arrangement for our military force, as may correspond with our situation, and to assign to the Major-Generals, who are to command it, the superintendence of such portions thereof, as may best tend to promote military discipline, the general interests of the service, and the objects of the military establishment.

You will therefore be pleased, until otherwise instructed, to consider yourself invested with the entire command of all the troops in garrison on the northern Lakes in the Northwestern Territory, including both banks of the Ohio, and on the Mississippi. You will, as an organ of communication between you and the garrisons on the Lakes in the Northwestern Territory, and occasionally those on the Mississippi, direct, if you judge it proper, Brigadier-General Wilkinson to establish his headquarters at Pittsburg, or such other position as you may deem best calculated to facilitate his communications to you, and also with the garrisons you may place under his superintendence. You will, if you find it can be arranged to advantage, establish subordinate districts within his command, with each a commandant, who shall alone communicate with General Wilkinson, and receive your orders through him, relative to the garrisons under their superintendence respectively. You will make similar dispositions on the Mississippi, for the superintendence of the gar risons within that district.

In deciding upon these arrangements, you will be particularly careful, that they do not occasion inconvenient delays in the transmission of information to the seat of government, or throw obstructions in the way of immediate succors being given to the most remote garrisons, in cases of urgency; and will direct your corresponding officers in the Northwestern Territory and on the Mississippi to pass all letters, which they address to you, open, and through the Secretary of War, at least so long as your position shall be such as to afford to the Secretary an opportunity to know their contents sooner, than if they were to be received by you in the first instance. By this arrangement, it will be at all times in the power of the Secretary of War to give orders in emergencies, which can afterwards be communicated to you for your future government.

Besides the command of the troops and garrisons in the tract of country before described, you will assume that of all the troops and posts which are, or may be, within the State of Maryland, and all the States to the northward and eastward thereof.

Major-General Pinckney will be instructed to take the command of all the troops and posts that are or may be within the States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

It is expected, and you will give orders accordingly, that the garrisons and troops within your command and superintendence make returns and observe the inclosed regulations.

The recruiting service is an object of primary importance; it is conceived to be particularly connected with the duties of the Inspector-General; the sole direction of it is therefore, with a view to order and efficiency, confided to you alone.

It is to be lamented that circumstances have prevented the obtaining of an early supply of necessary clothing for the troops, directed to be raised by the act passed the 16th of July, 1798, and that the progress made, since it was practicable to enter upon the business, does not justify our immediately commencing the recruiting service. Inclosed is a report by the purveyor of the public supplies, which shows the quantities of the different articles of clothing, which he thinks may be relied on, and the times at which he presumes it will be ready for delivery.

Although, however, the impracticability of obtaining a proper supply of clothing may impose the necessity of some delay in the actual commencement of the recruiting service, nevertheless certain preparatory arrangements, it is thought, may greatly facilitate the same. You are invited, therefore, to lose no time in dividing, at least, the States from which officers have lately been appointed, into as many districts as there are companies to be raised in them, and forwarding to the officers to be employed respectively in each district, through the commandant, their recruiting instructions, with orders, either to hold themselves prepared to enter upon the service the moment they receive your ulterior directions, or to engage provisionally as

many recruits as are willing to enroll themselves on their lists, and who may be promised pay from the day of their being en. rolled and sworn, with their bounty, upon the officer receiving his final instructions, or (which perhaps is safer) upon their arrival at the general rendezvous.

The instructions advert to the qualifications of recruits in general terms. It may be proper to be more particular than the instructions are respecting enlistments for the cavalry.

The important services to which the cavalry are destined (the event of actions sometimes depending solely upon their valor and impression), render it indispensable, that such corps be composed of the best materials, and, in proportion to the small number assigned to the army and the effects expected to be produced by them, that the utmost care be observed in their selection.

Let the regulations, then, upon this point restrict the recruiting officer to engage none except natives for this corps, and, of these, such only as, from their known character and fidelity, may be trusted to the extent of their powers.

