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Subject Area: Political Theory
Subject Area: War and Peace
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. - George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, vol. V (1776-1777) [1890]

Edition used:

The Writings of George Washington, collected and edited by Worthington Chauncey Ford (New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1890). Vol. V (1776-1777).

Part of: The Writings of George Washington, 14 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Sir,

I am happy to inform you that the account of Genl Mercer’s death, transmitted in my last, was premature tho’ it was mentioned as certain by many who saw him after he was wounded. By intelligence from Princeton yesterday evening, he was alive, and seemed as if he would do well; unhappily he is a prisoner. Had it not been for the information I had of his death, I would have tried to have brought him away, tho’ I believe it could not have been effected. The enemy have totally evacuated Trenton and Princeton, and are now at Brunswic and the several posts on the communication between that and Hudson’s River, but chiefly at Brunswic. Their numbers and movements are variously reported, but all agree that their force is great. There have been two or three little skirmishes between their parties and some detachments of the militia, in which the latter have been successful and made a few prisoners. The most considerable was on Sunday morning, near Springfield, when eight or ten Waldeckers were killed and wounded, and the remainder of the party, thirty-nine or forty, made prisoners, with two officers, by a force not superior in number and without receiving the least damage.

The severity of the season has made our troops, especially the militia, extremely impatient, and has reduced the number very considerably. Every day more or less leave us. Their complaints, and the great fatigue they have undergone, induced me to come to this place, as the best calculated, of any in this quarter, to accommodate and refresh them. The situation is by no means favorable to our views, and as soon as the purposes are answered for which we came, I think to remove, though I confess I do not know how we shall procure covering for our men elsewhere. I am, &c.1

[1 ]Read in Congress January 14th.