The Proportion to be furnished by this State is 500 and it shall be my first Business to issue the necessary Orders for march’g them to the respective stations for which they are intended.
I am nevertheless apprehensive that I shall find it extremely difficult to compleat even this small Number. The Continental Pay and Rations being far below the wages given for ordinary Labor the Difference becomes a Tax rendered by personal Service and as the Train Band List from the Exemptions arising from Age Office & other Causes consists chiefly of the Middling & lower Class of People this extraordinary Tax is altogether paid by them.
Add to this that unless a proportionate Number is called out of each County which in most Cases is inexpedient the County affording the most Men is upon the same Principle charged with a Tax to which the other Parts of the Community do not contribute.
These Reasons are so clear as to be generally understood and complained of by the Militia and unless those exercising the Legislative Power of the State shall in their Wisdom devise some Plan in which those Inconveniences will be obviated and the Militia Duty become more equal I am extremely apprehensive that any Orders for calling Detachments to the Field for a limited Time will not hereafter be so duly obeyed as the Nature of Military Command and the good of the service absolutely requires. It wo’d be needless to observe to you, Gentlemen, that tho my Office as Governor gives me the Command of the Militia I am not vested with authority to promise even the ordinary Continental Pay and subsistance to any greater Number of Men than those required of me by his Excellency the Commander in Chief, whose Requisition entitles those who are called into actual Service in Consequence thereof to a Compensation from the Continent at large.
In consequence of this letter of Clinton’s the Committee of Safety the same day ordered that “Continental pay and rations be advanced on behalf of the Continent, to all such Militia as his Excellency the Governor shall think proper to call out.” Colonel Ludington was not included in the summons to the Highlands, but was selected by Clinton for other and, as it proved, actually more active service, in the borderland of Westchester County. Clinton wrote to him as follows, from Kingston, on August 1, 1777:
The Operations of the Enemy ag’t the State to the Northward as well as the exposed Situation of some of the Southern Counties to the Incursions of the Enemy from that Quarter, render it expedient to call into actual Service, a very considerable Proportion of the Militia in the Classing of the different Regiments for these Services your Regiment & Colo. Fields’ with the other Regiments of W. Chester County are to furnish 310 Men, including Non Commissioned Officers & Privates properly officered armed & accoutred, as you’l see by the inclosed Order; and, as you are appointed to take the command of this Detachment, I desire that you will, immediately upon the Receipt hereof, direct and forward to the Commanding Officers of the other Regiments who are to furnish Men towards this Detachm’t, one of the inclosed Resolutions & Orders, and exert yourself in having them raised with all possible Expedition and march them to such Stations in W. Chester County as will tend most to the Protection of the Inhabitants and best conduce to the Public Safety. Taking your Directions occasionally from the Command’g Officer at Peeks Kill.
The Inclosed Resolutions of the Council of Safety subjecting Exempts to a Proportion of the Common Burthen will, I hope, enable you to carry these Orders into Execution with greater Ease, especially as every Other Regt. in the State will furnish an equal if not a greater Number of Men for the Service.
I am &c.
(G. C.)
Colo. Ludington.