Congress Gave Washington Another Aide As War Outpaced His Staff

Congress opened three letters from George Washington. Together, they showed a command stretching from British diplomacy and recruiting shortages to enemy ships and troop movements around New York.

One letter asked for help at headquarters. Washington said correspondence, orders, instructions and reports had created more work than his staff could complete with the precision and speed he expected.

“What will it be then when we come into a more active Scene, and I am called upon from twenty different places perhaps at the same Instant?” Washington had written four days earlier.

Congress answered by empowering him to appoint another aide-de-camp.

In New York, Washington addressed the same problem from the bottom of the command chain. His July 29 General Orders gave every regiment a monthly paper allowance so commanders, companies and adjutants could keep orders and returns moving.

The DX Brief

Congress read three Washington letters dated July 22, July 25 and July 27.
The July 25 letter said the volume of correspondence, orders and instructions had exceeded the capacity of Washington’s headquarters staff.
Congress authorized Washington to appoint another aide-de-camp.
Washington ordered the quartermaster general to issue 12 quires of paper to each regiment every month.
Congress gave Washington authority to deploy Colonel Ward’s Connecticut regiment wherever the service required and directed Colonel Elmore’s regiment to join him.
Delegates continued debating the Articles of Confederation but did not finish.

Three letters reach Congress

When delegates returned Monday, Washington’s dispatches brought several days of military problems into the chamber at once.

The July 22 letter called Britain’s peace commission deceptive and warned that the Howe brothers appeared to hold little real power for civil negotiation. The July 25 letter described a headquarters staff overwhelmed by the volume of command. The July 27 letter reported that the Flying Camp remained thousands of men short while British ships approached New York.

Congress referred Washington’s letters to the Board of War, but it did not wait for a committee report on the staff request. Delegates immediately gave the commander in chief power to appoint another aide-de-camp.

Washington asks for a trusted writer

Washington had not presented the request as a matter of rank or ceremony.

He wrote that the business of many departments centered with him and then had to move onward to Congress. He also had to communicate with neighboring states while handling unexpected events that demanded “confidential (& not hack) writers.”

His staff could not perform those duties with the “precision and dispatch” he wanted. Washington denied seeking “shew, and parade” and called the additional aide necessary to discharge the trust Congress had placed in him.

Every major decision produced more writing: instructions had to be drafted, orders copied, reports summarized and information sent to Congress.

Twelve quires keep the army connected

Washington’s General Orders turned from headquarters staffing to the paper used throughout each regiment.

Five days earlier, he had ordered brigade and regimental leaders to estimate the paper needed each month for returns and other public uses. On July 29, he established the allotment.

The quartermaster general would provide 12 quires to every regiment each month. One went to the commanding officer, one to every company and one to the adjutant. The colonel kept the remaining two as a reserve for “special occasions.”

The allotment did not include orderly books or blank returns, which the order treated separately.

Paper carried orders, company records and returns through the army. It moved Washington’s commands down the chain and brought information back to headquarters.

Congress moves troops and an engineer

Congress paired the staff authorization with additional military decisions.

It empowered Washington to send Colonel Ward’s recently raised Connecticut regiment wherever he believed the service required. Delegates also directed Colonel Elmore’s regiment to join Washington and sent blank commissions for him to fill with the officers serving in their companies.

Congress appointed Christopher Pellisier an engineer in the United States service with the rank of lieutenant colonel and ordered him to New York. Pellisier had supported the American cause in Canada and would bring technical experience to an army building defenses around the city.

The union remains unfinished

Congress again resolved itself into a committee of the whole to consider the Articles of Confederation.

Delegates made further progress but did not finish. They agreed to return to the document July 30.

Congress was still deciding how the states would share authority while Washington asked for more staff, more troops and faster communication.

Why it mattered

July 29 showed that command depended on more than giving one man authority.

Congress had placed enormous responsibility in Washington’s hands, but information from armies, states, ships and committees still converged at a headquarters staffed by a small number of trusted writers. The additional aide increased Washington’s ability to turn reports into decisions and decisions into orders.

The paper allotment extended that system into every regiment and company. Washington could not command troops he could not count, direct or hear from. Returns showed what force existed. Written orders told officers what to do.

Congress also gave Washington greater control over troops while continuing its debate over the structure of the union. Civil authority did not step aside. It read his letters, granted specific powers and expected more reports in return.

The Declaration had created a country. On July 29, Congress and Washington worked on the information system needed to command its army.