Dover [Del.] July the 22d 1778.—
Sir
As the English armed Vessels have all now left the Delaware, and As a powerfull French Fleet is lying off our Coast. The Inhabitants of this State Do not in my opinion appear to be in that danger from an invasion of the Enemy, so Justly Apprehended by the General Assembly. when they Entered into the Resolution for Establishing the Independent Company You Command in this County—I Do therefore, in Virtue of the powers Given me by the General Assembly, hereby Disband the abovementioned Independent Company.1 You are therefore Immediately to discharge the officers and Privates thereof from further Service—You are also, So soon as it may be Convenient, to make me a Regular Return of those who may have been Engaged, and done Duty. in said Company Yrs &ca
Caesar Rodney
N.B. The Newcastle and Sussex Companies were Ordered to be disbanded on the 11th Instant.—
DfS, NNPM, Signers of the Declaration of Independence Collection. Addressed: "Captain Carson." The nota bene is written vertically in the left margin of the letter. Carson commanded the special militia discussed in note 1.
1. The Delaware Assembly on 8 May 1778 had established a special militia company of 75 men commanded by a captain and two lieutenants to protect Kent County. The unit was "to prevent the enemy and refugees from landing in the State, to apprehend, take up and secure any person or persons going to, coming from, or trading with the enemy or the said refugees.” Claudia L. Bushman, Harold B. Hancock, and Elizabeth Moyne Homsey, eds., Proceedings of the Assembly of the Lower Counties in Delaware, 1770–1776, of the Constitutional Convention of 1776, and of the House of Assembly of the Delaware State, 1776-1781 (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1986), pp. 413–14.
