George Washington, Revolutionary War Expense Account, 1777-78
George Washington's Accounts of Expenses While Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army 1775-1783. With Annotations by John C. Fitzpatrick.--vol. 01
The route of the army was by way of Doylestown and Coryell's Ferry. the orders for June 19 are dated from Doctor Shannon's, and on June 20 £1 17s. 6d. were distributed in gratuities to Shannon's servants. June 21, at Coryell's Ferry, John Fell was paid £6 for breakfast, dinner, and supper for the Commander-in-Chief and his suite. June 23, in Hopewell, New Jersey, the orders are dated from Hunt's house and Richard Holcombe was paid £10 17s. 6d.; June 25, Washington was at Kingston; June 26, at Cranberry; and June 27, at Penolopen and Englishtown. Early in the morning of June 28, the army moved on Monmouth and about noon came in contact with the enemy. The British were forced from the field and, that night, leaving their dead and wounded behind, they retreated so silently that Poor's Brigade, which lay nearest them, was unaware of the movement. On discovering the enemy's escape, Washington, the next morning, took up his march toward the Highlands of the Hudson by way of Englishtown, Brunswick, and Paramus. July 14, £4 10s. were distributed to Mrs. Provost's servants, near Haverstraw, New York, and July 15, at that same place, Jacob Hardin's bill amounted to £3 8s. July 17, there is an entry of £2 8s. paid a boatman on the Hudson for carrying Washington to West Point, and July 19, the Commander-in-Chief's orders are dated from Delavan's house on the east side of the river. July 21, he was at Wright's Mills, White Plains, and from there he wrote to Thomas Nelson, in Virginia: "It is not a little pleasing, nor less wonderful to contemplate, that after two years' manoeuvring and undergoing the strangest vicissitudes, that perhaps ever attended any one contest since the creation, both armies are brought back to the very point they set out from, and that which was the offending party in the beginning is now reduced to the use of the spade and pickaxe for defense." Yet he could, with truth, have pushed the parallel further and likened the retreat of the British across the Jerseys to the retreat of the Continentals before them through the same region in 1776.
July 27 and 28, there are items amounting to £30 18s. 10d. paid to Reuben Wright, of White Plains.
1778, September--The result of this reconnoiter was to encamp the army for the winter at Fredericksburg, in Dutchess County, New York, as a central location from which to protect either the Highlands of the Hudson or New England.
CREDIT ENTRIES
1778, August 3--Daniel Sullivan, an Indian Interpreter from Fort Pitt, Pennsylvania.
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mgw:@field(DOCID+@lit(wa010022))