Washington, George (1732-1799) to Stephen Moylan
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC03353 Author/Creator: Washington, George (1732-1799) Place Written: Head Quarters, Clove Type: Letter signed Date: 22 July 1777 Pagination: 1 p. : address ; 25 x 19.2 cm. Order a Copy
Written by General Washington to Colonel Moylan as commander of the First Pennsylvania dragoons. References Moylan's letter of 21 July 1777. Encloses a letter he asks Moylan to forward to General David Forman (known by the nickname of " Black David" among the Jersey loyalists, owing to his excessive cruelty toward those who did not favor the Revolution). Wants Forman to tell him if the British fleet has gone out to sea. Wants Forman to send his dispatches to Moylan, who is supposed to forward them to Washington by express. Document has large losses of paper, although not to the text. Later pencil inscription on verso. Red wax seal partially extent.
Moylan, an Irishman by birth, served in the Continental Army and served as one of Washington's aide-de-camp March 1776-June 1776. Appointed Commissary General of the Continental Army in June 1776. He resigned this position in the October 1777, raising at once a troop of light dragoons, the First Pennsylvania regiment of cavalry, of which he was colonel. With this troop he served at Valley Forge, through the dismal winter of 1777-8, at the battle of Germantown, on the Hudson River, and in Connecticut, with Wayne in Pennsylvania, and rounded out the full measure of his service with General Greene in his southern campaign at the close of the war. In acknowledgment of his indefatigable energy and bravery, before the war closed, in 1782, he was brevetted brigadier-general. After the successful termination of the war he quietly resumed his mercantile pursuits in Philadelphia.
Signer of the U.S. Constitution.
Head Quarters Clove 22d. July 1777.
Sir
I have your favr. of yesterday. The enclosed for Genl. Forman is to desire him to send me word whether the Fleet have really gone out to Sea, he will send his dispatches to you, and you are to forward them to me by Express.
I am Sir
Yr most obt. Servt.
Go: Washington
[address leaf]
To
Colo Moylan.
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