Philadelphia Apr. 24th 1781
Dear Sir,
The Board of War having spared to the Special Council for the Eastern Shore, & to the Virginia Delegates a number of the Rampart peices, I coud not obtain an order for more than 500 - They have likewise given me an order for 2 four pound Brass Field peices complete. 1 If 4lb Ball shoud be wanting, it will be proper to mention the number you woud have. It not being safe to Send the arms by water I presume you will order waggons up, or some to be procured here.
The following is an extract of a Letter from Genl. Washington - "Head quarters, New Windsor Apl. 16th. 81, I have receivd advices through different Chann[e]ls corresponding with that transmitted Congress by Mr. Foreman. They strongly assert that a further detachment is going from New York, & that it is to be commanded by Genl. Clinton, but they are not equally possitive, as to the destination being for Delaware. In the present State of Southern Affairs ’tis perhaps more probable that Clinton is going to take the Command there."
The Letter from St. Piere dated the 18th of March in the enclosd paper is from Mr Parsons Agent for Congress, to the Board of Admiralty2 - The intelligence from the Havanna is thro’ Don Francisco.3
Some exchangd officers are arrivd here in a flag from Charles Town, they left it 13 days past - & inform us that Genl Sumpter had taken the Enemies post at 96, & made about 300 prisoners.
I have the honor to be, with great esteem, Yr. Excellencys Most Ob Sert.
Danl. Carroll
Receiver’s copy, Maryland State Papers (Red Books), Maryland Hall of Records Commission, Annapolis.
1 For the Maryland Council’s order for 750 rampart pieces and four brass field pieces, see Maryland Delegates to Lee, April 10, note 1.
2 Samuel Parsons’ March 18 letter from Martinique concerning the impending arrival of a French fleet of 400 sail including "thirty Sail of the Line" is in Miscellaneous Papers of the Continental Congress, reel 3, fols. 509 - 11, DNA, where it is endorsed "recd Apr. 22d." Extracts from the letter as well as various "intelligence from the Havanna" appeared in the April 25 issues of both the Pennsylvania Gazette and the Pennsylvania Journal.
3 That is, Francisco Rendon.
4 The Confederacy, with a large cargo of military supplies, had indeed been captured on April 15 by the British frigates Roebuck and Orpheus. Gardner W. Allen, A Naval History of the American Revolution, 2 vols. (1913; reprint ed., New York: Russell & Russell, 1962), 2:556.
This day Carroll sent a nearly identical letter to Matthew Tilghman, president of the Special Council for the Eastern Shore, by the care of "Messrs. Goldsborough and Emory." Ridgely Transcripts, MdAA.