(AMERICAN REVOLUTION 1777) Brodhead Daniel Letter discussin

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"HAPPY IN THE ASSURANCE YOU GIVE ME OF HAVING MY REGT. CLOATHED" (AMERICAN REVOLUTION--1777.) Brodhead, Daniel. Letter discussing his regiment's lack of clothing and officers. Autograph Letter Signed, to an official at the Board of War ("Sir"), 2 pages, 13 x 8 1/4 inches, on one sheet; toning at folds, chipping at edges touching a few letters and with partial loss of docketing at top edge. With typed transcript. Somerset Courthouse [now Millstone], NJ, 20 May 1777

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Daniel Brodhead (1736-1809) was at this point the colonel of the 8th Pennsylvania Regiment in the Continental Line, part of Washington's army defending Philadelphia; he later commanded a major expedition against Indians in western Pennsylvania, and was commissioned a brevet brigadier general. The first half of his letter related to the clothing issued to his troops: 'I am honoured with your favour of the twelfth instant and am happy in the assurance you give me of having my regt. cloathed. The men were, previous to my appointment, furnisht with more cloathing than I knew of when I wrote you, and no stoppages have been made for those cloathing because Mr. Mease had not informed the officers what the prices were. If I am rightly instructed, the men are by resolve of Congress entitled to a bounty of a suit of cloathing each, and stoppages shall be made out of their pay for those they have had."
The second half of the letter describes efforts to fill officer vacancies in his regiment, expressing his personal loyalty to General Washington: "I would with the greatest cheerfulness send you a return of the officers of my regt. as it now stands, with the names of worthy gentlemen to fill the vacancies, but his Excelly. Genl. Washington having been wrote to by Genl. Lincoln, on account of the scarcity of officers to the duty of the regt., hath commanded me to send him a list of the vacancies and officers in order that he might issue their new appointments in the regimental line, and condemned a proposition for filling the vacancies with more worthy men. If therefore your honble. board was to proceed to the appointments of new officers, such as I could undertake to recommend, your appointments would certainly interfere with those made in the regimental line by his Excel'ty." Provenance: from the collection of William Wheeler III.