Aug 20 1775
Dear Lund,
Your letter by Capt. Prince came to my hands last Night—I was glad to learn by it that all are well.—the account given of the behaviour of the Scotchmen at Port Tobacco & Piscataway surpriz’d & vexed me—Why did they Imbark in the cause?—what do they say for themselves?—what does others say of them?—are they admitted into Company?—or kicked out of it?—what does their Countrymen urge in justification of them?—They are fertile in invention, and will offer excuses where excuses can be made.—I cannot say but I am curious to learn the reasons why men who had subscribed & bound themselves to each other & their Country, to stand forth in defence of it, should lay down their arms the first moment they were called upon.
Although I never hear of the mill under the direction of Simpson without a degree of warmth & vexation at his extreme stupidity, yet, if you can spare money from other Purposes, I could wish to have it sent to him, that it may, if possible, be set a-going before the works get mixed and spoilt & my whole money perhaps totally lost—If I am really to loose Barron’s debt to me, it will be a pretty severe stroke upon the back of Adams, & the expence I am led into by that confounded fellow Simpson, and necessarily so in putting my Lands under the management of Cleveland.—
Spinning should go forward with all possible despatch, as we shall have nothing else to depend upon if these disputes continue another year—I can hardly think that Lord Dunmore can act so low, & unmanly a part, as to think of siezing Mrs. Washington by way of revenge upon me; however, as I suppose she is, before this time gone over to Mr. Calvert’s, & will soon after returning go down to New Kent, she will be out of his reach for 2 or 3 Months to come, in which time matters may, & probably will take such a turn as to render her removal either absolutely necessary, or quite useless—I am nevertheless exceedingly thankful to the Gentlemen of Alexandria for their friendly attention to this point & desire you will if there is any sort of reason to suspect a thing of this kind, provide a kitchen for her in Alexandria, or some other place of safety for her and my Papers.—
The People of this Government have obtained a character which they by no means deserved—their officers generally speaking are the most indifferent kind of People I ever saw.—I have already broke one Colo and five Captains for cowardice, and for drawing more Pay & Provisions than they had Men in their companies.—there is two more Colonels now under arrest, & to be tried for the same offences—in short they are by no means such Troops, in any respect, as you are lead to believe of them from the acts which are published, but I need not make myself Enemies among them, by this declaration, although it is consistent with truth.—I dare say the Men would fight very well (if properly officered) although they are an exceedingly dirty & nasty people.[[2]]—had they been properly conducted at Bunker’s Hill (on the 17th of June) or those that were there properly supported, the regulars would have met with a shameful defeat; & a much more considerable loss than they did, which is now known to be exactly 1057 killed & wounded—it was for their behaviour on that occasion that the above officers were broke, for I never spared one that was accused of Cowardice but bro’t ’em to immediate Tryal.
Our Lines of Defence are now compleated as near so at least as can be—we now wish them to come out, as soon as they please, but they (that is the enemy) discover no Inclination to quit their own works of Defence; & as it is almost impossible for us to get to them, we do nothing but watch each other’s motions all day at the distance of about a mile; every now and then picking of a stragler when we can catch them without their Intrenchments; in return, they often attempt to cannonade our Lines to no other purpose than the waste of a considerable quantity of Powder to themselves which we should be very glad to get.—
What does Dr. Craik say to the behaviour of his countrymen, & Townspeople?—remember me kindly to him, & tell him that I should be very glad to see him here if there was anything worth his acceptance; but the Massachusetts people suffer nothing to go by them that they can lay hands upon.—
I wish the money could be had from Hill, or the Bills of Exchange (except Col. Fairfax’s, which ought to be sent to him immediately) turn’d into cash; you might then, I should think, be able to furnish Simpson with about £300; but you are to recollect that I have got Cleveland & the hired People with him to pay also.—I would not have you buy a single bushel of wheat till you can see with some kind of certainty what market the Flour is to go to—and if you cannot find sufficient Imployment in repairing the Mill works, and other things of this kind for Mr. Robers and Thomas Alferd, they must be closely Imployed in making cask or working at the Carpenter’s or other business—otherwise they must be discharged, for it is not reasonable, as all Mill business will probably be at an end for a while, that I am to pay them £100 a year to be Idle.—I should think Roberts himself must see, and be sensible of the reasonableness of this request, as I believe few Millers will find Imployment of our Ports are shut up, & the wheat kept in the straw, or otherwise for greater security.—
