Near Bristol, December 21, 1776.
[Extract]
I have learnt from many people, and among others, from two New England officers, that the four eastern states will find great difficulty in raising their quota of men, owing to that excessive rage for privateering, which now prevails among them. Many of the continental troops now in our service, pant for the expiration of their enlistments, in order that they may partake of the spoils of the West Indies. At a moderate computation there are now not less than ten thousand men belonging to New England on board privateers. New England, and the continent, cannot spare them. They have a right at this juncture, to their services, and to their blood. We must have an army; the fate of America must be decided by an Army. It must consist of seventy or eighty thousand men, and they must all be fit for the field before the first day of May next. Since the captivity of General Lee, a distrust has crept in among the troops, of the abilities of some of our general offi.cers high in command. They expect nothing now from heaven taught and book taught generals.
1. Richard H. Lee, The Memoirs of the Life of Richard Henry Lee and his Correspondence (Philadelphia, 1825), II, 160-61.