On this day 250 years ago at his headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, General George Washington wrote to Continental Congress President John Hancock and to Washington’s aide Lt. Col. Joseph Reed, who were both in Philadelphia, regarding the calamitous state of the Continental Army around Boston. The letter to Hancock included:

I am exceedingly sorry, that I am under the necessity of applying to you & calling the attention of Congress to the State of our Arms, which is truly alarming. Upon the dissolution of the Old Army, I was apprehensive that the New, would be deficient in this Instance, and that the want might be as Inconsiderable as possible, I gave it in orders that the Arms of such men as did not reinlist, should be (or such of them as were good) retained at the prices which should be affixed by persons appointed to inspect & Value them; . . . I hoped by these precautions, to have procured a considerable number: But Sir I find with much concern, that from the badness of the Arms, & the disobedience of too many in bearing them of, without a previous inspection, that very few were collected—Neither are we to expect, that many will be brought in by the New recruits—the Officers who are out Enlisting, having reported that few men who have Arms will engage in the Service, and that they are under the disagreable alternative of taking men without Arms, or of getting none. Unhappy situation and much to be deplored! especially when we have every reason to convince us, that we have to contend with a formidable Army, well provided of every necessary, and that there will be a most vigorous exertion of Ministerial vengeance against us, as soon as they think themselves in a condition for It. I hope It is in the power of Congress to afford us releif; If it is not, what must, what can be done?

Our Treasury is almost exhausted, and the demands against it, very considerable; A constant supply of money to answer every claim & exigency, would much promote the good of the service; In the common affairs of life, It is usefull; In War, it is absolutely necessary & Essential—I would beg leave too, to remind you of Tents, and of their importance; hoping that If an opportunity has offered, you have procured them.

I fear that our Army will not be raised to the New-establishment in any reasonable time, If ever; the Enlisting goes on so very slow, that It almost seems at an end.

To Reed, Washington wrote:

we are now without any Money in our treasury—Powder in our Magazines—Arms in Our Stores—We are without a Brigadier (the want of which has been twenty times urged)—Engineers—Expresses (though a Committee has been appointed these two Months to establish them)—and by & by, when we shall be called upon to take the Field, shall not have a Tent to lay in—a propos, what is doing with mine?3

These are Evils, but small in comparison of those, which disturb my present repose. Our Inlistments are at a stand—the fears I ever entertaind are realiz’d—that is, the discontented Officers (for I do not know how else to acct for it) have thrown such difficulties, or Stumbling blocks in the way of Recruiting that I no longer entertain a hope of compleating the Army by Voluntary Inlistments, & I see no move, or likelihood of one, to do it by other mean’s

Sources: “George Washington to Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Reed, 14 January 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-03-02-0062. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 3, 1 January 1776 – 31 March 1776, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1988, pp. 87–92.]; “George Washington to John Hancock, 14 January 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-03-02-0061. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 3, 1 January 1776 – 31 March 1776, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1988, pp. 84–87.]; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NSgW4YTobE

General Washington did not know it yet but he was to soon learn even more calamitous news from Canada. On this day 250 years ago from “Camp Before Quebec,” Brig. Gen. Benedict Arnold (although when he wrote the letter Arnold would not have known of his promotion 4 days earlier to brigadier general and would have assumed he was still a colonel) wrote:

I make no Doubt you will, soon hear, of Our Misfortune, on the 31. Ulto, and be very Anxious to know Our Present, Situation. Our loss, and repulse struck an Amaseing Panick, into both Officers, & Men, and had the Enemy improved their Advantage, Our affairs, here must have ben Intirely ruined It was not in my power to Prevail on the Officers to Attempt, saveing, Our Mortars, which had ben Placed in St Roque’s, of Course they fell into the hands of the Enemy —Upwards of One hundred Officers, and Soldiers, Instantly set of for Montreal and it was, with the greatest difuculty I could persaude the rest to make a stand. . . . Our Present force is only Seven hundred

The previous day Maj. Gen. Philip Schuyler wrote Washington from Albany a

Melancholly Account [that] the Gallant Montgomery is no more. The Brave Arnold is wounded & we have met with a severe Check, in an unsuccessful Attempt on Quebec

and forwarded to Washington detailed reports of the losses at Quebec.

Source: “Brigadier General Benedict Arnold to George Washington, 14 January 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-03-02-0060. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 3, 1 January 1776 – 31 March 1776, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1988, pp. 81–84.]