re
certainly at liberty to make what use of it they saw proper.

Being entrusted with the command of the militia and a New England brigade,
which lay at Bristol in December, 1776, I had permission from the
Commander-in-chief to make an attack on the enemy, whenever I thought it
could be done with success; I was prepared on the evening of the 22d
December, to attempt the enemy's post, above the Black Horse, with seven
hundred men; and about nine or ten o'clock, P. M., I received a letter from
the general, requesting, if the enterprise was not too far advanced, to lay
it aside, as he intended a general attack on the enemy's posts in a few
days. From this circumstance, it appears, that the general gave me the
information relating to the intended attack, the evening before you
received his letter of the 23d December, in which the precise time was
fixed. As he knew my intention to command the party myself, and therefore I
might not be at Bristol the next day, this will account for his letter, of
the 23d being directed to you. But here you mean to convey an idea that a
preference in this communication was intended to you, though he had given
me, in effect, the same information the evening before. This, too, you
adduce as a proof of the general's "unbounded confidence in you," and you
say you were sent by General Washington for the "express purpose of
assisting me;" and "whatever my abilities were, that I had less experience
of actual service than you had,--that you were received with cool civility,
and very few marks of private attention;" though you acknowledge that I, at
the same time, consulted you without reserve on our "military affairs." I
will admit, that your opportunities of acquiring experience were greater
than mine; and considering the extensive command I then had, (which was in
number nearly equal to the force under the immediate command of General
Washington,) I should have thought it no reflection on my abilities; nor
would it have hurt my feelings, if an officer of superior abilities and
rank had been sent to take the command,--or even an _inferior_ officer to
assist me. But whether your appointment was of the mere _motion_ of the
commander-in-chief, or at your instance, (for assisting me or _other
purposes_,) may at least become a _question_.

That I received you "with cool civility, and very few marks of private
attention," I do not remember; but to give what you mean to convey its full
force, I will not hes