The size of the cavalry recruit deserves a degree of attention. Warnery observes very justly, in his remarks on cavalry, "that, in every species of cavalry, the man ought to be proportioned to the size of his horse, and the arms with which he is to serve adapted and proportioned to them both, and to the nature of the service to be performed; consequently the cuirassier should be larger and his arms heavier than the dragoon, and these more so than the light-horse or hussars. A staall man has great difficulty to mount a large horse, particularly with a cuirass; they should all, however, be muscular and robust, but not heavy; the Prussian dragoons are too heavy for their horses; and it is ridiculous to see a large man upon a small horse, which, by being strained with too much weight, is very soon ruined, and the trooper dismounted; a man who is more than five feet eight inches ought not to be received into the cavalry."

It will be proper that Major-General Pinckney should attend to the recruiting service in the division of country assigned to his command, and that he should receive from you all the necessary instructions upon the subject.

You will report monthly to the Secretary of War an abstract of the number of men recruited, the clothing which may be wanted, and the necessary moneys to be remitted for the service.

Inclosed is a schedule of the officers, who have accepted their appointments, with their respective places of residence annexed. Inclosed also is a list of the officers at present employed in the recruiting service, and their places of residence.

Should you think the existing instructions to recruiting officers require revision, or that additional articles are necessary for the extensive field we are entering upon, to give more system to the business, you will report the alterations or additions, that they may be submitted to the President for his decision, incorporating therein those which respect the cavalry.

You will also indicate to me, as soon as possible, the several stations where rations must be provided, that measures may be taken accordingly.

Connected with this subject is another of considerable importance; I mean the permanent disposition of the troops after they shall have been raised.

Having taken the opinion of General Washington on this point, it is thought advisable that it should be adopted, until a change of circumstances shall render a different disposition proper. The General observed, that, though it might now be premature to fix a permanent disposition of the troops, it might, nevertheless, be useful to indicate certain stations, where they may be assembled provisionally, and may probably be suffered to continue while matters remain in the present posture. The stations eligible in this view may be found for two regiments in the vicinity of Providence River, near Uxbridge; for two other regiments in the vicinity of Brunswick in New Jersey; for two other regiments in the vicinity of the Potomac near Harper's Ferry; for two other regiments in the vicinity of Augusta, but above the Falls of the Savannah. This disposition, the General observed, will unite considerations relative to the discipline and health of the troops, and to the economical supply of their wants. It will also have some military aspects; in the first place, towards

the security of Boston and Newport; in the second, towards that of New-York and Philadelphia; in the third and fourth, towards that of Baltimore, Charleston, Savannah, and the southern States generally; and, in the third, particularly towards the reinforcement of the western army in certain events. But, he subjoined, the military motives have only a qualified influence, since it is not doubted, that, in the prospect of a serious attack upon this country, the disposition of the army ought to look emphatically to the southern region, as that which is by far most likely to be the scene of action.

It was also the General's opinion, which is concurred in, that the companies directed to be added to the regiments of the old establishment ought, as soon as is convenient, to reinforce the western army, and that their destination in the first instance may be Pittsburg.

His opinion is also in general to be adopted relative to the disposition of the artillery. He proposed to assign a complete battalion to the western army; to the fortifications at Boston, one company; to those at New-York, two companies; to those at Newport, two companies; to those at West Point, one; to those at Mud Island, two; to those at Baltimore, one; to those at Norfolk, two; to those on Cape Fear River, one; to those at Charleston, two; to those at Savannah, one; to those at the mouth of the St. Mary's, one. It is thought there may be some other fortified places on the seaboard that will require attention, which is left to you to decide upon, after you have taken a deliberate view of the subject. He is further of opinion, that the remaining two battalions had better be reserved for the army in the field, and that, during the winter, they may retain the stations they now occupy; but that, as soon as they can conveniently go into tents, it will be advisable to assemble them at some central or nearly central point, there to be put in a course of regular instruction, together with successive detachments of the officers and non-commissioned officers of the seaboard garrisons, until their services shall be actually required.

You will therefore give effect to the aforesaid disposition, and so arrange the companies of artillery, that those belong