. Clinton, the titular governor, has fortified his huts against a sudden surprise, and the rebel, slaves of Poughkeepsie guard it every night.-Rivington's Gazette, July 4.

be adopted & I shall be happy to be favored with an Answer on this Subject, conformable to the Sense of the Legislature as early as may be convenient especially as the Season for effecting this Business to advantage is far advanced. I have the honor to be &c &c.

The Hon'ble Wm. Grayson,* Esqr., Presd't of the Bd. of War Phila.

[No. 3806.]

The Governor to Colonel Paine Regarding Political and Military

Affairs in Vermont.

Pokeepsie, 6th July 1781. Dear Sir, It is some days since I was favored with your Letter of the 10th ultimo with its enclosure. The Legislature was then sitting, to whom I had communicated such Intelligence as I had received, respecting the Conduct of our Revolted Citizens in your Quarter, and I, therefore, thought it most proper to delay giving you an answer until I could be informed of the Results of their Deliberations on that subject. They did not meet punctually, their Session of Course was short & they had such a variety of Objects of the greatest importance to the Gen'l Interest of America pressing for their Attention, that they had scarce Time to enter upon that Business & nothing effectual is determined upon. I can, therefore, at present only advise what I am persuaded from your conduct on other occasions will be faithfully pursued on your Part, a steady and firm adherence to the Duty you owe the State & avoiding as much as may be entering into any Controversy with the Revolters which can consistently be avoided as I would wish to evade any Contention

*William Grayson of Virginia, Lieutenant-Colonel and Aide-de-Camp to General Washington, 24th August, 1776; Colonel of one of the Sixteen Additional Continental Regiments, 11th January, 1777; retired 22d April, 1779; Commissioner of the Board of War, 7th December, 1779; resigned 10th September, 1781. Died 12th March, 1790.STATE HISTORIAN.

with them that might weaken our opposition to the Common Enemy, at least until the close of the present Campaign. Chittenden's Letter is beneath your notice & his Interference in Favor of the disafected, I flatter myself will not redound much to his credit or to promote his cause.

The Legislature from an Apprehension that the Continental Troops would be withdrawn from the Frontier to assist in offensive operations have ordered a second levy of Troops equal to the former and I now enclose you my orders for embodying them which I request you to execute in your Regt. with the least possible Delay. I expect Gen'l Stark will be sent to command in your Quarter. I shall be happy to have the present as well as former levies of your Reg't on this Frontier if they can possibly be subsisted & if I can see the Gen❜l before he goes up I will speak to him on this & other matters relative to you: Quarter of the Country. I am &c

[No. 3807.]

Robert Morris Transmits to Governor Clinton the Act of Congress Relating to Enforcing the Compliance with Requisitions.

Philadelphia, July 6th 1781.

Sir, I do myself the honor to enclose the Copy of an Act of Congress of the 28th of June 1781, from which your Excellency will perceive that I am directed to press a compliance with the several Requisitions of Congress upon your State. Immediately upon the rece[i]pt of this Resolution, I wrote to the Treasury Board, the Commissary General and Quarter Master General, for returns by which to determine the several Balances due. Whenever I shall have received them, I will do myself the honor of addressing your Excellency again on the Subject and am to pray that in the Interim Measures may be taken within your