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Revolutionary War–dated LS signed “Go: Washington,” one page both sides, 7.5 x 12.5, March 2, 1779. Letter to Brig Gen. James Potter of the Pennsylvania militia, Washington's most experienced frontier commander who had stood by him at Valley Forge. Penned in the hand of aide-de-camp Tench Tilghman and boldly signed at the conclusion by George Washington, the letter solicits intelligence and volunteers for a planned offensive campaign against the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy along the western frontier.
In full: "I have recd. your favr. without date containing your Ideas of the kind of War necessary to be carried on against the Savages for the more effectual Security of our Frontier; with your opinion of the most practicable Route of penetrating the Indian Country. Your Ideas correspond in a good measure with my own and should the situation of Affairs on the Coast admit, I have t[ur]ned my thoughts and taken some measures towards carrying on an expedition against the Indians of the Six Nations, whenever the State of the Grass-Waters and other circumstances will admit. I communicate thus much to you in confidence, because the more suddenly a Blow of this kind can be struck especially against Indians, the more well the weight of it be felt.
I am obliged to you for the information you have already given me, and should you come to the knowledge of my thing further which you may deem material, or should any new Ideas occur to you, I shall be glad to have them communicated. Should any part of our operations be carried on from the Western parts of Pennsylvania, do you think any and what number of Volunteers consisting of good Woodsmen could be engaged to go upon such an expedition. They should be engaged for as long a time as it would probably take to compleat our scheme; in short for the Expedition. If you could sound the Militia who have been under your command but in a more especial manner the men who have been driven from the Frontiers, upon this head, you would soon find how they relish the plan and could form a judgment, without letting them know the Reason. I shall be glad to hear from you on the foregoing subjects as soon a possible." Complete with the detached address leaf. In very good to fine condition, with discreet overall professional silking to both sides and a small area of repaired loss affecting one word. Accompanied by an impressive custom-made full morocco clamshell case with gilt-lettered spine and quote on the front board.
This letter anticipates what became the 1779 Sullivan Expedition, the major Continental campaign against the British-allied nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. The Six Nations—Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora—had long held strategic importance in the struggle for control of North America, and during the Revolution their loyalties divided: the Oneida and Tuscarora largely supported the American cause, while much of the league, led by Mohawk leader Joseph Brant, fought for Britain from the Niagara frontier.
In retaliation for frontier raids and the destruction of isolated American settlements, Washington ordered Gen. John Sullivan to lead a force of roughly 4,000 men into Iroquois country, destroying villages, fields, orchards, and granaries and defeating the allied Native and Loyalist forces near present-day Elmira, New York. Washington’s request here for intelligence, routes, and “Volunteers consisting of good Woodsmen” thus represents an early and confidential planning stage for one of the Revolution’s most consequential frontier campaigns, which devastated the Six Nations’ homeland and helped secure the American frontier.
Published in The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799, Volume 14, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1939, pp. 175–176.
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